SolidShredder

I see. You said popped staples, that's what I usually call detached staples. Did you mean replaced staples?

3.5-4.0 range. Looks nice for having a detached cover.

Yes, I pretty much agree with everyone on this. The book might be slightly overgraded. Maybe a 5.0 as is, but 5.5 is not unreasonable. I also think this has a ceiling of 6.0.

I'd say 8.0. A clean and a press might help bump this to a 8.5. But like scburder said, a better look at that spine would be helpful.

Scratches, tiny amount of color rub, weak corner. I'd say you're somewhere in the low to mid 9s. 9.2-9.4.

Yes, I personally think it's pretty silly to call 30 year old books modern, but a lot of people still do. Historically, I'd call this book Copper. My cut off point is around the proliferation of digital coloring. So, shortly after the founding of Image comics when Digital Chameleon finally pushed Marvel and DC to adopt the approach and it became mainstream. This would be 1994-1995. I would also not be adverse to the argument of a "Digital Age" taking place after the Copper Age starting with digital coloring and ending when digital distribution of comics became mainstream. This would start around 2007 with Marvel. By 2013 Image and DC would join in with their own digital services. So it would roughly go : Gold 1940-60, Silver 1960-1970, Bronze 1970-1985, Copper 1985-1995, Digital 1995-2010, Modern 2010-Present. I think it makes sense for ages to average around a 10-15 year span. The only exception being the Golden age. Although, I'm not against splitting that one up either.

I see some several spine ticks, some color breaking, the one that you mentioned is particularly large. CGC is pretty rough on modern books like this. 9.8 is right out. 9.4-9.6 probably.

Yeup, that's a production flaw. A very common one for this issue too. The rest of the book looks very nice though. I'd say it might stop you from getting a 9.8, since it is kinda large and the book does have a staple stress as well. However, I don't think it'll knock it out of the 9s or anything. I'd say somewhere from a 9.4 to 9.6. Leaning towards the higher end. In fact, I wouldn't be completely shocked if it came back a 9.8 anyway. It's really up to the grader to use their own discretion on things like this. If I were grading it I would probably give it a 9.6.

I agree with scburdet that it's probably not going to affect the grade much in the Fine+ range. It looks like the magenta plate had something stuck to it that picked up ink when it shouldn't have.

The mark on the bottom is water/moisture damage. If you look at the opposite side of the front cover you can see where the "dirt" has been "washed" away, leaving a white spot. It's a very good looking book and you're right that the production issues won't affect the grade. I think your assessment of 6.5 is fair.

Four bullseyes this round! Of course, that WoW comic got me too. Did ANYONE guess 5.0 on that one?! I just don't see how that's a 5, even with the GA bump. Baffling! Anyway, if I would have just graded the first round the way I graded the last three (by not second guessing myself and changing my scores 20 times) I probably would have placed! I'm coming for first place next time!

I got -two- emojis from Mike.

I don't know if you can call them "grades", but I definitely submitted some numbers.

Yeah, getting a closer look that's not a 9.6. Looks like 2 significant spine ticks, wavy bottom back cover, a lot of color rub and maybe even some staple rust migration?

If that bend is literally the only defect on this book, then I can see this being legit. It looks a lot worse than it is, it's entirely pressable too. In fact, it's possible this is a 9.8 after a quick press. But, that picture is pretty low res, I might be missing things.