Matmarvel

Image books! Well, Im getting ready for my next submission and although Ive now collected nearly all the Daredevil Vol 2 newsstand issues ungraded (ready for submitting) I feel like a change. Recently Ive been reading and collecting a lot of Image books so I thought I would send some off, there have been so many good ones but I always limit myself to no more than 10 books at a time to CGC, so Ive plumped for Saga#1-#3 and #7, Bedlam #1 - Third Eye, Phantom, Unsigned Forbidden Planet, 2nd print and #2 phantom variants ((and also Secret Invasion #1 - 1:50 Leinil Francis Yu Cover to make it to ten !)(Im sure if I hold onto to it any longer it will disintegrate)) My collecting habits have really grown since first joining CGC 7/8 years ago when I only collected Marvel, I now have a full run (so far) of Batman (2011), runs of about 9/10 different Image titles and even a Dark Horse book, Colder which is very quirky. Im still looking to finish my Marvel graded sets and have 8 Pressman variants, 13 DD newsstand variants, three other DD issues, a whole slew of Secret Invasion books and even Der Tod Von Captain America a German version of The Death Of Cap limited to 999 with a cracking Marko Djurdevic cover that I love - it should grade highly (fingers crossed) I will let you know how I get on, Good Hunting Phil To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

HTF Variants From my latest batch I was delighted to receive the following grades DD #319 2nd print - 9.8 I can't tell you how happy I am right now, this is a very difficult book to find in high grade and I've got the first 9.8 thats going to be registered on the census. It is a mainly black cover with a white building, I bought it as NM but felt it had potential so sent it off, surprised - yes. DD #321 Glow-In-The-Dark Variant - 9.6 this is not as rare, but I haven't seen a graded one for sale... ever, 7 years I've been back in the collecting world and, nada. So, all good DD #350 Gold Variant - 9.6 this will be the second book on the census, the first is a 9.8, but still I'm delighted. I bought this one from Lone Star Comics as NM-, I was on many waiting lists for a long time waiting for this one to surface, great result All in all good stuff and it has revitalised me after some recent personal doubts on my grading eye, thanks for reading and good hunting To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Ever try to do something nice? My family life over the last ten years has been pretty complicated, as some of you may know my son Jack has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. When family members have been 'unable' to provide support and help, there was a number of charities and some fantastic people who came through. One of these great organisations is Barnado's, they provide outings with 1:1 support to give the children a fun time and parents some respite. We regulary donate items, clothing etc to their shop to raise funds and I got to thinking I would like to do something more, so I sorted through my raw comic collection and put together six long boxes of comics and took them to the donation center. Well much to my surprise the young lady declined them saying there was no point as they wouldn't try to sell them, they would just be recycled!! I tried to explain there worth and the potential for improving the customer base, but no... please take them away or you can leave them to be recycled. I was slightly put out but took them to my son's Saturday club another charity based group, they were delighted to receive them. The point was to do something nice but I had to laugh, as she was turning down my prized comics, she was happily accepting a box of raggidy Mills and Boon romantic novels and the most dreadful lamp you've ever seen.... it's official, comics are worthless ! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Hmmm... curious Well my 1st 30 cent variants have been graded, here's what I wrote on the 13th of Feb upon sending them off... "Very excited today as the first of three batches of books were sent off for grading. This first lot contains four Marvel 30 cent variants - Marvel Super Heroes #57 : a very hard book to find, not expecting more than a 2.0 on this one, it's just to say I have one !! Master Of Kung-Fu #41 : Also VHTF but I'm expecting great things from this one, 9.2 - now that doesn't sound like much but if you check the census you'll see why I'm excited. Marvel Team-Up #44 & #46 : I have to believe both these will come in around solid 8.0's Second batch and details, posted next week... " Grading as follows Marvel Super Heroes #57 2.0 OW - just as I thought Marvel Team-Up #44 7.0 OW Marvel Team-Up #46 8.5 WHT - both came in about as suspected Master Of Kung Fu #41 6.5 WHT - sorry, what ?? 6.5 are you having a 'bubble bath'?? I think I'll have to get the notes on this one, talk about a complete misread on my behalf, Oh well that probably means my modern submissions will all come back 9.0 rather than the 9.8's I'm hoping for, maybe I'll try sudoku instead... To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Time for change I think that Professor Pecora's idea has great merit, but I would like to go further and see a revamp of the entire points system as some of the scores are incredibly high for no apparent reason and some are scandalously low. Without wishing to be controversial the company was quite happy to change everything for their 'Signature series' market and I think it's time for a modernisation of the collecting points system and the census. The important factors on a CGC graded comic * Grade * Page Quality * Importance of Issue * Whether or not it's been signed/sketched via Signature series program Some consideration must also go to the rarity of the book, I don't mean how many have been graded to date, but if we know that the print run was low i.e Ultimate Spider-Man #5 gets extra points, but say 30 cent or 35 cent variants don't. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The census can then reflect the modernisation by including the following factors #Grade - how many books have been graded at the known levels (sub-section) Page quality - How many books have been graded at the industry standard levels #Signature series #Qualified #Restored (sub-section)What type of restoration I know it's alot of work and CGC do a sterling job but, it is a business promotional tool and if they want to expand, the registry needs to reflect the growing maturity and demands of the client base, which for the main part is males between 30 - 60 with disposable income. ---------------------------------------------------------- Submitting to CGC has become a real labour of love for most people as we have all read via the journals, you send your book away, paying fantastical sums to do so and it returns, if you're lucky some time in the next nine months... why? We all know why, 1)large volume sellers submitting vast quantities of books for profit 2)Convention season, 4 day grading weeks which are probably more like 2 or 3 day weeks How do we change this? 1)split the organisation in three sub departments #Non business submitters #Business submitters #Convention team - which go off to do all the fancy smansy look at us, we grade books, promotional department. When finished come back to HQ and help out the other dudes, until the covention bat signal goes up again.. ---------------------------------------------------- To wrap up, I love CGC and its product, they work very hard to provide us critical, whinging collectors with a service we can all be happy with, but the registry and census needs modernising and CGC needs to unclog its pipes of business flippers so ordinary Joe collectors can get their books in reasonable time, do this and we all promise to send many more in... !! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

