bayesian_acolyte

I feel pretty good about my score of 20 as someone who only started to learn how to grade ~4 months ago. A big thanks to everyone on this forum who has posted "grade is in" updates, as searching those and quizzing myself has been a lot of help. Also thanks to Mike for running the contest. 

Pretty much all ASM 300 CGC 9.8s have similar white marks on the back. Here are some examples: one, two, three, four. I would guess it's from the printing process.

I think this ASM 300 suffered the most from having the lower resolution images. From these pictures it seems almost impossible to differentiate between legit scuffs and the marks that you can see on those 9.8s.

On 2/10/2022 at 4:53 PM, CGC Mike said:

To be honest, participants shouldn't be using the census.  Many would consider that to be cheating.  

I wasn't aware, maybe there should be something in the rules about it then?  Although with a $500 prize and no way to prevent people from looking, not sure this is realistic, and you don't want to put the honest participants at a disadvantage.  Anyways I think this case showed how it's not really a big deal since it's not much advantage if you can't trust the numbers.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I got burned by the census on Rex Dexter this round. I checked it on a lark and was surprised to see there was no books graded between 0.5 and 3.0, which is where I had it. I think I turned a 1 point miss (prolly had it 1.8) into a 4 point miss as I settled on 3.0. I'm not mad at all, my fault for trying to use an outside source instead of just grading the book. I'm curious why it didn't show up on the census? Maybe too recently slabbed?

On 2/4/2022 at 8:35 PM, Randall Dowling said:

However, how to make a particular sauce would be.  And if you ask most chefs how they make a signature sauce, good luck. 

I agree asking a pro chef how they make a proprietary sauce would be inappropriate, just like it wouldn't be cool to PM Joey asking for details of his technique. But there would clearly be nothing wrong with asking a generic question about sauce recipes (not addressed to anyone) on a public forum.

On 2/4/2022 at 12:46 PM, joeypost said:

I would like to know how telling someone to put in the time and figure things out for themselves is bullying? I gave the same advice to a few board members here and they are now very adept at pressing books.
 

If you knew me, you would know I rarely feel threatened.  

You called OP lazy and said they were trying to take shortcuts. Then another person chimed in trying to support them, and you put them down with a quip about wanting a diploma before they took classes. It didn't really make sense because they were trying to learn (like taking classes), not asking for some accreditation (like a diploma), but at least you put them in their place. 

Learning solely by trial and error without any guidance is a rather poor way to learn anything. It's usually a method of last resort. Most of the current best pressers learned that way because they had no other options. Most people learning now are also learning that way, because there still aren't much better options, because almost nobody with the knowledge wants to share. Which is fine, its their right. But someone trying to learn by seeking the knowledge of people with more experience isn't lazy or trying to cut corners, it's common sense.

I've searched pressing technique topics on these boards before, and you seem to be on every post trying to stop any discussion by throwing out little insults and saying the only REAL way to learn is by experience. Clearly experience is necessary, like with literally any skill, but experience with some expert advice will beat amateur stumbling-in-the-dark experience every time. You claiming you are actually trying to help people by discouraging anyone from helping people comes off as very disingenuous.

Quick edit: I want to add you do an awesome job helping people in lots of other areas that aren't related to pressing technique. You've even helped me before, and I haven't been here very long. You seem like a good dude and my issues with how you handle this topic aren't meant to be an attack on you personally. Also it's not only you doing this, there seems to be a whole gang of pressers who are trying to stop discussion any time this topic comes up.

The ratio of lurkers to active posters on any public message board is higher than many people realize. This is often known as the 1% rule: "The 1% rule is a rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website add content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk." There is even some peer-reviewed evidence supporting this.

Cash prizes are something that can lure out lurkers, so I don't think it's surprising that there are a lot of lower post count entrants. 

I'm in 

On 1/15/2022 at 8:37 PM, William-James88 said:

Detective Comics 523

 

I think you might have meant Detective Comics 583?

I'm in. Thanks for running this.

@toro Just to be clear, I have no problem with the term "drek" itself. I've used the term myself regarding books I own. My issue is when less valuable books are used as a scapegoat for TAT issues and CGC damaging books, such as these quotes:

On 11/24/2021 at 12:05 PM, Randall Ries said:

But isn't it reasonable to assume that books with actual value are being damaged because everyone has to step up the pace to accommodate dealers selling worthless modern books?

It's them who are creating the problem... They are the problem.

If people want to pay their hard earned cash to buy these graded books, then they are by definition not worthless. All this "profit seeking" talk misses the mark. The job of a comic dealer is helping people get books that they are willing to pay for, and I don't think they deserve vitriol for just doing their job. That demand is going to be filled one way or another.

One dealer choosing not to send in 1000 books isn't really going to make any difference because it's a tiny percent of overall submissions. If all the dealers got together and formed a big cartel to judge which books are Truly Worthy of being submitted to CGC and which aren't, that might make a difference if they were sufficiently snobby. But it would be elitist and go against the interests of comic collectors. 

