lou_fine

Sure looks purty from this distance shot even though I can still see a couple of spine ticks from here without having to zoom in. Did you bothered to check the Graders Notes to see what kind of defects CGC took into account when they "hammered" your copy during the grading process?

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here........................but if you guys are worried about the huge number of copies that's already showing up on the CGC Census Population Report, just think about all of the thousands of raw HG copies that are still sitting in the private collections of long time comic book collectors who have no real reason to have their copies graded to this point in time yet.

yes it was pedigree comics. goes without saying that pedigree comics auction results are always above board. absolutely no shenanigans ever. Why...........................is Dougie buying from Schmell again and we are going to see this same book come back to market very soon?

Had to go and check to confirm my initial thinking that CVA and QES has absolutely nothing do do with PQ, as the awarding of the sticker is all relative to the CGC grade itself: What does “Exceptional” mean to CVA? "Exceptional" is defined as a comic book that possesses outstanding eye appeal and superior structure within the numerical grade assigned by CGC. CVA awards its "Exceptional" sticker only to those comic books that display these characteristics. The CVA holographic tamper evident stickers awarded by CVA are as follows: Silver CVA Sticker - Exceptional example for the grade Gold CVA Sticker - Extraordinarily Exceptional example for the grade Gold stickers will rarely be awarded. No sticker will be affixed to the holder if the CGC Graded comic book does not possess eye appeal and superior structure that CVA considers to be outstanding for the grade assigned by CGC Wow, learn something new everyday as I never even knew there was such a thing as a Gold and Silver CVA sticker as I thiought there was only the one standard CVA sticker. Especially since I believe that I have yet to see a Gold CVA sticker, but then again, I guess I've never paid that close attention to them either if I do see one on a slabbed book. Either way, it would appear that the CVA sticker is just a generic sticker by itself with no further information, whereas the QES sticker is much more specific as it identifies the actual qualities for the book receivng the sticker. In this sense, the QES sticker should in theory actually be more useful since it states the specific reasons for the awarding of the sticker, whether it be for color strike and the specific colors itself, edge quality, spine quality, staple placement, etc.

Received an email from Heritage and decided to toss in a bid on this book here, but still no dice even at this price point with another 23 days to go: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/master-comics-27-fawcett-publications-1942-cgc-vf-80-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40212-82093.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-OtherAvailable-081514 Definitely a nice copy at 3rd highest graded and the HTF "V For Victory" classic cover book that certainly doesn't come to market very often with only a total of 15 Universal copies graded and slabbed to date so far. Will be interesting to see where a book like this ends up by the time it's all said and done, especially since the only copies to come to market in the past several years have either been low grade or raw copies.

Well, if there is indeed market manipulation with this relatively "common as dirt" book here, then it's not necessarily the auction houses that stands to gain the most from this kind of manipulation, as I had posted in another thread on these boards here:

Well, it should be pointed out that it's pretty well common knowledge that the entire 2,000 print run of Cerebus 1 was fraught with production and distribution related issues that resulted in spine ticks on the cover of this issue. Bad enough that when Sim himself went through the entire print run to pull the best copies for his own personal collection, all he could managed to find were copies that graded out into the low 9's, with only a very small handful being able to score as high as a CGC 9.4 grade. Contrast that with a Bone 1 or an Albedo 2 which already have either triple digit or near triple digit copies (and counting) graded and slabbed in CGC 9.4 and above. If anything, I would have to say that the Cerebus 1 grading curve is too laser sharp and nowhere near wide enough to reflect the fact that the full 100% of the print run arrived at the stores already in "damaged" condition with spine ticks prevalent on all of the books to varying degrees. Contrast that with the early SA Marvel keys whereby the overwhelming proportion of their print run arrived to the stores in perfect NM+ condition, and yet CGC gives a "pass" to these books even if they have Marvel chipping on them.

That's the exact problem with these so-called "private signing" parties of theirs............how do YOU know that it's an actual authentic signature since YOU was not there to witness the actual signing. For all we know, they might have gotten their night time janitor who just so happens to be a hobbyist forger to finish signing all of the rest of the unsigned books after the Toddster had left for the day.

As you have correctly noted in your post above, grading is still subjective and not an exact science. As such, they may have used the wrong word in terms of "new advances" when a better terminology might be "ongoing changes to their undisclosed grading standards".

Well, since the writing aspect of the book was already completed some 18 months ago or longer, who's to say that the book's time period might not have already passed. Especially since it's been pointed out that grading standards are always evolving and as such, do tend to change over time on an ogoing basis. Although I am quite sure that the bulk of the book should still be applicable, subject to interpretation, exceptions, and limitations as noted in the book.

