n2wdw's comic book room

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Latest CGC Grades Part 2 - Valkyrie, Terry and the Pirates and a sought after GGA

Hey Brandon, Fiction House is definitely a fun company to collect, enjoy your shopping through Gerber's books. Fortunately I've been able to avoid the collecting bug of trying to collect complete runs (good thing as that'd probably bankrupt me!). Instead I collect by cover and artist.

Anyway, back to the books I recently got back from CGC. I also picked up these books in Baltimore. The first is a major grail for me, the 1st appearance of Valkyrie. I know I sound like a broken record, but I cannot believe I got this in Baltimore. First, because it was there on a dealer's wall. Second, because of the condition. Third, because of the price. For me, this was probably my biggest pickup this summer (including both Baltimore and SDCC).

I also picked up these 2 fun Terry and the Pirates books. The cover of #22 is a hoot!

Finally, this True Life Secrets #23. It's not rare, you can find it on eBay right now. But always a little too expensive for me. So I was big time surprised when it was hanging on a dealer's wall in Baltimore, especially since this dealer seemed to sell mostly bronze and silver. And, when I asked to see the book, the dealer took 25% off the (just a touch too high) price before I even made an offer. Okay, I am a cheapskate, but I didn't try to negotiate a lower price.

So ends my story of my latest CGC submissions. At this moment I have nothing pending at CGC, other than 2 SS books submitted for me by kaholo in the Alfred Trujilo sketch op.

I do have a few modern books I want to submit. But I'm struggling ... do I submit fast track? Or wait for a con with on-site? Or save money and submit regular? I'm thinking the latter (since I have no cons on my horizon, regretfully) and maybe I'll finally do what others have suggested and submit a few books every month or two so once you get going it's like Christmas every month (and you get around the frustration of the long wait times).

All the Captains!

Okay, this is cool! I won this on eBay, a Star Trek 40th Anniversary 11x14 Captains photo signed by all five Enterprise Captains: William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Scott Bakula, Avery Brooks and Kate Mulgrew.

This edition was limited to 100. But here's the thing. The eBay seller had a bunch of these, and put one up for sale about every 2 weeks. The first ones sold for a lot. They got cheaper over time.

I decided to set a max price for myself. Whenever the seller offered a new one, I entered by high bid into bidnapper. For a couple months I lost. I started getting worried, because I wanted one of these and I didn't know how many the seller had to offer. Finally though I won one (at my max bid). I'm glad I did, because lately I haven't seen these for sale from the seller (although I don't know if the seller is just taking a break to let the market recover).

I've purchased from this seller a number of times so I'm confident the signatures are authentic. Also, this seller gives a certificate of authenticity that includes a picture of the actor signing the item. Maybe not as sure proof as CGC, but close to it!

I WANT ONE!

More Valkyrie and Dave Stevens

So I'm still psyched over this first appearance of Valkyrie I bought at Baltimore (the Airboy Val, not Defenders).

I became interested in Valkyrie and Airboy from the First series. There's an overlap of that Airboy series and Valkyrie with my Dave Stevens registry set. So, to compare, here's DS's version of Valkyrie. This cover is clearly a homage to the original Valkyrie appearance. But see how in DS's version Airboy has his hand on Val's leg, foreshadowing of Val's importance to Airboy. Dave Stevens was the master.

Morning Glories

Morning Glories is one of my favorite current comics. It's described as "Morning Glory Academy is one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country, but behind it's hallowed doors something sinister and deadly lurks. When six brilliant but troubled new students arrive, they find themselves trapped and desperately seeking answers in a place where nothing is what it seems to be! Described by writer Nick Spencer as Runaways meets Lost." Creators: Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma, Rodin Esquejo."

That description only touches the surface. I'd call it Breakfast Club meets The City on the Edge of Forever.

I'm not a big collector of original art. I guess I'd call myself an opportunistic collector. When something pops up that I like for a good price, I'll go for it.

