Tony S

That's cause value tier has stretched to four months now. 80 business days. And because CGC removed a bunch of "statuses" from their website. They stay at "scheduled for grading" until nearly done. If you are over three months, you are close. I have a few Value tier submissions from mid March as well.

no uglier than any other torn off corner. Or folded corner that fell off. It's already a 1.5.

Some things you just do - and don't ask, don't talk about. You didn't set the rules for blue label/purple label at CGC. It's your book. Your own moral compass is the only one that matters here. So do or don't and asking is the only real mistake.

CVA books do often sell for a premium on CL. I just had one do so. An Astonishing Tales 25 in 9.6 sold for about 50% more than I was expecting. Probably because of the $12 CVA sticker. Maybe it seems like dumb money to some. But dumb money is still REAL money. . I don't sell on CL often and this is the first time that I've had a book that qualified for the CVA sticker. I'd certainly do it again. And I in fact really thought this book was a 9.8 when I sent it in. For whatever that's worth. I mean CGC surprises me high and low regularly so when it came back 9.6 it was just another day in the life.

Missing pages and cut outs (like coupon's cut out) are going to get a green label. The why of the green label is always explained on the label. Rusted staples are nearly always mentioned in the grading notes. At least in my experience. If the book is lower grade - like 4.0 or less, rust might not be mentioned. When I see a high grade book with rusted staples and no mention of it in the grading notes, I'll assume the rust occurred after slabbing due to improper storage. There a still a lot of people using fireproof safes and gun cabinets for their precious's But what Vintage said. Graders notes are not even remotely close to an exhaustive list of defects. It's what the graders took time to write down. And when the graders are really, really busy and stuff is backed up they tend to take less notes, especially on non-key books.

Vintage Comics already posted up the legal size scanner thread. Check it out. It will explain why new scanners take soft (fuzzy) scans of pictures, why older scanners using an older (still available but only expensive new scanners) technology. HP Scanjet 7000 & 8000 series scanners were mostly business class and HP has kept up to date drivers for Windows. I have an 8300. It was originally used in at the US State Dept. HP has current Win 10 drivers on their website, It's tank like reliable and makes good scans. HP sold a jillion of them so they are not hard to find. If you find one in an eBay auction, they will usually go for less than $200. But if you want one right now, it's as cheap as $250 (with a best offer available) and $30 for shipping. Which is reasonable as they are big, heavy and need to be securely packaged. The right scanner is by far the easiest way to get great images of slabs If you really want to do it with pictures, the trick is a photo light box. That other grading company that used to be nearby and is now in Texas uses a light box for their pictures of slabs. To photograph slabs - and not do so with funky angles - you need even and diffuse light all around the slab. I've not used a light box for slabs, but have looked at them before. I'd be disinclined to use the sub $50 models, but maybe they would work. The ones that start around $125 look like they probably would do the job. That's less - like almost 1/2 - a good used HP Scanjet 8300. But it takes up a lot more room. But you could photograph a wide variety of objects. So just depends.

Crazy, insane $$ is still REAL $$. But yeah. Did better than she or I expected. And putting it in perspective, the highest price paid so far for a TMNT #1 1st print is $38,240 for a CGC 9.8. Last year. The Gold Edition - published two years later in 1986 graded 9.0 - blew way past that.

They did crazy well. At Comic Link. The Gold with a sketch and signatures that was limited to 10 copies sold for $58,000 The Silver with just signatures - no sketches - limited to 100 copies sold for $8100 Both graded CGC 9.0. Green label due to the unwitnessed signatures. I sent the books to CGC on the behalf of a client I had only seen the common white edition before this. When she first contacted me, told me what she had and what she thought they were worth, I was skeptical. A bit of reading on the 'net showed they were valuable. And what she thought they were worth was about 1/2 of what they sold for. She had a private offer of about $30,000 for the pair, but I encouraged her to send them to an auction house as the few sales I could find a record of were private transactions. You had to know someone that knew someone that might have a copy for sale. Her's would be the first in an auction. Mycomicshop wasn't interested. Told her she should take the offer BAHAHAHAHA. I don't know if she contacted anyone else - I gave her a list of the auction houses and contact info - but CL was interested. BTW, she also own's a sample gold cover (cover only) Again, a bit of research indicates that there were just a few sample Gold edition covers created. CGC encapsulated that cover a few days ago and it's headed for CL as I type this.

It's a long'ish story why so I won't go into it. But over 25 years ago I was asked to interview Chuck for a possible story in the Overstreet Comic Book Monthly. I talked to him for maybe an hour. And went back to Bob & Gary Carter and said "I can't write anything that makes any sense. He's just messing with me." The only things I really learned was that 1) He claimed there was a lot about the Edgar Church Collection he had never talked about and 2) He really enjoyed and felt he was better known in the Denver area for his truck farm - fruits and veggies. Chuck is someone that intends to sell his own story, press his own narrative. And probably makes up a bunch of both as he goes along. So whatever you talk about with Chuck, you might not really be learning much about Chuck. It's the Chuck at that moment. I have over the years enjoyed some of his missives from Mile High. The multi part series on the huge warehouse purchase of books with the mob connection was fascinating stuff. But I don't think anyone really knows Chuck's story - and that's how he wants it.

