Doohickamabob

Interesting research project! It's sad that covers and info about Mad Magazine issues can be found all over the internet, but information about Cracked, Crazy and other Mad competitors is really tough to track down. That said, you can see a gallery of Cracked front covers at the Grand Comic Books Database . The link is to page 4, which has covers from late 1979 through the early 1980s. You might check the previous page for other issues in the mid-late '70s. Maybe looking at these front covers will trigger your memory a little bit.

In my opinion this is the best Authentic Police Cases cover, though there are a couple of other strong contenders. The gray streak in her hair is the cherry atop the sundae of Baker greatness.

Where was the first auction? The 2nd one was in the well-marketed HA auction. Just curious if that made a difference, in addition to raw vs. slabbed. (Either way, great return on investment for the original buyer.)

Congrats! What was the final issue you needed to finish the run? (I'm guessing it wasn't #1 because you have it in that old-fashioned vault.)

I vote shill.

Bondage covers ...

I vote for anything with Little Annie Fanny...

I looked up that case of the "New Toyota" contest that was actually a "new toy Yoda." It turns out that it was a month-long contest and the employee had asked questions along the lines of "this is for real -- I can really win an automobile if I sell the most?" and the management told her "Yes, it's really a contest for an automobile" types of answers. She worked extra hard for a month, upselling meals and so on, and she was the best-performing employee in not just her restaurant but her entire region. In other words, Hooters' management misled one of its best-performing employees and then humiliated her. She had a very good case, and won. I can't imagine why anybody would think the management did nothing wrong here, or that the employee should have just laughed it off. I was reading about similar cases and they're all pretty amusing, though obviously not for the people on the receiving end of the "prank": -- A radio show held a contest where they offered the 10th phone caller "a 100 grand." The 10th caller was told, on air, "come on in and claim your 100 grand first thing tomorrow." The caller believed she had legitimately won $100,000 from a radio station, and she began making plans for how she was going to use the money, including buying nice stuff for her children. She was ecstatic, told everybody in her family, and it was a really big, life-changing moment for her. The next day she woke up early, made arrangements for her children to get babysitting, and made the long drive to the location of the radio station so she could show up to claim her prize money. At that time, she was led in to a room and handed a "100 Grand" candy bar. I do not know how the case played out, but obviously she was heartbroken. I think the station offered her $5,000 as a consolation prize, but she opted to sue the radio station. -- In another misleading contest, which I think was also on a radio show, people were told the winner would be "given the keys to a brand-new luxury car!" After the contest ended and somebody was declared the winner, the winner showed up to claim the prize, and was given.....a set of keys of the type that are used for a new car. There was no car, just the keys. The contest organizer said, "We didn't promise you an actual car, just the keys that would go to a car. Sorry!" Again, I don't know the outcome -- if the contest organizers were sued or what.

Got some stuff back from CGC last week --

These are the ones that bug me -- when the rings are clustered in one area. When there are rings that cover the entire surface, they tend to be lighter and more acceptable as being in the "a feature, not a bug" realm of things. But when they're localized it seems like they're thicker and more noticeable. On the plus side, if you have Photoshop skills, you can take photos of your CGC Newton Ring covers and turn them into lovely abstract art. Let me try...

I'm glad these forums exist, and I don't think anybody needs to consider CGC "altruistic" in order to express gratitude. In my view, the existence of these forums enhances the overall experience of being a comics collector and hobbyist.

Depends on how the situation played out. If they really had the employees thinking they could win a Toyota, and if the employees were doubling up their sales efforts over a period of time with the idea they would win something substantial, then the management was negligent or guilty of fraud. I have worked at companies that have run contests, and there are very strict, legal rules for how contests are conducted, whether it's internal for employees or external for customers. I can see how if it was a casual, lunch-time party and they said "We're having a contest to win a new Toyota," and 15 minutes later they unveiled the "new toy Yoda," then sure, they wouldn't deserve to be successfully sued. I'd like to read more on this case to find out what really happened. The USA Today story is frustratingly brief.