This cover came up for sale on eBay a couple months ago, the Rodin Esquejo cover of Morning Glories #5. It's one of my favorites but as I said I'm not an OA collector. But I thought, what the heck. The opening bid was low for a cover, but then it was only the opening bid (with about 2 weeks to go). I put in a bid for the opening bid. I didn't even use bidnapper, that's how low I thought my chance of winning was. As the 2 weeks passed, there were no other bids. I still didn't think I'd win, as most people bid at the last moment. I resisted the temptation to up my bid using bidnapper.

But I won it! I can only assume I happened to be looking when no one else was.

The seller was the agent for Rodin Esquejo. We exchanged a few emails. I asked if he had any other MG covers for sale. He said he did.

So this is where collecting madness sparks up. For a moment I thought about trying to collect EVERY MG cover. Or maybe just the covers of 1-10 (with the variants).

That's the problem with collecting. It can be addictive, obsessive. The best way to deal with it is cut it off at the start. So after just a couple emails with Rodin's agent, I paid for the cover and just left it at that.

A couple weeks ago I picked up this sketch of Jade by interior artist Joe Eisma. It was cheap so I bid for it. It's just a sketch so won't start a slippery slope towards obsession, but it looks good next to the cover of #6.

Running out of Room in the Comic Book Room!

Usually I manage to stay current with organizing and filing my comics away. But the last year or so has been a challenge. Part of it has been life getting busier with kids getting older. A big part of it, though, is running out of space in my comic book room. There are a bunch of things I'd like to display (CGC and raw books) but I'm just about out of room. I'm pretty good at organizing and making room for stuff. In fact, that's something I like doing. But I've just about reached the capacity of my comic book room.

Here are 2 pictures of books in my comic book room I want to display:

It's worse than that though. Below is my "organizing area" outside my comic book room (in the basement). This is where I put all my mylar and boards for easy access. The long boxes contain books I need to file in my comic book room. I store them in alphanumeric order here, and then about once a year file them in my collection long boxes. I haven't actually done this for about 2 years, so I've got 4 long boxes to file (3 on the table and 1 on the floor), plus a short box of magazines. From experience, I know it'll take about a weekend to file all these books. The problem is, I never have a whole weekend, just an hour here and there. So maybe I'll get them all filed by the summer, assuming I can get over my procrastination.

Very familiar problem.

Nice collection by the way.

We need someone to design a comic storage system similar to one of those motorized tie-racks.

Or a long/short box storage system similar to elevator parking.

Great pictures! I like how you have a stock pile of mylar. I also couldn't help but notice some of the covers showing in your room, particularly the Comics Journal behind the Fantastic Four slab.

Bourbon's My Drink

Ditch - I love your storage ideas. What I need is a climate controlled Batcave.

Brandon Shepherd - Thanks. I used to go to a comic store in Maryland that was so packed you had to move things around to see what was behind. That's the model I use to organize my comic book room.

But enough about comics. It's time to talk about Bourbon. It's my favorite drink, next to wine. Or I guess more accurately, it's what I drink before wine.

Last week I had dinner at Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak in SF. As the name indicates, it's a great place for bourbon fans. I got their bourbon "tableside flight" that they describe as "put your seat back in the upright position and enjoy a trio of hudson whiskeys, individually smoked tableside to accentuate each ones particular flavor profiles."

This was irresistable to me, as I love smoking foods. I'm really fascinated how different smoke (mesquite, hickory, apple, cherry, etc.) enhances the taste of food. (I also like fire I guess). So what they do is light a mix of wood and then put the wine stems on top to absorb the smoke:

The goblets retain the smoke, and then they pour the bourbon. Actually they poured 3 different kinds of wiskey. Here's how it looked:

Believe it or not, I surfed the current Comic Connect auction while sipping these smoky nectars. So I guess this post is about comics!

You are a man of taste! Here's to comics and bourbon!

Dave Stevens Set -- Recent Additions

Thanks Brandon, this one's for you, a Blanton's Manhattan at the Chicago Cut Steakhouse. For those new to bourbon, you can never go wrong with a bourbon having a name that starts with B. A bartender told me that -- while I was at the Chicago Comicon a few years ago -- and it's never failed me.

