Tony S

No, you could ship it by USPS. I'm using the UK for my estimates at the USPS website. Canada would be less, Australia 2x more. . Western Europe the same price as UK. You are looking at about $180 Priority Express international and $350 Global Express Guaranteed. You can check the websites of UPS and FedEx for their rates. They will not be cheaper. Probably more. There hasn't been any inexpensive international shipping options for a decade now.

Insurance is always my biggest concern with shipping internationally. Substantial amounts of insurance are only available with the most expensive shipping services. So unless you are willing to risk giving the statues away, you are going to have to use the most expensive services Priority Mail international provides up to $200 of insurance. No extra can be purchased Priority Mail Express International allows you to purchase up to $650 of insurance Global Express Guaranteed allows you to purchase up to $2499 of insurance coverage. The cost - before any extra insurance - for a 2lb package to the UK is $60/$74/$135. International buyers will understandably want you to use the least expensive shipping method. But I refuse to unless I have received payment that cannot be reversed. Like an international MO or wire transfer. Because if you get paid with PayPal or a credit card and agree to use something like first class international that isn't insured, you run a very high risk of ending up with neither your stature NOR your money

So far I think the most important thing has not been addressed. CCS charges $$ to screen a comic book for suitability of pressing. . Screening is specifically recommended on the CCS home page to mitigate the chance of damage during pressing. If screening was not paid for there is zero chance of getting any sort of compensation from damage as a result of pressing. Even if screening was paid, there is no guarantee of compensation - but your chances are probably better. The last two paragraphs on CCS's homepage explain it best:: Link: https://www.cgccomics.com/ccs-pressing/ Because of the interactive nature of pressing, there is always a possibility of damage occurring to the comic book. This generally only happens if a comic book is in fragile condition, including books that are tanned or brittle, spines exhibiting splits, loose paper on the staples, or pieces that are barely attached. To mitigate the possibility of damage, it is recommended that each book is examined for these defects prior to submission. When in doubt, the CCS screening service should be utilized to assess safety. Because it is impossible to ensure that damage will not occur, CCS will not be held liable for split spines, covers or pages detached from staples, or detached pieces.

Your book looks to be financially worthwhile to get professionally graded and encapsulated. ASM 300 has long been a collectible issue and is very much in demand right now with Venom soon to have his own movie. It's also a book that tends to sell for more professionally graded than raw. As comicdonna mentioned, the book also looks like it would benefit from being pressed before graded. Your copy shows a good amount of potential of grading fairly high. Welcome to the boards!

I don't know anything about sports cards and what is good or bad for the hobby. But I would dispute the Walking Dead TV show bringing in new comic book fans. Rather the TV show has caused a great deal more interest in the comic book - especially collecting the key issues - among people that were ALREADY comic book collectors. At it's peak in season 5, you had 14 million viewers watching the show. That's dropped by 1/2 to about 6.6 million viewers this season. The comic book routinely sells around 75,000 to 85,000 copies a month. Depending on what other titles are being released, The Walking Dead comicbook sometimes slips into the top 10 best selling comic books and is typically in the top 20. Obviously, not even a tiny fraction of the 6 - 7 million viewers of the show are coming into comic book stores to buy the comic. I suspect Amazon probably sells some extra trades to the occasional rare viewer that wants to see what happened in the comics. But even that is few and far between. People can search the internet for what the differences are between the comic and TV show. The TV show has interested existing comic book collectors in putting the Walking Dead on their pull list and want list. It hasn't done mess to bring in new comic book collectors.

It's rare for CGC to bump up modern's to a higher tier. CGC's own advertisement for rolling the modern tier back to 1975 is a picture of a Giant Size X-Men 1 in 9.6. That's a book worth over $3000. People are sending in ASM 300's, New Mutants 98 and NYX 3 all the time as modern tier submissions. Your question about shipping is actually more important. FedEx and UPS shipments have $100 in insurance. The entire box - not each comic. Loss or damage is uncommon - but not unheard of. IF FedEx or UPS were to lose or damage your package of say six books the best you would get is a note from the carrier saying "we're sorry" and a check for $100. So using FedEx or UPS comes down to your aversion to risk. As the saying goes, the fact the odds were 1 in 1000 doesn't mean much if YOU are the one. If you declare each book at $200, send in say six books and use Registered Mail, your package travels back to you insured for $1200. But equally important is how Registered Mail works. Where loss or damage is uncommon with FedEx and UPS, it's virtually unheard of with Registered mail. This is the service jewelers use to ship diamond rings. Registered mail is packaged so as to be tamper evident, it doesn't travel with other classes of mail, when it's not actually moving it's locked up. So you might still be under insured at $1200 for your package of six books. But you 12x more insurance than $100 AND you are using the service that gets as close to "for certain" as is humanly possible. Registered Mail costs more and takes longer, but it's worth it. Use the modern tier, list each book at $200 and have the books returned by Registered Mail. And welcome to the boards!