I thought this had to be a joke, but nope -- it's a real story from 2002. Wow.... And good for her. She got a settlement that was allegedly "enough for her to go to a Toyota dealership and pick out anything she wants." According to the Hooters manager, the whole thing was an April Fools joke. USA Today article: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/05/09/toy-yoda.htm

Well, considering that the main point of the business is to certify the grade of something, and not to frame/display something, it is possible to convince myself not to care. The one that bothered me the most was the Molly O'Day where the Newton Rings were especially noticeable in the very center, and thicker than usual. Maybe I'll see about getting that one reholdered. It's my laziness versus my perfectionism on that one...

Huh. I never noticed it on the past gen slabs. Even after receiving orders with dozens of slabbed books. I think CGC is just hoping people will get used to it.

Jeeeeeeeeeesh! To be clear, those are the OLD new slabs, right?

To be clear, the reholder I submitted came back looking nice. It was for the newly graded stuff that the Newton Rings were there.

No, just got the slabs. I'm glad they'll reholder them, but the thing is, some of the stuff I just sent out and got back was for similar reholder problems. It's aggravating to have to keep sending things back. It takes time and energy. Especially if I have to re-package and re-send 20+ slabs. I guess I'll call -- I just wish I didn't have to do it to begin with. Maybe I shouldn't make this public, but I am not trying to slam CGC or anything. I just think people should know it is still a concern. It's very frustrating because I thought they had this all sorted out now. (Again, I still think CGC is the best, with the best name recognition, reputation, best label design, more reliable grading, etc. So I wish they'd be all over this problem and fix it for the long haul.)

What would you do if you received slabs that looked like this?

Molly O'Day -- This one is only localized in one area, but it is directly centered and covers the woman's face/torso area, thick enough that it looks like a stain.

Bruce Gentry --

To begin with, I am not posting this to cause trouble. But I think people should know that the issue with Newton Rings is still pretty significant. I just had around 30 comics graded by CGC. I thought the problems with the new case were resolved (part of my submission was to reholder a comic that had an issue from early last summer). Today I got the bulk of my latest submission in the mail. Many of the cases have very noticeable Newton Rings. Some of the Newton Rings are smack in the middle of the image, and some of them extend over the entire display area. I think CGC should have warned me, or something. What am I supposed to do, mail back 20 slabs and wait another 2 months for my comics? I wouldn't have a big problem except for a couple of things: (1) I'm worried this will affect the sale price of the comics when I sell them in their slabs; (2) Some of the comics I sent in were graded for my friends, whom I told it would be cool to grade their comics, and now I have to explain to them why the slabs have this weird pattern. Again, I am not posting to cause trouble. But I think it is fair to share this with the collecting community. I still favor CGC over any other company. I took photos of three out of the 25+ comics that were slabbed. These three I picked at random. Here are photos, which I took in mostly natural light, with no tweaking of the images. A couple of the photos had flash, but mostly I used natural sunlight. This is how the slabs look to the naked eye. Mind you, if you're looking at the slabs straight-on, then you don't see the Newton Rings. But only a little bit of a tilt and the Newton Rings become apparent, especially if reflected by a light source (such as a standard overhead room light).

Weird, I was browsing this forum and all of the sudden, the song "Haters Gonna Hate" started playing on my speakers. I have no idea why. Maybe it was posted in a message and auto-started when my cursor went over the message and it gave me a preview, but still, it was weird how it came up without me clicking anything.

Already over $10k. Yowza! So already a record, I think. I can't recall another Baker going for more than $10K. I guess that depends on what you believe about Phantom Lady 17 Good point, although I'm in the skeptic camp on Baker having done that cover. I was too and then I saw the fingers on a Vooda cover that was definitely a Baker. I think its a Baker I think it is a candlestick maker.