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This morning I woke to an e-mail from Paypal, confirming that I am to be refunded in full. Huge thanks to everybody here for their support and kind words. However, to MustEastBrains and mr_highgrade, who gave unbelievable practical assistance...you are kings amongst men. The next time I'm in the US, I hope that we can meet, as the drinks are on me!

Lamont is still going strong. Happy 90th to a legend!

Per PM That's for sure my biggest board book ever! Thanks Andy!

Well, much like many other people from all around the country, I am on the road again (to San Diego Comic Con). Its quite the drive, but for people who have never driven cross country before, its a beautiful trip. Passed over the Mississippi River today (twice actually) and drove past the Current River in Missouri a few hours later. Tomorrow I will be hoping to make Amarillo by Morning and then see a whole lot of the plains before getting into the mountains and the desert, with some fast food, gas stations, and hotels in the mix. That being said, I am looking forward to the show very much. For the first time in almost 11 years, my wife will be joining me at the show. Fortunately for her, she is flying out, while I am making the long drive. This is the first year that I have done the show since my website has been live, so not only will I be selling comics, but I'm really hoping to do some good marketing while I am out there as well. I would encourage any of you guys to stop by the show and say hello. If you do, the chances are pretty good of a Greggy sighting, and maybe even meeting up with many other boardies who always stop by. I might even be able to send you home with some comics (I've been buying non stop for a month). Anyway, I wanted to share a little of my trip. I will be at booth 915 for the show. See you in SD.

Got a call about some comics for sale....came back with 3 short boxes full. Here are some of the more copacetic ones...

I am actually very grateful the damage to the books was limited and most of my nicer raw books made it through ok. It could have been way worse.

After a long multi year journey and the help of a Berk auction I have finally completed my Weird Comics run 1-20. I just took a quick picture of them because I had to see them all laid out at once now that its done. This was a much more challenging run to put together than I anticipated when I began, there are a couple of issues in the teens that just never come up for sale and I really got quite lucky on some of them.

In the early 90s I got a call from a guy near Indianapolis. He said his father-in-law left his wife some GA comics and asked me if I was interested. He wasn't sure what he had. I had an old friend in the area so I thought I'd drive down, take a look at the comics, and if they were trash at least I'd have a nice meal with an old buddy. When I pull into the "compound" (about a two miles off the main road) where the house was located, I noticed large cages placed throughout the property. These were similar to cages you'd see at the circus for lion and tiger tamers. I was instructed not to leave my car when I pulled up to the house - that the seller would come out to get me. So I pulled up and waited. After 5 minutes I honked once. The door opened and the seller stepped out and made a loud call - suddenly 2 of the largest, meanest Doberman's charged my car and were jumping and growling and slobbering over my windows - think Cujo. After 10 or 15 seconds he calls them off and they crouch down next to him on the porch. He beckons me to come out of the car. I roll down the window and ask if he sure it's okay with the dogs. He assures me they will do nothing to me as long as I don't attack him or approach him in any menacing way. The lure of GA books is intoxicating so I open the door and step out and walk up the steps. The dogs are eyeing me like I'm a ham bone or piece of juicy steak. The seller offers me his hand and my first thought is that the dogs will think I'm attacking him. He assures me again I have nothing to fear. So we shake hands and walk inside. The house is full of mounted and stuffed animals. He explains that the cages are pens for exotic animals that he raises and sells to wealthy people who want "pets" they can't find at a pet store. Lions, tigers, and panthers. Cheetahs and ocelots. Even then I knew this was illegal, but of course I said nothing. He had the largest knife on his belt I ever saw since Crocodile Dundee. It was more a machete than a knife. There were guns and rifles mounted on racks and in cases. It was a crazy deadly place. Yet the lure of GA comics confounded my good sense... He then brought me to a room where there were stacks of GA DCs! Star Spangled 1 was on the top of the stack. All Star 3, 4, 5. WW 1, 2 and hundreds of others. I told him I was interested in buying them all. After an hour of negotiating we hammer out a deal for $44,000. Then he says he wants cash. I explain that I don't have any cash on me, but if we go to his bank I can wire funds directly into his account. He then looks at me with his deep dark eyes (kinda like Sam Elliot) and says matter-of-factly, "If you F**K me I will kill you." I assure him that all will be to his liking and that wiring money is a common occurrence. We go to his bank and walk in and we go to a teller. I explain the situation and within 30 minutes the money is in his account. He asks the teller, "Are you absolutely sure the money is in my account?" She replies yes, and he slaps me on the back and says, "I like you! You're an honest man!" He drove me back to my car, loaded up the comics and I drove off. Until last month this was the strangest buy I ever made...

