lou_fine

I agree. It seems almost criminal not to disclose CT removal. Ummm.................sorry to say, but it seems that the two of you are forgetting something very obvious here. We are comic book collectors here first and foremost who cares about the books that we collect, but CCG is a business entity first and foremost who cares about the amount of money they can make. So, if you can show them how disclosing CT removal will make up for the loss of 2 revenue streams plus resubmission fees to their top and bottom lines, I am quite sure they would be very happy to disclose CT removal for the collectors here.

Regardless of the grade, my thinking is that a 'Tec 33 would be valued lower than both the 'Tec 31 and 'Tec 29 in that order, but still higher up on the chart than a 'Tec 35.

I can't remember a time where there was a reversal in cover cleaned books. This may be the first I've seen. Usually cover cleaned books are irreversible, unless it was dry cleaned but the label didn't state that. Reinforcement to my knowledge would be a problem to remove because the cover could be loose or possibly detached. It was gutsy for the person who did the resto. removal, and if it were me, I'd leave it alone. But anyways, there is a bad stigma with this book now that the full history is shown. Yes, definitely agree with both of you in terms of the reversing the solvent cleaning along with the cover & centerfold reinforcement.

Since I've got them both on Ignore, it wouldn't be a very interesting conversation for me! Yes, I guess it would be a meeting of the mind (or is it the mindless ) in that case then.

Hey bluechip; You are really dating yourself here as this is no longer the era of Borock when it comes to grading at CGC. We are sadly now strongly ensconed in the era of Nelson when it comes to grading at CGC, when additional revenue maximization for their CCG ownership through pressable opportunities is given much more weight than structural integrity, which as you correctly say still continues to carry more weight than eye appeal.

Hey, I've got a great idea here. Although I know exactly what you mean by your statement above, maybe we should get both @Hollywood1892 and @G G ® in an absolute tizzy and blow their minds by the actual fact that YOU don't have to pay an extra cent to Heritage because of their BP.

Well, maybe he's been reading all of the doom and gloom prognostications from our very own @Mmehdy and taking it completely to heart,as follows:

Boy that's a crazy high price for that book. +3 You guys can definitely say this again as that price even puts the key WDC&S #31 with the first Carl Barks art in this run to shame. Then again, I would assume that the usual hype and blusterous write-up by CL with respect to these highest graded copies just draws in the usual label chasers who patrol the CL auctions like bees to honey.

I'm guessing it will go the other way. Although it might indeed deserve to break a million, I also tend to think it will go lower than last time, especially considering all of the hype that went into it last time and the fact that we are also well past the Wonder Woman movie mania by now. Then again, Fishler supposedly has deep and long term connections in the hobby and marketplace with being able to identify potential solid buyers who are looking for certain key books in grade, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Do you know when that was, and for how much? Isn't it amazing how soon we forget, especially when these 3 books got so much hype, as per usual from Darren Adams: https://www.federalwaymirror.com/business/federal-way-business-owner-auctions-rare-comics-donating-portion-of-proceeds/ Looks like it sold for $936,233 along with a $399,100 for the CGC 9.6 highest graded copy of Sensation Comics 1 and a further $226,877 for the CGC 9.0 graded copy of Wonder Woman #1. If I remember correctly, some boardies were expecting the books to sell for a bit more at the time, considering the huge and unexpected success of the Wonder Woman movie at the time.

Yes, most definitely because even though Taiwan's population is only approaching 24 million citizens as compared to a country like say the USA with 331 million citizens, all I can say is that 443 cases with only 7 Covid-19 related deaths sure sounds a whole ton better than something that's approaching 2 million cases and 110,000 Covid-19 related deaths and still climbing rapidly on a daily basis.

Well, here's you chance to free up some storage space then..........leave out all your long boxes of Valiants, Image, B&W's, etc. as your first line of defence. Seriously though, I hope the temperature has dampned down enough that they have stopped with the looting and all of the other violent damage inflicting behavior.

