Bomber-Bob

Absolutely, I am an older collector and I definitely prefer unpressed books but you can't always get what you want. Finding any unpressed keys, especially slabbed, is a real challenge.

If grading started @ 10, say you had two books with no defects. However, one was off center a little, or maybe a staple was not square on the vertex. How would you distinguish between the two from a grading perspective ? Grading should start @ 9.8 so you can give a 10 to that 'perfect' book. Grading should not just be mathematically deducting flaws.

The trouble with this flaw is it can get worse, something CGC takes into consideration. I would agree that 6.5 is the highest you could get but I suspect it could get lower.

Not really. I think the rules to nominate forces you to wait at least 30 days. Too long in my opinion but that's the rules.

Last I recall CGC gave up trying to update the point values for older books. The point values of most vintage books are seriously stale. Also, the integrity of the registry itself is very stale. Many 'owners' of books in the registry have long since sold their books but don't delete them from their sets. A number of years back I lost my #1 set status to a guy that sold most of his books in auction. The Registry awards may be fun for Moderns but I long ago lost my enthusiasm to 'compete' on my Silver Age sets. It's still a great place to catalog your books but nothing more.

Actually, you are correct, books start @ 9.8 and go down with defects. A 9.9 or 10 will exhibit extraordinary characteristics, like razor sharp corners, perfect centering, etc. You will see a 9.8 with a soft corner or a white stripe from being off center. That's because being off center is not considered a defect. Trust me, no one here is doing damage control for CGC. Look at it this way, what if they gave all your books a 9.8 and you sold them. The buyer would be coming on here and complaining that CGC was soft, giving books with fingerprints a 9.8 . You didn't get the grades you expected, learn from it. Been there, done that.

I don't understand, or at least I can't picture, what you mean by a 1 inch straight cut. If you have a 1 inch piece missing that's a big time drop. I just told somebody else, never buy a book without taking it out of the bag and looking at it, closely.

I'm not crazy !!!

On the topic of smeared inks, Before and After pressing, Winnipeg copies of GL 7, guess the grades........

Agreeing with everything you said, the 'runny ink' is the most outrageous, totally obvious sign of bad pressing that CGC seems to ignore. I understand the argument that you can't always tell if a staple indention or fanned right edge was the result of a bad pressing or part of the bindery process. But smeared ink ? Not natural, not bindery, CGC please wake up and call it as you see it. Smeared ink should be a major flaw and deducted as such.

Cool catalogs. Curious as to why you would put them in an auction format vs a BIN . I don't think there will be enough interest for anyone to get into a bidding war. When I see something like this, I either pull the trigger on an impulse buy or take a pass. No way I would want to wait out a 10 day auction.

For the record, I believe I responded to the OP's original question on how to remove fingerprints. However, he subsequently edited his original post and title to a completely different topic. Crazy. @Poppy, are you trying to make me look bad ? HaHa .

Realizing you are venting here, I am not sure what you are asking from us ? It has been discussed before, a 9.8 with a fingerprint usually results in a 9.4 . Fingerprints probably contain oil from your skin, so the flaw is similar in nature to a stain. In hindsight you probably should have submitted these using a prescreen.

I have no experience with this but as an educated guess I would think fingerprints contain a certain amount of oil. So, you cannot wipe them off, maybe dab them off ? I would think it is analogous to getting some oil on your shirt. Trying to 'wash' it only spreads the oil around. I will let others give advise on what to use but I suspect some fingerprints should be left alone for fear of damaging the book.

No problem. Welcome to the Boards. There is also a WTB (Want To Buy) thread so if you are in the market for a BB28 in 3.5, post there and see what kind of offerings you get. The occasional inquiry into pricing is usually not a problem but you were asking about prices on AF15, FF48, BB28, a bit too much.

The threads for these book clubs are not intended to discuss financials.

Half your posts asks the same type of question. With all due respect, is that why you joined the Boards, to ascertain prices ?

In theory, the graders would not see it in the slab. By the time it reaches them, it would have been deslabbed by other staff.

Good one ! HaHa.

Not worth slabbing. Maybe the 299 but the other two, no.

Sounds like distributor spray but a pic would help clarify. If it's distributor spray it should not affect the grade much, if at all. Never buy a raw book without taking it out of the bag and looking at it !

But do you care if the book has been poorly pressed ? That is the point here. I don't think anyone cares if a book has been pressed anymore. In fact, most books for sale have been pressed.

I think for your average collector, AF15 has priced itself out of their market. They will soon be turning to other books or venues to invest. I think we are already seeing this with the strong prices on ASM 1. It's funny but you can get a general feel for the marketplace from the WTB section of our own Boards. I am seeing a lot of requests for ASM 1 lately. I suspect other titles, most likely Hulk 1 will soon jump. In fact, I suspect Hulk 1 is already heating up. Just like AF15, it has always been a fan favorite and has historically showed a disposition to pop in price.

Regarding CGC, a lot of people were disappointed when this came up. Obviously, CGC seemed to be grading the Back cover flaws more leniently than Front. The flaws were still there just moved from front to back. As Joey mentions above, supposedly they are more 'aware' of this technique and will be grading accordingly. In their defense, if the spine ticks were small enough, most of them would be 'hidden' on the vertex. The game today seems to be how to fool CGC. Sad.

You are correct, the price box has been shifted to the left, along with the whole spine. Note the staples are no longer visible on the After pic. Giving the book a new spine, shifting the front cover to the back, hides the spine creases on the vertex and the back cover. Realignment, misalignment, whatever you want to call it it's a very aggressive technique.