Well, it only took 37 years but I have completed my run of Conan the Barbarian from #1 to #275 plus all the Annuals. It's hard to believe the journey has been 37 years. I was 14 when I encountered the books and comics. I'm sure part of the influence was my new fascination with D&D and having read LOTR. Today, while in Naperville, I acquired the final 3 pieces of the puzzle. (all late Annuals) Now, I have a few issues I want to upgrade but, similar to my JLA run a few years back, I have the set. On a side note, I also filled in 2 holes of my X-Men run this week. I now have #94 to #310, even though most of the issues past the 180's were past my young collecting days with X-Men and told hold any nostalgia for me. Doubt I will ever complete #1 - #93 but I am almost 1/2 way there. Thanks for letting me share.

I'm kind of lucky like that too...... the first time I visited Judy's place..... before we started hanging out, I noticed Barry Smith's Gorblimy Press print of "Pandora's Box" on her wall ...... and then she showed me her UG's and Swamp Things ....... Savage Swords, etc...... I had to pinch myself. Sometimes she commandeers a book for her pile..... GOD BLESS... -jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Sorry for any derailment of this thread. It's always been a favourite. Thanks also for all the advice/support. It's why I hang out so much on the CGC boards. I'm working to get things resolved and I'll post more of the (hopefully) positive results later. Not sure yet if I'll get everything back though. Fingers crossed there. It's a bit of a mess and something I'd wish on no collector to go through. Lessons learned the hard way I guess.

Back from vacation

Ah memories - this was my Green Lantern quad pride-and-joy, but unfortunately I no longer own the AA16.

Here's my scariest story. About 15 years ago I bought some books from a guy on ebay. Turns out he was a local guy so I contacted him. Turns out he found about 200 Atomic Age books stored in an un-plugged refrigerator in a garage. He didn't know much about them and didn't want to list them all on ebay. I got his number and we agreed to meet at his place. We agreed at 8:00 pm on a Tuesday night since we both worked. He gave me the address and it sounded a little sketchy. I went anyway (alone). Turned out it was about 2 blocks away from where the Rodney King riot was in LA. As a rule, a place that a middle aged white guy should just stay away from. But the lure of sweet GA books pulled me there. I pulled up to the address. The neighbor hood had lots of graphitti on the walls, funky lowrider cars on the lawns, houses with bars on the windows ect. All signs that would tell a sane person to get out of the area. But all I could imagine was that smell of vintage comics. I got out of the car and spied a group of lets just say... "minority" kids staring at my car. Now I grew up in an area with a lot of mostly latin and black kids of low income families. It was fine to me and we were all friends. The '60's were a great time but this was 25 years later and this area was recently burned and looted. I left my money in the trunk, crossed the street and rang the door bell. It was answered by a large latin guy in a wife beater shirt and baggy shorts a little buzzed with a beer in his hand. We shook hands and he took me around back to the garage where there were several other similar gentlemen working on a beautiful 1964 Impala lowrider. I smiled and complemented them on their beautiful car. He talked horsepower and I realized they were probably OK. The guy asked me if I wanted a beer and I said sure not wanting to offend him. We went to back of the garage and he opened the refrigerator. Inside, packed top to bottom were piles of comics from about 1946-1957 (my favorite stuff). There were pre=code horror, superhero, crime, jungle, sci fi. Titles like Phantom Lady, Batman, Tales from the Crypt, Jungle ect. all in pretty nice condition. The best was a beautiful Capt. America #74 in beautiful shape. I was rather floored. He said they were there when he moved in and wasn't a collector. We worked out a very nice price and they packed them in boxes and helped me out to the car with them. We loaded them up, I paid him and I thanked him and drove off into the night with my heart pounding...

