n2wdw's Tales of the Comic Book Room 15 15

[n2wdw]

14 hours ago, 50YrsCollctngCmcs said:

I always assumed the book is removed for grading and that the grader's do a detailed evaluation of the book including all pages. Not sure how having it in a holder could influence the grade; that doesn't sound right. 

I think I read some place that being in the slab presses the book to some extent.  So, if you re-grade it, the book gets the benefit of that press and might nudge it up a grade higher.  Not sure if that's true, but I wonder about it in cases like this one, where the grade went from 6.0 and 6.5.  Although, I also think that this shows the subjective nature of grading, especially for fine lines like 0.5 of a grade.

[n2wdw]

Some Recent Books from CGC

Got some books back from CGC.  I've been looking for a nice copy of Rangers 28 for years. Finally found one here on the boards.  This is one of my favorite covers of Rangers.

 

And, I got Young Love 4 to add to my GA photo covers collection.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

7 hours ago, n2wdw said:

I think I read some place that being in the slab presses the book to some extent.  So, if you re-grade it, the book gets the benefit of that press and might nudge it up a grade higher.  Not sure if that's true, but I wonder about it in cases like this one, where the grade went from 6.0 and 6.5.  Although, I also think that this shows the subjective nature of grading, especially for fine lines like 0.5 of a grade.

Interesting, I don't have a huge amount of slabbed books but I would be curious to try this!

[n2wdw]

Serendipity and a Book for the Lady In White Collection

I'm always finding books I've never seen before when going through long boxes at cons, or surfing on the Internet.  Even today, after almost 50 years of collecting, it's still exciting to discover something new.  Serendipity is a big part of comic collecting!

That's how it is for me with the Lady in White collection.  I stumble onto books that fit the collection.  Here's a comic I discovered at Terry's con earlier this year in January.  Unexpected 127.  The dealer had a raw copy priced at $45.  I think he was surprised when I passed on it.  I would have bought it but I was unsure of the grade.

It went on my want list though, and a few months later, this graded copy appeared on eBay.  I got it for $90, a steal IMHO.  This way I didn't have to pay for grading, or risk getting a lower grade.  Thanks for reading.

[szav]

On 5/22/2019 at 5:22 AM, n2wdw said:

I think I read some place that being in the slab presses the book to some extent.  So, if you re-grade it, the book gets the benefit of that press and might nudge it up a grade higher.  Not sure if that's true, but I wonder about it in cases like this one, where the grade went from 6.0 and 6.5.  Although, I also think that this shows the subjective nature of grading, especially for fine lines like 0.5 of a grade.

My guess is slabbing a book and keeping it in its case for a number of years would flatten it, but wouldn't do anything to remove creases or bends.

I think on the website somewhere it states there’s a limit to the pressure the book is under inside the case because it needs to be able to move in the event the case is jarred. Too much pressure and the book will tear if the case is dropped or jarred in shipping.

That said I have a book that they rejected for pressing on account if it being too fragile.  I’m still scratching my head on it because pq was c/ow and the cover wasn’t brittle.  Book is an amazing looking Cgc 5.5.

That said the book had a noticeable stackers curl, and I plan to resub it in 5-10 years... will let you know then if it worked to straighten the book out....I think Cgc places a lot of emphasis on perfect flatness in their grading.

[n2wdw]

Here are a few recent additions to the comic room.

First, a couple of items with covers by Dave Stevens.  I have the top ranking Dave Stevens registry set.  It's always a quandary for me when I pick up things like this, about whether to submit to CGC.  I know the grades will be low, but it's unlikely I'll ever be able to get better copies (especially for this foreign magazine), and I want to use the registry set as an index of covers by Dave Stevens.  So I'll probably go ahead and submit them.

 

Speaking of Stevens, here's a book that I got back from CGC recently, that I plan on adding to the set.  You might ask, how can this qualify for the Dave Stevens cover set, when the cover is by Linsner?

 

Well, because this set includes both front and back covers.  And the back cover is by Stevens:

 

 

I also recently picked up Junie Prom 6.  I'll be submitting this to CGC too, as I'm trying to put together an entire CGC run of Junie.

 

Here's my Junie run so far:

 

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by n2wdw

[Robot Man]

Nice run Mike I’m still needing a #2 to be complete. And mine are no where as nice as yours. A challenging little run in any grade.

