Rockblazer

I am just getting back full force to collecting since my new neck parts were added back in September. Basically my spinal cord was being crushed in my neck either from old injuries or old age. I had to have spinal fusion surgery on four vertebrae . I have two titanium rods and eight screws holding my neck together. Much less titanium than the Titanium man though. Normally they would use spacers but my body tried to fix the problem itself by growing new bone thus the rods. I was told I was very fortunate to have had the surgery when I did. Half of my left hand is still numb but slowly improving. I am back to work and back to buying comics. I did want to mention I did pickup a couple of Dark Horse archives of Turok and Eerie off Ebay which arrived today. The seller bought over 50,000 copies (according to his listing) and his pricing is far below other sellers. They were still sealed and well packaged. His shipping was fast for media mail too. I feel very thankful the way things turned out for me and wanted to give back so I joined our town's Homeless advocate group. Our town is around 10,000 people but we do have a homeless population. In closing here are two recent pickups. A Turok 58 with a cool robot cover and a Thor 150 which has another great cover. Hopefully the picture won't flip on me this time like my last journal.

I share a similar memory when you mentioned the increase from 10 cents to 12 cents. I was around when that increase happened but not reading yet. I do recall being steamed when I went to the local drug store and was hit with the 12 cent to 15 cent increase. My main source of income then was my paper route which got me $5 to $8 dollars a week. I was used to eight comics for a dollar. I was upset that a dollar would only get me 6.When you were a kid back then that was a substantial increase.

Yes, very much worth having.

Good find! Ray Jr. Thor's my favorite title since I picked up issue 209 way back when.

The only con I remember going to way back then in Columbus was at the Lincoln Levque tower. Not sure what it was called though. Only was there one time.

P.S , I did find a short 1:38 video Buckeye Comicon July 2019 on YouTube from the con someone posted. I made it in it at the :27 to :31 mark. Back turned , white shirt , green backpack. Finally on YouTube after all these years.

I just returned home from Buckeye Comic Con. It's a small show in a hotel. Just like back in the 70's when I attended my first cons. I like it because it is dealers loaded with comics. There are some small press writers and artists in attendance. They say the attendance is 400 for the one day event and that looked a little low to me. Very busy. It is held every four months and I plan on being there in November for the next one. I picked up some high grade Swamp Thing , pristine Spawn 1to 7 ( $40 bucks for those).Wolverine 10 and a Spawn 9. The Thor 134 looked to be a 3.5 but it was cheap and finally a Spiderman 129 CGC 8.0. It wasn't cheap but a decent price. I stopped going to Mid- Ohio Con a couple of years after it became a Wizard World. I would rather spend $4 to check out 20 dealers in a hotel than $50 to shop a few in a convention center. All and all quite pleased with this show.

Sometimes it can be a determined bidder on auction web sites that will run items up. A recent example was on some high grade CGC graded Twilight Zone comics. I bid on 12 issues and was number 2 bidder on 11 of them. I only won issue 2 which was an 8.5 for 51 dollars. It was the lowest graded copy. Most were 9.6 and 9.8's. I bid in the upper $400's on a number of 9.8's and still lost. This person was willing to spend more than I was. Could have gone higher but that same money on silver age Marvels would benefit my collection a lot more. Speaking of silver age Marvels I found two titles that were a bargain compared to other Marvels and were buying those for a few years but now the jig is up and I have moved on to other bargains. If you search you can still find good books for decent money.

Ray J , those are some good signatures to get.

Tnerb, It's good to see you back. I would say wait one more day since you have already been waiting.

David, A few years back I posted similar questions and the majority of my fellow collectors thought I should have sent in some pedigree comics I own. I ended up picking what would help my set completion and value comics. The pedigrees are mainly titles I could never finish due to length of runs. You'll do what's right for you.

I actually have a number of cameras outside the house ,two looking at the porch but just so happened one of my Wifi modems took a dump that day. I got a new modem that night and if it happens in the future it should be on video.

The seller said he insured the book but getting reimbursed would be difficult I bet. I just bought some books on Comiclink and checked the UPS box instead of the Fedex box because of what happened. I wonder if that shop owner recovered any money spent?

I wanted to mention something and get your opinion on it. Recently I purchased a CGC Fantastic Four 2 from a trusted seller. I thought I would get this book while I could still afford to buy it. It's a nice looking 3.5 off white to white paged copy. I asked the seller to send FedEx with adult signature confirmation. Basically an adult 21 and over has to sign for it. The seller did as I asked and I expected myself or my wife to be home to sign for it. The day it was due my wife had to leave for a doctors appointment which had been scheduled before I bought the book. She left at 2:30pm and the driver showed up at 2:53 pm. I got home from work at 3:15 pm and the package with the comic was sitting on my front porch. I was kind of disturbed that it was left without a signature as a neighbor had a package stolen off the front porch around Christmas. I called Fedex and asked how could it be left without a signature. I gave her the tracking number and she said it was signed for. I asked who did and the response I got was it was signed by me! I said I was still 15 miles from home at 2:53. So the driver signed my name and left it. He signed my first initial and last name . Not how I sign by the way. Another funny thing was the Fedex rep no longer responded to my questions about the package. It was live chat. I talked for about 10 minutes more with no response and then hung up. I got a transcript of the live chat but it had most of my questions edited out and the times changed. Interesting. What if the package had been stolen? It was signed for with my name but I wasn't there. Has this happened to anyone else? It was a pricey comic, I just wanted to ensure it's safe delivery. On to my next subject. I often get beat on Comiclink auctions . Often the runner up bidder. I have been bidding since July of 2009 on their site. You can look at your past auction bids on the site. I decided to see what my actual record was. I added it up and I had 34 wins and 51 lost. I was feeling somewhat bad about that thinking if that were a baseball teams record I would be in last place. Then I started thinking as a player if I went 34 for 85. I figured it up and I'm batting .400. That would make me batting champ. Now I see my auction record in a different light.

The last picture is so sad. I think all of us have fond memories of the shops we knew in our youth. My "Home Shop " The Bookery Fairborn ,Ohio since the eighties is still going strong but the owner mentioned last year when he retires he does not think that there is going to be a buyer when he calls it quits .