I feel like Moondog is winning at this point. Here's my proof of insanity: When I first started dealing in the early 2000's I started telling people in my neighborhood I was buying comics and if they came up with anything to give me a call (you know, the usual song and dance). After a few weeks, the guy down the street calls me over. He owns a bunch of rental property and one of his property managers has a load of books to sell me. I'm excited. I get the address and set up a meeting. On the day we arrange, I drive for a half an hour to the address he gave me. Knowing the owner, I'm thinking apartment complex, nicely kept, gonna be some cool stuff. I drive up and down the street a few times but the only thing on the block is the trailer park from David Lynch's heroin induced nightmares. I call my guy and he says "Yeah that's the place, drive up to the office they're expecting you." So I pull in now expecting to see the old man from Pet Sematary (yes I spelled that correctly) muttering "the person you put up there ain't the person that comes back." I get out, walk up to the door of the office, and drag open the screen door that's hanging on by one of its 3 hinges. From behind me I hear what 10,000 Marlboro miles sounds like and it says "I'm in the garden". I turn around to see the flesh and blood embodiment of the Baby Sitter Bandit from the Simpsons standing in the middle of 3 little rows of dust with a couple of stalks of corn growing out of them. I introduce myself and we walk back to a large workshop the manager uses for maintenance. The whole time we're talking this lady has a lit cigarette in her mouth. She doesn't touch it once and talks through it like its glued to her bottom lip. I spend 40 mins (that's about 5 more cigarettes if you are counting) looking through everything in the shop. The books end up being a couple thousand copper and modern books with a little slug of silver. Nothing great but there are a few keys and I'm excited. I get ready to pay and then I ask "How did you get these?" She proceeds to tell me that "The guy in spot 50 was a big collector. Loved comics". I ask her where he is. She tells me "Oh we smelled something coming from his trailer so we called the Sheriff. He died." I pass along my condolences and pull out the money. She says "Yeah, we found him laying on the floor on top of the comics..." Here's the part that certifies my insanity... I stopped for a minute... thought about it... thought about it...thought about it again...and then bought the books anyway. As I recall I made a decent profit. (Also, If you are a current or future customer I can honestly say that I no longer knowingly buy or sell corpse adjacent books).

My Jumbo trifecta. A Lou Fine perfecta.

Your books spit out money?? My books suck in my cash as fast as they can.

Here is box 1

If it matters to the participants in this transaction, I am offering my services to get the condition of this book back (or as close as can be) to its original condition. Edit: At no cost.

Another pedigree down!

Ever have CGC send you someone else's package? Well it happened to my friend yesterday. He was expecting a few books back, nothing special just some modern SS books he had signed and graded at Megacon, but he got something entirely different. Much to his surprise, when he opened the package he got not 1, not 2, but 3 copies of AF15. Apparently the owner of these books had a very sad day, because he got my friends books instead, LOL. Fortunately for the person who owns these AF15's no shenanigans were going on, my friend is an honest guy and a LEO. They were returned.

They may have taken the opportunity to pose for a few pictures before returning them however.

A group shot I posted about 100 pages back.

My wife at our booth at Eugene Comic Con #1 at Lane county fairgrounds - sometime in mid-80s

Had to bump this thread with a new hitler cover. Just came in today. Paid/traded heavily for it, but imo it's worth it, pretty looking copy. Sometimes the collector in me trumps the investor.

Fun trade with boardie that landed me this Crime Mysteries 2 I've been chasing for a little while.

Well this isn't considered, "classic" by OS or the grading companies. I guess we can just agree to disagree ?

I was digging through some $1 books at the flea market when an older gentleman walked up to the resident sports card dealer and asked if he wanted to look at some comics that he bought that morning at a yard sale. The dealer pointed at me and said that Inwould be a much better option to look at them and possibly purchase them. We walked to his car and he pulled a 1960's Mego Cardboard Toy Chest out of his back seat half full of Silver Age books. I breezed through them pretty quick as they were in old bags and all stuck together. I told him some of the better books (I saw no keys) an a general retail value on them. Told him that I'm sure he'll do fine as he bought them at a yard sale. He told me he paid $100 for all of it (he also had a box of about 100 60s baseball cards, which is what he collects). I laughed and said I would have paid more than that and still been thrilled. After about 10 seconds he threw out a number for me to take them as "I have no use for them." I gladly gave him his cash and took them to my car. After we got home from celebrating my son's 9th birthday at Carowinds, I started going through them. This is what I found. They aren't all as gorgeous as the Flash 184, but most of them are VF or better.

My humble contribution - introducing my new Planet #18 to some loud neighbours...

