In the Dark

A journal by Tnerb

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About this journal

Oblivious to anything new

Entries in this journal

Would I Hitchhike?

Or Starting my Journey to ECCC LOn the way to the airport I was taking my time. During the whole twenty mile plus trip I was being passed by every single car, but one. My car, as trusty as she has been, is on her last wheel. I fear, if it was a hundred and fifty years ago, as well as a horse, I would have to do what was considered the humane thing at the time and put her out of her misery. By the way, it is illegal to shoot a car in my hometown. As I drove I knew each pothole I swerved around,
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Speaking of Magik

Or Completing a Set In my last journal I mentioned the character that got me into comic books. As soon as I started collecting CGC graded copies of The New Mutants, there was a few other series I wanted to collect. Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, Longshot, and Magik were the others. I finished the Longshot series and even had them signed. Secret Wars still has four issues to go. Of course, four out of twelve is still 33.333%. The New Mutants is a bit more complicated, but I am so very close.
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Hellfire and Brimstone

Or Journal 666 In '84 I purchased a comic book called "The New Mutants". I was 12 years old and didn't even know the X-Men were considered the "old" mutants. I began my first series with issue #15. This is where I was introduced to a character that was created years before and first appeared as the younger sibling to a mutant who would become the muscle, or more importantly one half of the "Fastball Special". This little girl was initially only used to show why Peter Rasputin had to change
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Another Stan Lee Signature

Or Still needing a Daredevil #5 in a CGC SS 9.0 or better. Stan Lee is getting older. This happens to us all. My first Stan Lee signatures were attained with the thought that I would never meet The Man. I had trouble narrowing what I should send in. The numerous list was initially limited to five, one of which was Daredevil #1. This single book joined three others. I couldn't narrow it down to less than four. I purchased the Daredevil #1 through Heritage Auctions. It was a universal 3.5 tha
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Withdrawal

Or... I want a comic. I want a comic. I want a comic. Withdrawal It has been a while since I purchased my last CGC graded comic book. The last one I was able to add to my collection was a gift. I have also found myself writing journals with frequent fervor. I found the more I wrote, the more I had to purchase. The simple solution was to stop writing. I have a few invoices at CGC right now. One of which is going through Quality Control as of February 6th. They were turned over at the NYCC
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Amazing Fantasy #15

Or... I had it. There it was on Ebay at the price I could afford, but the story gets better. I have told many things to everyone here about my personal life. Some I hinted at but ultimately didn't go into details on. I had some bad news last year, but it wasn't my story to tell. However, my story has ended, it is no longer a "my" story, but an "our" story. On January 15th I asked my girlfriend to marry me. I didn't give hints out to anyone. Bagofleas knew before my father, and I even told
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Priceless

When the value and worth don't matter. My comic books are insured. Normal renters coverage does not even begin to touch my collection. Fortunately, my Step-Mother made sure that I wasn't procrastinating about such an important issue. So now if something happens to my collection I can start over, but what about the few items I have that are priceless? What about the comics that were read over and over again? I can always pick up another New Mutants #15, but I will never be able to walk back int
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A Top Ten

And for my last journal of the year... At first I was only going to write about not writing one. Then I thought of doing a different type of top ten list. Lee K. beat me to this, but I already made it known I wanted to go after my birthday books. So what sort of top ten should I come up with? Perhaps a top ten list of comic books to read in the bathroom, a top ten list of comic books to use as wrapping paper, or even a top ten list of comics that would be better if they never even existed. Doe
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What's in store for 2015?

Or, Where does my path lead? I honestly don't know if I achieved any of my goals for 2014. I was hoping to go up in the rankings, but I didn't. I was hoping to reacquire my New Mutants premiere status, but I didn't. I was even hoping to add another Stan Lee Signatures series book for my earlier Daredevil run, but I didn't. The one thing I was able to do, that I am rather proud of, was to begin getting my birthday books. These were the books that were published in April of 72, even though most
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Worth Vs. Value

Is the value of a graded comic book equal to what it's worth? And Vice Versa. Action comics #1 in a 9.0 White Pages was auctioned off for 3.2 million dollars on eBay. Incredible Hulk #181 in a 9.9 with white pages sold for $150 thousand dollars courtesy of Comic Link. A perfectly graded copy of New Mutants #98 peaked at $15,449 dollars, also through Comic Link. Three comic books from three different eras reaching dollar amounts never heard of before. But in all three cases, is the value greate
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Book Thirty-Day Thirty

Amazing Spider-Man #129 This is my last one. This was a lot more difficult then I first thought. I picked thirty books in my collection to showcase. What wasn't easy was to also write about the books I have and try to make it interesting to you. I hope I have. The last one I am choosing is my Amazing Spider-Man 129. How could I not choose one of my most cherished comic books. I learned a lot with this book. It was one of my first books graded. It was one of my first experiments with pressing
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Book Twenty Nine-Day Twenty Nine

Daredevil #7 After wanting a Daredevil #1 and getting an Amazing Spider-Man #129 I eventually got my favorite Silver Age key issue. Daredevil #7 was the first time he appeared in his Red costume and would be wearing it for over three hundred issues. The grade I purchased was a good copy. In CGC terms, about a 2. It took years before I picked up a better copy, and yet I still hope to find yet a better copy. My 5.5 SS copy was a bit lower than I hoped. Daredevil #7 was the first comic I intent
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Book Twenty Eight-Day Twenty Eight