[n2wdw]

Big Life Changes and My Wine Cellar

In addition to comics, the other thing I collect is wine.  Recently we sold our family home where we raised our four kids, as our youngest is starting college in September (so my wife and I are now empty nesters).  Just last week, we moved to our little house by the beach.  Big life changes for us!  There are a lot of emotions when you move from a house and area that you've lived for 20+ years.  For the last couple weeks, I've been thinking things like "this is the last time I'll drive down this road" and "this is the last time I'll be in this store."  And then you see your youngest child graduate from high school.  Whew ... big life changes.

Anyway, we plan to live in this house for the rest of our lives.  This beach house has the comic room that I've been showing in this thread.  But with moving, we had to build a new wine cellar to store my wine collection.  We've been working on that since last October, and now it's finally done!  The excitement of the new wine cellar has helped me get over the melancholy of moving and my youngest child on the brink of going to college.

At the moment, I have about 1700 bottles of wine.  My collection focuses on Italian wines (brunellos, barolos, and barbarescos), California (mostly Napa), Bordeaux, and pinot (both new world and old -- Burgundies).  I also have small concentrations of amarones and petite syrah.  I should actually say OUR collection, as my wife and I both collect this wine.  This is different from my comic collection, where my wife isn't into it.  So it's nice to be able to collect something we're both into.

The new wine cellar is temperature controlled and stays at a constant 55 degrees.  It holds over 2000 bottles, so we have some room for growth. 

I decided early on that I wanted to showcase some art in the new cellar.  In particular, I have a few limited/signed prints by the Scottist artist, Jack Vettriano. As you can see, the art is suggestive, which shouldn't surprise anyone who has seen the comics I collect in this thread.  And before you ask, my wife is okay with it, she likes Vettriano.

Here are some pictures of my new wine cellar.  Thanks for reading.

 

Edited June 12, 2019 by n2wdw

[KirbyJack]

Beautiful and functional! I like that you could actually find what you want!

[Yorick]

8 hours ago, n2wdw said:

 

You have such good taste... and then there was this.  Go get yourself a Frishmuth recasting of The Vine, and melt down that bronze (apologies in advance to the artist).

[n2wdw]

On 6/12/2019 at 4:47 PM, Yorick said:

You have such good taste... and then there was this.  Go get yourself a Frishmuth recasting of The Vine, and melt down that bronze (apologies in advance to the artist).

This sculpture is actually important to me and my wife as we got it in Venice, as part of an anniversary.  But I get you, art is definitely a personal taste thing.

[n2wdw]

It's Been a Busy Summer

Here's a update on my summer.  Although we have moved to our beach house, I still work full time in DC.  So my wife and I rented a small apartment in DC.  It's cool to be city people again!  I've gone from a 1.5 hour commute to a 15 minute commute (each way), and now we leave the car parked and walk or take scooters everywhere.

So my entire summer has been busy with getting the electric, gas and internet turned on in the apartment, waiting for deliveries and putting furniture together.  It's an exciting time, but time consuming too.

I haven't put a lot of thought into my comic collection this summer.  In fact I've barely been in the comic room lately.  But now that things are finally settling down with the moving and new apartment, I'm starting to get into comic mode again.  I read everything I could about the happenings at SDCC (does it seem like there wasn't much coverage this year?).  I was floored when Chuck  Rozanski at Mile High Comics came out as trans (http://milehighcomics.com/newsletter/071819email.html).  I thought I was going through some major life changes with moving and all, but I don't have anything on Chuck.

But anyway, I have managed to pick up a few comics this summer.  Here are a few.  Thanks for reading.

[n2wdw]

Big Ebay Actions Last Night!

There were so many great comic auctions closing last night on eBay.  I was bidding in 9 auctions.  If I won them all at my max bids, I would have been in for $7500.  My wife would've killed me, but I knew I wouldn't win them all, and if I won just one I'd be happy.

Most of the comics were higher grade Bakers and Ghost comics.  They were being offered by "dave.odell."  I don't know who this person is.  Is he liquidating his collection?  Right now at this moment, he doesn't have any other comics on eBay.  Maybe someone here knows him?

The first auction to close was Going Steady 10.  My max bid was $1000.  This isn't one of Baker's best covers (IMHO), so I thought I had a chance.  But it closed at $1675!   So clearly the big guns were out.  At that point, I was wondering if I'd win any of the auctions.

 

But moments later I won my first auction, Teen-Age Romances 26.  My max bid was $250 and I got it for $190.  The win kinda shocked me, even though the multi-panel Baker covers generally go for less, and this was one of the lowest condition comics being offered by Mr. Odel. 

