lou_fine

that picture is of a reprint Well, there goes my big idea. Not worth borrowing to keep after all then.

Yes, somebody probably borrowed it years ago and never bothered to return it, figuring that they could sell it for a lot more than whatever the standard maximum fine is for a lost library book.

however the absolute best part is this.. In speaking with one of the people who graded this book they said it was one of the hardest books to grade ever. Structurally it was like a 9.0 or better but kid done gone and wrote all over it. To me thats part of the fun of Recil - thats one of the nice parts of the pedigree and connects you to him just doodling a bit on these books. To me it actually adds to the book and its history... I guess unlike the Church books where the coding is much less obtrusive, CGC would downgrade the the actual condition of the book to take into account all of the writing and doodling that Recil put onto the books?

+1 Yes, definitely better than that rather boring and mundane cover for Green Mask #1. I like the cover of #1 quite a bit actually I still need one though. Not boring at all IMO. I once started a thread called, "Larger Than Life" and GM#1 would have fit perfectly there. The few issues prior to the 6 excluding the #1 and maybe #2 I would consider to be a bit mundane but not the #1 Maybe it's just me as I've never really cared much for covers with that pre-dominant yellow background, which seem to be the most common color for covers back in the GA.

+1 Yes, definitely better than that rather boring and mundane cover for Green Mask #1.

It's always good to hear the background behind the discovery of some of these GA collections. Based upon some of the people involved here, it would not surprise me at all if the basic gist of your story is actually true.

I don't understand how this went from a 6.5 to a 7.5. There is no discernable difference between the 6.5 and 7.5 scans of the book. The only explanation is that CGC simply relaxed its grading standards, which must be frustrating for the guy that sold it as a 6.5. There has most definitely NOT been a relaxing of the grading standards based upon many of the GA books graded during the latter half of 2016, as based upon what I am seeing in these current auctions. Go and check out some of the comparisons for CGC 3.5 graded books in the AA 16 CGC 3.5 thread. Take a look at what is being called a CGC 3.5 nowadays as compared to the bug-chewed CGC 3.5 from before. There are many beautiful looking GA and SA books graded from the latter part of 2016 which presents far nicer then their assigned grade, relative to what we have seen before. I believe what is happening is a significant CHANGE to their unpublished grading standards with the new grading team that is in place. With the new Head Grader in place, it should not be surprising which defect is the one that has taken on much greater significance when it comes to grading now. Hint #1: It is the one that you would not be able to see from even the enlarged detailed scans. Hint #2: It is the one that will also add potential additional revenue to CGC's parent company since it is easily fixable.

Have no idea but most likely a whole lot of money it is the highest graded I doubt there will ever be another 9.6 that will be graded by CGC. I thought it was agreed by many board members here already that the book actually looked better in its former incarnation as a CGC 9.2 copy when it sold for just over $50K on one of CC's Event Auctions a couple of years ago.

Hasn't this one already risen quite a bit over the past few years? Especially considering how many there are of this particular issue out there already, and with most of them all in high grade to boot.

Good find, looks like a bidding war/battle of ego behind that one, guy even used a stock photo. Or perhaps they've bought vf/nm from him before that arrived 9.6? I know he's a v.good seller, just don't recall that he's a big undergrader (he might be). Two very low feedback bidders bidding up a non-key, not in demand book sounds a little fishy to me. Not sure what the angle is but it ain't a good one. Book is worth about $5 and can be had for less. Looks pretty sketchy to me . . . Also seller states they have the book in high quantity (along with hundreds of other dealers) so why on earth would you bid it up? I'm not a dealer, and I had like at least five copies of this book BY ACCIDENT like 10 years ago. I've given them away since.... That was a book that was so unwanted i passed on dozens of nice copies in dollar boxes of the years.... Is there any difference in valuation between the regular edition of the book with the issue number and the so-called variant edition of the book without the issue number on the cover? I imagine both versions would probably be as common as dirt.

Also interesting to note that in terms of slabbed copies, Detective 405 have by far the fewest out of the 3 books in question. Looks like Detective 411 have about twice as many copies slabbed while Batman 232 have about 10 times as many slabbed copies. Probably means that there are possibly a lot of raw copies of Detective 405 out there just waiting to be slabbed once there is any kind of uptick in the price.

I posted the picture of the book but I did not delete my post Well, that's mighty strange then. Can you please try to repost your picture of the book again then?

+1 Especially since Detective 411 has by far the worst cover out of the three books in question. I would definitely say that Detective 405 is the most undervalued out of these 3 books. Normally, it would have been Batman 232, but this book is just so common with far too many issues out there.

What happened to the scan of the CGC 7.5 graded copy of AF 15 that was posted here last night? I guess the original poster must have deleted it if it's not here anymore.

Which Fantastic books are you referring to and are you talking about John Veryzl here?

