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Watch my slab collection grow from scratch to BIG $$$ scratch!
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292 posts in this topic

I am going to have to live with that thread title, but whatever!

 

I have decided the correct term for me, besides original comic art collector, is comic reader. I don't collect comics so much as store the ones I read. I bought some Moebius comics the other day off ebay and when I opened the package I realized these were now the nicest comics in my collection, almost without a doubt. So collecting high grade comics was never my thing. Yes, I grabbed some comics second hand along the way, including a Strange Tales 169 and Daredevil 9 and 10 but not much else unless I bought it to read off the rack. But along the way about 25 years ago I started collecting original art due to a chance encounter with Paul Ryan or Sam de la Rosa at a convention. [i recall thinking "artists draw at cons?" with Paul Ryan and "they sell the art used to make comic pages?" with Samuel de la Rosa (who was one of a few Latino inkers credited as "Manuel Labor" on the issue and who told me that he did not like that one bit) but am not sure which happened first.]

 

Comic art led me to these boards a few years ago. I had resisted the siren call until recently. But Doc McCoy (I think it was) came over to the OA parts of the boards advertising (his?) free David Petersen art in some thread called Pay it Forward. As I was in the process of trading art regularly with a local dealer, I promptly went and claimed said art. Sadly I traded it away almost immediately to the dealer. I apologize; I was single-minded and unthinking at the time but understand my mistake now. So please forgive me.

 

But PIF sucked me in right from the start. Especially when I jumped on another piece of OA quickly (still have that one, don't worry). Then a strange thing occurred. I watched as some really cool slabs were given away to fellow boardies. When a nice X-Men slab came up I decided to take the plunge and claim it. (Thanks Griff!) I was quickly offered another slab gratis from a boardie (looking forward to getting that one! :applause:). Now this weekend I took the plunge and decided to have some fun and get a few for myself. I figured it really doesn't matter so much if they are comics I have read and admired so much as fun things to look at on the shelf. So I put out the call for cheap slabs and that thread inspired me to start this one and chronicle the rise through the ranks of my first rate collection. NOT! I am not trying to start a new collection, but have some cool comics displayed that will make me smile.

 

So without further eloquence...

 

Bird's Top Shelf Slabs!

 

#1 in the closet and in your hearts, courtesy of Griff...not the crime dog just a slab hound...she a beauty with white pages...it's X-Men 248 9.4

 

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Done worry folks, she won't be lonely for long. Join us later this week, same slab time,same slab channel...it's a race against time between Amazing Spider-Man and The Defenders! See you here!

 

 

 

Edited by Bird
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Slide a single backing board in the ends of those boxes so you don't get an oval burned into them from the light hitting the books!

 

They are in a closet with the door usually closed, no direct light. But yes dear, thank you. ;-)

 

Check my next photos in a day or three and you will see chastised comic care.

 

And thanks Bill1 and everyone else as well. I am just looking to have some fun with this, not assemble an awe-inspiring collection. This thread is entirely tongue-in-cheek but also genuinely out of love for comics and fun. I am already awed and inspired myself!

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Best of luck! I know how you're feeling. In the past year, my collection of slabbed books went from the 1 (Astonishing X-Men 1 Variant CGC 9.8) that I had had for the past 10 years to about 25-30 slabbed books of varying grades that I have now.

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Exactly. It's why I avoided it for so long. I knew I was going to like the slabbed books too much & avoided even glancing at them. Now? Now I am constantly looking at what to slab next & what slabs I want. It's definitely addicting.

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Ah I remember my first slabbing experience. You learn so much, so fast.

 

I actually didn't get addicted when I won my first slab off of ebay. $51 for a 9.6 Venom 1 Gold Variant.

 

I actually had that for a year or so... I even bought an ASM 375 9.8 for cheap some time after.

 

What really got me addicted was sending in my first raw book to be graded.

 

The wait felt like forever...but when I got that slab back (Secret Wars 8 9.2), I started digging through my boxes.

 

I slabbed anything and everything with a cool cover, or semi-keys. Many 8.0's, 7.5, 9.4s, etc.

 

I started to smarten up.

 

I was lucky to be able sell off all of those books and put them into keys.

