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n2wdw's comic book room
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890 posts in this topic

ComicLink Modern Wins

 

This month's C-Link auction. First, I have to start out with UGH! I lost out on a Walking Dead#1 CGC 9.8 that sold for $1,794. Last night I almost increased my bid, but they were going in $100 increments and I didn't want to pay almost $1900 for this comic. Okay, so maybe it wasn't really an ugh.

 

According to GPA this is a $2100 book so the buyer got a good deal. But if the series is canceled (and it will be eventually, to my regret as it's my favorite show), no way do prices hold. After all, it's not like these are iconic comic characters like Spider-Man and Batman. There would be nothing to prop up prices if the show is canceled (I don't think the comic series alone would be enough, even assuming it continues after the show is canceled).

 

For me, I'd buy right now at $1500. I'm not enjoying my doom and gloom prognostications as to the shakiness of WD prices. I have a collection of WD keys (most of the key issues except #1) that I paid close to current market prices, so it'll kill me too. But I'm not going to pay for a modern what I could use to pick up a solid looking FF #1 that will not only hold but increase its value over time. Anyway, that's just me.

 

So I did get a few wins in the C-Link auction. The first is this RASL #3. RASL is a great Jeff Smith science fiction story and #3 has my favorite cover. I've been looking to buy for a few years. But only 7 copies total have been graded, including only two 9.8s and two 9.6s. When I saw this copy I jumped on it. Yes it's one of the 9.6 copies (instead of 9.8) but it's signed by Jeff Smith. I entered a high bid of $77. I won it for only $17! It's great when you're bidding on something that no one else wants.

 

 

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I liked the covers on the following 2 books so decided to bid on them. I won them both for under $60 total. Again, great to be bidding on stuff no one else wants. Also, IMHO, C-Link is the wrong spot to sell non-key modern books. I'm pretty sure if these books were offered on eBay with the much larger pool of buyers, the RASL with Jeff's signature would have sold for $50+ (as I mentioned, I would have paid $80). And the following 2 books would have gone for $40+ each (maybe more for the Necromancer). Anyway, thanks for reading.

 

 

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More Matt Baker

 

I've been on a Baker cover binge lately. He's probably my favorite golden age GGA artist. His books are hard to find in any kind of decent condition. And yes, with books like these, I use a different grading scale where "Decent" is good enough to pull the trigger. This is because you see them so rarely that you can't hold out for 9.0 or 6.5 or 4.0 (or whatever). Either you jump on them when you get the chance (assuming you haven't spent all your budget for that month) or you wait another few years.

 

I showed the Cinderella Love #27 I got last week. Here it is again:

 

 

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Here's the new big time Baker I just picked up, Going Steady 12:

 

 

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Like all artists, there are covers and there are covers. These are 2 of the greatest, classic Matt Baker covers. I'd take Baker over Norman Rockwell any day of the week.

 

I plan to submit both to CGC, although on the Cinderella Love the cover is completely detached. People tell me the best I can hope for is Blue 3.0. Actually if it got that grade I'd be ecstatic.

 

I also picked up this Diary Secrets. It's not one of my favorite Baker covers. The shading around the eyes is distracting and not attractive. But I bought all 3 comics from the same person so he gave me a little discount.

 

I guess in my dreams I'd like to someday own every comic with a Matt Baker comic. I know that's a fantasy though because just trying to identify every such comic is an impossible task. Anyway, thanks for reading.

 

 

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Congrats on the great pick ups!

 

I'm pretty sure somewhere in the Baker Romance thread is a link to an Excel file of all of the comics with Baker art... I too hope to collect as many of the Romance covers as I can. I do have a few doubles and would always be happy to trade with other Baker collectors.

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ComicLink Silver Win & Steak and Eggs

 

I'm behind on posting as just got back from vacation. Won't bore you with a slide show, but I got this great breakfast in Amsterdam -- over easy egg on top of a steak on top of fries. Great way to start the day!

 

 

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At last month's C-Link auction I also won this classic FF Silver Surfer comic. Since it's restored I got a nice looking copy at a pretty good discount. This is actually the first time I've seen a comic with the "cover re-glossed." This comic fills a hole in my Fantastic Four run so I'm glad to have it (just need 5 more issues to get a complete run).

 

 

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Recent Matt Baker Pickups

 

The last couple weeks I picked up these Matt Baker covers on eBay. They were inexpensive and low grade, but they all have nice looking covers. Not CGC submission worthy so they'll be going into my notebook of Matt Baker covers.

 

 

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Recent Matt Baker Pickups

 

The last couple weeks I picked up these Matt Baker covers on eBay. They were inexpensive and low grade, but they all have nice looking covers. Not CGC submission worthy so they'll be going into my notebook of Matt Baker covers.

 

 

 

 

 

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Have always like this one :applause:

Congrats on the pick ups and smart bargain shopping

 

 

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Latest CGC Invoice & Turnaround Times, and Peaking at CGC Grades

One of my CGC invoices just shipped. Finally! From "Scheduled for Grading" to "Shipped Safe" seemed to take forever. This was a Modern submission and from received to shipped it took over 4 months.

