FallCon (Saturday, October 16 @ 10AM to 4PM)

Yes! FallCon is tomorrow! There are going to be a bunch of dealers and artists there tomorrow including a guy that does modern day Batman stuff and another guy that did Hulk stuff during the Silver age. SOLID!!!

I'm just gonna go look around and try not to spend too much money. My goal is to find more Magic deals and maybe a comic or two if I find something of interest. I still have some comics at home that I need to read too. I also want to pick up a slated comic. I currently don't own any and they are seriously great investments that are a lot of fun to show off and talk about.

What is a "slated comic" or "graded" comic? It's a comic book that has been sent to an authenticity guranteer. They authenticate lots of things like baseball cards, autographs, cars, works of art, antiques, etc. They also keep an inventory of what comics they've graded and at what grade so they know how many exist in the world.

You gotta love origin stories! I think this slated at 9.8 is about $35'ish.

Hypothetically, let's say that CGC, a comic authenticator, according to their records only have authenticated 6 copies of X-Men #1 at a grade of 9.9 out of 10.0. You could just go on ebay and buy an ungraded/unslated version of the comic at it's street value of $8 (just a guess here). But if you buy a graded version at 9.9, then it will cost you $100 because there are only 6 in the world that are graded at 9.9. This was just a hypothetical situation, but you guys get the idea. If it's graded and is in better condition then it will be worth more.

I want my first graded/slated comic to be special and unique to me. It would be neat if I could get issue #1 of X-Men at 9.9 or greater. (Note: 10.0 are nearly impossible to find of anything!)

My goal is to find one of these tomorrow! It's not a HUGE, HUGE collector's item, even though it is the most sold comic book ever, and isn't valued too high but when Jim Lee redid the artwork for X-Men in 1991, I was instantly hooked by just the art alone. Jim Lee's art helped relaunch the X-Men series in 1991 and is one of the reason why there are X-Men cartoons and movies today. If I can find a 9.8 for $15'ish, then I'll get it.

Here's another one that I want. Batman: The Killing Joke #1. This is my favorite portrayal of Batman & the Joker's relationship. Batman is pretty dark if you read the comics. The Joker in this series, cripples Commissioner Gordan's daughter, who is also Bat Girl, and then takes nude photos of her as she lays there helpless. This crime drives Commissioner Gordon crazy, but Gordon still wants Batman to bring in the Joker by the books, with law and order.

I've seen 9.9's of the Killing Joke go for $350 to $600. 9.8's go for around $75 to $100. That 0.1 difference makes a huge difference!

Wish me luck! I'll put up another post of pictures and finds from FallCon later this weekend! Have a great weekend everybody!