Uummmmmm................wasn't this question already answered rather succiently and to the point by a boardie in their post a few pages back? Then again, since this is another one of those readily available in HG movie related hype books that have rocketed its way out from the loonie bin box and into 4-figure territory, I guess it bears repeating. At this recent stage of the game, it's being snapped up by speculators speculating that other speculators will be or are speculating on this book, as I highly doubt there are enough moviegoers leaving the theatre who are suddenly deciding to throw this kind of money on a book or become a long term collector of this title here. The major problem is that the key to winning at this game here is that you have to be able to master the FIFO timeline. In other words, FIRST IN on buying the book before it starts to rise and then FIRST OUT on selling the book before it starts to fall. Definitely not the easiest timeline to master because if you are late to either aspect of this game, it's relatively easy for the book to make the full round trip (if not more) on you. Especially easy to speculate on books that are available in HG with multiple copies showing up in every single auction and pretty much readily available on a 24/7 basis 52 weeks a year somewhere on the worldwide web, with copies possibly being added to the cenus on an almost daily basis. Much much tougher to speculate on a HTF book that comes to market only once a year or possibly even less, with a copy being added to the census in any grade only every few years or less.

Well, like they say......................patience is a virtue and all good things come to those who are patient. Unlike what I said here on the boards over 15 years ago that it's going to be a matter of waiting long decades back then for this pedigree collection to come to market, I now strongly believe that it's going to be only a matter of waiting mere years at this point for it to come to market.

Yes indeed as the equity markets basically serves only one purpose and can at times be fraught with stressful volatility and high risk. Vintage comic book collecting on the other hand can be the absolute best of both worlds by providing you with not only a lifetime of fun and enjoyment, but also an unexpected bonus financial payoff at the end.

Although that's the way it's supposed to work, a lot of long term collectors just wished they could have had the option to place their vintage comic books into tax free financial investment shelters. Especially since the majority of them have significantly outperformed the equity investment markets where we have seen some of the former once red hot Nasdaq speculative stocks drop by as much as 80% from their recent highs of last year.

Unfortunately to all those who are still waiting for this collection to be released, you are confusing the Vancouver pedigree which was released back in 2003 with the Chinatown pedigree which is still pretty much all entirely in the hands of the current owner/dealer: https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/8508/

I would have to say with some of your Centaur offerings here in this CL Focused Auction, it's not so much a matter of looking down, but really so much more a matter of looking up.

Yes, will certainly be looking forward to your offerings in the November auction as we all know that CL saves their better books for their Featured Auctions, as opposed to their "lesser" Focused Auctions.

Church Tec31 Not sure what the grade would be for the Church copy of 'Tec 31 since it was not listed in Chuck's Mile High catalog as it was long gone by then, but quite sure that it would be right up there with the rest of his HG Church DC's. Let's not forget about the Allentown copy of 'Tec 31 which was graded as only a VF copy by the tough as nails grader (i.e. Jim Payette himself) at the time. Same VF grade which he gave to the Allentown copy of 'Tec 38 which was subsequently certified as a CGC 9.4 NM copy: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/detective-comics-38-allentown-pedigree-dc-1940-cgc-nm-94-off-white-pages/a/7007-91137.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515#

Yes, after seeing everybody's comments here on the 9.8 graded Crackajack Funnies, I would have to agree with everybody that it has to be an image artifact or light reflection on the right edge, especially since this dust shadow on the back cover was enough to knock it down to a CGC grade of only 9.0 when it was flagged on the Graders Note: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/crackajack-funnies-9-file-copy-dell-1939-cgc-vf-nm-90-off-white-pages/a/830-91039.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Grader Notes Front Cover Writing Top Back Cover Lite Shadow The dust shadow doesn't appear to be quite as prominent (photo lighting ??) and not flagged in the Graders Notes although it's still clearly there when it was regraded as a CGC 9.8: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/western/crackajack-funnies-9-file-copy-dell-1939-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40208-81046.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-OtherAvailable-081514# CGC Grader Notes:""file copy"" written on logo front coversmall wear bottom of spine breaks colorsmall wear top of spine breaks color

And for those boardies here of which there are many who constantly say that the QES stickers and CVA stickers are nothing more than a joke and a blatant marketing scam to just squeeze more money out from the buyers: https://www.comiclink.com/Auctions/item.asp?back=%2FComicTrack%2FAuctions%2Fauctions_first.asp&id=1457889#detail https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/crackajack-funnies-39-file-copy-dell-1941-cgc-nm-94-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/40208-81053.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-ThisAuction-120115 They just might have some financial value as a potential "green flag" to the lazy buyers who either don't have the time or the technical analytical skills to look for potential upgrades if they are into playing the CPR game. Especially since every single one of these Crackajack Funnies that had either an inital QES or CVA sticker on them to start with has had a perfect 100% batting average in getting an upgrade, unlike the Promise Collection books which have gone an opposite-wise perfect 0 for 43 and counting so far, if the buyers are either brave or stupid enough to even dare try for a potential upgrade.