 

I submitted 9 books. Eight were recently published and they all got 9.8s. One was a copper book and got 9.2. I thought its ceiling was at best 9.4 so I'm good with 9.2. I'll provide more information and pictures once they arrive.

 

There are some people here who don't look at the grades until the books arrive. I get that but at my age I'm not into delayed gratification. Also, I do it this way so I get 2 funs (not sure how else to phrase it). When CGC posts the grades, I look (Fun #1). Then when I get the books I entered them into my sets and get to see the points they earn (Fun #2).

 

I like including pictures with my posts so I'll add this, a book I won yesterday in the current C-Link action. This is the first cover featuring Gwen Stacy, so it fits in my Gwen Stacy collection. Only 7.5 but it closed for a pretty good price.

 

 

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Another ComicLink Win

 

My biggest win was this Bats 65 with the great classic Catwoman cover. The last time I really went after this was in Chicago 2 years ago but the price was too high (it was a raw copy).

 

I saw this one and my Spidey sense started tingling when I saw it was restored with my favorite kind of restoration, a little glue (or color touch). My thinking is, the raw copy I saw in Chicago could have had glue too and I never would have noticed. So for me, glue or color touch isn't restoration; instead, it's a big flashing neon Vegas banner that says "BIG SALE!"

 

So I checked GPA and looked at current offerings on eBay and entered my bid. When I got outbid I went up $10 then $20. The last one stuck and I won it (about half GPA and less for eBay). I have a few bids pending for next week, mostly original art. Some I'm really excited about ....

 

 

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Quality Meats NYC and Spider-Gwen Update

 

 

Whenever I travel for work I usually go to a steak restaurant and I think my favorite steak place in the world is Quality Meats in NYC. Here are a couple things I had this week: their lobster cocktail (almost an entire lobster for only $21, I think it's one of the best bargains in NYC) and their bone marrow appetizer.

 

 

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Prices on Spider-Gwen seem to be softening. Lower starting bids and often times little activity. I've managed to win a few recently where I was the only bidder (on eBay). Still, unless you have EVERY issue, you can't seriously compete in the registry set. For that, you need SS copies and 9.9s. But it's still fun trying to get a complete CGC run.

 

 

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Latest CGC Invoice

 

This week I got back an invoice from CGC. 9 modern comics. 8 came back 9.8 (yah!). This one came back 9.2, but it's an upgrade for me.

 

 

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This comic is significant for me because, as I've written before, a piece from my (limited) OA collection is the preliminary art for this cover.

 

 

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In addition to 3 raw copies, I also have 2 other graded copies (below). Maybe with the 9.2 my quest is satisifed. But I still have Shadow 12 still bookmarked in my eBay searches. Or maybe for kicks I'll crack open the CBCS 9.4 copy and submit it to CGC to see what it gets. Luckily this issue makes the Modern category so it's only $18 bucks to grade (minus the CGC membership discount).

 

 

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Major Walking Dead SS Win

 

I won this on eBay this past Sunday. The auction actually closed while watching the latest Walking Dead episode. The blank cover has the following signatures:

 

Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes)

Emily Kinney (Beth Greene)

Lawrence Gilliard (Bob Stookey)

 

I'm not a big fan of a blank with just signatures. But all these actors were firsts for me as far as getting their autographs in a CGC SS comic. My winning bid was $122 which is probably less than the cost of Lincoln's sig alone, so very happy about this win.

 

 

 

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CGC Submission Strategy

 

For a while I was submitting a new CGC invoice every month. The idea being, once you get passed the initial time lag, I'd get graded comics back every month. Well, it didn't work out that way. Problem was, CGC's turn around times vary during the year. For me it started out fast, but then as convention season ramped up things slowed way down. So I wasn't getting comics back each month.

 

Also, honestly, I was running out of comics to submit.

 

So I haven't submitted any comics since the summer. My comics in the pipeline eventually got graded to the point I only have 1 invoice in the queue (current status: Graded/Quality Control).

 

Well, you know what? One invoice in the queue is depressing. I don't mind delayed gratification, but I do enjoy the anticipation. So the last couple days I've submitted a Modern invoice and a Value invoice. So all is right in the world again.

 

This process has taught me something. Or maybe it's because I've just been around the CGC grading block a few times now. Anyway, I'm completely cured of the Fast Track bug. Don't need immediate gratification anymore. I'm good with waiting.

 

In fact, even on-site isn't that enticing to me anymore, not for the extra money. But we'll see. Not sure if I'll be disciplined enough when an on-site con is looming on the horizon.

 

Anyway, with my latest CGC invoice, I got back a few Jen Broomall covers. I've gotten to the point I've asked Gemma to create a Broomall cover set. Unfortunately I don't have a complete list of her books. But I did my best based on some internet searches. (And Jen just helped me out by pointing me to a cover gallery: http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator_covergallery.php?ID=36897&offset=0

 

Here are my new Broomall books. I bought them raw from the BDI table at the DC Awesome con this summer.

