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I wanted to call out how great @CGC Mike and @MattM CS were during this process. I received the book with the updated label today, a mere 10 days after the initial request for the change - really appreciate the speed on resolving the label issue - thank you! https://www.cgccomics.com/certlookup/4338279002/ That said, I'm still not particularly happy with the grade: it got bumped to a 9.6 from a 9.4, but the graders notes indicate 'light creasing to cover' - this is exactly the type of notes that should not happen with books that have been pressed, especially by CGC. Unless I'm missing something, 'light creasing to cover' is precisely the reason people send books in to be pressed in the first place, and pay money to have resolved; so either CGC's pressing is really not up to par, or there is no review of the books between pressing and grading stages that would catch resolvable issues. In theory, if I wanted to see if I could get the bump to the 9.8, my only option is to send it back to CGC, since CGC does not allow 3rd party pressers to crack SS slabs. But why would I do that, knowing that the book has already been pressed by CGC and they were unable to resolve the issue? (rhetorical)

These images are now active - just took about 48hrs.

Katee Sackhoff, round 2 - thx again to @DELTA 62 for facilitating!

I had 2 SS books returned in the last few months with color breaking creases on the cover - weirdly in the same spot (lower front cover right corner)

I had one ship out yesterday that still doesn’t have images. Two other shipments went out this week had images in the submission as usual - hoping yesterdays was just a fluke and the images will show up eventually.

Lol >A 7.0 is still a quality grade. totally it actually looks really nice in hand, totally happy with it & learned a valuable lesson. : )

Adding this one for the record - missing the character name in the label - again, even a basic check between the label and the book was skipped during 'Quality Control'

Thx @The Lions Den - still seems like an odd choice to me - I could understand doing restoration on the cover to make the book present better, but color touching the spine of a book that is not in great condition to begin with seems weird. Maybe I just got somebody's book they were practicing restoration on?

@Avirium he's attending a bunch of shows this year including TFCon LA in March, might be easier to find a facilitator to grab the sig for you ( @Par2ch just facilitated 2 sigs of his for me at the TFCon in Florida - TF5 & TF8 - and they look great, don't think he's doing the west coast show tho)

Thx @KCOComics & @Lightning55 - gtk. I actually don't mind the purple/yellow label tbh - just more confused as to why someone would want to patch up the back cover... I can't see anything, so I guess they did a pretty good job? Oh - maybe on the 'S' in Springfield? seems like an odd choice.

Gotcha @Lightning55 - follow up question: how is the touch up determined to be 'restoration' pre se, ie if it's just some dude with a marker? I've seen plenty of pen ink dates, kids writing their names on the cover etc. & those are still blue labels - even unwitnessed signatures get green labels (which could qualify under 'anyone with a pen'); is it that there is intent to hide a defect that makes it restoration rather than qualified?

Stephen Constantino, Gamorrean Guard: I'm probably not the first person to be annoyed with the 'brand new book submitted, no visible flaws, pressed by CGC = 9.6 & no graders notes' flow

Presumably, performing restoration on a book costs money, yes? I just got the notification that my ASM 194 book that I sent in for the Marv Wolfman signing a while back shipped, and came back as a C-1 - tbh, it wasn't a huge investment, I was more interested in getting the 1st appearance book signed by one of the creators than 'investment' - the grade is a bit lower than I'd hoped, and very happy to have grader notes. Which is where my question comes in - the C-1 designation says 'small amount of color touch on cover' - the grader notes say 'small amount of color touch on right center back cover' - but.... the back cover is an advertisement; why on earth would someone look at that book and say 'y'know what - that back advertisement doesn't look quite right, I'm going to pay to have someone touch it up' I would understand if there was damage to the front cover that needed touching up - that seems logical - the book would present better and look nicer overall, but I have zero idea why anyone would color touch the back cover. Also if anyone can point out where the color touch is, I'd appreciate it - I have no idea what to even look for. https://www.cgccomics.com/certlookup/4297039001/ Thoughts?

lol, have done so... repeatedly...

Easiest way to find out if a facilitator is attending a con is to start a CGC submission, click on SS, then (tediously) go through each facilitator listed and (tediously) see if they're going to the con - looks like Dorkbuzz is going to TFLA: I usually reach out to the facilitator first to see what kind of fees they charge, then go through the process of submitting the new order through CGC. (imo CGC should flip the order of the drop-downs - have a list of the shows first, then filter for which facilitators are attending - seems more intuitive to me than digging through each facilitator) Good luck!

Unfortunately I can't recommend CGC for pressing. I've had ~20 books 'pressed' in the last year that have all either come back graded lower than I would have expected and no graders notes, or lower than expected grades and grader notes like 'very light creasing to cover' - issues that I would have assumed a decent pressing would have resolved. Whether CGC pressing just isn't that good, they don't care enough to repress if there are issues, or the QC on the pressing team just doesn't pick up post press issues and simply pass the books off to grading... That said, any Signature Series book I'm submitting I'll have pressed by CGC just in case there is some mishandling of the book during the signing process, which I feel is also pretty common with CGC. I still get brand new books sent in for sigs, then pressed, come back at 9.6 with no grader notes and no visible issues. If you've done a press yourself and think the books are of a decent grade, I think it's probably a better strategy to submit them with a pre-screen rather than send in for a press then grade.

Alex Ross making an homage to... Blackhawk #3..?

This is the right policy move - thx @CGC Mike

Personally, I love it - the fading looks like it's some kind of weird limited edition black and white cover.

People holding people looking sad sub genre…?

Thanks very much @CGC Mike - will do!

totally @wombat - if CGC is just spot checking due to being overwhelmed and not having the ability to scale, it'd probably be cheaper for them to just skip the QC step entirely - they'd get an increased percentage of MEs, but their turn around time would decrease by a huge amount. I have books that have been in G/QC for over a month.

I mean, they could use it as short hand for any book pressed by CGC: - light creases to cover - light bends to spine - light spine stress and etc.

to that yellow->blue end @BlowUpTheMoon, my SS book just came back from a press and regrade with a blue label... I mean c'mon - it even says 'signed by' right on the label! Nobody caught that in QC @CGC Mike ? Did anybody look at this book before it went out? back it goes... (and maybe it'll magically come back with the 9.8 grade it deserves - virtually no visible issues, it's been pressed by CGC and still has 'light creasing to cover' ) (tbf, this book, the other one it shipped with, and the 3 I received yesterday were free from physical mechanical errors - no debris, scuffs or scratches, so, thx for that!)

yikes - thanks for that @Artboy99 - maybe I will just leave it in the slab. Yellow and Purple look nice together, right?