seanfingh

That, to me, is the way to rock a key. Looks magnificent from the front. Has a serious defect on the back. Presents like a much higher graded book. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I would only do this if I absolutely loved the Dominic Fortune stories. Because (if you are worried about the future marketability of the books) there are some for whom any signature is a no-go, and some SS fans who will not really be seeking Chaykin out on that book. It is kind of the inverse of the Logan's Run 6 issue - where there is a small Mike Zeck Thanos back-up story in the back of an otherwise, pretty blah book. So you get a Zeck SS on it and it is pretty cool. Your two magazines are cool for the very early Punisher appearances, and i think that cuts against getting them Chaykin SS'd unless you are really a huge fan of the Back-up feature.

No - it is a large print run and varying ink levels. To me, the greatest example of this is New Mutants 87. They run from a deep, almost completely red to a very light orange. They are not errors or variants. they just encompass the entire large print run, and appear to testify to the fact that, at some point, some of the inks were significantly lower later in the run. If you made me bet my own money, I would bet this MCP 2 phenomenon is exactly the same thing.

Sorry - my sarcasm meter was on the fritz!

I would not necessarily do that. They (CGC) might find it, and they might give it a purple label for trimming. Juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze, when its possibly a PLOD.

OG Pimps

I don't know if CGC has changed its position or not, but I have had an unstapled book mailed back to me without slabbing. The note stated that they would not encapsulate because the pages would not be secured, and could be damaged inside the slab. In an odd coincidence, it was a Jungle Action 8 also starring Black Panther.

I have the two page spread of the "death" of the Martian Manhunter. I am not looking to sell it, but I will sell it. You are free to make me an offer via PM. I will not engage in protracted negotiations because I don't care if I sell them or not.

I will now order some Drunken Man Noodles Spice Level Thai Hot, via DoorDash I will respond back here to let everyone know my review. I will be in contact with the Moderator to lock this thread until I'm ready to render an opinion at which time I will contact Moderator to unlock thread. Kind Regards, Fingh

PS - there are zero Steve Ditko SS books. But we almost had him . . .

Nope. CGC has said again and again that there is not, nor will there ever be a database. Over the years, and the many, many versions of these threads that have popped up from time to time, the powers that be have stated that there is no way to accurately, quickly and cheaply scrape the data from the stored label information. The best source of information on signed books is old threads right here in the Sig Room. The Frazetta threads, to use your example, are very accurate. You will see how many were done, and a large selection of what was done. Other than that, it is extrapolation and surmising.

So is the Celebrity Authentics sticker, Kev. Before they got everything nailed down with Signature Series, there were a number of books that got the sticker stuck on the books themselves - including one of my Charmed books. It would have been 9.6-9.8 and sits in a 7.5 holder.

I would get CGC's opinion. The only 9.8s I have personally ever seen are on unstamped, unstickered FCBD books.

Buy in for 1/2, split 50/50, and if he wants some type of comp for being the guy who scrounged the deal (which he deserves) give him a nice run of something he always wanted to read and a couple of the minor keys.

It is - it is just like that. And even though that attracted itself to a certain overlapping demographic, it failed to have the amount of negative connotation that the Punisher logo did. Another problem for marvel would have been the tacit approval of various military organizations using it over the years. My post was more of a sad musing than an actual legal analysis. I'm sure they assessed it and figured the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

This is why we can't have nice things. Marvel should have protected its mark in the first place and forced the infringers to make sufficient corrections to maintain a similar look without completely infringing upon Marvel's mark. Then they would have a goofy looking quasi-punisher logo, instead of Marvel trademarking that horned abomination

I want to preface this by saying my SS experience is from 2007-2016. I was involved in a couple thousand books getting signed and slabbed, as a consumer for myself and also as a witness, for facilitators and independently by contract back when that was a thing. I had no more than 20 or so grade drops. Most of those were from accidentally mishandling books, on my part or on the part of the talent - not from anything CGC did. In those days, QC issues were, honestly, few and far between. My generation invented and perfected the window bag, we handled the books with care and the process for turning books in was nailed down - it was pretty similar to blue labels except we had all the signed paper work for the SS program. That was when all SS work was outsourced to facilitators. I am also mindful of the fact that I was very vocal about promoting the idea that CGC should take control of its SS brand and I don't look particularly smart in that light as of today. What I am reading with CGC bringing all of these signings in house and the horror stories that constantly come up with the inner well, foreign objects and post-grading slab damage, makes it seem like any evidence from the "old days" is not really very helpful. I wanted to give this history so you understand that some of the advice may be from people whose experience was more like mine. Were I you, I would want to talk to people who have done high volume in the last two years. Good luck, my friend.