Okay, just kidding and on a more serious note here.......................still not quite as lovable as what we are seeing here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/820381 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/crackajack-funnies-30-file-copy-dell-1940-cgc-nm-96-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/40208-81051.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-ThisAuction-120115# Well, at least it's only a two-step grade increment here, as opposed to the 4-step grade increment for the Crackajack Funnies 9 as it went from 9.0 to 9.8 after taking a short rest at the 9.6 pit stop.

Hey Tim; Since you are a good buddy, a word or warning or friendly advice to you here. You should probably stop posting these kinds of negative thoughts here or some of our overly sensitive CGC sycophants here might just think that you are trying to throw bombs at CGC and Heritage, instead of seeing the fun and humor in it like me: After all, you wouldn't want to be seen and treated like a pariah on these boards here.

Yes, this point was mentioned before and I would tend to agree with you that the apparent horizontal spine stress breaks might have originated from the prinitng process as I also seem to see them in the CGC 7.5 graded copy in the HA archives, but clearly absent from all of the other copies which they have in their archives. My point was more to the seeming vertical stress breaks running down the spine along with the stress breaks around the staple areas, but then I guess some here would simply say that's really probably nothing more than light reflection coming off a HG copy of this book. Clearly not present on all of the other copies though including the gorgeous high grade CGC 9.4 graded copy from the Black Cat Collection. To each their own, but that so-called bindery chip at the top left is about as bad as they come from a strict visual POV, unless you are comparing it to the Promise Subby issue where it went through the entire bottom left hand corner of the book. Ask and ye shall receive as all you lazy boardies have to do is go into the CC archives to find this: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/676934 As always, hard to see without having the actual book in hand, but I might need a magnify glass and light table for this one here when compared to the possible, but now not so sure spine stress lines on the Gangsgters Can't Win 2. To be totally fair and more accurate, it should be pointed out that I was not the original initaitor of any post here that had flagged out a Promise Collection book for possibly being overgraded. I was too lazy to take the time to do this and merely followed up with my own personal opinions on books for what that is worth (obviously not very much ) which were already highlighted and as you would say, already being "trashed" by other boardies here. I guess it depends on your viewpoint, but I see it more as "hopeful constructive criticism" since as collectors here, we all want a grading service that is truly independent and unbiased and that can grade as accurately and as consistently as possible. As per some of your previous posts here, although I would tend to agree with you and totally understand that this is a business from CGC's point of view, it does not mean that I have to like this process, as noted in this post from an esteemed boardie here: Being a long time collector which I also believe that you are , although I do get it, I guess I still naively wish that CGC would grade less depending upon their current business agenda of the day or what the Corporate bigwigs sitting in their corner penthouse suite might want, and more upon just the book itself as accurately and as consistently as possible. Yes, even in this rampant and robust CPR grading environment which you so eloquently highlighted for us above when it came to CC's auctioning of the Job Berk Collection, I believe it's more than mere coincidence that that there has been absolutely ZERO upgrades for all of the Promise Collection books so far to date that have come back into the marketplace a second time. Once again, YES I certainly do get and fully understand why and should probably not say anything at all about it from a strict business POV, but I still don't have to like it from a collector's point of view though. As for your 95% trashing figure, I hope you are not including my Jungle Comics 11 post in your number there because that is a truly beautiful classic dinosaur cover and sadly WAS the one and only single issue in the entire run that I was always on the lookout for and unsuccessfully hoping to acquire one day.

In comparion, from a strict visual point of view only since we do not have the book in hand and Graders Notes were not free and available at the time, I would tend to say that this pedigree book also certified in the exact same equivalent CGC 8.5 grade would most probably appear nicer not only in the scan, but also when actually held in hand: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/676934

You might be confusing me with some other boardies as I don't believe I've ever made any negative comments about the Promise Collection books with respct to that aspect of their books except that they have absolutely stunning colors that look like they just came off the printing press. My negative commment on the Promise books have been primarily limited to pieces out, edge & corner tears, indented staples, and clearly visible stress lines which seems to have been given a soft pass by the graders when compared to other non-Promise books graded in the past. Unless the light reflection and photo artifacts of the Promise Collection books also comes into play with these types of defects due to the stunning high quality of these Promise books. So, I guess you are saying the supposed visible defects which I am seeing on this Promise Collection book here is just from the scan and most likely not there when the book is actually held is hand: