surfer99

Thanks Brandon! This was the gem, had a couple other books come back a little lower than I'd hoped but its all good. So much drama about the new cases. I see the defects people have mentioned but I'm not stressin like some people are doing. Im still a CGC fan.

Dude! How you been man? Good to hear from you. I appreciate the kind words and yeah Ronnylama is one of a kind for sure. Amazing person. Super Adaptoid rocks and the first time I saw him WAS in X-men 29, . Way cool of you to think of selling your AA9 to me. That one was tough! I keep checking on your Missing Years set hoping you'll get it completed...it's a good feeling and such sweet books. Hope to chat again soon to hear what you've been up to!

Thanks Azkaban, and I'm with you...diggin TOS! The struggle is real Rockblazer, if I had the money I'd visit my LCS a lot more often! My wife is like "buy comics with the intent of selling them and you'll have a bigger comic budget". Problem is I end up keeping them cause I don't wanna let them go!

Thanks for the comments fellas!

Looking fancy in the new case... I picked up this book raw from my LCS about a year ago for an amazing price. It looked to be in great condition so I was feeling pretty good about getting at least a 9.0 after a press...Im very slowly looking to complete the Tales of Suspense Cap issues in 9.0 or better graded condition to go along with my reading copies. I previously submitted issue 82, first appearance of the Adaptoid, and it came back 9.4 so when I saw issue 84 came back 9.4 as well as I was super stoked! In this issue the Adaptoid becomes the Super Adaptoid. Such a classic villain, and with a sliver of the Cosmic Cube as his power source he is more than a match for many of our heroes! Til next time... *** See more journals by surfer99

Looking fancy in the new case... I picked up this book raw from my LCS about a year ago for an amazing price. It looked to be in great condition so I was feeling pretty good about getting at least a 9.0 after a press...Im very slowly looking to complete the Tales of Suspense Cap issues in 9.0 or better graded condition to go along with my reading copies. I previously submitted issue 82, first appearance of the Adaptoid, and it came back 9.4 so when I saw issue 84 came back 9.4 as well as I was super stoked! In this issue the Adaptoid becomes the Super Adaptoid. Such a classic villain, and with a sliver of the Cosmic Cube as his power source he is more than a match for many of our heroes! Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

My earliest comic book memory... This is a very special post for me. One that I shared on IG and decided to expand upon here. My earliest childhood memory of comics was hanging out with my aunt during the summer and flipping through her small tattered collection of Xmen, Silver Surfer, and Fantastic Four...all of which she gifted to me years later when I told her I started collecting comics. I must have been about 8 years old at the time because there were way too many words on the page...my only focus was the story told through art, especially the battle scenes. If I had to pick one book that stuck out the most for me it would have to be Xmen 22. Something about that red cover with all those cool looking grade B supervillains just really grabbed me. Recently I picked up a couple books that turned out to be the first appearance of two of these characters. It was then that I decided, you know what, I'm going to pick up all of their first appearances...and I did. Reading copies, yes, but that is the point...my Xmen 22 that I still have from my early childhood was well read and I have received just as much enjoyment from reading through these first appearances. Here they are in no particular order... Avengers 13, first appearance of Count Nefaria Tales to Astonish 48, first appearance of Porcupine Tales of Suspense 51, first appearance of Scarecrow Strange Tales 112, first appearance of Eel Strange Tales 113, first appearance of Plantman Tales of Suspense 56, first appearance of Unicorn Thanks for reading. Til next time... *** See more journals by surfer99

My earliest comic book memory... This is a very special post for me. One that I shared on IG and decided to expand upon here. My earliest childhood memory of comics was hanging out with my aunt during the summer and flipping through her small tattered collection of Xmen, Silver Surfer, and Fantastic Four...all of which she gifted to me years later when I told her I started collecting comics. I must have been about 8 years old at the time because there were way too many words on the page...my only focus was the story told through art, especially the battle scenes. If I had to pick one book that stuck out the most for me it would have to be Xmen 22. Something about that red cover with all those cool looking grade B supervillains just really grabbed me. Recently I picked up a couple books that turned out to be the first appearance of two of these characters. It was then that I decided, you know what, I'm going to pick up all of their first appearances...and I did. Reading copies, yes, but that is the point...my Xmen 22 that I still have from my early childhood was well read and I have received just as much enjoyment from reading through these first appearances. Here they are in no particular order... Avengers 13, first appearance of Count Nefaria Tales to Astonish 48, first appearance of Porcupine Tales of Suspense 51, first appearance of Scarecrow Strange Tales 112, first appearance of Eel Strange Tales 113, first appearance of Plantman Tales of Suspense 56, first appearance of Unicorn Thanks for reading. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Good luck at the show, sounds like a good time!

Even in low grade that's an expensive pursuit, but it sounds like you've planned well and I wish the best of luck. Looking forward to hearing which books you've added next. By the way, those non-Spidey books you have in your post signature...nice.

Latest addition... So I was cruising around Phoenix Con last May hoping to find something for Art Adams and Jim Steranko to sign since they were both in attendance. I wish I had a decent book in my collection I couldve use but theyre all midgrade and I really wanted to find something nice. Ive never had much luck locating books in high grade at a con...theyre always overpriced or just nonexistent. As expected I struck out on finding a worthy Steranko book...although I did pick up a really nice looking Xmen book at my LCS recently that he did and Im hoping he will be back this year so I can get him to sign it. Anyway, I stopped by a small booth run by this guy and his son that looked promising so I asked if they had any high grade books I could check out. As luck would have it they had 3 small boxes of books for me to thumb through. To my delight I found not one, but three copies of Marvel Team Up 141...this book was on my radar because I knew Art Adams had worked on the cover. After gaining permission to do so I took each book out and carefully inspected the condition. I thought one was about a 9.2 so I quickly dismissed it, but the other two looked to be in pretty high grade so I picked the one with the most forgivable defects and bought it for like twenty bucks. Now Im wishing I wouldve bought the other one as well. Needless to say I was stoked when I opened the box from CGC last week to find that my copy of Marvel TeamUp 141 had achieved a grade of 9.8...highest grade on the census and currently only 1 of 51 with signature. Let me tell you, Im not a 9.8 or nothing kind of guy...depending on the book Im more than happy with a lower grade...but dude, 9.8! Haha. This book fits perfectly with my Secret Wars 8 and Amazing 300, both submitted by me and both achieving the coveted 9.8 grade. I dont know how I picked books of that quality, but I did and Im not complaining. Of course now the hunt is on to add a 9.8 worthy copy of Spectacular 90 and Amazing 252 to complete the Venom set. Ah, I love this hobby. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Great journal, love the family first motivation! Best of luck on your new store. Can't wait to see pictures!

I love all the responses to this post and I'm glad Stan's Soapbox resonated with you guys like it did with me. I was reading Strange Tales 145 tonight published in June 1966 and noticed Dr. Strange was being attended to by a black doctor after he'd been shot. A month later, Stan would introduce us to the Black Panther, the first African-American superhero, in FF 52 published in July 1966. Stan made his point in both subtle and not so subtle ways during a crazy time. Thank you Stan for not remaining silent on such an important topic.

Someone might think you really like comic books, haha. Great display!

