Topnotchman

If you get the same angle, take an equal out of focus picture and we shall see if that flaw becomes so blurred it disappears.

The tear looks aged and has been there for some time, its not visible in the picture because its a quick phone pic and has to little detail. The general heavy wear falls in line with what a 3.0 grade is, back cover looks to have similar wear as the front cover which has better pics. I see no conspiracy theory here.

Yes Desert Wind aka lobster hands

It survived 23 years not 30 when it graded a 9.9 along with another signed copy and blue copy for a total of 3 9.9’s. I submitted these from some ten pack bundles I picked up. The signing was done by desert wind in a mail away. It has been updated with a new holder.

I can see how this service wouldn’t be for everyone. To me it’s a brilliant marketing move to connect with newer collectors who may not of sent a book to CGC directly. It gives the potential bidder a target grade zone, which has value to that collector. They offer a coupon type value if that collector sends that specific book to CCG for an actual certified grade. CGC wins as the customer has now connected by creating an account if it’s there first submission. If they do not send the book in, CGC has revenue of $5.00 or $10.00. With CGC that is a good profit for time as it may be 5-10 seconds to give a bucket grade with a scan. Referencing as that is all the longer it takes myself. If their is a down fall it may put a damper on some of the rampant eBay over graders.

I’ll take Vampirellas

I used to work in manufacturing management for a fortune 500 company many years ago. When managing a company you create what we called standard operating procedures for employee's. The decision to indicate graders notes should not be the graders decision, its a management decision. The reason you do this is because you are creating a consistent product. I submit books to CGC weekly and I get some orders with full graders notes on 9.6 and lower moderns, some orders absent of any notes. Building the CGC brand is all about producing a consistent product. You either require employees to put notes on books or you don't, leaving it up to the interpretation on how the day is going by the grader is opening up the door to inconsistency.

This example only identifies what is actually for sale on Ebay. 37 out of 119,319 is .00031 sample size. If you were to have a sample size of .10 of the estimated print run which would be 11,319 comics and a ratio of direct sales to newsstand, that would hold more value with me. For decades Mile High chuck was buying dead back store stock of late bronze copper to modern age books. After searching his back stock inventory he comes out with his conclusion of how rare and scarce Newsstand editions are compared to Direct editions. His statement is flawed because his back stock inventory is a heavy on unsold stock which is almost exclusively direct editions. His store inventory is not a clear representation of what was distributed at the time, its just whats available in his back issue inventory.

Speaking as a seller who has subbed at least a couple dozen spider 300 in 9.8 your copy is within tolerances of a 9.8. It’s normal for this book to have some degree of cover overhang from production. Beautiful book, congratulations on your submission.

One of the reasons for graders notes is to identify the book and the label have not been tapered or compromised. One can read the notes and match up the flaws to the book to assure themselve the holder is original. On a 9.8 notes are not necessary unless you are concerned the holder was compromised. As a buyer and seller I would like to see 9.6’s and lower having at least one note to identify a reason it was down graded. If it’s on my submission it clarifies and educates the reason of rejection or the assigned grade if it was not a pre screen order. By looking over my orders some times there are notes on books that failed a 9.8 pre screen, most of the time there are none. Some orders have a mix of books with notes, or whole orders with notes, some orders are completely absent of notes. With the randomness of orders with notes my conclusion is it’s up to the grader to add notes or not on that particular day. Since this is a company that relies on consistency one would think there should be a standard operating procedure of assigning notes or not on books below 9.8. I could see having at least one grader note on books below 9.8 as potentially lowering customer service calls.

It’s news to me I never put it together until now. An undervalued book for sure. Thanks for sharing

Acknowledge you will accept a return if necessary. Ask your customer to call cgc directly tomorrow and forward them pictures or let them explain how the cases Are constructed. This will give them a third party opinion, both of you will be satisfied with cgc' explanation on if the case was tapered with, or damaged.

I've been to San Diego 9 out of the last 10 years. This year I was there during the first few days of the show and the dealer to dealer business I thought was exciting. A decent number books and dollars were changing hands. Some of the dealers I was doing business with were ready to put there feet on the table on Wednesday because they already sold so many books, there weekend was paid for. There absolutely were big Gold books in the room and priced slightly above a realistic market value. At least they were for sale, and if you wanted to pull the trigger you could pick up that grail and carry it home with you. To me it was a great show to network with other dealers and keep myself up to date with current market conditions. I have plans of going again next year in 2018.

I have no dog in this fight, but my opinion of Chuck being a newsstand expert, no he is not. He built a data base of comics on his web site in the late 90's using images from his own inventory. By chance some books were imaged as direct or newsstand editions. Over the years customer feedback was not as described when he shipped books that were not identical to his pictures. He did not have a solution to the problem until customer feedback was "I will pay more for the exact copy that I want". So yes there is a premium for select books in select grades that are newsstand. Since he has unprocessed pallets of bulk comics from the past 20-30 years. It would be a wise business move to just create a data base of newsstand edition comics and charge a premium for them. If Chuck was an expert with newsstand editions, why did he not sell them for a premium in his Marvel comics adds in the 1980's? His newsstand percentages are nothing more than a "guess" to what was printed. Since his main source of back issue comics going back four decades is from desperate comic dealers selling there unsold back room stock. Its seems rational that the majority of those books would be direct editions, not newsstand editions. Thus skewing Chucks inventory to have fewer newsstand books, his claim they are rare is not valid as his sources for inventory is consistent with direct edition copies.

You really should open the front cover and look in at the spine, look for any types of color change in the cover stock. This could indicate a sign of spine reinforcement and restoration. Those outside creases would bring the book down below a VF alone. If you see any kind of restoration the value would be no better than around Overstreet good.

If you suspect restoration on that tear, I would carefully look at the staples to see if there is additional restoration at that location. There could be glue or tape holding the cover on.

You can send them to CCS for pressing, they can send them back to you raw, its not required to have them CGC graded.

If an order has shipped, I get a shipping notification at the end of the business day with tracking. If an order is sitting in the safe, a few reasons are; awaiting payment, awaiting another order for return shipping.

Place the book on the backer board, insert both into the bag.

A buck or two is about the max value to get them to move.

From the notes that is a bend full right front cover, not a crease. It likely could be pressed out completely. In the center is a crease that is doubtful of any improvement with pressing.

What exactly do the notes say, bend or crease? There is a difference.

I would add Silver Surfer 44, first Infinity Gauntlet Cry For Dawn 1, first Dawn Malibu Sun 13, Spawn Megaton Explosion 1, first Youngblood New Mutants annual 2, first U.S. Psylocke Omega Men 3, first lobo Booster Gold 1, 1st Booster Gold Amazing Spider-Man 252 first black costume Amazing Spider-Man 298 first Mcfarlane Caliber Presents 1, first Crow Remove Swamp Thing 21 Superman 75 Batman 404 Crisis 7 Crisis 8 Daredevil 181 Daredevil 227 Captain America 332 Collector interest is following first appearances and #1's. The books I recommend removing from the list do have impactful stories, but collector value is suffering due to over saturation in the marketplace. Independants can and do have significantly higher collector value due to scarcity compared to big two.

A press and clean would help improve the condition. However the broken paper fibers will still be visable under close inspection.

As a high volume seller of copper keys for a decade, I absolutely agree with this.