Definitely an interesting comment with respect to the usefulness of BIN prices as I personally think they would tend to skew the curve upwards and could possibly paint an misleading picture of ever increasing prices. Especially in the case where a book sits for months on end before actually selling and yet at the same time, there are countless other copies in the same grade which has not also been able to sell at that same price or possibly at an even slightly lower price point.

Oh.........I see. I thought you was refrring to this CGC 9.8 graded copy which had sold for $31K about a year ago at the end of May 2019 and I guess this latest CVA copy shows a significant drop in price compared to last year which makes me can't wait to see what the Heritage copy will eventually sell for as more and more of these get graded at this CGC 9.8 condition level: https://comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dalbedo%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1303830&id=1303830&itemType=0#detail I will also most definitely agree with you that it is virtually insane to see stratospheric multiples more being paid for books simply because they are one tiny grade increment, considering that grading is still just a subjective matter of opinion when the book crosses the grading table. Especially in the case of relatively common MA books which actually has no real value if they are below a grade of say 9.6. I guess that's why I feel a lot safer buying a GA book where the value is based so much more on the underlying book itself and how it presents relative to the assigned grade on the label. In this particular situation, it's really all so much more to do with finding a copy of a HTF book as opposed to the former situation where it's so much more to do with chasing after the label for relatively easy to find books. No problem with both types of collectors though, as it's really a case of to each, their own.

Yeah, it is getting bad with a lot of books you see in auction now. If not fully popped, nasty pulls/tears at the staples. Any idea if CGC downgrades a book very much for this kind of defect since they probably know it's most likely just part of the pressing process?

Man, can u imagine going back to this timepoint in December and telling everyone about Covid19.... what a crazy year 2020 has been... Yes, definitely a sad and very unfortunate situation with this whole Coronavirus pandemic and yet much of it could have been avoided if government leaders around the world had acted when they first found out about it back in December and January, if not even earlier. Just take a look at China's neighboring countries like Hong Kong with only 1,094 cases and 4 deaths to date, Taiwan with only 443 cases and 7 deaths to date, or Macao (i.e. China's favorite gambling mecca destination and many times bigger than Vegas) with only 45 cases and no deaths to date. All of these countries reacted immediately and started social distancing, contact tracing, and mandatory masking of their population as far back as December and early January when they first heard rumours of this deadly virus and from their low numbers, it sure seems to have paid off in comparison to other countries who sadly decided to ignore all of the warnings and waited far too long before taking the necessary action.

It just might because the colors on the Heritage copy appears to be stronger and more solid. Then again, I guess we really shouldn't be looking at the colors and brightness when it comes to scans from Heritage.

I've just come across this too. I looked at GoCollect for a quick price guide, and I thought it was a massive error! It's just a staggering price point. Which book are you guys referring to here because when I click on the link, it indicates a final price of $31,000 and not the $20,000+ price point you are talking about. Either way, it's really has much more to do with respect to the CGC 9.8 label than the actual book itself. You have to understand that this book was auctioned off on CL which is the go to venue of choice for the CGC label chasers and Registry points chasers who literally shoots their load off whenever Josh mentions anything like CGC Highest Graded copy in his auction description. Doesn't even matter if it's highest graded one of many which it actually is in this case with 8 copies already at this grade level, with no doubt more to come as there is a whole ton of them slabbed already in CGC 9.6 and CGC 9.4 graded condition just waiting to be lovingly hugged and squeezed until they reach this same cherished 9.8 condition grade level.

Actually, no real surprise here and to be expected as Heritage appears to be pretty desperate for books ever since they increased the frequency of their auctions. If you take a look at their Signature Auction offerings right now, it's starting to take on the appearance of their Sunday Autions and their Sunday Auctions really don't have much truly vintage collectible quality material in there at all anymore. Although it's nice that they are now offering to waive the Seller's Premium, it's still much better to get them to waive the Buyer's Premium and if you really have something of worthwhile quality, waive the BP plus take a bite off the SP at the same time.

