MatterEaterLad

Ah, you are correct. I should finish my coffee before I try to calculate percentages.

I have a 400lb fireproof safe (free delivery with AmazonPrime) and an Eva-Dry. I have scans of the high value books and receipts. But I do worry about them turning into a pile of melted plastic in a fire. Since I live in a northern state where the humidity is low, I'm planning to move the highest value books to a safe-deposit box.

Would love to know what some of the major dealers think as far as sheer numbers they estimate are out there ungraded. Also, I do think that in reality those percentages would shrink because of all the phantom books in the census--books that have been cracked, pressed, resubbed, and are now duplicated in the total.

Great purchase! Even with a press and dry cleaning, I think the rusty staples and staining might keep you around 3.5, but wouldn't be surprised by higher.

I feel ya. I have one just like it, but the piece missing is in the lower right. I still love it. I recently sold a purple 5.0 that was gorgeous with minimal restoration. One thing to consider with purple books is that while they won't increase in value the same way as a blue book, they're not likely to go down in value. That 1.5 could be a nice candidate for professional restoration, especially with how nice that right edge is. The bottom is sharp as well.

Nice score! I bought my 4.5 raw 7 years ago for $6000.

Hmmm....doesn't look like a 3.0 to me. Looks like severe water damage or some sort of surface abrasion. I'm guessing that would grade more as a 1.5-2.0. With that in mind, I'd go with the blue 1.5. But again, eye appeal matters. Do you want to post the covers of the other books?

It can if the CT bleeds through to the interior pages.

Probably the Blue 1.5 Though the raw 3.0 with CT is interesting because it's ungraded, could be pressed and cleaned, if the CT isn't on the spine there's the possibility of having it removed, etc. (Do you have a photo of it that you could post?)

4.0 Less if the cover is detached from either staple.

If it's like the book publishing world, all those extra copies get remaindered, or sent to a secondary market at a steep discount. It was common for a publisher like Random House to print 100,000 copies of a novel, hoping to sell that many, but they'd end up only selling 45,000 and remainder the rest, or offer them to discount bookstores and low-market retailers.

This is a dark thought, but that Batman 227 for $30k looks like market manipulation. It happens all the time in the fine art world. A collector with 5 pieces from a certain artist will auction one and have a ring of bidders shill it up to a ridiculous price. That new sale price becomes the benchmark value for the collector's other pieces, and with the new demand, those pieces then sell for a similarly ridiculous price.

If a book is trimmed, I'm guessing for most collectors the less trimming the better. So trimming on one side is better than two sides, all three sides, etc. With the OP's book, if he had listened to those who basically said, "Tough luck," there would be a non-restored book floating around out there with a purple label. I agree with CGCs grading 99% of the time and I'm grateful they provide that service. But if their resto check is going to have any kind of integrity, the onus of their mistakes shouldn't be on the submitter.

Those examples were all in the last 8 months. The latest was a purple FF1. The previous label said it was trimmed on the top. It came back trimmed top and bottom. The book is trimmed 1/8. The first grading they determined it was the top. The second grading they said it's 1/16 top AND bottom. I sent scans of other FF1 covers showing the exact same centering, which makes it pretty clear it's only trimmed on the top edge, but they took a second look and told me to pound sand. In my mind, CGC saying it's trimmed on two sides is the equivalent (as far as value) of them trimming it, and it I didn't send the book in to be trimmed.

Something is amiss with CGC's resto check at the moment. I don't think it's always been this bad.

There's gotta be a percentage of collectors who never cruise eBay and buy predominantly from the large auction houses. I had a book on eBay for a year at $3600. Then I sent it to an auction house and someone paid $5800. It made no sense to me, but I was happy with the sale.

Glad it worked out. Didn't someone send a group of raw books to the 3 main grading companies a few years ago and compare results? Would be interesting to do that with a group of unslabbed purple books.

Contact them. Send the photos. Ask if they'll reholder it. They've always been good about reholdering books with loose plastic inside, hair inside, etc. I feel bad for their customer service. Seems like this is happening a lot lately.

tftv_comics on Instagram has been doing a brisk business. I've bought from Ramon several times. Nice guy.

Curious. How do you price your books? I've bought from you a few times and the prices were always fair.

I don't know why but I love the idea of someone using a Tec27 to launder money. Irony, I guess. Also good taste. My sales for the last year and a half have been dramatically above GPA. I'm guessing the recent bump in my FF sales is film related. The rest...

6.0

Looks real. Not worth $100k real. More like worth $20k.

Rare Daredevil Polly Variant. I'd hang onto it.