Latest additions... So bagofleas was headed to Heroes Con in Charlotte earlier this year and asked if I had any books I wanted to get signed. Well, one of my favorite writers from the bronze age, Roy Thomas, was in attendance so yes, I jumped on the opportunity. Now what could I have him sign. Something from my Xmen the Missing Years set would be awesome, but a lot of those books are so hard to find in high grade or are so expensive...for me any way...that I didnt want to risk cracking them. I opted for the books you see below, Avengers 103 and 104. Still near mint, but affordable if I had to replace them. I know a lot has been said lately about the inconsistency of grading between graders within CGC and between the graders of one company and another. There has been a lot of crazy swings in grades so the risk of my books dropping was very real. Thankfully, even without a press, both books retained their grades. The 103 remained 9.2 and the 104 remained 9.4 so I was very happy with that. I am grateful to bagofleas and his friend Jason for taking such great care of my books and hope to be able to return the favor at some point. I am also loading new pics today on a bunch of my books cause some were just way too blurry. The new iPhone does a really nice job and the lighting was perfect today. Check em out if you are so inclined, I love sharing my collection with this community. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Latest and final addition to this set... WARNING...This is a long journal, . The most important journal I have ever written and it wont allow comments on the boards, even though I removed all special characters in the punctuation...argh. If you feel so inclined please DM me your comments, thanks. How hard could it be to create a set of Xmen appearances made outside their own title during the time when they really had no book to call their own? Then once created how hard could it really be to find every one of these appearances in NM 9.2 or better condition? Well it took 8 years...from 2007 to 2015...and I can finally say my Xmen the Missing Years set is now 100 percent complete with the addition of Amazing Adventures 9 featuring a very early Magneto crossover appearance. Before I get into the story behind acquiring this book though I want to reflect a little bit on having completed this set...45 books in all. Many of these books were SO difficult to find in grade...Im not even kidding...but you all know what Im talking about because you have your own hit list of books that have eluded you for years. Ive always been a huge Xmen fan ever since I started collecting back in 1987. I would go to my LCS in Lodi, CA...the Comic Grapevine...every week to pick up new issues, chat with Doug the owner, browse through back issues of Uncanny Xmen, and pick up as many issues as I could afford. I still have all of those Xmen books too and only need about a dozen more including issue one to complete that set of reading copies. But we arent here to talk about that so let me get back to the point of this journal. The collection... Below is a summary of my collection, all of which have W or OW to W pages. 3 books in NM minus 9.2 7 books in NM 9.4 1 book in NM 9.4 with SS...2 more pending thanks to bagofleas 34 books in NM plus 9.6 To give you an idea of which books took the longest to find in NM condition, Im providing a complete list here in the order they were acquired. The first one was at the end of 2007, I picked up 4 in 2008, only 2 in 2009, 4 in 2010, 3 in 2011, 8 in 2012, a whopping 16 in 2013 when the set was added to the registry, 5 in 2014, and the final 2 issues in 2015. 