 

 

Next up were the 2 prizes of the night, Going Steady 13 and TAR 44.  BTW, I'm focusing here on the books I needed for my collection.  Mr. Odel was offering some other comics that I wasn't bidding on (since I already had them). 

You rarely see these 2 comics for sale, and I love both covers.  I'd been thinking about going to a con later this summer (maybe Chicago).  But when I saw these comics go on sale last week, I decided to dumb the con plans and throw all my money into trying to win these books. 

So I put in max bids of $2000 for each of GS 13 and TAR 44.  I thought I had a realistic chance to win both.  But then GS 13 closed at $2705!

 

I had a few minutes to think about TAR 44 before it closed.  I decided to raise my max bid from $2000 to $2500.  I knew ahead of time that I'd have buyer's remorse if I won it at my max bid, as then I would've spent more on TAR 44 than any other Baker (at the moment, the most I've paid for a Baker is $2352 for a 1.8 Blue GCE 12).  But I decided to go for it so as to try to win one of these grails.

And I won it!  And I got it for $1800, way below my max.  Although this is the second most I've paid for a Baker, sandwiched between GCE 12 and TAR 32.

 

My evening wasn't done.  I didn't know it until I woke up this morning, but I also won Pep Comics 30.  With its chilling branding cover.  This definitely qualifies as a Dastardly GGA bondage cover.

 

Pep was not being offered by Mr. Odel.  I did bid on 3 of his Ghost comics, but I put in relatively low max bids.  I couldn't go that high given how aggressive I was being with the Bakers (and also the Pep).  Thanks for reading.

[mlansdown]

12 hours ago, n2wdw said:

Big Ebay Actions Last Night!

There were so many great comic auctions closing last night on eBay.  I was bidding in 9 auctions.  If I won them all at my max bids, I would have been in for $7500.  My wife would've killed me, but I knew I wouldn't win them all, and if I won just one I'd be happy.

Most of the comics were higher grade Bakers and Ghost comics.  They were being offered by "dave.odell."  I don't know who this person is.  Is he liquidating his collection?  Right now at this moment, he doesn't have any other comics on eBay.  Maybe someone here knows him?

The first auction to close was Going Steady 10.  My max bid was $1000.  This isn't one of Baker's best covers (IMHO), so I thought I had a chance.  But it closed at $1675!   So clearly the big guns were out.  At that point, I was wondering if I'd win any of the auctions.

 

But moments later I won my first auction, Teen-Age Romances 26.  My max bid was $250 and I got it for $190.  The win kinda shocked me, even though the multi-panel Baker covers generally go for less, and this was one of the lowest condition comics being offered by Mr. Odel. 

 

 

Next up were the 2 prizes of the night, Going Steady 13 and TAR 44.  BTW, I'm focusing here on the books I needed for my collection.  Mr. Odel was offering some other comics that I wasn't bidding on (since I already had them). 

You rarely see these 2 comics for sale, and I love both covers.  I'd been thinking about going to a con later this summer (maybe Chicago).  But when I saw these comics go on sale last week, I decided to dumb the con plans and throw all my money into trying to win these books. 

So I put in max bids of $2000 for each of GS 13 and TAR 44.  I thought I had a realistic chance to win both.  But then GS 13 closed at $2705!

 

I had a few minutes to think about TAR 44 before it closed.  I decided to raise my max bid from $2000 to $2500.  I knew ahead of time that I'd have buyer's remorse if I won it at my max bid, as then I would've spent more on TAR 44 than any other Baker (at the moment, the most I've paid for a Baker is $2352 for a 1.8 Blue GCE 12).  But I decided to go for it so as to try to win one of these grails.

And I won it!  And I got it for $1800, way below my max.  Although this is the second most I've paid for a Baker, sandwiched between GCE 12 and TAR 32.

 

My evening wasn't done.  I didn't know it until I woke up this morning, but I also won Pep Comics 30.  With its chilling branding cover.  This definitely qualifies as a Dastardly GGA bondage cover.

 

Pep was not being offered by Mr. Odel.  I did bid on 3 of his Ghost comics, but I put in relatively low max bids.  I couldn't go that high given how aggressive I was being with the Bakers (and also the Pep).  Thanks for reading.

I'm always challenged as a collector when too many books appear at once.  If I bid too strong, I'm in danger of spending too much.  If I bid lower on all the books, I never seem to win anything.  Tough balancing act.  Nice wins by the way.  That Pep cover is indeed gruesome...

