Axe Elf

That's some pretty bad discoloration. 3.5. Just kidding, but hey, it's like finding a blue M&M when one of your books has a flaw. Still looks pretty nice, but if there's a little warping and discoloration (water damage?), it can't possibly be a Niner, can it? 8.5?

Go for it. I think it would be therapeutic for the entire community to slap you with a 1.5 after you've trotted out gem after gem.

Maybe you should get one of the ones listed for $40k - $55k, just to be sure.

Even the missing lower right corner, and that "rounded" piece out of the Comic Code stamp in the upper right? They look more significant than chipping, but I'm not experienced enough to know about the phenomenon and leniency you reference.

Yeah, it looks to be in pretty good shape outside of the extensive damage to the front edge on both the front and back covers. The damage at the top of the front cover does appear to have been eaten by some kind of bug/worm or something. It's kind of a hard one because of the contrast between a fairly nice book and some severe damage. It kind of has a 4-ish feel, but with multiple large pieces missing from both covers, I don't think I could go higher than a 3.5. I'm probably just not experienced enough to know how to balance the virtues and defects of this book.

Man, you could shave with those corners and edges, but I'm afraid I can't fully make out your face in the reflection on the gloss. So for that, I'm going to have to knock it down to a 9.4.

Maybe if you put a little piece of tape on it and pull it off fast, it will lift the dirt right off of there. (Just kidding, of course.)

I don't know from pressing, but I'd say you're pretty close to an 8.5, but the lower right of the back cover is kind of a problem area (and then the bend on the front cover in the line of fire). 8.0 for sure, maybe 8.5 as is--but no more than that.

I wish you'd post an ugly book every once in a while just so I don't feel so jealous. Yeah, it's another niner... niner plus... whatever...

One of the last pieces I found for my full run collection of EERIEs was #25. Most of the copies I was seeing for sale on eBay were for like "Fair" to "Good" 2.0-3.0 copies priced at $15-$20 ($20.90 w/Shipping, $19.72 w/Shipping), or a 5.5 priced at $80 ($86 w/Shipping) or even whatever THESE are (4.0 and 6.0, maybe?) priced at $139.99 each. (At least one of them offers free shipping.) I was trying to limit myself to $10 per issue, shipped (it helped to buy several issues in lots, but after paying more for a few of the more hard-to-find issues, I ended up at $10.29 per issue shipped; $8.20 per book minus shipping and tax paid)--but I also wanted to get decent copies (at least 4.0) wherever possible as well, and paying $20 for the low-grade copies or $80 or more for a mid-grade copy just wasn't on my radar. So when I searched Amazon and found this little beauty sitting there for $6.95 + $4.50 shipping, I snapped it up. Well, it arrived yesterday, and it's even better than I thought it was. The only kinda major flaw it has is a long barely-color-breaking scratch line horizontally just under the lowest tree branch, and then there is a little yellowing at the edges of the back cover. Other than that, it's pretty impeccable. The pages inside are in pristine off-white condition. So what grade would you give my $7 find?

Approaches 8.0, but I think a solid 7.5 in any case.

I didn't see it when you posted it before, but I'll give it an 8.5.

I don't have a problem with a 4.0; there's a LOT of damage to the front cover along the spine, and put that together with the multiple large corner creases and it's hard for me to go higher.

Sixish; maybe 6.5.

I am very, very new to this, so it's interesting to hear the pros and cons of pressing. I tend to be kind of a purist--I preferred the days when you had to buy the whole album instead of cherry-picking the songs you want to download--so my initial reaction is to side with those who feel like pressing is kind of a "cheat." But then, what I have learned about grading in the past couple of weeks is that something else I think is an eyesore myself--tape on a cover--is essentially ignored by CGC grading (as long as the tape serves a purpose in preserving the structural integrity of the book), and the defects are graded as if the tape wasn't there at all. So for the sake of consistency, it seems like pressing should be accepted as well--but then I suppose the tape debate has two sides to it as well. What are we going to do in the future when we can repair tears with a page-welder so that a 2" tear just looks like a crease? Maybe an orange label for a book that has been page-welded to a higher grade?

No higher than a 1.5... If I was representing it to someone else I probably wouldn't feel good calling it anything higher than 1.0--it's about as bad as a comic can be and still be considered "complete." And even though the official stance I've read from CGC on tape is that they basically ignore it if it is used to maintain the integrity of the book--I can see where people would still prefer a book that doesn't have a book-length piece of tape along its spine. So it might GET a 1.5, but I'd still consider it more of a 1.0, personally.

Man, I dunno if I'm all the way down with a 4.0... Looks like it still has a lot of gloss, corners and edges are pretty sharp, light scuffing along the top left front near the spine, little browning around the edges... From what I hear about cleaning and pressing, this could almost be a 6.0 without some of that bending apparent on the back, but as is, I don't think a 5.0 is out of line.

Not too much there, but maybe enough little scuffs (esp near the top half of the spine side of the rear cover) to keep it from being in the 9s. Solid 8.5 though, if not a 9.0.

The bottom edge is kinda rough; I'd say 5.5.

I'll say 2.5.

We did this one already:

I'd agree that it looks pretty good--6.5 even if it wasn't for the subscription crease--but in my limited research, the highest grade I'm seeing where a full-length subscription crease is allowed is 4.5. That sucks... EDIT: Upon further review of some threads on this very site, it appears that a book with a subscription crease will in some instances receive gradings as high as 6.0 from CGC--although those seem to be in cases where the crease is virtually indetectable and the book is otherwise darn near pristine.

Strong 8.5.

Looks like it oughta attain a NM grade, but I'm not really savvy on the decimals... 9.2?

I am probably at about a 7.5 as is; I don't know enough about cleaning and pressing to know how much that could improve it, but most of the bigger faults I'm seeing are bends/creases (lower right front cover and top left back cover)--so with those ameliorated I would think it could be an 8.0 or even 8.5.