11.23.2007 Captain America 173 CGC 9.6 02.10.2008 Hulk 172 CGC 9.6 09.17.2008 Defenders 15 CGC 9.6 09.30.2008 Amazing Adventures 16 CGC 9.6 10.08.2008 Avengers 110 CGC 9.6 07.24.2009 Captain America 172 CGC 9.6 08.17.2009 Captain America 174 CGC 9.6 03.08.2010 Hulk 150 CGC 9.6 03.16.2010 Captain America 175 CGC 9.6 03.26.2010 Avengers 111 CGC 9.6 08.30.2010 Marvel Team up 4 CGC 9.6 02.22.2011 Amazing Spiderman 92 CGC 9.6 07.23.2011 Hulk 161 CGC 9.6 08.04.2011 Marvel Team up 23 CGC 9.6 01.25.2012 Fantastic Four 104 CGC 9.6 03.17.2012 Sub-Mariner 52 CGC 9.2 03.28.2012 Amazing Adventures 12 CGC 9.4 03.28.2012 Avengers 102 CGC 9.6 09.25.2012 Defenders 16 CGC 9.6 10.21.2012 Amazing Adventures 10 CGC 9.4 11.19.2012 Ka Zar 3 CGC 9.6 12.14.2012 Amazing Adventures 15 CGC 9.6 01.16.2013 Sub Mariner 54 CGC 9.6 02.26.2013 Amazing Adventures 11 CGC 9.6 03.16.2013 Ka Zar 2 CGC 9.6 03.28.2013 Amazing Adventures 17 CGC 9.6 03.29.2013 Shanna the She Devil 5 CGC 9.6 03.30.2013 Sub Mariner 53 CGC 9.4 04.16.2013 Fantastic Four 102 CGC 9.4 05.16.2013 Avengers 117 CGC 9.6 05.16.2013 Iron Man 69 CGC 9.6 05.16.2013 Iron Man 70 CGC 9.6 08.02.2013 Avengers 88 CGC 9.4 09.01.2013 Marvel Tales 30 CGC 9.6 09.11.2013 Fear 20 CGC 9.4 09.11.2013 Iron Man 68 CGC 9.6 10.07.2013 Amazing Adventures 14 CGC 9.6 11.18.2013 Amazing Adventures 13 CGC 9.2 03.26.2014 Avengers 103 CGC 9.2 03.28.2014 Avengers 104 CGC 9.4 03.28.2014 Spidey Super Stories 6 CGC 9.6 05.30.2014 Giant Size Fantastic Four 4 CGC 9.6 09.03.2014 Fantastic Four 103 CGC 9.4 04.03.2015 Avengers 137 CGC 9.6 10.24.2015 Amazing Adventures 9 CGC 9.6 Every book contains the following... Pictures of the front and either a picture of the back or a picture of the featured character. The year the book was made and the CGC grade. The current CGC census for the grade at the time of purchase. The purchase price of my book and the selling price of another in same grade...this helps me with valuation. Notes from the CGC case including appearances and signed by dates with creator names. Summary of comic details from marvel.wikia.com. Pedigree significance and origin, if known. Previews or Bullpen announcements made at the time of publication. Reviews from independent web sites, if available. Notable quotes from the book. Sure thats a lot of stuff, but it makes the books all that much more interesting to me, and hopefully to others...nothing is obscured cause I like making my collection available to others to view as well. Now about this Amazing Adventures 9... I had just posted a journal about acquiring the second to last book in my collection, Fantastic Four 103 CGCSS 9.4, when my friend Ronnylama posts the question...which book do you need? The next day I get a text saying he found and purchased the book and would press it then send to me. Say what? Floored, speechless, dumbfounded, humbled, thankful, amazed, excited. I believe that was the order in which I experienced those emotions, . Ron...your friendship, generosity, hospitality, and kindness never cease to amaze me...thank you again SO much. Fun fact about this issue... Besides the awesome Magneto and Inhumans appearance, one of the little things that make this book from 1971 so cool is that it features a letter to Marvel from none other than Jeph Loeb. I would not have even known this if it werent for the notation on the CGC case...thanks CGC. Ive actually met Jeph a couple of times through a friend and I remember him being a funny, down to earth guy. According to Wikipedia he began collecting comic books during the summer of 1970 when he was 12 years old. Anyone curious what he had to say in this issue? If so, read on. Dear Stan and Gerry, Once again I press these mighty keys to present another probing and provoking problem. It concerns a certain group consisting of six non evil, royal blooded Inhumans and one rather oversized but very useful Lockjaw. MMMMM...6? Inhumans...lets see now...Black Bolt, Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, Medusa...wasnt there another one somewhere? Ahhh, yes, the one called Crystal...didnt she lose her heart to that Johnny Storm character somewhere along the line? But whats this? I thought she left 8 months ago with Lockjaw...a matter of life and death. But I thought that Lockjaw could travel unimaginable distances...in a matter of minutes. Stan, I think you see my point. Maximus total conquest is not complete because he has neglected Crystal and Lockjaw. Even in FF 82 Maximus states that he will never gain total conquest over the Great Refuge unless all of the royal family is defeated. So to win myself an ol No Prize, I predict that one of these days Crys is going to return to the Great Refuge to find considerable changes. Then it would be Crystal against the brain forces of Maximus. A mind blowing battle with Crys at the slight advantage due to the element of surprise. And, since Maximus does not know the full extent of his

