Ixthinon

Books that may or may not include the Tattooz besides ASM 238 and Fantastic Four 252:

Uncanny X-men 167

Avengers 229

Daredevil 192

Iron Man 168

Captain America 279

Incredible Hulk 281

Spectacular Spider-Man 76

Conan the Barbarian 144

Marvel 2 in 1 97

ROM 40

(Maybe more)

On 10/23/2023 at 2:35 PM, Lazyboy said:

The answer is very, very simple:

Some copies of other issues may have the insert, but those are manufacturing errors.

Yes but some of the ASM 238's also must have not come with the Tatooz in the first place, by virtue of the same manufacturing errors. I have heard many times that people have bought these books and havent touched them until recently and they appeared to not even had come with them when they bought them way back when. It seems plausible that CGC has been green labeling ASM 238's despite evidence these books never came with them. I do not also see any manufacturing error effecting the grades of the other books with or without the tatooz also. A UXM 167 isnt dinged for having or missing them.

On 10/22/2023 at 9:32 PM, Lightning55 said:

That 18 year old thread has some information, but outdated, in that price guides are back to differentiating prices for issues missing the tattooz insert, or the tattooz missing from the insert.

I'm still trying to figure out how CGC can tell if an insert has been married into a different book than where it originated (e.g. pulled from FF 252 and inserted into ASM 238).  Any theories???

Is there some type of identifier on the inserts that tip off where it was originally used?  Or do they look for staple holes that don't match up perfectly, like extra staple holes? The wrong positioning on the page, doesn't line up exactly to the top of the page or some other marker?  Different tattooz assigned to each comic title, so they can tell it has the wrong one?  Can they even see the tattooz in the insert? Seems like it would be difficult to tell if original or replacement. Maybe @The Lions Den knows from his past experiences.

I also wonder if there are any instances where a legit 238 gets a qualified label for a married insert because it looks a bit off?  You send in what you know is a legit 238, CGC grader gives it the slant eye, calls it married, gets encapsulated, game over. 

You can't even recheck it yourself when you get it back, without cracking it out and wasting your grading money.  Probably crack it anyway and take your chances on try #2, hoping to miss that same grader.

It is my understanding they can tell by 2 big factors:

The first is if the staples have been pulled up by metal tools they strip some of the metal - the striped areas are usually easy enough to detect as its shiny metal.

The second is the top staple is used to hold the inserts. If there are tears around that staple it is a good indicator they once had tatooz and were removed. 

This is in regards with the Tatooz inclusion was for some of the Marvel titles released in March 1983, which included ASM 238. I have looked into titles that could have the tatooz and noticed that CGC awards them a blue label with or without the Tatooz. Like Say UXM 167 some of these books have the Tatooz, while some do not - both blue label. Why is ASM 238 different in this regard to whether it gets a blue or green label? Some of the ASM 238's surely did not even come with them in the first place, just as the other Marvel issues from March 1983.  

On 3/7/2023 at 3:46 PM, Foolish Mortal! said:

How did you determine it's a printing defect?

I brought it to my local comic presser. He told me it was a printers defect and that lots copies have that same vertical speckling.

I recently purchased a Hulk 181 and it is a fairly decent copy but it does have some vertical speckling that runs down the left hand side about mid-book. I was wondering if this printers defect would effect the grade and if so, what is the maximum grade a book could have that has this. I hear it is a common thing for this book to have and its well-known to those who handle this book on the regular. Thank you !