First submission is finally back in my hands... Let's see what happened. Some pleasant surprises... some no pleasant

So back in May, I submitted the following:

Amazing Spiderman: 8, 22, 31, 37, 51, 61, 69, 84, 89, 121, 122

X-Men 58, Daredevil 4, Avengers 3, Hulk 340

Let's see what what happened and then I will vent on ASM 8:

Hulk 340 - 9.6

Avengers 3 - 5.5

Daredevil 4 - 4.0

X-Men 58 - 6.5

ASM 37 - 6.0

ASM 84 - 9.4 (woohoo!!)

ASM 51 - 6.0

ASM 121 - 9.4 (woohoo!!)

ASM 122 - 9.2 (woohoo!!)

ASM 89 - 8.0

ASM 61 - 7.0

ASM 31 - 6.0

ASM 69 - 9.0

ASM 23 - Restored 3.5

ASM 8 - Restored 7.0

Now, aside from the wait which has been well documented on the message boards by various members, I was very pleased with the service. The grading of my personal books was consistent with what I have seen with other books that have already been slabbed. Where is my gripe then? Well it is not with CGC. It is with a particular comic book dealer.

You see, I have been buying books for many years as I assume many of us have. Years ago, I purchased the ASM 8 in what I thought was a nice grade for around $200. (We comic book fans have good memories like this) I have purchased restored books before but only those that have been slabbed and documented by CGC. To me, slight color touch is acceptable. I would have never purchased what I received back from CGC. The book came back as Slight P Trimmed.

That was never disclosed to me upon purchase of the book. A question that I have always asked when purchasing a raw copy of a book of this price has been, "Has any work been performed on the book?" Now, I am left wondering, did the dealer know? Did the dealer choose not to tell me in order to move the book out of their inventory? Do I boycott this dealer completely even if I am interested in an already CGC graded book? I am left wondering how many of us have purchased books only to find that they were restored?

I do not blame CGC at all. They merely identify and report. I do not see the difference in cover width between my CGC 7.0 Restored and my CGC 6.0 Universal copies of ASM 8. It is hard to see while they are still slabbed and I am not interested in taking them apart so I will trust CGC on this matter.

Pleasant surprise on the ASM 69, 84, 121, and 122. The ASM 69 was the very first Silver Age book I ever bought. I remember paying $5 for it back in middle school because I wanted to own something that had a 12 cent cover. So while it is not so much a surprise, I am proud to see a 9 on it with white pages as I actually read that book a few times.

Any time a Silver Age Spiderman comes back with a grade higher than 9.0 it is a nice feeling. The 84 was pretty cool but the gems of this order were the 121 and the 122. Besides the bump in registry points, almost 3000 between them, the books were always nice looking copies and graded at what I expected from them.

Next step... joining CGC, and submitting a few other items. I am thinking of sending a beautiful copy of ASM 129 to be graded along with a raw copy of ASM 1 and AF 15.

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