Rune, I love your story and what a nice restoration job! Haha. You know I would have been sleeping with the nite lite on after reading those. Glad you were able to keep the Spidey book, and those original copies you picked up later in life...so nice. James, at a young age you were already ahead of the game hitting flea markets to find comics! I didn't do that until I was a little older...so much fun, and you never know what you might find. Very cool that this book sparked your interest in comics and that you're still going strong today. Thanks for sharing guys!

Do you remember yours? It was the 70's and I had to be like 10 years old or less. My parents divorced when I was even younger and I remember going to visit my dad in the summers. He would usually end up taking me to grandma's house in French Camp, CA where I hung out with my cousins most of the time. My aunt lived there with grandma and kind of looked out for me. One of the fun things I liked to do at that age was take a magnifying glass and use the condensed light beam like a pencil to burn images into a piece of wood. I don't know all of the images I made, but I remember very clearly making a big ant...he was like a foot long on a thin peace of soft wood and he looked awesome. Sorry, took a trip down memory lane there. Anyway, one day after I was bored of playing with fire and driving my aunt crazy she busted out some Marvel comics and was like, here look at these. I loved looking at those books. There were so many words and at that age they just interfered with the pictures...I didn't read any of them and when my aunt tried to read them to me I usually fell asleep from boredom. When I got to just flip through them on my own though it was great. Sometimes I would try to piece together the story from the images, and other times I just enjoyed looking at these cool characters. Which books were they? The covers that burned themselves into my memory were Silver Surfer 1 and a bunch of X-men books including issue 2 with the Vanisher, issue 3 with the Blob, issue 22 with Count Nefaria, issue 29 with the Super Adaptoid, issue 31 with the Cobalt Man, issue 32 with Juggernaut, and issue 45 with Quicksilver. I guess that explains why the Silver Surfer and X-men were the comics I gravitated to most when I started collecting comics myself 10 years later. The unbelievable part is about 10 years after that, I told my aunt I has collecting comics now and she sent me her whole collection of about 60 books. Man when those books arrived the memories just came pouring back. I still have most of those books and will treasure them forever, along with the great memories. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Do you remember yours? It was the 70's and I had to be like 10 years old or less. My parents divorced when I was even younger and I remember going to visit my dad in the summers. He would usually end up taking me to grandma's house in French Camp, CA where I hung out with my cousins most of the time. My aunt lived there with grandma and kind of looked out for me. One of the fun things I liked to do at that age was take a magnifying glass and use the condensed light beam like a pencil to burn images into a piece of wood. I don't know all of the images I made, but I remember very clearly making a big ant...he was like a foot long on a thin peace of soft wood and he looked awesome. Sorry, took a trip down memory lane there. Anyway, one day after I was bored of playing with fire and driving my aunt crazy she busted out some Marvel comics and was like, here look at these. I loved looking at those books. There were so many words and at that age they just interfered with the pictures...I didn't read any of them and when my aunt tried to read them to me I usually fell asleep from boredom. When I got to just flip through them on my own though it was great. Sometimes I would try to piece together the story from the images, and other times I just enjoyed looking at these cool characters. Which books were they? The covers that burned themselves into my memory were Silver Surfer 1 and a bunch of X-men books including issue 2 with the Vanisher, issue 3 with the Blob, issue 22 with Count Nefaria, issue 29 with the Super Adaptoid, issue 31 with the Cobalt Man, issue 32 with Juggernaut, and issue 45 with Quicksilver. I guess that explains why the Silver Surfer and X-men were the comics I gravitated to most when I started collecting comics myself 10 years later. The unbelievable part is about 10 years after that, I told my aunt I has collecting comics now and she sent me her whole collection of about 60 books. Man when those books arrived the memories just came pouring back. I still have most of those books and will treasure them forever, along with the great memories. Til next time... *** See more journals by surfer99

You're probably right, blast those rich techies! I've heard NY is the same way...all the good stuff is gone, unless you try some of the surrounding cities. We definitely have some great books pop up here once in awhile, but there are dry spells too. Best of luck on your collection!

Haha, thanks Rockblazer! It totally IS all shiny, . Not bad for a 27 year old comic. It was just one of those things where I wasn't even looking for this book, it just appeared, like a dream, so I jumped on it. Thanks for reading. I will try and post again soon and look forward to reading your posts as well.

LionHeart, newshane, and TJ, thank you! Brandon, I couldn't believe the books I found that day and when I took a closer look after I got home I was amazed. Also picked up a Marvel Premiere 15 for my son who loves Iron Fist and it had some wrinkling that could maybe be water damage, I'm not sure. That one we sent to CCS for a press so I'm hoping they worked their magic to pull of a decent grade on it for him...it is in Received status now along with a couple of other gems. Professor, welcome back my friend! Nice to hear from you and hoping you'll write a journal or two to catch us up on all things Pecora.