Here are 3 books I recently picked up for my Dave Stevens set, earning 40 (Seduction), 96 (Planet) and 120 points (Bettie), respectively. Often the points for books in this set don't seem to make sense, but here they do. Seduction 3-D is common. I could argue that Planet is slightly harder to get than Bettie #2 but that would be a nickpick.

I'm #7 in the rankings and almost 200 points behind #6. This set is tough because HG raws are hard to come by, and the available graded books all seem the same. I'm thinking about going for a few 9.6s on books where there's not a big difference in points between 9.6 and 9.8. But when I think that, I realize how obsessed I've gotten about this set. Buying comics just to get points? Especially comics I wouldn't buy otherwise. CGC I hate you.

Surprising Ebay Win

I've been in the market for Avengers Annual #10 for some time now (the 1st appearances of Rogue and Madelyn Pryor). I bought it off the stands when it first came out, but my raw copy is well read and at best FN+. GPA has 9.8 at about $220. Starting and BIN prices on eBay are higher. I wanted this comic but not at that price.

Moving down a grade, CGC 9.6 ranges on GPA from $78 to $131, with 90 day average at $100 and trending higher. This price range was more in line with what I was willing to pay. So I decided for this comic to "settle" for 9.6 instead of 9.8. I'm making that decision more often lately with Bronze age keys. The drop off in grade from 9.8 to 9.6 is not that great, but the difference in price can be substantial.

For this comic, the seller's BIN price was above GPA, at $160. I decided to offer $80, the low range of GPA (By the way, this is a great example of the usefulness of GPA. Yes it has its limitations. But there's no other database of past prices that's so available and easy to use.)

I expected the seller to counter with maybe $140 or even $130 (the upper range of GPA). At that point I'd probably throw in the towel. I might be able to negotiate down to $120 or even $100, but the more I thought about it the less I wanted to pay even mid-range GPA for this comic. Recent prices seemed soft, I didn't want to put alot of money into it.

To my pleasant surprise, the seller accepted my offer of $80. I worried maybe the case was cracked or it smelled like smoke, but it was perfect. So here it is.

Olivia De Berardinis

Olivia is probably the best modern pin up artist (along with, in my opinion, lesser known Jennifer Janesko). She used to set up at the SDCC and, in fact, her booth was usually right next to Jennifer's.

Tamara Bane Gallery set up along that wall too. Olivia sold her art through this gallery. This was in the early 2000s when I was going to the SDCC every year. I met Olivia a few times, got to know Jennifer a bit, but mostly I chatted and did business with Robert Bane. Every year around Christmas Robert sent out an email listing dozens of high quality pieces of art for sale. I bought a few Olivia works from Robert both at SDCC and via those emails. Here are a few.

This is Jelly Roll, one of my favorite Olivia paintings.

The Jelly Roll painting was out of my reach, but I bought the next best thing, Olivia's Jelly Roll study:

Olivia is famous for her Betty Page and Marilyn Monroe works. I was able to pick up an affordable example by buying this large poster size pencil drawing. As you can see, it's displayed among my statue collection.

Finally, here is my favorite Olivia piece in my collection, a period piece that Olivia painted from an old photograph:

A weird postscript to this story. I read a few years ago that Tamara Bane Gallery and Robert Bane were being prosecuted for art fraud. I never found out the full story, something about fraud over the internet. I've always wondered what happened, especially what happened between the business relationship of Robert and Olivia.

My Statue Collection

I got into collecting statues a few years ago. It's cool having 3D representations of your favorite characters.

There are 2 issues with collecting statues: cost (they're expensive) and space. As for the latter, statues don't take as much space as you might think. I use plastic kitchen shelf savers to stack multiple layers of statues on a single bookcase shelf. Also, by adjusting statues back and forth, you can get them to fit together almost like a puzzle (without actually touching).

As for the cost ... well, statues are expensive. I rarely buy from my LCS where they sell at list price. I also rarely buy online as the savings are eaten up by shipping. The best place to buy are at conventions. At big cons there are always a few booths that sell both statues and half price trades. There are other dealers selling statues too. Often, these guys don't want to cart their statues home and are open to offers (especially if you're buying a couple or more).

Anyway, here's some of my statue collection.

Which Avengers #1 Would You Buy?