7.0 universal blue label is about as high as you will see with a detached centerfold. If the book is graded numerically any higher with a detached centerfold, it's going to get a green, qualified label. It's entirely possible when this book was sent to CGC for grading that the submitter asked for a blue label and would take whatever grade reduction that would bring. My own personal perspective is that I see staple issues as among the least important. I've seen some really attractive 2.5-3.0's with detached covers for instance. The book pictured is a great looking 7.0, I'd be more bothered by the bit of glue that's being ignored.

I'm echoing what Lion's Den said but just a different flavor. A GOOD pressing service is going to advise against, perhaps even refuse to press a fragile comic book. Because if the book really is fragile there WILL BE damage. Depending on how fragile, there could also easily be damage during grading and encapsulating the book. The restoration expert has to open the book wide, looking for glue and such along the centerfold and inside the spine of the cover. Graders have to look at each page for for missing pieces and other defects. And the book is being handled during the encapsulation step. Once the book is finally encapsulated, it is a lot safer from handling damage. But fragile is fragile and pressing is almost certainly a really bad idea.

Pure awesomeness above. I might mention that it is Buscema's work on Conan in Savage Sword I most admire. Big John was a house artist for Marvel, because he could do a lot of pages every month. But go look at his work in the first 20-30 issues of Savage Sword. When he wanted to, he could turn out stunning work. Savage Sword also sat outside the confines of the Comics Code Authority censors. So was also closer to the books.

Pretty boy

Well - I sorta agree but sorta don't. Howard didn't write his stories in any sort of chronological order. The family hired a writer to put them in some order and then write patches to bridge the stories and have it all make sense. Conan's "origin" seems to be he spent time as a slave and escaped. In the movie this period of time of hard work is what lead to his being big and strong. And the Cimmerians were portrayed as pretty brutal, primitive culture. Regardless, Conan was never described as pretty and slender. As a slave we could assume rough treatment and a bit of the whip. But I'd certainly agree a younger Conan probably didn't have the scars that a 40 year old veteran of countless battles would have. I had read Lancer paperbacks before I read the comic. Smith's Conan didn't look like the Conan I expected. The art was great - but it didn't look like the character. I prefer Buscema's take because it comes closer. That's all.

Someone has to do it, so it might as well be me. I preferred Buscema's Conan. Smith's version was too skinny and pretty. The most true to Howard's description in the books would be Frazetta's "Barbarian" painting. In Howard's books, Conan was a battle scarred, hard, scary looking man. Not a smooth skinned model. I was reading comics when Conan came out in 1970. I really enjoyed the character and stories. But IMHO, Smith's art was a better fit on other titles and characters.

The 9.9 CGC copy of Incredible Hulk sold in a ComicLink auction for $150,000 back in 2011. Below is the link to the CGC press release reporting the sale, along with a picture. It was the first Bronze age book to break the $100K barrier. I'm sure it would sell for substantially more than 150K if offered up now. https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/2049/

I could write a wall of text in reply - and I don't have time for a wall of text. But I'll try a reply that isn't so long. FIRST, the current OPG says your Iron Man 1 in 8.0 is worth $700. And the OPG is a PRICE GUIDE. An average as reported by Overstreet's network of advisors across the country and probably other countries. That average is also rolling, Even if a book jumps up a lot one year, it's common for the full jump not to be reflected for a couple of years. There is no PRICE GUIDE for slabbed books. Most serious collectors are looking at GPA, which is not a guide. Instead it's real time collection of sold CGC graded books from most of the major auction houses. eBay, Heritage, Comic Connect for instance. GPA has averages and last sales easily displayed. Right now, the GPA 12 month average for Iron Man 1 CGC 8.0 (31 recorded sales) is $801, the 90 day average is $861 (7 recorded sales) and the last recorded sale was $825. So by comparing the two, you would see that CGC graded 8.0's are selling for $100-$150 more than raw 8.0's. But you have to understand you are comparing apples to oranges. The CGC graded 8.0 is going to be almost universally accepted as an 8.0. The Raw 8.0 is in the eyes of the buyer and seller. AND THAT is the real point of professional grading and encapsulation. It is not that CGC removes the subjectivity that is inherent in grading. CGC is still humans grading books It is still subjective. BUT - and this super important - CGC graded books represent a universally accepted grade. And the encapsulation ensures that grade stays the same. It's an 8.0 when you buy. It's an 8.0 if and when you go to sell it. The lack of third party, professional grading and encapsulation was holding the comic collecting hobby back. There was NEVER going to be million dollar books as long as the condition of a book could be lawyered to death. And that's what happened, all the time. You would purchase your Iron Man 1 in 8.0 one year. Next year selling it suddenly it was a 6.0. Or maybe the buyer believes they see a tiny spot of color touch. Arguing condition was just another way to argue price. And that is why professionally graded books often (but not always) bring a premium. And the more expensive the book - the more these assurances tend to be worth to the buyers. Absolutely NO ONE will pay the 9.8 price for a RAW Iron Man 1. It has to be graded and slabbed. So if you have a 9.8 Iron Man 1, you are leaving a bunch of $$ on the table not getting it graded and slabbed.