Thanks guys! And Ron, WE are winners my friend, thank you for the amazing press on all of these. You should go into business, serious. ?

Just arrived... Shortly after coming home from work on Friday I got a knock on the door from UPS. I had seen a few days earlier that my invoice from ECCC in March had been marked Shipped/Safe so I was eagerly anticipating this package. So excited because I don't peak at the grades online...gotta have willpower cause I love surprises! In the past I've opened the box and revealed the grade to myself one book at a time and then made a journal note before looking at the next book. That was fun. This time, I decided to reveal one at a time to myself and then to tnerb, bagofleas and Ronnylama via group text, sending them a pic of each book as I went along. That was a lot fun too cause we got to share in the ohs and ahs together. I just finished posting the last one, pictured below, on Instagram which is my first venture into social media, and now I'm sharing the results with all of you fine people. I wish I had made note of the grades we thought these would receive, but needless to say I am EXTREMELY happy with all of these! Daredevil 163 CGC 9.6 WP...Hulk appearance. Bought this one on eBay as NM. Daredevil 168 CGC 9.2 WP...1st Elektra. Bought this one from tnerb as NM minus...right on the money with that one tnerb. Uncanny Xmen 244 CGC 9.6 WP...1st Jubilee. This one is from my original collection. Secret Wars 8 CGC 9.8 WP...Origin of alien costume that becomes Venom. This one is from my personal collection. Amazing Spiderman 238 CGC 9.6 WP...1st appearance Hobgoblin. Picked this up at my LCS. Amazing Spiderman 300 CGC 9.8 WP...Origin and 1st full appearance of Venom. Picked this up at my LCS. I gotta tell you, my jaw hit the floor when I saw the 9.8 grade on issue 300. I showed my wife what they're selling for and she was like yeah, you need to take me back to Disneyland, . Very happy to have all these books in my collection and not that it has any relevance, but it bumped me up past the 30,000 point mark so I'll take it. I've added pictures and descriptions for all these to my sets so if you have a few minutes stop by and take a look. Til next time... *** See more journals by surfer99

Just arrived... Shortly after coming home from work on Friday I got a knock on the door from UPS. I had seen a few days earlier that my invoice from ECCC in March had been marked Shipped/Safe so I was eagerly anticipating this package. So excited because I don't peak at the grades online...gotta have willpower cause I love surprises! In the past I've opened the box and revealed the grade to myself one book at a time and then made a journal note before looking at the next book. That was fun. This time, I decided to reveal one at a time to myself and then to tnerb, bagofleas and Ronnylama via group text, sending them a pic of each book as I went along. That was a lot fun too cause we got to share in the ohs and ahs together. I just finished posting the last one, pictured below, on Instagram which is my first venture into social media, and now I'm sharing the results with all of you fine people. I wish I had made note of the grades we thought these would receive, but needless to say I am EXTREMELY happy with all of these! Daredevil 163 CGC 9.6 WP...Hulk appearance. Bought this one on eBay as NM. Daredevil 168 CGC 9.2 WP...1st Elektra. Bought this one from tnerb as NM minus...right on the money with that one tnerb. Uncanny Xmen 244 CGC 9.6 WP...1st Jubilee. This one is from my original collection. Secret Wars 8 CGC 9.8 WP...Origin of alien costume that becomes Venom. This one is from my personal collection. Amazing Spiderman 238 CGC 9.6 WP...1st appearance Hobgoblin. Picked this up at my LCS. Amazing Spiderman 300 CGC 9.8 WP...Origin and 1st full appearance of Venom. Picked this up at my LCS. I gotta tell you, my jaw hit the floor when I saw the 9.8 grade on issue 300. I showed my wife what they're selling for and she was like yeah, you need to take me back to Disneyland, . Very happy to have all these books in my collection and not that it has any relevance, but it bumped me up past the 30,000 point mark so I'll take it. I've added pictures and descriptions for all these to my sets so if you have a few minutes stop by and take a look. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.