I unexpectantly had a major win last night in this month’s Comic Connect auction, Avengers #1. I wasn’t planning on spending so much this month. It seemed bidding was light this month, not just on this book but others too. That surprised me as I thought people would be buying Christmas presents (for others or themselves).

Anyway, with this book I’m just 13 issues away from completing my Original Marvels collection (complete runs of Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Cap, DD, FF, Hulk and Iron Man). (This is actually an upgrade from my coverless Avengers #1. I’m thinking of CGCing that and see what it’ll get on eBay.)

This buy was actually an interesting study of restored and unrestored. CC was offering two 6.5 copies, one of each. The restored copy had a “small amount of color touch on cover.” Both are below. I bought the restored copy. Which would you buy?

Let’s analyze it. GPA 12-month average on the blue is $3,980 (based on 10 copies). Last sale was $4027. In the CC auction, the buyer won it at $3800. So based on GPA the buyer got an okay deal. But maybe not. Avengers #1 is soooo common, maybe the most common major Marvel key from the 60s. They’re everywhere. Maybe the movies are upping the price, but I’m not sure about that. Anyway, I wanted a nice copy, but I didn’t want to pay too much. So even though I’ve been actively shopping for a couple of years, and despite the availability, it’s taken me a while to find the right copy.

So now let’s look at the restored copy I bought. GPA has a restored 6.5 at $1673. But that’s based on just 1 sale from June 2012. GPA isn’t much use here since there’s not enough data.

I bought the book for $1909. Did I overpay? I don’t think so.

I know many people on these boards won’t agree with me, but I think I got a steal. To me, as a collector, both books are equivalent. (Actually, I think the restored is a better looking copy, as the colors on the blue seem washed out a bit. But then I'm admittedly biased.) Yeah, the one I bought has a little marker on it. Okay, CGC calls that restoration. Me, I call that a little marker.

Some flaws don’t bother me. Trimming, water damage, major spine damage – I HATE all those things. But subscription creases, a cut out ad that doesn’t affect the story, 3 whole punches – those things don’t bother me. And to me color touch is just a little marker that we did as kids (and I probably can’t see it anyway without really trying). Color touch is the least offending flaw to me. I love books with color touch because they bring the cost way down. Here the savings was $1900. That’s why I couldn’t resist going for this book, because I’ve been looking for a nice restored book at a good price for a while. I think the fact CC offered both a restored and unrestored 6.5 at the same time (plus a lower graded copy, I think a blue CGC 3.0) helped keep the price of the restored copy down.

I’m okay with restored because I’m a collector. If I was an investor, then sure I’d much prefer universals. But here the buyer paid $3800 for a blue 6.5. At that mid-grade, how much more is the book going to go up? Even if I was an investor I don’t think I would have gone for it.

Although I’m a collector, I do think about resale (if only for my kids when I leave my comics to them). I think though the bias against restored comics will eventually ease up. Restoration is not an issue with other collectibles. With fine art, professional restoration is a plus, it enhances the value of the art. But I hope things don’t change too fast. Because seeking out and buying restored comics is a great way of getting books for a big discount.

I'm with you all the way on the Avengers #1. Your purple copy is superior in every way that matters to me. As you say, "a little marker".

Which Amazing Spider-Man #1 Would You Buy? CGC 7.0(SA) or CGC 3.0

In my last post I wrote about how I bought a restored Avengers 1 over a universal. I was surprised by the comments over at the General forum, where most people agreed with picking the purple over the blue. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=363159&Number=8213370#Post8213370

The reason I was surprise was based on a similar decision I made back at WW Chicago 2013. There, I bought a restored ASM #1 CGC 7.0 over a lower grade but nice looking and unrestored CGC 3.0. The price for both books was about the same. Back then alot of people -- probably a majority -- said they'd buy the unrestored.

Anyway, here's that post from August 2013:

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At Chicago last weekend I ended up buying an ASM #1 7.0(SA). But there was a nice looking 3.0 that I was considering. I bought the restored book because it looked nicer, it was slightly restored (versus moderate or extensive), and in the end I'm a collector and not an investor (although money matters so future appreciation potential is definitely important - you never know when you might need cash). But it was a hard decision because the 3.0 looked better than 3.0, although it had a pretty significant tear in the back that would make it hard to get a higher grade with pressing (IMHO).

