Eric C M

8.5 after C&P

Thanks for feedback everyone. I apologize for the lackluster photos, it was kind of a last minute decision as I was packing the books up for shipment, best I could get with my iPad. I did want to add a little background on this book. It was a fairly recent eBay purchase. If you’ve spent any time on eBay for comics there is a decent chance you may have encountered this sellers’ listings. They have GREAT feedback for providing accurate descriptions. I believe most of their items are consigned and always sold RAW that I’ve seen. They post their photos with a white marble backdrop. This seller also prices very high and tends to make some bold claims - many 9.8 RAW listings and occasionally 9.9 and even 10.0s. I mean it takes some balls to pride yourself on accurate strict grading and selling a RAW book as a 10.0. I love these early Hulk vs. ‘whomever’ books as they establish the early Marvel power pecking order. I wanted a raw copy in high grade (at least 8.0). This was originally listed for $1250. I lowballed, got countered, declined, waited it out for several price reductions and lowballed less than I did originally and got accepted (months later). This strict and accurate grader with immaculate feedback graded this book an 8.5. Then I received the book… my first thought upon inspection was that an 8.5 would an absolute cap on a great day. You always hope with an online purchase that maybe the seller undergraded. Definitelynot the case here. Then I thought maybe this person knows grading better than me. I debated for a long time returning it and probably should have. It is a nice book, price was OK but if it grades between 6.5 and 7.5 than I definitely overpaid big time! I have dread on getting this one back. Yes it has discoloration along spine, yes it has a stain on the lower back (doesn’t affect interior pages). It has a small name on inside cover written in pen. That’s the story, awaiting results…

I sent this FedEx overnight for ‘Standard’ tier grading today so I should hopefully see results fairly soon. CCS doing clean/press. Thanks for any thoughts!

I sent this FedEx overnight for ‘Standard’ tier grading today so I should hopefully see results fairly soon. CCS doing clean/press. Thanks for any thoughts!

I sent this FedEx overnight for ‘Standard’ tier grading today so I should hopefully see results fairly soon. CCS doing clean/press. Thanks for any thoughts!

I sent this FedEx overnight for ‘Standard’ tier grading today so I should hopefully see results fairly soon. CCS doing clean/press. Thanks for any thoughts!

I sent this FedEx overnight for ‘Standard’ tier grading today so I should hopefully see results fairly soon. CCS doing clean/press. Thanks for any thoughts!

I sent this FedEx overnight for ‘Standard’ tier grading today so I should hopefully see results fairly soon. CCS doing clean/press. Thanks for any thoughts!

Agree, 100% robbery. Hard to tell any ink loss from scans but structurally looks 9.0. You have to resubmit, each grade increment adds so much value to this book, no way it grades lower unless they damage it.

Spine looks great, tiny CB crease top right - 9.4

Yes, sorry to hear that confirmed but it is definitely not satisfactory. This isn’t the mid-90s anymore. Are they running this whole show with Macintosh computers and free internet minutes from AOL? I truly do respect that you can get someone to pick up the phone when need be but so much more of this information should be made public facing. Am I supposed to trust the people who keep screwing up my orders to blindly handle my money and account balances? Getting a credit card charge 6 months after I send in a book for some unspecified items/services is just not up to snuff. This is a large industry leading company that can and should do better.

100% agree. If they are going to operate in a non-transparent way then the customer has to at least have faith that the proper safeguards are in place. I would prefer they keep as many safeguards as possible internally and become more transparent with account/submission records. This is really not a big ask. My biggest concern with this situation was not monetary related, it’s that I now feel like I have to babysit each submission with the tracking tool. In this case with fast track I just assumed it went through the CCS process so quickly that I missed it. At the time I looked in on my submission status every few days. It wasn’t until I saw the poor grades and grader notes that I recalled not ever seeing that ‘CCS in process’ status on the the website tool. I just want to have faith in the system…

I should clarify in fairness to CGC/CCS. When I contacted them I believe they could quickly see that I had NOT been charged for CCS but then they could also see that I HAD ordered it. For me the issue is their invoices and records available to customers are so vague I would never have known, especially when you happen to have several submissions in the works at the same time. There are no good records available for customers to view. I supposedly have received multiple credits on my account but why can’t I view that information? Am I missing something? Why can’t I view a billing and service history for my orders? These are rhetorical (unless I am just missing something).