You can't hold on to artist documentation, then get a bunch of signatures and later submit the artist paper work. You just can't. It breaks the chain of custody. The OP wanted what he wanted, and he clearly acknowledged that he couldn't do what he wanted to do because CGC would still be slabbing the authenticated sketch and it wouldn't be back in time for the Takei signing. The OP got exactly what he wanted, and he chose not to get the slab authenticated in order to get the Takei sig. It is not the subsequent facilitators responsibility and it is not CGC's responsibility. The OP knew exactly what he was doing and either assumed the Artist's paperwork was a lifetime warranty on signatures, or he assumed that CGC would "do him a solid" and maintain the Yellow label. As it is, the sketch looks incredible with the Yellow/Green Label - and the Takei signature, which is the important signature to authenticate, is authenticated. The system worked exactly as it should have, and the piece is amazing!

Not at all. But that is not "a bit of on the job training." It would need to be intensive, and if the people did not grow up with comics, they would need to learn all of the things that many of us learned over years of handling comics. It takes thousands of hours to become a true expert at something. I do agree that maybe the pre-graders don't need to be absolute experts, but the finishers do. Words are important - as they convey the true meaning of what you are trying to say. Advocating for hiring and training graders (and presumably acknowledging that it would be an arduous task) is one thing, advocating for "a bit of on the job training" is something entirely different.

Hilarious. Grading comics that are worth thousands and thousands of dollars, to scrupulously high standards, with the world waiting to pounce on every slight under or over grade, defects blown up to 10x their size - on this very site, and all it takes is "a bit of on the job training." indeed. Good thing your thumb is up there - at least your head won't fit.

There are a number of really salient points in that post. This is such a complex issue. Honestly, the only reason I am not banging my own shoe is that I haven't submitted in years. Open exchange of ideas is what will keep this powder keg smouldering instead of exploding, Until it eventually gets so bad that the market actually changes to address the problem. Then CGC really may have to pivot quickly.

Dealt with in a timely manner is an interesting way to put it. This is in no way intended to be viewed as me approving of the way their business runs or the way they treat customers. In fact, their accounting / billing department has been atrocious for as long as I was submitting to them. But this submission backup is not a standard business issue that can be addressed with standard business thinking. There are no schools churning out expert graders. They can't put out ads (or they can, but would most likely be inundated with unqualified individuals.) The amount of training that someone would need to receive in order to be qualified would be significant, and how would they do it? Open a "Grading Academy" and literally school people to grade? Maybe that's what they need to do. But it certainly isn't normal business scaling where you just order more widget components and start making more widgets. Again, this isn't an excuse. I'm sure that folks smarter than I am about business growth and scaling (which should be what Blackstone is good at) could make great strides. But I don't think it is easy. I know how long it took me to be able to grade to CGC's standards and honestly, I was only worth my salt at 8.0+ If you gave me a 5.5 I'm as likely to call it a 4.5 or a 6.5 if it has defects I don't like. There is a reason there are shortages of doctors - there aren't enough to go around. Graders are not the same thing, but the qualified individuals versus the need is analogous.

It is all about there being a last generation that cares. When there is a last generation that cares, the hobby dies. When there is no one to pick up the torch, the inflated values being propped up by the last generation that cares plummet. Stamps, Hummels some types of furniture have had the last generation that cares. Comics, coins, sports cards all may die away, but it will be because there is a last generation that cares. We are not there yet, but we may get there.

I used to get a lot of satisfaction, and a sizeable amount of fulfillment as well, from pulling a $1 book, slabbing it and selling it for $200+

My disagreement with this is predicated upon being able to grade to CGC's standards. I would rather find 9.8 books with astronomical deltas between 9.4 and 9.8. I have found many of those in $1 bins over the years. I've been out of comics since 2016, but I still get the urge to dig through longboxes for high grade scores. I would have a huge problem with today's lag time between submission and receipt of slabs. We used to complain about 10 weeks for fast track back in the day . . .