 

Then I started to hunt raw keys and got better at grading.

 

I've since slabbed about 100 books and sold them all. I used the money to buy the books in my sig.

 

I currently own three slabs. AF15, X-Men1 and a Wytches 1 9.8.

 

27 slabs are out being pressed and graded. When they come back, its time to sell and go for that FF1!

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I think that's what it was like for me too. I think that getting my own stuff slabbed was what pushed me into the addiction. I had that one for a few years. Then I picked up a couple that were similar in price to raw to fill gaps in my X-Men collection.

 

But then I got some of my own stuff graded on-site at a show last year. That's when it turned into something addicting. Then there was the wait for the couple I submitted later in the show. Then some stuff I dropped at another show. The wait for those was even worse.

 

And now, I'm sending 7 off for grading this week. That's going to feel like forever.

Edited by Doktor
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Ah I remember my first slabbing experience. You learn so much, so fast.

 

I actually didn't get addicted when I won my first slab off of ebay. $51 for a 9.6 Venom 1 Gold Variant.

 

I actually had that for a year or so... I even bought an ASM 375 9.8 for cheap some time after.

 

What really got me addicted was sending in my first raw book to be graded.

 

The wait felt like forever...but when I got that slab back (Secret Wars 8 9.2), I started digging through my boxes.

 

I slabbed anything and everything with a cool cover, or semi-keys. Many 8.0's, 7.5, 9.4s, etc.

 

I started to smarten up.

 

I was lucky to be able sell off all of those books and put them into keys.

 

Then I started to hunt raw keys and got better at grading.

 

I've since slabbed about 100 books and sold them all. I used the money to buy the books in my sig.

 

I currently own three slabs. AF15, X-Men1 and a Wytches 1 9.8.

 

27 slabs are out being pressed and graded. When they come back, its time to sell and go for that FF1!

 

This is what I am doing with my original art collection. It is fun but time consuming.

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I am definitely in dangerous territory. I was looking at a comic convention guest list for artists I want to buy art from when I realized I was looking for Blazingbob and high grade comics as well. That never happened before. EVER. In 25 years of going to conventions I have never ever looked for a comic dealer.

 

See you in Philly Bob!

 

Have I got some updates coming as well!

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Okay, I just completed a trade with a boardie for four slabs! I will show the slabs when they arrive and assume their place on the shelf, but I traded a Silvestri / Green page from Wolverine 41! I am surely heading down the path of fire and damnation!

 

Edited by Bird
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I am definitely in dangerous territory. I was looking at a comic convention guest list for artists I want to buy art from when I realized I was looking for Blazingbob and high grade comics as well. That never happened before. EVER. In 25 years of going to conventions I have never ever looked for a comic dealer.

 

See you in Philly Bob!

 

Have I got some updates coming as well!

 

Haha!

It is a slippery slope!!

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I should have a new slab (or more!) waiting when I get home from work tonight, so expect Griff's ex-X-Men on the shelf there to get some company.

 

I am also considering a comic book show this weekend for a slab or two. That may not happen but I am considering it! I have good shoes on but the slope is indeed slippery.

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The show in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ this Sunday is a good one. I have been to a few there so far and always come home with more then I wanted to spend. Was thinking of going this Sunday but just heard that we are "maybe" getting a nor'easter snow storm this Saturday night and Sunday morning (might make that slope even more slippery }so probably wait for the next one.

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The Hasbrouk Heights show is the one I was thinking about. I thought it was Saturday, glad you posted! I buy and trade art from Anthony Snyder, who is going to this show for the first time. He will likely bring so much art as to overwhelm you, but if you stop by tell him Sean sent you. I have seen boxes of slabs at his warehouse and I am wondering if he will bring them to this show or just his art. I figured I'd go to the show to say hey to him and maybe trade some art and who knows, maybe pick up a slab or two.

 

Okay, slab questions from the noob.

 

1) What is with the bag on the slab? Each slab is sent to me with the bag - is it just tradition from raw comics? For scratches and dust and the like? or is it an archival issue? And that leads me to.

 

2) How archival are these things? On the cgc site it tells me nothing of substance in the encapsulation description. Direct light still bad, obviously. Or no?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Bird
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