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Scheduled for Depression

Waiting for the shoe to drop So I checked on my 20 day submission coupons and saw it was scheduled for grading. Great, right? Then I looked in to the received details for the first time... my X-Men number 3 is an Apparent SA. It wouldn't have mattered if I knew this 19 days ago, yesterday, whenever, but it looks like I've got another hack job book. I'm going to go through my ebay receipts and other receipts to track down the seller, but I think this may have been the copy I picked up at th
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Bob Loblaw. Why are you here (with added bonus content)

Time for flame wars. Why are you here? what is the point of your flames? You have no sets, you only have two posts that enflame people, and while I didn't mind your first post, you obviously now have some kind of vendetta or insecurity. Seriously. Answer me. Coward. Why are you even here? *Revision starts here, and I'm going to start first by saying, forget about it. Don't answer my question: If I don't like quilt knitting, I don't go out of my way to visit their knitting circles and c
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Waiting Game Test and some thoughts

Yeah, we get mad at CGC... and I hate these teaser sections. So today is the "20th" day on my express coupon submissions, so I'm just waiting out the rest of the day, hoping they are on deck and done by the day's end. But in the end, it won't matter if they are "on time" or miss by a day or even a week. Sometimes when I get mad at the turnaround times (talking about my 5 month waits from the past), I think about PGX. Here's the things I reflect on: Why do I grade a comic? To lock in a v
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Scheduled for Grading!

My April books are finally scheduled for grading! The light IS at the end of the tunnel! I dropped off a bundle of 30 X-Men comics for grading at the Pittsburgh Comicon (great fun con, btw, if you ever get to go) and the invoice dated 4/20 is now in SCHEDULED status! I missed these books. I can't wait to see how they do, and update my sets. I hope this adds some hope for those who (like me) have been waiting a long time due to the recent backlog. I have another bundle of books from Philly W
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Gary Dahlberg appreciation

Hello all, I wrote up a little Gary Dahlberg appreciation article on my blog.. Hello all, I wrote up a little Gary Dahlberg appreciation article on my blog, mostly so my non-comic collecting friends would gain a little perspective on what I do and why I do it. Wanted to pass along, hope you enjoy, (and may this be a teaching tool for those who don't "get" our passion) http://jackowick.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/gary-dahlberg-the-anonymity-of-a-national-treasure/ To see old comments for th
duckduckmike

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6038 points

Just started adding my X-Men 1-200 run! Well, 71 issues, 33% complete, for 6038 points and a rank of 54 in the run. I'm pretty happy with that for a start. I have most of the X-men 1-200 in my hands, but the CGC has another 30 in process and I have another 6 shipping to me. I'm not going to be winning any awards, but this has been an ongoing project of the past 2 years as I've concentrating my collecting on a legacy collection and investment. Plus, I do have reader copies as well as Essentia
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Grading goal in sight

Long way off, but I've got the "cap". This weekend after picking up a few more X-Men cgcs for my 1-201 run, I put together a budget and projection. I could have done this sooner, but it's less daunting with where I'm at now. I have approx 90 books registered in my set here, and I have 30 in "verified" limbo on my last order (I understand that there's a bit of a backlog...) So adding in 5 books I bought this weekend that were 9.8's, I have about 125 CGCs to my name for the set. Looking over
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Wayne Collectibles Show Prep

Getting ready for next show and FREE STUFF if you meet me at the Wayne NJ show. On Sunday I'll be at the Wayne NJ Toy and Collectibles show. You can check out the homepage here: http://waynenjtoyandcollectiblesshow.com/ This is the second time I've done the Wayne show. It's a firehouse style show, a step above a swap meet but lots of fun items all around. Getting ready for my first show last month was tough, I had to take it like a blue sky project and just brainstorm how much I could bri
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Data collection

There's a lot of sites and a lot of uses for comic collecting data I wrote a quick blog on comic collecting databases, more of a "think" piece, about all those online sites that compile our comic data, and do we use it or do they use us? I don't have answers, I'm not looking to start a pro or con debate, but I think it's interesting that we have a LOT of data that SHOULD be helping to create efficiently priced markets. http://jackowick.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/who-collects-the-collector/
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Old Blue vs New Blue label

Are CGC "old" labels worth less than new ones? Recently, some of the books I've accumulated have been great deals, and I noticed that some of these are the "old" style CGC Universal grades. Comparing to other books on auction sites (ebay cough cough) and some cons, are the older CGC labels considered less valuable or am I making something out of nothing? Any thoughts from others? Is this a recent trend? I'd rather have all "matching" labels, but in the end I don't care, I just want to know
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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50 Percent!

I'm halfway home to the X-Men 1-201 set! Just got a few purchases delivered today and I see now that I'm listed at 50% complete. Still waiting on 30 graded ones to be delivered, and 30 more that are in "verified". I got an X-Men Annual #7 that is an alleged Howard Graber pedigree with a copy of the heritage auction listing and receipt. I'm sure the CGC number will also verify. Hmmm... I have to get cracking on my project to scan all of these... Once I'm complete (or almost complete), I'll be
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Wizard World Philly

Boo Wizard World. Yay Wizard World. While I understand the number of reasons why people are against some of (if not all) of the Wizard World sponsored cons, I'm very exicited to have such a big local and easily accessible event AND to have CGC onsite available. I'm saving my pennies for another 30 X-Men to drop off (plus or minus a few Golden age goodies). I usually do Pittsburgh and Philly due to access to family in both areas, plus the diversity. Pittsburgh is a great indie-heavy show, IMO
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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I should just take my grading assumptions and downgrade everything 2 points.

