Flex Mentallo

...post a selfie - perfect example for this thread one way or the other....

..and yet even light stains are hammered...

This is a very bad scan. The background is actually a uniform deep red, and having had it raw, can say that the book drips with gloss, sadly not evident in the holder. Hammered because of a very light water stain on the back cover, which is barely visible; otherwise would've probably been in the VF range.

Great example of what I was driving at, Billy! I've held this one in my hot li'l hands, and even though its a decent scan, it doesn't really do this copy justice. It's a beauty.

Point taken. Somewhere out there is the Church copy, which may or may not be the 9.6 that tops the census. I suppose it's also that this copy has eye appeal that - arguably - exceeds the given grade, because it looks so fresh... everything is relative...

This one presents way better than the given grade.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder A mini debate in another thread sparked this thought, though I'm not sure whether or not it has been covered elsewhere. We all know that CGC tends to put the emphasis on technical grade over eye appeal, presumably because technical matters can be measured fairly consistently, while beauty is in the eye of the holder. So here you can post examples from your collection of either books with great eye appeal regardless of the technical grade, and conversely, books with a high grade but relatively low eye appeal. I think this one is possibly my most beautiful book, and it is fairly high grade as well.

A strong midgrade copy of a tough issue, with great colors. Just to underscore my point that technical grade isn't everything, at least to me, here is my #28 (Nic Cage again Grantley!) It was my first ever Heritage purchase, and the only Cage Planet I managed to win from the original auction. A few years later I sold it, which I really regretted. Then it turned up years on in a Comiclink auction, so I won it again! One of my favorite Planet covers as well...

Exactly right.

Technical grade is one thing. But the whites seem a bit brighter on your copy, at least to me. And I think yours is undergraded.

Mine is almost as nice as artboy's copy - I was lucky to get it before I even realized it was a scarce 'un

If you hadnt we'd more than likely still be waiting for that volume to be published!

Well, they've unreasonably hammered that. It's a beauty!

Such a nice copy of an underrated book, which is as scarce as #15 IMHO. How is that only a 6.5?

More soon...

In Kolkata, Roshni organized a candle lit march in his memory, and distributed food to the most needy people.

Yesterday was Luke's birthday. Rita and Phil were in Berlin to lay flowers at the site where he was murdered.

It's a hang fire.

#3 doesn't seem to get the same amount of love as the other early issues - no idea why.

Always been one of my favorite covers.

Beauty and the Beast! It was a long time before I noticed that the green alien had hooves! What a great way to start a Planet collection!

I've done my best over the years...