I'm still good with my choice, but I've been thinking about it a lot. Which would you have bought? Both were about the same price. And if you would have bought the 3.0, then why?

Here's the 7.0(SA):

And here's the 3.0 showing the tear in the back:

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As I look at the 3.0 a year and a half later, I again feel the indecisiveness I felt back then about the 7.0sa and 3.0 universal. Here's the part of the story I didn't tell back in 2013. Both books were priced at $3600. So let's analyze it.

GPA for a 3.0 blue is $2700 now, and about the same back in August 2013. So yes, the book looks better than a 3.0. Problem was, the dealer was pricing it that way, as better than a 3.0. (I hate when sellers do that. It's a 3.0, price it that way. If you think it should be better than 3.0, then resubmit it. I feel the same way about dealers who price raws at CGC prices. No, it doesn't work that way, not for me at least. If I'm buying raw so that I'm assuming the risk of whatever grade CGC will assign, then I'm getting a substantial discount. It's a free country, sellers can do whatever they want. But I try to be patient. There's always the next con, the next eBay listing, the next C-Link auction, etc.)

On the other hand, GPA for 7.0SA is ... what? That's the problem with restored prices on GPA, there's not alot of data. 7.0 universals top $10,000. So I figured, a purple priced at about a third of a blue seems about right.

So that's why I bought the 7.0SA. There's one more part of this story. I bought this book from Bechara (I think that's his name), he's the original art dealer who seems to always set up at cons next to Tomorrow's Treasures. At this WW Chicago 2013 con, Bechara was selling both the restored ASM #1, and a restored Amazing Fantasy 15. I think the AF 15 was 8.0. I saw both books and got really excited. I walked around the con, thinking about an offer for both books. Was it possible I could walk away with both ASM 1 AND AF 15? It'd already been a great con for me. I'd picked up DD #1 and Superboy #1. Both were restored. It was because they were restored that I'd been able to get so many of these major keys.

But when I got back an hour later, the AF 15 was gone! We all know how that feels right? Someone else bought it and I didn't even get a chance to make an offer.

But no, that's not what happened. Bechara looked pretty upset. When I told him I'd planned to make an offer on both, he said "I wish you were here 30 minutes ago." Someone stoled the AF 15 from him. Apparently the thief reached behind the curtain that backed up his wall and swiped it.

There was a big thread about this in the General section back in August 2013. People were on the lookout for the comic for Bechara. I've seen Bechara at a con only once since then, but didn't get a chance to ask if he got the AF 15 back.

I would easily go with the slight, apparent restoration over the Universal 3.0!

Being that most of my books are from the '70s to '90s, I don't come across restored items much. Years ago, an owner of a large and respected comic store told me about restoration and how proper restoration could help some of these Gold and Silver books last another 50 years. I wonder how the new CGC designation for "conserved" versus "restored" is working out.

Soooooooooo, they're graded.... Want to know the grades?

Sorry, but no purple labels for me - especially silver age.

I think the Avengers copy was a better deal than the Spider-man because the restoration was less intensive.

Which one would I have purchased? Well, that depends on the math. It depends on how much it would cost to have the color touch removed. Then I'd have to add on additional grading and shipping fees. It might just be possible to come out ahead.

Doubly so for the Spider-man. I'd send it in for restoration removal. I wonder what it would grade with the tear-seal removed? Once again, you'd also have to consider the additional grading and shipping fees.

If, after all was said and done, I came out ahead with the purples, then I would have purchased the restored copies for resubmission after removal.

If not, I'd go with the blue labels every time.

I understand the difference in being a collector and an investor, but I'm the type of collector who would rather have the original intact. I'm just not a fan of restoration unless the book is extremely scarce or rare. In that instance, I favor it because the process prevents further degradation and allows the book to be preserved for future generations.

On a silver-age or bronze? Just not for me. If you want to have a copy just for the sake of having a copy at the best price possible, then I see where you're coming from. But personally? I'll take the blue label.