Yep. Grades. Next 4 grades are in. Flashback to a prior journal... with lots of cut and paste. So I got my CGC renewal coupon and decided to put in 4 books right away. Grades are in: Avengers #5: Thought upwards of a 7, came in at a 4.5. Good thing it was bought on the cheap. This is a flipper, not a keeper. Daredevil 53: ... got it for $25 and looks like it could hit as high as a 9.2 if I'm lucky, but thinking an 8.5 One of those covers I just loved too much to resist. Came back as an 8
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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SCHEDULED!!!!

June 21st submissions finally on deck! Man, it's like Christmas waiting and waiting and finally the books are on deck! I've got a whole bunch of X-Men that are one step closer to coming home. As per my new budget rules, I don't send in more books until some come back, so I'll be prepping another order form this week... To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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It's my comic now... but not...

Anyone have trouble with a CGC transfer? I picked up a CGC 8.5 copy of X-Men 44 on the cheap from Heritage, but when I've gone to register it in my sets, it says the typical "this is owned by someone else blah blah..." Usually, I get the transfer verified in a day or two, but this one has been outstanding for about a week so far. Any thoughts/suggestions on how to nicely force the transfer through? I'm guessing that if the person has not read their email yet, they probably aren't going to
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Comic Link good, Comic Link BAD

Frustrating Well a key book that I want/need is listed on Comiclink but the ordered was cancelled because the book is not available. Then I realized I had tried to order this book before and the same thing happened (I must have missed the email somewhere in the last bundle I ordered). THEN I realized that the book has been "up" since March of 2011. Seriously, WTF. I dig CL, they have great prices and I have dealt with them on the phone/email and had a great experience, but can they please
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Restored copy sells well, thanks to CGC

Woo hoo! Teaser! Ahhhh. A big sigh of relief today. I wrote earlier about the hearbreak of getting a dreaded purple label on my X-Men 3, a 4.5 SA for slight touch up and a cover tear repair. I'm not into flipping, but my collection plan is to have all blue labels. I put the book up on eBay to try to get some money back towards buying a new raw or low graded copy. The auction sat for almost a full week at around the $30 mark until the last day. Suddenly, it jumped up to $160. The bidder ha
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Killing my registry sets softly

It was easier as a kid to just buy "cool books" and throw them in a box... I've been thinking a lot lately about my Uncanny X-Men 1-201 run that I've been working on. I have one of the most complete sets in the registry, and did a lot of work upgrading my copies of existing issues. Then I started a 3-front war between economics, patience (or lack of) and hobby lust. My set has reached the point where in order to get some books at a nicer grade, I have to start shelling out bigger and bigge
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Books by Halloween?

3+ months and counting... So my current outstanding order is an invoice date from late June, and based on the "shipped" timetable on the CGC turnaround time pages (it lists May)I'm going to guess my books will be here around Halloween. When I phrase it that way, my usually gentle flexible patience for the CGC starts to turn brittle. I'm not sending out any other books until I get these back, as they've already charged me and have been using my money for 3 months. I'm starting to think the
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Another signature event

Well CGC is adding more mud to the pipeline I just got the email for the Quesada and Fraction signature series event. While I enjoy both and they won't add as much as say a Stan Lee signing, I can't help but voice my objection to taking in more money while many of us who paid three months ago are still waiting for comics to get SCHEDULED for grading. If you don't have the bandwidth, don't do it, CGC... I'm done with rant. I'll go back to waiting patiently... To see old comments for this
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Turnaround Time Activity Sheet!

There's a lot of turnaround time questions/complaints so I'd like to propose some better alternatives to twiddling thumbs! What to do while waiting for books: 1) SCAN YOUR SLABS! I am very very bad in this area, but it is a great reference for others to use (I love comparing mid grade slabs of rare books) plus it adds some value. We can all google an issue to find out what the cover looks like, but I love having a one-stop shop here. I promise, I'm going to start. 2) PGX FUN: I am not adv
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Coupons Coupons Coupons

what to do with my 4 gradings I've been sitting for a bit on my CGC coupons from my membership renewal. Recently I've had a bit of a re-org in my collection; if you've looked at my sets you'll notice that my X-Men have gone down over the past few months as I've been selling off my post-Byrne X-Men. Granted, my 99% sets are whittled down, but in the end, my goal is to have Uncanny X-Men 1-144 more or less with annuals as a nice investment and personal collection (investment side is the ongoing
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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Grade to be VERIFIED?

WTH? "The grade for this comic must be verified. Your request has been added to an admin queue and will be resolved by CGC." Ok, maybe one of the veterans can help me out on this one. I recently purchased a graded copy of X-Men 99 on eBay and this message popped up when I put it into my registry. I've had typos before, or put books in the wrong slot by accident, and I've had more than plenty of the transfer request messages, but I've NEVER seen this. Any ideas? My biggest fear is that so
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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CGC milestone... and my books are almost ready

Wow So the CGC announced that they graded their 2 millionth book, which kind of puts into perspective how many books they have to go through, and that we expect a high quality of service in the grades to get these certifications i.e. I don't think they have somewho flips new books over, thumbs the pages, and goes "yep". It's an arduous process. I saw the book listed in their article/promo was Thief of Thieves #1 from 2012. I had to laugh wondering how many books in queue were close to numbe
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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There's no reason to be a jerk from the get-go

Already regretting selling a book on ebay So I just sold two books in one lot, a couple of Michael Turner cover Wolverine issues, one being a signature series. After taking a couple of days to pay, the buyer contacted me with rather explicit and demeaning instructions on how to pack the slabs. They went over the top with the directions and concluded with " I do NOT want cracked CGC cases." My first reaction? "No SPIT, Sherlock". My second was to cancel the sale. But I responded back with a n
duckduckmike

duckduckmike

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