 

 

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And here's a book I threw into my last invoice. Okay, it has no historical significance. But what the heck. :) Thanks for reading.

 

 

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Anime USA

 

A couple weeks ago I took my 16 yo daughter to Anime USA in Bethesda MD. She and her friends didn't actually want to pay to get in, so they just did a lobby con and hung out. It was just for the day so they had fun just cosplaying and talking with friends. I surfed the afternoon on my computer and watched college football so it was a fun day for me too.

 

The costumes the kids made are amazing. This one was especially impressive so I had to take a picture.

 

 

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Matt Baker Weekend

 

A lot of Bakers are being offered on eBay lately. A bunch start out so high they're non-starters for me. But I managed to win 3 auctions. Still, there are no Baker bargains out there nowadays. Things have changed alot in just a year.

 

I'm not certain the last 2 are Baker's. The seller listed them as Bakers, they have some familiar Baker elements to my eye, and the Grand Comic DB somewhat supports the idea that they are Bakers (at least 1 of the 2). I'm probably going to submit them to CGC so I'll see what they say.

 

 

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When Your Grading Hopes Aren't Reality

 

My latest Modern invoice just shipped. So as is my custom, I looked at the grades on the CGC website. When I get the books I'll enter them into my Registry to get the points. So this way I get to spread out the fun.

 

But this one wasn't too much fun (and I won't be getting many points -- but then again, they're Modern so I wasn't going to get many anyway). There were 8 books in this invoice. I was hoping for all 9.8s but here is what I got:

 

9.8: 3 books

9.6: 3 books

9.4: 2 books

 

Ugh! But I knew this was going to happen. Some of the books were a stretch to get 9.8.

 

The books aren't rare in raw but you don't see graded on sale often (at least I haven't seen them). So I decided to submit the best copies that I had (in some cases I had a few copies; in others just 1). Oh well. At least this way I'll be able to study the front and back covers and better calibrate my grading skills.

 

Thanks for reading.

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Modern GGA From My Latest Invoice

 

Got these in my more recent CGC Invoice. The first 2 are Lisner. I like his non-Dawns more than his Dawns, but anyway it's a shame there's no Lisner Covers registry set. I'm thinking about asking Gemma to create one although first I'll have to find a list of the comics with his covers (not sure how easy/hard that will be). There's a DeBalfo set of course so the 2nd two will be easy to add to the registry.

 

 

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My Action Figure Collection - Part 1

 

I used to be really into action figures, even more so than comics. My goal used to be getting a complete collection of all Star Trek and Star Wars action figures, as well as all DC Directs. That goal seemed possible 15 years ago when there was limited production. But since then production has exploded with lots of new AFs released every month. With so many AFs hitting the stores my goal became financially impossible. Also, frankly, I lost interest because it gets to the point where if they produce too much it's no longer fun to collect (like when they put out too many variant covers).

 

Anyway, although I've slowed down collecting AFs in recent years, I still have a ton. I've talked about how my wife and I are already downsizing our house to get ready for retirement (even though we still have about 10 years before retirement). As part of that, I'm moving my collection into my new comic book room in our retirement home. My new room is only about 1/3 the size of my old comic room (if that).

 

A big challenge with the move is what to do with my action figure collection. There's simply no way to display everything. Just finding space for everything was enough of a challenge.

 

I pared down some of my DC Direct collection although I'm keeping most of it. Most is not displayed. I stack the multi-figure packs on top of shelves or on the floor.

 

 

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Most of my DC Direct collection (the individual figures), though, is stacked on the floor behind comic boxes. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of that.

 

I also store other action figures on top of shelves. Luckily my new comic book room has a somewhat high ceiling so I can stack alot of stuff. Here are my Captain Action and ST/SW large figure collections:

 

 

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My Action Figure Collection - Part 2 (Star Trek and Star Wars)

 

Star Trek and Star Wars are the biggest part of my AF collection. I've had to focus my collections for storage reasons. My ST collection is mainly focused on the AFs produced by Playmates. There are alot of those, but my collection pretty much ends after the licensed passed from Playmates to other companies.

 

As for Star Wars, I collect the original figures loose. I think I have most of them plus most of the original vehicles and playsets. The bulk of my collection though are the figures produced by Hasbro starting in the mid-90s. Once again I had to define a stopping place for storage reasons. So my collection pretty much ends with the The Original Trilogy Collection produced back in 2004 - 2005.

 

I'm using the ceiling to display my ST and SW collections. Here are a few pictures. Sorry for the picture quality, my iPhone was competing with the can lights. Thanks for reading.

 

 

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That is one truly breathtaking collection (worship)

 

I have three sons aged 3, 7 and 11 - can I send them over and lock them in the room with your collection? :idea: (sorry, bad humor :grin: - but they would be in heaven!)

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