tmac100

Overall great colors and gloss. Some cracking along the spine (the lightning makes it look worse). Interior complete and staples secure with no rust. thank you

Hi all, this is more of a general question regarding spine wear and its impact on grade. Assuming a book is otherwise an 8.5, how much would spine wear like the attached impact the overall grade? Trying to decide if I should get it graded. I see lots of info on spine ticks, but very little about this type of spine wear. Thanks

I think CGCs grading standards are very different from Overstreet's. I pulled these copies of 8.5's (and an 8.0) from sales on the Heritage site (I always find that comparing my copy to previously CGC graded one is a huge help). Other than the tanning, these have many more defects. It's just the tanning that I can't gauge the impact of. X-Men #17 (Marvel, 1966) CGC VF+ 8.5 Off-white to white pages.... | Lot #17850 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com) X-Men #17 (Marvel, 1966) CGC VF+ 8.5 White pages.... Silver Age | Lot #12126 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com) X-Men #17 UK Edition (Marvel, 1966) CGC VF+ 8.5 Off-white to white | Lot #11959 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com) X-Men #17 (Marvel, 1966) CGC VF 8.0 Off-white to white pages.... | Lot #11678 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com)

This has always been one of my favorite covers, but it’s been very hard to find a raw copy that looks good. Because of the black and red cover, every crease and spine tick is becomes glaringly obvious. And the colors are often faded. I found this copy that looks great. A few non color breaking spine ticks, and some small scuffing on the top right corner and bottom left of the front cover. After a clean and press, based on that I’d guess at least an 8.5. However, the book does have some tanning that is visible on the back cover and the interior covers. I’m not sure how that impacts the grade of this book. Thoughts? Thanks for looking

Count me in

Looks like you had the book pressed after posting the original because all those wrinkles on the front cover are gone. Amazing what a good press can do. I would have guessed a 6.0 for the original.

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Thanks for the link; it was a big help. I'm pretty sure this one is the 1st print. Here's what I found on comixjoint: HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES: There are two printings of Bijou Funnies #1, both with 50-cent cover prices. The 1st printing (unknown copies) is by Bijou Publishing Empire and is identifiable by the significant overlap of the covers to the interior pages (over half an inch, as seen in the scan above). The 1st printing also has higher-grade interior paper (white pages) than the 2nd printing (6,500 copies), which was published by Don Donahue and Kerry Clark and has newsprint interior pages. There are notable color and printing differences on the front cover art between the first two printings. Nard's nose on the 1st printing has a much redder tip (solid red, in fact) and his vest, hat, jacket and tie are all different colors than on the 2nd printing. The circular pattern in the background of the 1st printing also has a moire pattern that is eliminated in the 2nd printing. Comixjoint also shows pictures of the 2 versions: The first print has a deep red tip of the nose, brown hat, and a red vest and tie, for the person pictured on the cover. And a big overlap of the cover vs interior pages. The second print has a pink tie and an orange vest, black hat, and interior pages flush with the exterior cover. The one I've shown has all the features of the 1st print.

I’d like to get your thoughts on the grade for this book. But also if any of you are familiar with it. From what I’ve read, this 1968 first printing is very rare. I never heard of this book until I picked it up today and it’s hard to find prices on it so I’m not sure if it’s worth grading. Both the front and back cover have a small piece missing from the bottom right corner. The front and back covers also have a large overhang from the interior pages - that is apparently a feature of the first printing. Thanks

The confusing part though is that I believe that they were fired from CGC in September, but the scammer was still sending in books in December.

I was leaning the same way. This is a link to the same issue, a graded 7.0. It has a bad top corner also (not as bad) but overall this graded 7.0 has many more defects. Maybe this was just the case of a lucky grade, but I can't see the one I showed dropping below a 6.5 or 6.0 when comparing to this one. Unless I'm missing something. Tales to Astonish #64 (Marvel, 1965) CGC FN/VF 7.0 Off-white to | Lot #15783 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com)

Overall, the book has nice color and gloss. There are some defects that I'm not sure how to gauge the impact of: Top right corner of the front cover has multiple creases (crushed corner?). The top has some creasing due to the Marvel overhand. There is a very small indentation on the right side of the front cover, about 4 inches down the page, that goes through some of the interior pages as well. A few spine ticks. The interior is complete and solid. Thanks

So, if I'm summarizing everything people have said so far correctly, then: 1) The scammer was able to get swapped books reholdered over and over again (hundreds of times apparently) 2) He was able to get a surprisingly high percentage of books graded 9.8 (some of which have been reviewed by posters and seem far from 9.8s) 3) He was able to get an astronomically high number of 9.8's that included grader's notes (and all saying the same thing), when 9.8's almost never have grader's notes 4) The turnaround times for getting many of his books graded was unrealistically fast I'm sure I'm missing some other key points. If this is all correct, then he sure was one lucky lone wolf to have all these things going for him for so long...

This Journey into Mystery 108 has some writing on the cover, and I’m not sure how it would impact the overall grade. I know that some types of writing, such as store stamps, do not result in much, if any, of a grade hit. I’m not sure if this falls into that category. thanks

Thanks for looking.

My take: The missing piece alone takes you down to a 3.0 max. With everything else going on, it's probably a 1.5. Or a 2.0 on a really good day.

I'm basing this on the legendary ETA Nick's Cheat Sheet, but a stain the size of a quarter (which this appears to be) will take you down to an 8.0 max (with everything else being perfect). Then add in the impact of other defects to lower it further. The rest of the book looks pretty good (8.0+) so I'm going to go with 7.0, with a best case of 7.5 or worst case 6.5.

Let me know what you think. Inside is complete with tight staples. Thank you

On the top right corner of the front cover, it is complete- there is just a small stain there that makes it look sort of chipped in the pictures. Let me know your thoughts. Trying to decide if it’s worth grading. Thanks

Hello, I’d appreciate your thoughts on my X-Men 43. The inside is all intact and very clean overall. Thank you

Hello, Let me know what you think. The interior is complete with tight staples. Thanks

Regarding the AF 15 SS - My guess is they don't need the book back to tell if it's legit or not. They likely have pictures of the before and after for all their books already (as others have mentioned), so they can tell that the book wasn't swapped out. Same for other books that have been crossed off the list which is why they don't need to crack it open to see the MVS is missing - maybe they can link it back to a previously graded 181 with a missing MVS by comparing the pictures. For the scam to work, he would need a previously graded 181 with a missing MVS still in the holder. As to why they didn't cross the AF 15 SS off the list, maybe they know that it is legitimate from comparing pictures - but know it is also still part of the scammer's personal collection because there is no recorded sale of it. What better way to screw him than preventing him from ever selling it unless he contacts CGC to get it off the list...If it was sold off-market, then the new owners can still contact CGC to get it removed.

I'm in

I saw you mentioned that your FF2 is not on the CGC list, but that it appears to be swapped out. There has been debate about whether the list CGC provided is only for books the scammer reholdered. And also whether the scammer was potentially also swapping out books without sending them to CGC for reholdering by carefully opening them and resealing them. Maybe this was a case where the scammer swapped the book himself without sending it in to CGC for reholdering. Do you have any indication from the FF2 case that there was any sort of tampering with it?

I looked at a bunch of the seller's listings. Almost all seem to have 'c.t.' or 'trim' buried in the item specifics section, and purposely vague (like c.t. not spelled out).