This pretty much sums it up. I would add with emphasis that the vast majority of comic book collectors collect raw books. They prefer raw books. They want to read them at least once before filing away. And they don't want to feel they had to pay extra for a slabbed copy. Which is actually a mistake. Slabbed books are not always more expensive, especially if you consider a lot of raw "NM" books actually are not 9.4. And that few collectors can spot professional restoration. But so anyway - as Bookery explained very well - most brick and mortar comic stores no incentive to have a lot of slabbed books. The exceptions being stuff that is very expensive and/or if the store has a significant online presence. The very question by the OP speaks to a point I mention here regularly. I loved slabbed books. But people that love slabbed books - especially here on this forum - loose sight of just what a TINY percentage of the hobby professionally graded and encapsulated books are. Third party professionally graded books make headlines with record breaking sales. But the total volume of such is minuscule compared to the larger universe of raw books. Heck, the very best books in the hobby are still raw. The Dentist has never sent in his Edgar Church (Mile High) runs of Action 1-10 and Detective 27-40.

Thank you for the clarification. I've not seen "received" since the redesign. That it appears with convention submissions and CCS submissions (which I don't do) makes sense.

Yes, several months ago CGC redesigned the online portal. There was quite a bit of discussion about the redesign here on the boards with everyone agreeing it was worse that before. It doesn't view well on smart phones and smaller tablets. But the worst is what you noted. CGC eliminated a couple of previous report points on the progress of our books. Now there is only scheduled for grading, grading/QC and shipped/finalized. We've lost the received, verified and grading points. So basically the redesign gives customers less information, less convenience.

CIS includes private shipping insurance. Books shipped to you - books you ship somewhere else - are supposed to be covered up to limits listed. Which vary based on carrier and service. And have requirements, like a deductible and require a signature. I read the above thread when it came out. It doesn't apply to what most of us have CIS for. I would expect the frame shop to have insurance that covers any damage they inflict on art that they are framing. If they don't have such insurance, I would still expect them to be responsible. In the example linked to, it would be similar to my expecting CIS to cover any damage CGC did to comics I sent them for grading and encapsulation. That's not reasonable. CIS covers my comics while I have them. They cover my comics while being shipped to CGC (up to the terms of the coverage, if I follow the rules) And CIS will cover the comics when being shipped back to me. Once in CGC's hands, that's CGC's responsibility. Not CIS. I carry CIS coverage (I have a dealer policy, which is more expensive) to cover theft and natural perils (roof leaks and ruins the comics). And for the private shipping insurance. Since I ship a lot of packages, the savings on insurance pays for much of the policy itself. Just for clarity, I never intended to suggest Collectibles Insurance Services might not be as good as they appear to be. I meant to say only that no one seems to know of anyone that has filed a (reasonable) claim and how it went. It is a good thing that I have never had anything stolen or packages lost or destroyed by USPS or UPS. That I have never had to file a claim. But I could tell you of my experience of filing claims with State Farm under home and auto (they ranged from good to outstanding) But I've never encountered anyone that filed a claim with CIS for stolen books, books destroyed by fire or storm damage or even a claim on a lost package. So I assume that CIS will be fair with any claim.

Just a few observations on CGC's current TAT 1) Receiving staff seemed to put in some OT. I received emails on a couple of submissions on Saturday. A good thing, as books were sometimes taking a full five business days to be logged in after delivery. 2) Does anyone else feel like CGC's current TAT's are a bit on the wonky side? Might I even dare say "unfair"? 3) CGC is clearly prioritizing keeping Modern TAT at close to 20 business days. But they are doing this by greatly increasing TAT on MORE EXPENSIVE tiers. Sometimes MUCH MORE expensive tiers. Standard - over 3x the price of Modern - is now just ONE DAY faster than Modern. Economy almost 2x the price is over 2x slower. As a dealer, most of the books I submit are for customers. In the past, I've explained to customers CGC's pricing as "Generally, the more your book is worth, the more it costs to grade it. But the faster it gets done" That explanation doesn't work anymore. Now I basically have to say "CGC gives you the best service and best price on books published after 1975 valued at $200 or less. Older books will take a lot longer unless you pay at least 3.25x the price of a modern. I can't say why". CGC's TAT are sooo much better than six years ago I don't really want to...complain. But Economy costing nearly twice as much and taking over twice as long makes no sense. And Standard at 18 days is crazy. Why? Just so they can get people's modern books - the cheapest service by far - done quickly?

This times 100. Most everyone that has insurance for their comic books - including myself - is using this service.Their prices are reasonable and they don't require a lot of information upfront. But I have never read or heard of anyone's experience with a claim.

There are only a handful of books that the Mark Jewelers insert variants sell for substantially more. Hulk 181 comes to mind. I find that people will pay a small to modest premium for them

This. You can have extra staples. Or you can remove the extra staples and have six tiny holes through the entire book. 99.9% of the time, the extra holes look noticeably worse than the extra staples. Probably more likely to see the grade DROP from removing those extra staples. Not improve.