Nschenks

I'm in!

Just following up on this to say at least ME was very quick for me. Sent it back a few days after I posted, and I should be getting it back Monday. I'd heard ME can take forever, so I'm at least grateful that I don't have to wait another 3+ months for this after the initial signing. Here's hoping QC was better this time around....

Yeah I think mine was received on the 8th or something and was shipped out on the 27th, which was totally unexpected. Nice little surprise FedEx text. Almost makes up for the fact that the book I sent back had about 4,000 issues wrong with the slab. Almost...

How old does a comic have to be to get a "classic cover" notation? I feel like Batman #423 could definitely qualify, in terms of books from more recent eras. 35 years old, and there really isn't anything else about the issue that drives its popularity.

Oof, yeah it especially hurts on the uncommon books that you really have to be patient about finding. I've had good luck with shipping (so far), and if I had to pick ONE shipment I didn't want damaged, it would have been this one. Got it returned and got my money back and tried to help the seller file a claim (which probably won't be accepted, sadly), but it still sucked. Everyone loses in these situations. That said, the book will be cool to have and display (and will look very good), slabbed or not. Looks solid 9.0 from the front, and the printer crease doesn't really show that much, imo.

Also, kind of bizarre that happened? I’m trying to wrap my mind around how such a big crease could happen to the top of the book like that, even by accident. Was it in the bag upside down?

You’d probably know better than I would, but I could see CGC being slightly lenient considering it’s back cover and a mostly white area. I’d like to think it wouldn’t grade as harshly as a subscription crease that broke color. Optimistically 6.5/7.0? I’m still not super confident grading big singular defects like this. Definitely a bummer about that. I had a dropped package recently that damaged all eight books—nothing near as rare as MJs but a couple are tricky to find in higher grades, so I empathize. That said—that cover is sick! I’ve never seen it before, but the b&w photos with the purple background is very cool.

9.0/9.2. White backgrounds can be a gift or a curse, in my experience. I prefer black backgrounds even though they’re tougher, just because it’s easier to see the damage.

What exactly are you looking for? Because I’ll second what everyone else has said in that unless you’re hunting for a 9.8, it’s better off to just buy it already graded for this book. Higher grade raw copies are probably going to run more than anything but a 9.6 or a 9.8, and even then as others have mentioned you can only glean so much from photos (as a rule of thumb, 100% ignore any grade a seller lists unless you have experience with that seller and know they are fair). Certain books from this era or later it makes more sense to hunt for raw (particularly, as others have said, if it’s a rare book or a key that has value in grades well below 9.8). Scburdet makes a great point that if a book you want in high grade can be gotten already slabbed for under $200, just buy it slabbed, unless you realllly like the hunt. The disparity in prices between 9.4/9.6 and 9.8 for 70’s and later books means great deals can be found for slabbed books under 9.8. If you want 9.8…you’ll either have to pony up or be very, very patient waiting for a raw copy (and be ready to be disappointed). You can be successful hunting 9.8 raws for books like this, but it’s not a very forgiving or time-effective enterprise, in my experience, especially if you’re looking for a specific book (and the older/rarer the book, the harder this is). Hope this helps! I learned the hard way about buying raws off eBay. If you’re dead set on it, be patient, ask questions (request more pictures if needed), ignore listed grades (and in many cases they can be seen as a red flag), vet the seller (read feedback and check condition of other books they are selling, for example), and if you have doubts or the risk is high, just wait for a better deal! (ps sorry for the big block of text lol)

Thanks all! Hoping for a 9.2 so that’s good to hear.

Clean will do wonders here— 9.0/9.2

3.5

Lol just roll with it—gotta enjoy the good surprises when they come! I have a handful of books coming back in a couple weeks, and I’d love a gift grade or two haha. Bday coming up and they should be scheduled for right around then….🤞🏼

Looks pretty clean to me. 9.6/9.8 seems very likely (I will never outright say 9.8 because it’s never a sure thing)

Everything pretty obvious on this one. Biggest notes besides the spine ticks are a ding at the top FC that also has a small 1/4 inch or so crease which I don’t think is color breaking (hard to tell for sure though til it gets pressed), and a fingerbend crease top BC that does slightly break color. Corners really sharp on this one, which is tough on SST37. Thanks for looking!

Super fun thanks for running it! I’m still pretty bad with GA and lower grade books in general, so this was awesome practice

Grades in! Pretty sure this is the round where the bottom falls completely out for me...but hey, can't get worse than -3 points! Nice little perk of this scoring system in that even if (read: when) I bomb, it won't look like a little league team bowing out to the mercy rule.

4. Confessions 3.0 5. Cinderella 0.5 6. Hawkman…5.5

The one consolation with that Hawkman is…maybe everyone bombed it lol?

Oh no…

Looks like an 8.5 to me. Also something to note, due to the wrap of the book, there's a lot of white showing on the spine, which can hide spine ticks and spine creasing in photos. If there's no color there can't be color loss, but creasing is creasing. It's really hard to tell in photos, but it appears to me there are at least a few small creases along the front spine. Maybe they press out, maybe they don't. Also looks like maybe some light bends to the top of the book.

Yeah, you definitely have to take it out of the bag to get a fair estimate of the grade. That said, in high grades (which this appears to be) this one regularly sells for $500+ and is uncommon enough (less than 500 blue labels, which is very low for this era) that there is sure to be a high demand for it. IMO, very much worth grading. Even in mid grades it still retains some value.

I'm trying to savor being in a 40-way tie for first before the first round results go up