The reason that more books are being sent in to get graded is that there is more demand for graded books. I don't think it makes much sense to blame those who are helping fulfill that demand. The delays are a predictable consequence of the rapid increase in demand and it's not really anyone's fault (yet), at least on the supply side.

I wouldn't really blame the demand side either. In every rarified goods collecting community there are people who look down on those who collect goods that are less rarified than the goods they collect. To me this blaming of those collecting or helping fulfill demand for "trash" or "drek" is awfully close to elitism and snobbery. 

The spine corners seem like pretty clear manufacturing bindery tears to me. I've seen multiple 9.8s with similar corners and I don't think you get knocked for them at all. Also the crease on the back should easily press out.

I'll be a major outlier here and say 9.6 post-press.

9.4 as is, 9.6 with a press

I see 3 very tiny color breaking spine tics which are the main flaw. There is also what looks like a small shallow indent on the top right front and some slight bends on the left side of the back which a press should clear up. 

I'll go against the grain a bit here and say 9.4.

The biggest issue I see is around 5 color breaking spine ticks. That sounds bad but most of them are so tiny it's tough to even know if they are real from the photo. 

There is some possible dirt on the white part of the 50 year DC logo, it's tough to tell from the picture, but I think it's a printing defect. I think the faint white line in the upper left of the front cover and the yellow spot on the top right are also from printing. I can't see any issues on the back except some more tiny things that are probably printing defects and the mentioned spine ticks. Corners look great and I can't see any other flaws.

James J Johnson, it is strange that you have made more than a dozen separate replies in a 24 hour period encouraging OP to sell this comic raw immediately when they have clearly stated they do not want to sell it just a few posts before you started your diatribe:

On 10/24/2021 at 11:17 AM, billbrown7080 said:

I honestly don't plan on ever selling it or at least don't plan on selling it until I'm an old man.

Thank you to everyone that has responded, I greatly appreciate it.

On 10/25/2021 at 5:55 PM, poto555 said:

if the creases press out

On 10/25/2021 at 8:16 AM, Funnybooks said:

with the creases

I'm still learning the jargon of flaws but I'm not sure any of these flaws can be called creases. They are indentations made in the thick card stock cover, like from someone pressing a stylus into it and moving it around. The inside of the back cover is completely flawless (as far as I can tell). If that's what you meant by "creases" then my bad on the semantic digression, I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page since it can be tough to see what's going on from the photos and my crappy video.

I'm having trouble figuring out how much to subtract for the flaws on the back and writing dent on the front with this prestige format. I'm also curious if people think a press will help at all, and if so how much.

I've also uploaded a short video to try to help get a better sense of the flaws on the back:

https://streamable.com/yktelm

Thanks!

On 10/16/2021 at 5:48 PM, candygramformongo said:

That said someone else mentioned writing on the cover which I did NOT see and that would have a negative impact.

That was me and I now realize I was wrong. I thought the "B/S" written in the bottom left was added on, but looking at pictures of other copies it's clear it's part of the art, probably standing for cover artists Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott.

This person says their signed and numbered copy came back a green label earlier this year:

There is also the ebay listing I linked above which confirms his story. It appears they have been inconsistent in how they label these. I wonder if there has been a shift in policy or they've just made mistakes because there are so few of these. CGC census lists 13 blues and 2 greens, but it's tough to know how many of those blues were the signed version (I've seen pictures outside this thread of 4 of them and none were signed).

Bonus question: I have a number of copies of Akira 1, and a majority of them have similar color-breaking wear on the top spine, so I am curious how much that flaw is affecting the score. What grade would you estimate if that was the only noticeable flaw? Or conversely, how much is the upper spine issue lowering the grade here?

Thanks!

I'm pretty new to comics and stumbled into a few copies of the Omega 1 with the lightning bolt cover in excellent condition. They are signed and numbered out of 1000 via a sticker on front inside cover and still have the poster insert they came with. I have a small torrent of questions and hope this is a decent place to ask. 

The only copy I can find currently for sale anywhere (for comparison) is this likely overpriced ebay CGC 9.0 with a green label that says "name and '130/1000' written on paper attached to interior front cover". I assume then that if I get my copies graded they will have a similar green label? There are pictures in this thread of a CGC blue-label lightning bolt, but I'm not sure if there was a version without the sticker and signature? Also the one on ebay looks better than a 9.0 in the pictures, so I'm curious if the sticker and signature are reducing the grade?

Any guesses on what a green label and potential score reduction would do to the sell price? I can only find a single instance of a lightning bolt Omega selling on ebay or elsewhere, and it was a raw copy, so my normal methods for investigating this question are not useful. I've heard that CBCS will potentially verify signatures without witnessing them, would it perhaps be better to send to them instead of CGC?

If I were to send it in to a grading service, should I leave or remove the poster that came folded inside? My tentative plan if I don't get these graded would be to sell them on consignment on mycomicshop, any suggestions for what to do with the poster in that instance? Would they allow me to sell it included with the comic? It seems if I separate the poster from the comic it will be difficult to sell as I can't find any record of the poster being bought or sold alone.

This went on longer than I thought. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any insight that might be offered.