card and comic symbiosis As you may have read from my previous journals, while I am completing my submitting odyssey I promised my wife I would not buy any CGC books until all have been paid for and slabbed, the question is how do I fill the collecting void during this period? The answer - quirky, low priced collecting, I don't break my promise but the addiction is fed. I have quite a collection of non sports cards, mostly X-Men related and I use among others 'Jeff Allenders House of Checklists' as a resourse, whilst doing inventory I noticed the 1993 Annuals list, now I was vaguely aware of these cards from a couple of X-books, but I didn't realise how kooky these characters were - all of them were new characters and all of them were beyond bizarre, whoever came up with them needed sacking, quite frankly! e.g Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #3 - Irish Wolfhound ! Iron Man Annual #14 - Face Thief !! Wonder Man Annual #2 - Hit Maker, some kind of early Simon Cowell I think, he floors you with a vision of his high waisted trousers and finishes you off with a pithy jibe!! So you can see why I was drawn to collect them, 27 in total, has anyone else been collecting on the insane side of the street recently? (Psst.. two submissions verified, five to go) To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Finished sorting Finally got around to sorting out my books for grading, 72 in total from my personal raw collection. Usual criteria applies no spine breaks, sharp corners, good gloss and crisp white pages. 72 doesn't sound that many but try carefully inspecting two or three times that amount to filter them down and it adds up to a long night with tired eyes! Now I am on a budget but I also want to finish this while I'm still young. I've decided to send them at five a time (apart from the last submission which will have a couple extra) So 14 submissions, one every two or three weeks. The major factor for me to take into account is the postage back to the UK, which can run very high as CGC use UPS e.g a recent order cost me $80 for four books using UPS, so that really bumps up the cost. I have also made a commitment to my wife that while the grading odyssey is in force I will not purchase any books... (sad face) but I want these books graded and she wants to ensure we eat! so it's a fair trade off, I think.. There's a few rare variants and interesting books in the lot so I will update as they return. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

2nd batch Well I posted off my second batch today, mostly modern variants - Spider-Man (1990) #1 - Poly-bagged silver edition (No Price) Locke and Key #1 Daredevil #319 - Second Print (Black cover) Daredevil #321 - Glow-in-the-dark variant Daredevil #500 - DF Negative edition then these Daredevil v2 newsstand, Marvel Unlimited variants (no price) #17 #18 #19 #27 #31 #35 #37 I am hopeful for high grades on nearly all, except a couple of the newsstand variants which will come in around 8.0/8.5, but these books are quite HTF so they will do, until someone offers better ones for sale that I can pick up. Next week third batch... X-Men

1st batch Marvel 30cent variants Very excited today as the first of three batches of books were sent off for grading. This first lot contains four Marvel 30 cent variants - Marvel Super Heroes #57 : a very hard book to find, not expecting more than a 2.0 on this one, it's just to say I have one !! Master Of Kung-Fu #41 : Also VHTF but I'm expecting great things from this one, 9.2 - now that doesn't sound like much but if you check the census you'll see why I'm excited. Marvel Team-Up #44 & #46 : I have to believe both these will come in around solid 8.0's Second batch and details, posted next week...

