Ryan1983

Just a blanket update to those who have messaged me on my email, store, or elsewhere: yes, I plan to sell this eventually but the novelty behind the oddity hasn't worn off on me just yet and I don't know when. I have noticed (or, should I say, it has been repeatedly brought to my attention ...) that CGC wants this book back, yes I know this already, but it's been stated to me by yet another person that keeping it may be "bad for the hobby," which seems extreme. How does the error of the company diminish the value of the copies that were slabbed accurately? I have several myself and the last thing I want to do is have them lose their worth.

Hoping a graded book increases in value...who would ever? Starting to think I've left too many clues lying about during this caper...

This guy's done, but I will say I have been contacted again several times in the last 24 hours by both parties, via email, as well a few randoms in my store inbox and I'm really wondering if this may actually be something interesting after all, partially because of the fact that, as I have been told now in two separate instances by dealers who don't know each other, USM#1 goes through the rigors as one of the most misidentified raw books of the modern age at the shop/shopper level. There are MANY of these that don't have the obvious FCBD banners or other glaring markers for the layman to immediately differentiate (collectors know, many don't), so I learned that this has been one of the premiere books of the modern age with many easy instances of customers being ripped off at cons or online. The second dealer also mentioned that there are several of these infamous "problem books" that certain grading companies hang their hats on as having a provable record of never allowing fakes through the system. Is Ultimate Spider-Man #1 one of these particular books, in the eyes of the CGC? I don't know, and neither did they, but I was told that while this dealer has had nearly a dozen books they have submitted come back with minor errors on the tags that they had fixed without a problem (misspelling "Kieth Giffen" on a Justice League #3 or "Conner Kent" on a 52 #1, as examples), he said he has never been contacted on a daily basis for nearly a week by anyone offering, as the emails call it, "complimentary reholder service" for any of his books. He said neither he, his partner or anyone he submits piles of raw books with has ever been messaged directly by the company repeatedly, either... A common thread from everyone who takes a second to send me something is just "how easy" it will be for everyone involved "do this for [me] as soon as possible." Nothing in the official correspondence asks me if I want to cooperate, it just speaks as if it's a done deal ("submit your item..." and "after you submit this form..." etc.) and I was instructed to select, in my paperwork, that this was a "Mechanical Error under "Special/Return Services" with this as the guide. Unless I'm wrong here, three separate quality control groups (as I'm told every new, slabbed book must pass before it is labeled for return) allowing a fake to go through the very system that is designed specifically against this should be a big deal for them. Yes, buyer beware is always a thing, but the very guys who authenticate and that's their entire business model should not be making mistakes like this, or at the very least stop playing the self-victimizing "we're human" card (one person is a human; many, many checkpoints along the way is a system).

Funny you say that, as I've had several messages since my last posts that have mentioned almost the exact same thing, hahaha, so I think this is something that might actually be a marketable commodity some day. CGC has now sent me a few emails reminding me how easy the process will be to have this corrected. And, as of this edit, their census for the slab still represents the error... Oh, and after blowing me off with that first, dismissive "Good Luck" message, the original seller has, daily/politely, emailed me to instead advise that their easy refund policy will take care of a return on this ASAP...

Update time: So today I received this email from CGC: Then, I got this from the sellers after telling them I was verifying this with CGC: Whoa... So...anybody wanna buy an awful CGC error slab? hahahaha Looks like the journey continues...

I really don't know how else to say, or illustrate, that this is my fault. Somehow I don't appear to have been clear about that...

Yup, no Comics Code box, wrong UPC, no DIRECT EDITION, wrong ad on the back...all the stuff I usually check for. This time, though...checked the top and ran right on by. Never make that mistake again...

I want to thank everyone for their responses so far, there's been some very helpful discussion in here. I was contacted today, via email, by someone from CGC who said they have escalated this to what he called their "verification department" and said they would "look into this," so let's see what they say. I have already been ducked by the seller on my first communication, so that's a whole different issue I'm working on. This USM#1 came in a lot and wasn't the focal point of the sale, so I didn't give it the look I usually do because that's one of my favorite Modern-Age books and I've never had a problem spotting a fake, but this time I didn't take that extra second to care and just examined the label tag and ran the number on their site. I know I'm the real person at fault here, but I never expected to have to do much more than that and that concerns me. I've got about 25 Silver/Bronze keys that I've been wanting to grade (for preservation purposes/protection rather than immediate resale) and I'm not sure how confident I am in their system if this is actually a known issue. If they screw up an Amazing Fantasy #15, ASM #1, FF #1/2/3/45-55, Hulk #1/180/181/182, GSX-M #1 or Batman #232/251...that would be pretty bad. Let's see what they tell me after looking into it...

By "newsstand edition" I meant to say the standard "Direct Edition" cover with the Comics Code stamp that we all think of. This has been one weird instance of confusion for me. Do people even like these CGC errors? Is there a market for their gaffes? At this point, I kinda hope so...

I'm new, so I'll be brief: I recently purchased Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (Marvel/2000) at a 9.6, #3981670012. When it arrived I noticed that it had the "My Anti-Drug" advertisement on the back and was missing the Comics Code stamp on the front, all of which match the KB Toys reprint rather than the authentic Marvel newsstand edition. How was this book graded in error and not labeled as a reprint? I'm a rookie at buying graded books, have mostly bought/sold raw for twenty years, but this struck me as odd. Am I even in the right place to address this?