So I submitted 7 books in the Modern tier. I also used the fast track option. 2 of the 5 books were separated due to custom labels. I estimate grades before submitting to try and tune my grading skills and learn. I also estimate grades based on my perceived potential for the book as I also paid for CCS services. Prior to this submission I was doing really well (ie many right on the mark, most others only off by 1 grade increment +/-). I received the first 5 books back and as my wife was revealing grades I was just getting my behind handed to me! It was like getting beat up and I couldn’t believe I was so far off. After I absorbed this bad news and began examining the books and the available grader notes I really started to question whether CCS services had been performed. I decided to call CGC and to their credit customer service was easy and helpful, they quickly confirmed that CCS services had been skipped on all 7 of these books. They were allowing for a Mechanical Error resubmission. I have not been a member for long and frankly if this had been my first submission I may have not known any better. The documentation for knowing which parts of the process have been performed on given books is a whole other discussion for another thread. I noted the original grades and eventually sent all 7 of these books back for CCS and regrade. Here are the results/improvements seen through CCS: 1. Batman 423: original grade - 8.0, regrade after CCS - 9.4 2. Incredible Hulk 340 newsstand: original grade - 6.0 (newsstand notation was also missing from label) regrade after CCS - 7.5 3. Amazing Spider-Man 361: original grade - 9.0, regrade after CCS - 9.6 4. Marvel Premiere 28: original grade - 5.0, regrade after CCS - 7.0 5. Marvel Premiere 28: original grade - 6.0, regrade after CCS - 7.5 6. Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars 8: original grade - 8.5, regrade after CCS - 9.6 7. X-men 101: original grade - 8.0, regrade after CCS - 8.0. This book may be capped at 8.0 due to color breaking corner crease. I thought it had 8.5 potential best case. so overall a couple takeaways. The good - The results from CCS seemed to be pretty good in this case. The bad - this mistake could easily fall through the cracks for other customers. The lack of thorough documentation of what is being done and when has a TON of room for improvement. Hope this helps someone, thanks!

I’m hoping a good press can address that impact ding on the back. I am planning on submitting for grading and I’d love to pull a 7 if possible.

The situation has been resolved. The seller did tell me that he had sold 2 copies in the same short period of time. Though I did not see 2 copies listed on eBay it does sound like the seller sells through multiple venues. He was very apologetic and given the close call between the quality of the 2 books I accepted a partial refund/discount and kept the ‘black’ book. He tried to reach the other buyer and was unsuccessful. I guess I will be getting it graded and see how close the predictions were.

Both books have between 5-7 spine ticks. To me the difference really is the color breaking lines in the lower right. What is worse, more smaller color breaking lines or less lines but they are longer?

He just listed it as a ‘solid CGC ready book’

100% agree with you there, unless the seller happens to have 2 copies and made a genuine mistake, but he did not have 2 listed. It also took 12 days to receive from purchase even though I paid $15 for expedited shipping, so there is some suspicious lag time. The seller does have immaculate feedback so I will await the explanation, should be interesting…

So I’ve found myself in a bit of a weird spot. I recently purchased a copy of ASM #101 on eBay. The book arrived yesterday and it was not the book pictured in the listing! BUT the book I received may be as good or possibly better then the one listed. To me they are neck-and-neck but I do not have much experience with mid-grade books. The seller only described the book as ‘solid and CGC ready’. I already own a better copy of the book so my intent with this one was to get it cleaned/pressed/graded and re-sell. I have informed the seller of the error but I am guessing they might give me the option of keep it or return. My question to anyone here is which of the 2 books is the better copy? Did I get screwed? They both have issues but they are obviously different ones. I’ve included the same 4 photos of each book: front cover, back cover, first page, inside cover. Call the first book ‘Flower’ and the second book ‘Black’. I’d greatly appreciate anyones input on which is the better copy and any thoughts on grades. Thanks!

I think an 8.5 as pictured, possible 9.0 with clean and press