Crazy #3 It might be time for an upgrade. Crazy #3 was published by Marvel Comics when I was slightly over two years old. After winning an award for my New Mutants set, I was given a free membership for a year along with a coupon for four free comic books to be graded. I chose a book from my childhood, a comic I have no idea how I got it. My copy received a whopping 1.0, a fill .5 higher than I graded it. So my question to myself is, do I want a better copy? Can I be happy with a 9.6? Will I
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Happy Thanksgiving

Or Book Twenty Seven-Day Twenty Seven What's more important today, the book or the day. Happy thanksgiving to everyone. May your time with the family you choose to be part of enjoy your company. So what am I thankful for? I'm thankful for the health I have. I'm thankful for my family and I'm thankful for my friends. I'm thankful for my job and the customers they have become a regular part of my life. I'm thankful to CGC for reawakening the love of comic books and more importantly to the p
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Book Twenty Six-Day Twenty Six

The Mighty Thor #293 Eye would like to tell you how eye met Thor. Roy Thomas was penning the legendary tales. In a book before Eye started to collect Eye was not only learning about the origin of Thor, but of the Realm Eternal, Asgard. Eye don't know what happened before or after but, Eye learned a lot about Norse myth and its end of days, Ragnarok. As Amazing Spider-Man #181 was my introduction to Peter's origin, then issue The Mighty Thor #293 was my introduction to Donald Blake. Eye love
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Book Twenty Five-Day Twenty Five

X-Men Survival Guide to the Mansion Can CGC even grade this book? The spine is like a spiral note book. This book came out when I purchased anything. I collected as much as I could regardless of company. Price was still an issue because I thought quantity beat quality. This comic book is aptly named, it's a guide. There is no story involved. I never placed it in a bag or board so I am amazed at the condition of the book. I have already come a far way from sticking my comic books in my sock
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Book Twenty Four-Day Twenty Fout

Phantom Stranger #18 I have to admit, I know next to nothing about the Phantom Stranger. The best thing I can say is it has nothing to do with the Phantom Menace. I know the character has something to do with the "Trinity" in recent DC lore, but that is about it. This book is one of my birthday books. And quite frankly it is beautiful. The dark cover cries out its eeriness. I'm afraid if I read it I might have to buy other issues. I hesitated turning this one in since I started to see flaw a
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Book Twenty Three-Day Twenty Three

Astonishing Tails #11 I had trouble deciding which book to show off and I've been showing off plenty of DC which happens to be the minority of my collection, so I decided to jump back to a Marvel title. A few characters I like that have been around for as long as Marvel are the Sub-Mariner and Ka-Zar. Both characters, when written well are phenomenal. However, when written bad, they are horrendous. And most times I feel they aren't written well. I started to collect Ka-Zar's series from the
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Book Twenty Two(?)-Day Twenty Two

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson #148 Part 2 How can I not write about a book twice, especially this book. Of course I don't know if this is still considered 30 in 30. Of course I could double up later, but seriously look at this book. I purchased this in Philadelphia during Wizard World. I can not express how happy I am. I love the Philadelphia convention for one reason only: CGC is on site. This one however took the slow boat to China. I even wrote on the invoice that I thought I would get it b
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Book Twenty One-Day Twenty One

X-Men #42 In my younger days of collecting I was scared to pay too much. I didn't have the knowledge I have now, and slightly before I discovered price guides all I had to go by was instinct. Did the book look good and was it worth giving up new issues? After scrounging around the back issue boxes I found some nice looking books for what I thought was a decent price. After buying a few DD issues by Frank Miller for $3 apiece I started to feel comfortable with this price point. But as I bega
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Book Twenty-Day Twenty

X-Men #10 There are a few covers I like. Ok, there are lots of covers I like, but a few of them I can't explain why other than they are simply awesome. A few of these I want high graded copies but, I can't seem to get anything higher than mid grade. Regardless of the grade, having the first appearance of Ka-Zar in the silver age is a comic to have. The older the book is, the less experience I had grading them. I purchased this comic book from a small dealer. He was willing to take a chunk o
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Book Nineteen-Day Nineteen

Amazing Spider-Man #181 Is Ben alive? No seriously, is he alive? We all know the mythos behind Spider-Man. "With great power comes great responsibility". This was taught to Peter by his iconic Uncle Ben. Many of us read those words, but chances are, we didn't read them when they originally saw print. I love the Marvel Tales series. I was able to read many of Spider-Man's earliest adventures, but it was Amazing Spider-Man #181 that taught me who Spider-Man was. In one issue I learned who he w
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Book Eighteen-Day Eighteen

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson #148 There are 45 book published for April of 72' between Marvel and DC. There are considerably more if I move outside the boundaries the big two provide. My primary goal is to purchase the highest grade I can afford before sending them into CGC for grading. Of course there will be some exceptions, for instance Action Comics #411.   At two different comic book conventions I found some really nice copies worthy of grading. Some I still have, while others I turned o
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Book Seventeen-Day Seventeen

Marvel Milestone Edition: Fantastic Four #1 In 91' a year before my son was born I read Fantastic Four #1. This also happens to be thirty years after it was released. Marvel began producing a reprint series of some of their biggest key issues. They released around 23 of the comics they thought their fans would want. The price tag was a bit lofty compared to their new material and although I picked up a few, I didn't pick up all of them. The books has a silver boarder making the covers feel
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Five Years Ago

Or My First Journal times 643 It has been five years since I started writing journals on the registry. Over that time I have submitted my own books for grading, I have cracked "9.8's" for signatures, and I have purchased junk simply because they were the worst. I have learned so much these past five years not only because of CGC but because of the friends I met here. To try listing those that I have formed a bond with would be next to impossible, because when I think of one, I think of another
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