My first pre-Robin Tec. Seems to have solid eye appeal. Can't wait to have it in my hands, before it gets tucked away in the "permanent collection"

The Donut Way: Cost of book: At this point, almost all are free as costs have been recouped already, but lets say $0.10 just to keep it interesting. Book sells for $5.00. Because I'm a Top Rated Seller, I get big discounts on shipping, so I get $0.25 in profit on my shipping, so gross in for a $5 item is $5.25. eBay fees: $1.35 Paypal fees: $0.51 Cost of materials to protect item $0.19 for 1 sheet 200# card board from Papermart. All other shipping supplies are free from either the UPS or USPS. Cost of fuel to ship item: $0.00. Not my cost, USPS Net profit: $3.10 Time to scan pic/upload: 30 seconds Time to create listing including all relevant details: 1 minute Time to process payment: 20 seconds Time to package book: 1 minute Extra time to take item from the office door to the mail drop instead of just going to my desk: 10 seconds. Total time: 3:00 Sales conversion (last 12 months): 88.1% Hourly rate (($3.10 * (60/3))*.881) = $54.62. $54.62 for something I can do every night with my brain turned completely off - and that's only selling things for $5 on average - that's the absolute minimum. My 90-day moving average (right now) for sales is $13.76 an item - which comes out to $11.49 per item in profit (based on the above calculations). That's $202.45 an hour. Just saying.

pardon the poor quality--here are all the fox books thru 7/40 [with flame 1 and green mask 1 which are "summer," and which I count].

LET'S SEE THEM!!!!! They were delivered at the Height of company at my house. Just got a chance to open the box today! No high profile books, but only ones on my want list that I could realistically see myself winning... I'm thrilled to death just to have been able to snag these three. Love 'em all but especially the Venus 18 as it completes my Venus 17, 18, 19 trifecta!

Here's a couple of examples.

Gotta post this here, there and everywhere.

And loaded with integrity. When he explained the mistake he'd made (he'd intended to list the comic at $260) I offered more money but he refused to even split the difference. Crazy Canadians. I was the buyer of the Richie Rich #1 CGC 4.0 so hopefully that, along with some other big purchases by boardies in this thread, has helped soften the blow. Thanks again, Andy, and have a great Canada Day weekend!

My son wanted to up his collecting game so I said I would partner with him so he could get a nice book for his collection. He said "I want to go with Amazing Spider-Man 300." WOW, okay. So I scour ebay looking for a decent price and grade for him and BAM found an 8.0 with a raw 299 listed. Bid and won. In at a good price too. Well today his package came and I told him to open it and send me pics. He sent this one and I asked if the other was in the package with it. The listing only showed the 300 and I was not going to gripe for the price but was just curious. He replied with you mean others? He then sent me pics of 299,301,302,303,and 304. I was floored. My son is ecstatic as he now has a decent start to a Spider-Man collection.

AMF 21 Church copy. This was my first Centaur, purchased from Mr Bedrock because I'm a huge fan of Basil Wolverton. Census: 3 in total, highest is 6.5. Even among Centaurs, this is a very difficult book to find in any sort of decent condition. This is NM+ copy with white pages that looks fresh off the newsstand from 1940. $10,000. I've included a scan from the 9 page Wolverton story because it is spectacular work by Basil that looks even better when the pages are still snow white.

My 5 MLJ in my collection.

Take your books outta the the short boxes, and move it into manageable, organized coolness.

So yesterday afternoon around three this car pulls into my driveway and a man and a woman step out of it and ask, "Is this Guardian Comics" in a very southern accent. I say it sure is and lead them inside. I ask what would you like to look at and he says to me "Are you on the boards?" I said I sure am. He says I'm Greg Holland, ValiantMan from the boards. We are from Little Rock, Arkansas and my wife and I are on a 20th anniversary road trip and while on our way between seeing the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and going to Niagara Falls tomorrow, we wanted to stop by and check you out. We talked of all all the places that they had visited....the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, Hershey, PA and even the Ben and Jerrys factory in Vermont. 1100 miles from home, and going to THE tourist atttactions they stopped by to see me specifically. They spent a couple of hours going through the dollar bins but Greg really wanted something special, a souvenir that he could always remember his trip to Canada by. Amongst other things, he eyed and purchased a CGC graded Canadian Price Variant of ASM #252. Thank you so much Greg, for stopping by and supporting another member of the boards. Safe travels the rest of the way home and all the best. Jim

Here was my one win, now cracked out. CGC called it 3.0... very tightly graded IMO. Thanks, Jon B, for making it available!

Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror #115. Nice L.B. Cole cover. Picked this up yesterday. Wish it was a little nicer, but it isn't too bad.

My one win from the CC Berk Extravaganza: Planet 14 As most most Planet collectors can attest, just owning a 14 is special so condition can sometimes be secondary. This one is second highest graded behind the Church copy, and I have no hope that book will be available in the next decade or I could afford. Happy to say that in hand it looks just as good or better than the scans. It has a true purplish background where a majority of Planet 14's have a blue background.

okay, I just got back from making another run. There are nowhere near 40000 books! I am quite relieved. I had gone through his lists and thought we were half way done and was not too surprised today when he said "oh, I found some more pages from the lists. I don't know why these came out." So I figured that would cover a bunch more comics that I did not know about. I saw Moon Knight in there so that was good, hopefully WWBN 32 is there as well. But I don't want to rock the boat so I had not mentioned that the lists were no where near 40K books. But as we finished loading up the car with 2000 books he said that we were about done. I asked if he had another load the size of today's, and he said yes that would about cover what was left. So I am looking at about 9000 books overall. I am quite happy with this development. My wife is astonished that he could be so far off. He did not comment or see the incongruity of the fact that we count books, roughly, each time and that I have only taken 7000 or so books after today. But a brief concern of sorts was that I have not gotten the first 150 or so issues of Avengers and he did not think that they were still at his house. I told him that they would turn up although I am sure I don't have them yet, and that it was fine. So when I got home there was an email waiting for me that he had found that box! So again, I am looking good with 9000 or so books rather than 40K. As had been mentioned in this thread, and I did it the first time I sold a large lot, everyone thinks that they have more comics than they really do. I think that this guy counted pages in his files and not entries on each page and that since many pages had only 1-4 comics listed (Gambit 1, Gambit 2, Gambit 3, Gambit 4...next page...Captain Marvel 1...next page...etc etc etc.) his count was wildly inflated. So instead of the five figures we were talking for 40000 comics I get to spend not even 25% of that and have a much richer set of books. I have also been busting my hump pricing and bagging/boarding books but now get to relax a bit on the pace of that as well. One more set of shelving instead of filling a room, so much to like about this now!!!

Rich- can't disagree. Think about the Church Nationals I past off to you that I used to pay in part for the Planet 1 cover That is why I held on to some items that "use to be mine" and "still are mine'. Some types and titles are associated with me. 'I think I am associated with 'Larson titles'. but the particular book is not a 'Berk book' but the Larson copy! Another thing I did is I kept bound volumes. Say you loved some covers......Well I kept some and it is neat when it is the six volumes of PLANET COMICS up to 60 as a "run". Great little desirable book. (Did I mention it is from the "Berk Collection" or Black Terror for the Schomberg art for 1-25. or for the Centaur groupies having the Joe Hardee bound volume of Star Comics and Star Ranger Funnies, some before the first Centaur. Others I kept on a smaller scale is Whirlwind 2. (Larson copy); Action 20 Larson; Wow What a Magazine 1 and 2 with the great Eisner art and first cover.......or yeah Wonderworld 10 Larson. (for us old collectors as has been referenced on the Boards) ; Silver Streak 14; Wrong forum but did I mention I still have my Amazing Fantasy 15; Spider-man 1-11, Spider man Annual one, Strange Tales Annual 1 and 2. (oh and have original Kirby Spiderman with Human Torch from this early time period. (See my CAF gallery) Indeed I have less than I use to have. But I am content and SO pleased that everyone has spelt my name correctly............jb

Yeah, I am going to post this pic everywhere, just completed full run of Weird Comics 1-20.

Very happy with this one.

It's been a while since I put any really new stuff up here. Finally got around to adding a few of my pickups from the last year or so on CAF too: Jim Lee - Batman Europa - My favorite page from that series - face to face with the Joker. Really loved the water color style and getting a Lee page with Joker and Batman is so rare and epic. Liam Sharp - loved his work this last year on Wonder Woman - this page captured so much - Diana, Cheetah, Themyscira, Hippolyta And finally - Greg Capullo - His Batman work is tough to get and really pricey for anything with a good shot of Bats. Really enjoyed how the story flowed on this page and had great detail of Batman suiting up again in the cave

won this in the pedigree auction last night