[Black Bat]

I've bought several books from Odell.  Nice ones. And yes, they were always released in large batches of good ones, and got a lot of bidding attention.  He sells out then disappears for awhile. then reappears with another batch. I saw this batch but didn't bid on anything.  Wonder if he's buying stuff or selling off his own collection.

[n2wdw]

Modern Stuff

I know this thread is in the Gold section -- and most of my collecting focus in on gold nowadays, so that's why I placed the thread here -- but I still buy modern comics sometimes, so here's an update of what I've gotten lately. 

Recently I've been buying the Marvel comics with covers by Milo Manara. I'm a fan of his work and have most of his books.  I'm trying to collect a 9.8 run of his Marvel covers (and there are a few others, like from Dark Horse and Dynamite).  Pricing on these books are all over the place.  It's a free country so you can price books on eBay for whatever you want, but people who buy these books for $300+ just aren't paying attention.  I look for the auctions (rather than the high priced buy it nows), and regularly get them between $100 - $150, sometimes even less.  Here are a few from my collection:

 

I also collect Gwen Stacy comics -- that is, key comics like ASM 31 and 121, and comics with Gwen covers.  It's a long story, but I grew up during the ASM story arc where Peter was dating Gwen, and I still haven't gotten over her death in 121.  Anyway, here are a couple of Gwen comics I've gotten lately.

 

 

The best comic in my Gwen Stacy collection is this CGC SS signed by Emma Stone (who played Gwen in the movie):

 

 

Over the years I've picked up some custom or limited product Gwen dolls, which I think are kinda cool.

 

 

On another topic, recently I got this statue of the dragon from Bone.  It * is * REALLY * cool!

Thanks for reading.

 

[manetteska]

On 8/5/2019 at 8:55 AM, n2wdw said:

Big Ebay Actions Last Night!

There were so many great comic auctions closing last night on eBay.  I was bidding in 9 auctions.  If I won them all at my max bids, I would have been in for $7500.  My wife would've killed me, but I knew I wouldn't win them all, and if I won just one I'd be happy.

Most of the comics were higher grade Bakers and Ghost comics.  They were being offered by "dave.odell."  I don't know who this person is.  Is he liquidating his collection?  Right now at this moment, he doesn't have any other comics on eBay.  Maybe someone here knows him?

Next up were the 2 prizes of the night, Going Steady 13 and TAR 44.  BTW, I'm focusing here on the books I needed for my collection.  Mr. Odel was offering some other comics that I wasn't bidding on (since I already had them). 

You rarely see these 2 comics for sale, and I love both covers.  I'd been thinking about going to a con later this summer (maybe Chicago).  But when I saw these comics go on sale last week, I decided to dumb the con plans and throw all my money into trying to win these books. 

So I put in max bids of $2000 for each of GS 13 and TAR 44.  I thought I had a realistic chance to win both.  But then GS 13 closed at $2705!

 

I had a few minutes to think about TAR 44 before it closed.  I decided to raise my max bid from $2000 to $2500.  I knew ahead of time that I'd have buyer's remorse if I won it at my max bid, as then I would've spent more on TAR 44 than any other Baker (at the moment, the most I've paid for a Baker is $2352 for a 1.8 Blue GCE 12).  But I decided to go for it so as to try to win one of these grails.

And I won it!  And I got it for $1800, way below my max.  Although this is the second most I've paid for a Baker, sandwiched between GCE 12 and TAR 32.

Bidding against another member (and winner):

 

[ThothAmon]

Great stuff.  Took me awhile to catch up on your thread.  I especially like that wine cellar.  Mine not nearly as nice or big (getting smaller all the time).  My youngest just graduated high school too so I know the feelings.

[Ricksneatstuff]

Congrats on the TAR 44 Mike. A book you virtually never see offered. That will price a very good buy. 

[manetteska]

On 8/5/2019 at 8:55 AM, n2wdw said:

I had a few minutes to think about TAR 44 before it closed.  I decided to raise my max bid from $2000 to $2500.  I knew ahead of time that I'd have buyer's remorse if I won it at my max bid, as then I would've spent more on TAR 44 than any other Baker (at the moment, the most I've paid for a Baker is $2352 for a 1.8 Blue GCE 12).  But I decided to go for it so as to try to win one of these grails.

And I won it!  And I got it for $1800, way below my max.  Although this is the second most I've paid for a Baker, sandwiched between GCE 12 and TAR 32.

 

What grade would you give the TAR #44?