I bought the book raw thinking it was in the 2.0 range and sent it to CGC and was "pleasantly surprised" at grade Yeah, looks like a 2.5 (at best). Well, here's another CGC 3.5 graded copy of another key GA book coming up in this exact same auction, for comparison purposes: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=697754 Like they say, regardless of the actual condition of the book itself, sometimes you also need a bit of luck in terms of whether your book is going across the grading desk during a soft grading time period or a tight grading time period. Doesn't take me any time at all to figure out which of these two 3.5 graded book looks much better to me, even with my aging eyesight. my bad, grader notes do indicate the bug chews: Interior Centerfold Detached Whole Book Foxing Top Spine Medium Spine Split Front Cover Multiple Chews Back Cover Multiple Chews Not sure what you guys are complaining about as it should be obvious to everybody that multiple bug chews are simply not considered to be much of a defect for grading purposes. Just take a look at this similarly CGC 3.5 graded copy of another GA key from the upcoming HA Auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/batman-1-dc-1940-cgc-vg-35-off-white-pages/a/7158-91008.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 No bug chews on either of the Detective 1 or the Batman 1, but the exact same 3.5 assigned grade. Interesting to note that both of these books were graded in the latter part of 2016, while the GL 1 clearly was not. As I have stated already, it certainly looks like we will be seeing a lot of beautiful GA books relative to their assigned grade in upcoming auctions that was graded in this part of 2016. Especially when compared to previous equivalent graded books from CGC prior to this 2016 time period.

It's the life cycle of movie or TV related over hyped books which are actually common in all grades across the board. And it's a life cycle that we have seen rinsed and repeated on a countless number of these types of books, without any notable exceptions at all. The real question is, why do you believe it will be any different for IM 55?

There's already been a live movie made based upon the Spawn character. Didn't seem to help the comic book at all, if I remember correctly.

You dolt....you were NOT supposed to keep an eye on these books for him. Since he's probably had them for the longest while without being able to sell them, he most likely WANTS somebody to steal them so that he can finally recover his money by filing an insurance claim.

My understanding is that Greg had them all pressed by Susan before offering them for sale. Interesting, as that wouldn't cause the PLOD's we've seen on some of the books. Makes one even more curious what Anderson did with them afterwards, but as noted previously we'll never know for sure. I believe your initial thinking might be correct here. I would assume that for any books that were really in terrible enough shape that a simple press would not do the job, Dave probably got Susan to do a aqueous clean and press on the book in order to improve it. If Dave had done the work himself, then the books should have received an amateur resto designation as opposed to the professional one which they all seems to have received. An interesting question here: With CGC's new Restoration Grading Scale now in place, would these Professionally Clean and Pressed books now be receiving the new quasi-stigmatized Conserved labels or would they continue to receive the old fully stigmatized PLOD labels?

Well, according to the post from up above, it sounds as though some of them did not have his name on the books at all: Not sure though if those would then be the ones with the mid "c's" on them?

Now that we've got Bradly here with us, I have a question to ask with respect to clipped coupons. Are GA books with a clipped coupon out that affects the storyline simply given a Blue Universal grade of 0.5 for Incomplete or can they also be given a Green Qualified label denoting the actual grade of the book? If there is a choice, is it up to the submittor of the book or is it at the discretion of CGC as to the type of label to be used? Any book (regardless of year) that is missing an entire page (or more) will be a 0.5, unless it is Qualified. A book that has a coupon (or some portion of a page) clipped/cut out is a serious defect, but could still be in the G/VG to VG- range depending on the size of the portion missing, and of course the condition of the book otherwise. CGC will usually Qualify such a book if it is otherwise above the G/VG range. A book that would normally be Qualified by CGC can be given a lower Blue Universal label, if the submitter specifically requests it. In either case, the defect in question will still be noted on the label, either in all caps if it is Qualified, or lower case if it is factored into the grade for a Blue Universal label. Also in either instance, the label will state "INCOMPLETE" in all caps. Bradley; Greatly appreciate your response to my enquiry here. Was asking since I have a HG Larson copy of a semi-key GA DC and wondering how it would be labelled if sent in for grading. A Qualified grade with the actual grade would seem to make a lot more sense and more informative to a potential buyer than an artificially lower grade, since the defect in question (i.e. clipped coupon) would be noted on the label in either case. At least that's my thinking here.

Strongly doubt it will be happening anytime soon or even in the foreseeable future. Most of the long-term collectors who have these types of books just have absolutely no interest in slabbing their books, until it comes time to actually selling them.

I bought the book raw thinking it was in the 2.0 range and sent it to CGC and was "pleasantly surprised" at grade Yeah, looks like a 2.5 (at best). Well, here's another CGC 3.5 graded copy of another key GA book coming up in this exact same auction, for comparison purposes: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=697754 Like they say, regardless of the actual condition of the book itself, sometimes you also need a bit of luck in terms of whether your book is going across the grading desk during a soft grading time period or a tight grading time period. Doesn't take me any time at all to figure out which of these two 3.5 graded book looks much better to me, even with my aging eyesight.

No, looks like it went for $69K in their big Event Auction just the other month back in December: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=681997 Not yet over $11K a point, as this works out to just a shade under $10K per point. A very strong price, nonetheless, for a AS 3.