The part that I found hilarious while reading through this was the following: 3. IGB leaves AF 15 with CGC to correct warp in spine.4. March 2015, CGC informs IGB that AF 15 was damaged at lower right hand corner in pressing process. they mended the comic and sent it back to IGB. From other comments that I have read here about the quality of the pressing service from CCS, this almost sounds like par for the course. And some newbie boardies here wonder why the Dentist doesn't bother to have his Action 1 pressed, let alone to even have it graded.

Yes, this was still before those wild and raucous times on the boards here back around 2005 when Danny Dupchak, @MasterChief , RedHook, and the likes first outed these guys through their before and after scans on how books like this were actually being artificially manipulated in order to acheive these uber nosebleed grades. Definitely an enlightening and eye-opening time for everybody here, especially since everybody had been under the mistaken impression that one of the main goals of CGC in the first place was to ensure that the undisclosed manipulation of books would no longer be taking place like what Borock used to call the "days of the Wild Wild West". How absolutely silly and naive of collectors here to think of such a thing as all we really needed to do was to open up our eyes to see what the CCG linked ownership had done in the other collectibles fields like coins and sportscards to know that they would do the exact same thing with the comic books since it's always about the money. I can just imagine if Borock had been better buds with Jason as opposed to Matt, and if the policy on pressing and micro-trimming had gone the other way in our bizarro world. Any bets there would have been a big run on scissors down at the loonie store as speculators and flippers would be running as fast as their little feet could take them in order to look for the sharpest pair of clippers in the store. We would then get musings from CGC such as "micro-trimming is considered to be nothing except maximization of potential and an activity that had always been done in the hobby ever since comic book collecting first began. Of course, the other rationale would be that all books are trimmed by the printers anyways, as part of the overall printing process making it virtually impossible to detect. Hence, since micro-trimming cannot be detected with 100% accuracy when it is done properly, you would not want CGC to be guessing when it comes to determining whether a book had been artificailly micro-trimmed or not." Of course, in this bizarro world, Jason would now also be head of CGC grading and everybody would be sending their books in for hacking and whacking as part of the whole CMTR game until there's almost nothing left. In this bizarro world, Borock would have come up with the statement that boldly and loudly declared that "pressing is not restoration as it is considered to be DESTRUCTION of a comic book", and this statement alone would have scared the freaking bejeebers out of anybody that might have been thinking of squashing the living daylights out of their books in order to obtain a higher grade. Instead of being seen as the current savior and godsend to all of today's flippers, poor Matt would have been seen as the pariah and banished to the deep deep dungeons along with the rest of the old school comic book manipulators and never to be seen again. Of course, not being the dummies which they clearly are not, it's pretty obvious why they went the way they did. After all, remember it's all about the money and it's a whole lot easier to have a book squashed multiple times without clear evidence of manipulation, as opposed to micro-trimming which can probably only be done once without detection and then, only if it's done properly.

I assume the rationale is that there are more eyeballs looking at the Heritage Auctions since they supposedly have a far wider reach and I guess their fancy catalogues are also supposed to entice more potential buyers to throw in a bid.

Sad to say, but I believe you are out of luck if you are hoping to find any kind of auction archives for CL, as mentioned here: Yes, definitely unlike Heritage which has their auction archives open and available to you all the way back to 2001 when they first opened their doors. Probably the same with CC since I started to keep their auction emails in 2014 and you can still open up all of their individual auction links with no problems at all.

So, what happens if some silly bidder pays too much for a book? Does this mean that GPA should ignore this data since it would bring up the GPA average? Or are you suggesting that GPA should stop tracking all sales prices and implement Josh's request that they should only arbitrarily select and record high sales so that it will bring up the GPA average in order to show a continuing upwards price trend for all books. If so, then this is what I would definitely call bad and misleading information.

Since GA comics started out as wood pulp the "before" is pretty much what all of 'em looked like at the paper mill. Any bets that if Matt was still canoodling with the Meyers in their happy threesome and perfecting this technique of theirs, this would simply be another revenue stream for the big boys at CCG headquarters and the speculators and flippers would be singing their praises while scampering as fast as their little feet could take them to the closest wood pile they can find in order to scoop up as much of the wood pulp as they can.