lou_fine

Out of the country..................when did CCS set up branches outside the U.S. to do their pressing and cleaning jobs? Seriously though, I've never heard of CGC getting blame for popped staples, although I believe the concern is that they don't really downgrade for this pressing defect because they know that these "damaged" books are coming from their partner company and they certainly wouldn't want to do anything that will stop the money from flowing into the pockets of their mother corp.

I remember collecting back then and reading through the Overstreet Price Guides at the time and restoration was seen not only as something that would improve the condition and make the book look more presentable, but also something that would add value to the unrestored original copy of the book. In fact, didn't they also try to quantitfied this in some fashion with graphs and formulas whereby a restored book would be valued more highly than the original unrestored book, but also less than what the book would be worth in its improved condition if it was unrestored. So, I guess the more things change, the more they actually stay the same and even decades later, we haven't learned from our past mistakes and continue to repeat them by spinning it as something positive like "maximization of potential". No surprise that we even use the same argument in that nobody can tell the difference between a pressed book from an unpressed book with 100% accuracy if the work had been done properly. This then makes me wonder what would happen going forward if improved technology makes it cost efficient and simple to tell the difference between an unpressed book and one that has been artifically pressed.

Ummmm...............why would they even care or spend their money on QC when everybody here has already clearly stated that it is totally acceptable as they will continue to use CGC no matter how terrible their service is or how long they have to wait to get their books back?

Sad to say, but I saw an interview with Matt Nelson posted here on the boards whereby he stated that the recent price increase was their strategy to address the bottle neck. Unfortunately, it did not have the desired effect as they simply ended up receiving more submissions than ever. If I remember correctly, he did joked that they might just have to raise prices again. One thing that he did say for sure is that they would never close down as they would never ever refuse to accept more books. Clearly, they must be taking your suggestion to heart as it seems that my email box is totally inundated with CGC signature events registration on an almost daily basis, which pretty much is confirmation the only real thing they care most about and above customer service, grading accuracy, TAT, quality control, etc, is this:

Hey Peter; Being sober, I fixed that for you as you clearly must already be in a drunken inebriated state and left out the "K" in your post above.

much more Peter; Are you really really willing to bid that much more than $210K for the CGC 9.8 graded copy of TMNT 1, even knowing that it's been a long time favorite and must have of yours?

Even having the Grader's Notes might not necessarily help you since I've been told by many long time boardies here in the past that the notes are intended only as internal notes from one grader to another. As such, the notes are not always complete and do not necessarily list all of the defects that goes into the determination of the final grade of a book. If that's the actual case, then it kind of peeves me off that they actualy charge for these so-called internal notes when they know full well that it doesn't necessarily list all of the defects that goes into the determination of the final grade on a book.

My thinking is that if this book here had come from the Promise Collection, it would most probably have received a higher grade than 6.5: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/baffling-mysteries-8-aurora-pedigree-ace-1952-cgc-fn-65-off-white-pages/a/122142-11182.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|0 Any bets that the bidders were betting on a possible upgrade for this copy here as it sold for the rather astoundingly high price (relative to its assigned grade of CGC 6.5) of $3,600 including the BP juice, or close to 25X the condition guide price and also multiples higher than the $552 that a CGC 4.0 graded copy was able to fetch on HA back only a few short months ago.

I think a good majority of this “hype” stems from the comics themselves rather than the pedigree label in itself. A lot Some of these books are in pretty questionable high grade for the most part, but overall I don’t see these books retaining their value long term as well. Just my . Based upon the prices being paid for them along with the qualifying fix-it that I did to Terry's post above, I would tend to agree with both of you. I guess that would put the three of us in disagreement with Mitch who has stated here many times that if you don't buy now, the prices for these books from this pedigree will only go up from here once the Promise Collection books have run their course through Heritage.

Sounds like a nice plan on your part and reminds me of @Glassman10 who sold his AF 15 a few years ago to help his son purchase his home. I guess it depends on the part of the country you live in, but it would take another 100 copies of this TMNT 1 for me to even think of getting an oldie, but goodie house in my city for the kids.

Especially since I believe it's Thor 165 that carries the most value in today's marketplace, probably due to his first cover appearance.

The story is that the Dentist put fake Mile High coding on a number of Hawkeye books in order to sell them for Mile High prices. Any idea if it was just limited to the fake Mile High codes only or did he also try to put on some of the fake Larson recall code numbers?

Yes a incomplete copy missing the lifeboat story but it will do. Yeah, what's this I keep hearing about the missing lifeboat story on copies of Suspense 3? Is there some rational reason why buyers would be taking this page out of the book or is it simply due to bad production whereby this page tends to fall out while the same thing doesn't seem to happen with the other GA books?

