Bomber-Bob

Or maybe five. LOL !

Natural sunlight often works best for me. Also, I have a portable, bright emergency LED light that works well. The portable light allows you to walk it around the house to look for a good location that does not cast shadows.

My first two submissions(Silver Age) to CGC went very well. However, after that, things got tougher for a while until I learned. I think we pick out our BEST books to submit first and may get good results. It's when you start submitting those secondary,'not sure' books that it gets more challenging.

A little better but the lighting is still pretty dark. There are obviously numerous spine creases and some right edge wear. The bigger problem for me is how tan the book looks. UNless it's the lighting, CGC will downgrade for the tanning. I'm at the 7.0 range.

Too close to call, get them BOTH !

You are questioning the integrity of your grade, surprised it graded this high. Yet you want to know if it can morphed into a 9.0 ? Those spine creases look pretty deep and break color. The back cover is very clean. Show us your grader notes. Maybe there's something mentioned that can be improved but I don't see a anything.

It looks like you introduced a water stain, upper right of the 'N" in the title.

Any insurance for the shipping to CGC is on you. After arrival, the book is insured while at CGC and for the return shipping. So, IMO, you should insure based on the estimated grade in the slab. As mentioned by others, don't over estimate. An over estimate will result in an over payment. With the exception of a Walk through tier, CGC will not adjust the the value down, only up. There is no broad based analyitic answer or even a Rule of Thumb to give you. Put what you are comfortable with. As you start to see the grades returned from your submissions you will get a better feel for what to estimate.

Terrible picture quality but you made up for it with quantity. I think it is better than a 6.5 but not worthy of an 8.0. Remind me to never buy a raw book from whoever said 8.5 ! I see some tears on the bottom edge and the obvious spine tics and creases. It would have been nice to see the insides to inspect for tanning. So a rough estimate of 7.0/7.5 for me.

Just curious, why did you trade or purchase for this book if you thought the label was wrong ? I'll let CGC officially answer you but it doesn't seem fair to now ask CGC to fix it on their dime.

Ouch, I am not familiar with this particular book but that staple is not normal. I would not be happy with that book. IMO, it is damaged already.

To further expound on my lack of discussion point, take a look at this thread. You posted a notice, no one replied until Tuesday. Years ago there would be replies, discussion, stuff to keep the thread active. Notice Dr.X's annual Christmas Package thread. It's always at the top with lots of banter and discussion. I really hate to say this but it appears people just don't get excited, maybe even don't care, about the VCC. Sad.

I acknowledge it's my Bad for not signing up for notifications. I also acknowledge you put in a lot of effort to keep the VCC going. Years ago, it was a big event, people would talk about it, the sellers themselves would put out notifications. I didn't see any discussion amongst Boardies.

I totally missed this . I'm pretty active on the Boards and I saw nothing.

Don't crack and resub without getting the notes first. Show us the book, #361, maybe we can see something.

I agree but it's the cracking part that scares me with the new slab design. It's way more dangerous than the old slab design. Not to mention the original design that you could open without any tools.

Did the owner ship the book directly to you ? Did the FMV of the drop from 5.0 to 4.0 only reflect a 25% difference ? I don't know the rarity of the book but I would have asked for more than 25% .

Good advice and I agree with you but I believe one of your comments needs clarification. CGC may bump you to a higher tier than submitted but I have never heard of them bumping just the max value. Example, if you submit a 1K book in the Standard tier but only declare it at 500.00, CGC will not adjust. However, if you submitted the same book 1K book in a Modern tier, they would bump you to Standard and adjust.

Is that top staple detached ? Minimally, it has a chip. The book is obviously very 'dirty'. Not sure how much can be cleaned off but sometimes the dirt actually hides problems and cleaning it will unmask them. I can see, in some locations, the dirt has already rubbed color away. I'm sorry but I can't go any higher than 4.0 on this book. For those of you saying it is 5.5, would you be happy buying it as a 5.5 ?

I would not risk it on this book, it looks too fragile. The top staple is already detached. Losing the bottom staple would hurt the grade and value. In any case, for 460.00, he can't lose any money !

It's the best available data in one location but the delivery aspect is very old technology.

You may have been thinking about an extra staple, which is viewed differently. Technically, the extra staple has introduced new holes. If removed, it usually gets a Green Label or a hammered Blue Label.

Sorry to disagree but I think you can a blue label for a legitimate missing staple. I don't even think they downgrade for it.

Joe, asking us to predict the grade of your book, without even seeing it, is an impossible question to answer. Asking valuation questions is generally frowned upon here, with the consensus feeling you should do your own homework. It's sounds like you have a cool book. My advice would be to put it up in auction, don't try and guess at a fixed price.

Thanks for showing that. Very interesting. The notes, and references to rust, seem to be much more comprehensive than in years past. I guess the notes are becoming worth the money !