Daredevil CGC Census Results Most of my new additions this week were hard to find raw books to be sent for grading - Ultimate Spider-Man #1 - German Edition Daredevil Newsstand Marvel Unlimited #17, #18, & #19 Der Tod Von Captain America - German variant of Capt. America(v5) #25 I did pick up one CGC graded book which I couldn't resist at a nice price, the McGuiness variant to Capt. America #25 9.8 The thrust of my focus this week has been around the Daredevil complete set, when I start collecting a CGC run I like to check and catalogue the census results for the books in high grade - 9.4 to 9.8 (or higher if available) For this set of books I have decided to collect #100 - #500 first, maybe throwing in a couple of pre #100 issues if they can be picked up at the right price. The first section of analysis was from #100 to #168, and it threw up some interesting and unexpected results: If you take out the main keys #131, #158 & #168 *7 issues with no 9.8's - #102, 106, 116, 119, 121, 124, 156 *10 with only one 9.8 - #103, 104, 105, 112, 120, 123, 125, 128 133, 137 *28 with two to five 9.8's - #100, 101, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 122, 126, 127, 129, 130, 132, 135, 138, 140, 141, 142, 143, 146, 148, 150, 151, 154 *13 with six to ten 9.8's - #109, 134, 136, 139, 144, 147, 149, 152, 155, 162, 163, 165, 166 *6 with over ten 9.8's - #145(11), 153(16), 157(13), 161(18), 164(24), 167(19) That's 338 non-key 9.8's between 65 issues, not many at all in this age of manic grading, so does this mean that there's a lack of high quality raw issues or that there's not much demand in the high grade Daredevil market? Before you answer you should know that in the same amount of issues (65) there are 1093 graded at 9.6, over three times the amount, and most of those people were hoping for 9.8, because in reality who sends in a middle run book hoping for a 9.6? Also we find 959 at 9.4, which strikes me as slightly unusual, as I thought there might have been more, but specalist submitters are probably getting better spotting the higher level non-key books, because when it comes to the keys, everyone is looking to make a buck rather than horde away - #131 - 9.8(13), 9.6(58+1 SS), 9.4(99+2 SS) #158 - 9.8(40), 9.6(102+1 SS), 9.4(178+2 SS) #168 - 9.8(47), 9.6(164+7 SS), 9.4(312+3 SS) There are two high grade monsters: #157 one book graded at 10 #161 one book graded at 9.9 Interestingly there are also only 3 Signature Series books outside of the keys and two of them are #157 & #159 (snugly around #158) So if you get a 9.8 outside of the key issues hold and cherish it, a 9.6 might just be the best you can ever do and a 9.4 you may have to live with..

A sweet week A really sweet week this week, picked up some beauties for my modern sets : Captain America #34 9.8 SS, Signed by Quesada, trying to pick up as many SS books by different people who've worked on the run as possible Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (K-B Toys reprint) 9.8 SS, Double signed by Bendis & Bagley, only 4 on the census - well happy Daredevil v2 #40 & #42 both 9.4 SS, newsstand variants (No issue number)(Finding them graded is like looking for rocking horse poo) both signed by Bendis and both only books on Census !! All these books were picked up for reasonable money and within budget, Roll on next week...

Back in the world of collecting Well, after a difficult but ultimately rewarding hiatus from the world of comics I'm back collecting CGC graded books. My daughter is now over a year old and thriving, and my wife is almost back to her old self after seven years of crippling pain (thanks to better medication and the mental strength gained from coming out the other side of despair). I've sold nearly all my Uncanny X-men CGC books, as I realised that they weren't really bringing me joy, I was just clinging on to my initial hook into comics, so all the books I buy now and the sets I build will be ones I actually take pleasure in. My long term goal is to build a nice complete Daredevil run, and my primary short term sets are Ultimate Spider-Man and Captain America Volume 5, but I am not going to be as driven as I previously was, allowing myself to buy books that appeal to me, outside of my main interests, if they are at a price that is appealing. In short I am glad to be collecting again and I enjoy checking out your journals and books, happy collecting, Phil

X-Men Milestone Well I've finally achieved a milestone of sorts - 100 (now 101) Uncanny X-Men graded comics. It has been a while in coming and I would have got here alot sooner if I hadn't sold off nearly all my 9.8's last year. I'm back on track now and the 100th book was purchased from board member 'Beachbum' - thanks mate

Civil War Set Marches On Just had my latest batch of Civil War books back from CGC, pretty pleased with the results 3 of 6 books graded as I expected and the other 3 only a grading level lower. #3 sketch variant - expected 9.4 - CGC 9.4 #5 - expected 9.8 - CGC 9.6 #6 - expected 9.8 - CGC 9.6 #6 Turner variant - expected 9.8 - CGC 9.8 #7 - expected 9.8 - CGC 9.6 #7 Turner variant - expected 9.8 - CGC 9.8 Not a bad result all in all, 21 books left to be graded, still on course.

Giant Size Spider-Man #4 I've finally managed to buy an affordable 'Giant Size Spider-Man #4' (CGC 8.5, not the best grade but good enough for me). This book has eluded me for some time due to the inflated demand for it recently and considering that Including P&P I paid $69, when the 'Overstreet' guide for this book is around $90 raw, I think it's a snip. Moving on to the next target 'Amazing Spider-Man #300' CGC, I somehow wonder whether I'll get it under -'Overstreet' guide price, probably not eh! [attachment=:name]