It does look much nicer than a 6.0. The grade must be due to interior issues. Based upon my experience, I always find that restored books tend to look much nicer than their assigned grades. Not sure if the is due to the possibilty that the graders are also downgrading for the part of the book that has been restored? Especially if the look and feel of that particular part of the book is not as "natural" when you actually have it in hand as compared to an unrestored copy of the same book. On the other hand, I also find that pedigree books often do not present quite as nicely as their assigned grades and makes me wonder if this is because the graders might be a bit intimidated by the pedigree and give the book the benefit of the doubt if in question?

Hah no worries, it’s all in good fun and I started it. From a true collector's POV, it's best to keep them unopened and in their original sealed package condition and 3rd party graded of course. Then again, wouldn't we just be grading the condition of the exterior box and outside packaging only, and how would we know if there's no missing pieces inside the box if we don't open it.

Would you be referring to bodybuilders in their Devious Maids days:

People don't pay for "good." They pay for noteworthy. See Liefeld, Exhibit A.. Is this one here by Liefeld your Exhibit A: Looks pretty abstract to me or is this what it looks like when a man gets pregnant.

Are you sure that selling off your early Surfer's in high grade, as opposed to some other books, was the best idea? Aren't the uber HG copies of the early Silver Surfer issues touching near 6-figures now, with Silver Surfer 1 already at 6-figures in CGC 9.8.

$707,250.... if I had to guess. And to think that you could have pick up a 8.5 copy (albeit a signed copy ) from Heritage for well under 6-figures and also at a rather sizable percentage discount to condition guide a mere short 5 years ago.

Yeah, just the same old, same old some almost 20 years later..............boardies talking about the impending collapse of the GA comic book market, Heritage needing to apply the "bump" to get auction prices up under the reserve, and most GA books only able to sell for discounts to condition guide, like the following book here which just finished earlier tonight: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/science-fiction/science-comics-4-fox-1940-cgc-gd-18-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122141-13681.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116 Sold for a measly $4,440 when compared to a CGC 2.0 Good condition price of a whopping $389. Yep, now that's what I call a discount to condition guide.

Well, looks like somebody here managed to get a steal of a deal and I should have been there during the real time portion of the auction as they beat my bid from the other night by only a piddly $2: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/blue-beetle-35-fox-features-syndicate-1944-cgc-fn-55-off-white-to-white-pages-one-of-four-copies-certified-by/a/122141-13188.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-MyBids-101116 Not sure about the interior, but this book definitely presents much nicer than its assigned CGC 5.5 grade from both its front and back cover scans. Definitely can't argue too much about the final price which came in at only $89 including the BP juice, which is a at a deep discount to condition guide for a book with only 4 copies graded to date and the first one Heritage has apparently seen in 15 years. Any bets that if this copy here had the Promise Collection label on it, even in the same graded condition, it would have sold for multiples of condition guide, as opposed to the current huge discount to condition guide that it did sell for.

Loved this show when I first watched it about 10 years ago when it swept through the Asian countries as a top of the charts TV series. Only qualifier is that it is in Korean only with English subtitles, which for me is not a problem at all as I watch all of my TV shows with the closed caption feature turned on. Let me know what you think and hope you like it when you get a chance to check it out as I believe it's 20 episodes.

Try Squid Game (Netflix). It's worthy. Watched it this weekend at the insistence of my better half who had heard all the rave about it from her exercise dancing friends. Not being the reality TV Survivor type of fan, definitely not my cup of tea and rather a bit boring as I kept dozing off during a few of the episodes. If it's a South Korean show that I am looking for, I would much rather prefer a fast paced action spy thriller like Iris which I thought was simply fantastic and also available on Netflix (at least in Canada): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(TV_series) Although Lee Byung-hun made his appearance in the last 2 episodes of Squid Game, he was clearly in his prime during Iris and around the same time that he made his way to Hollywood for films like the G.I. Joe run of movies along with others. You definitely can't complain about Kim Tae-hee who was acknowleged as one of Soth Korea's most beautiful women in her younger days, and certainly not hard on the eyes as the gorgeous female lead in Iris.

Is that good? Using the pre-pandemic point of reference isn't a fair gauge of success so I honestly don't know. I'm assuming it won't hit a billion. ***I thought it was a great movie I believe you would be correct here, unless the powers that be in China decide to have a change of heart and let the movie into their country, which I would highly doubt with the way that current relations between the U.S. and China are going right now. Especially since China is one of the largest markets in the world, as seen by Avengers Endgame where I believe it hit well over $600M in China alone.

Not sure where these 2 early Fox Mystery men books are going to finish up at on Monday, but not a lotta love being shown right now at only $220 each: Little bit more love for the Mystery Men 3 at $525 and definitely a whole lotta love being shown for the CGC 1.8 graded copy of Science Comics 4 which is already at $1,860 including the 20% BP juice with still another 18 hours to go.