Unwitnessed signatures are essentially "writing on the cover". If you request a blue label on such a book, you'll usually end up with a grade no higher than about 6.0. So CGC has a green (qualified) label for just such books. The numeric grade is the same as if there was no signature counting as a defect. But a green label. As others have noted, the book the OP posts up about most likely is - and should be - a green label book . If it's a blue label the OP in fact got a gift grade. It should have been much lower than 8.5 as a blue label. This issue comes up on these boards regularly. COA's don't mean anything.

"Spine stress lines" is one of those grader notes that don't tell you much. To begin with, if the area along the spine is white, you'll never see "color breaking" mentioned. Creases in white areas are the same. Because white is the absence of color, you'll never see "color breaking" mentioned. The paper fibers might be slightly damaged and show some stress lines. But it won't say color breaking. And then there are some defects that despite sounding as though a press might fix won't respond to a press. If you don't have the books in hand yet, you should try not to form an opinion on the effectiveness of the pressing. Wait to see the books.

9.8's rarely have graders notes. 9.4 and 9.6 sometimes don't. There can be several reasons for no graders notes on 9.4-9.6 books, but I believe it is some combination of: Book is relatively "common". Not a key issue. For instance graders notes are more likely on Nova 1 (1976) than Nova 9. Defects are obvious (easily visible) How much time the graders have for note recording.

Well...my humble opinion is they should not sell at those levels. But the one in an unreserved auction that started at $9.99 is over a grand now with just under three days to go. So it appears that a good number of collectors value the book far higher than I would. But market value is what people will pay. And we'll know in three days what that is right now.

This. Some signatures pictured here look obviously fake. But some friends of mine just got legit Stan Lee signatures via a CGC facilitator a couple of months ago. They look pretty bad. If you saw them on raw books for sale on eBay you might in fact believe they were forgeries. Stan's signature the past year has gotten really....messy. As for PGX and their signature verification service....what to say?? What I think is most sad about it is that when PGX first started their signature verification service they were partnering with Collectors Shangri-La. Kevin Segall is a legitimate, respected expert in the field of signed collectibles. But that didn't last long. A professional's review and opinion costs money. Where pretend experts that already work there are virtually free.

Congrats on your picking up some treasured childhood memories. It is often said that the golden age of comics is when one first started reading them.

Wasn't the Marvel's first Kiss Magazine supposed to have some blood in the ink of each band member? Or was that just an urban legend?

TMZ reporting somenone(s) stole blood from Stan Lee, mixed with ink, hand stamped his signature and sold books http://www.tmz.com/2018/04/05/stan-lee-stolen-blood-for-sale-black-panther-comic-books/ https://www.ktnv.com/news/comic-legend-stan-lees-blood-used-to-sign-comic-books-sold-in-las-vegas

This comes up all the time. Graded 9.8's cracked out for signatures - resubmitted - and coming back a lower grade. The OP's specific situation is a bit worse than is normally posted - but is not unheard of. Maybe the spine split during pressing. Maybe the spine was weak all along and split just from being handled. But the real issue here is when you crack a 9.8 out of a CGC slab, get it signed and resubmit, you have no where to go grade-wise but the same or down. Your chances of getting a 9.9 are in fact nonexistent -your odds of getting struck by lightning are higher. I never, Never, NEVER crack 9.8's out for signatures. Crack out 9.2-9.6 yes. Or buy a sharp raw copy. But never 9.8's. Just too high a chance of a grade drop. Just chalk this up as a learning experience and don't do it again. Unless you are willing to sacrifice a 9.8 grade for a signature on a lower grade

The general consensus in the hobby is comics are best stored upright in boxes. Raw or slabbed. And it certainly is the most efficient way space wise to store books. My slabs are upright in CGC boxes and my raws are upright in dealer boxes. That said, I've seen a few fairly well researched articles that have come to the conclusion that once comics are slabbed, storing them upright, laying flat or on their sides doesn't seem to make any difference. So for me I went with the general consensus that also happens to be the most efficient and easiest. Upright in boxes designed for raw or slabbed books.

CGC's invoices can be confusing. Look at it and see if it shows a balance due. If not, then what you paid took care of it. Otherwise, call CGC and pick option 2 - accounting. Jose will get it straightened out or explain it. Welcome to the boards

The restoration is the pieces added, Tape is always noted on the label.

None of the grading companies is going to do a detailed grading guide like you suggest. As a practical matter, they don't want to be lawyer'd to death by customers pointing at some part of such a grading guide in regards to the grade assigned their book. A lot of people assume CGC and others must start at 10 and deduct specific amounts of points for specific defects. It is NOT how it's done. If you think about it, the list would be massive. Because every one of hundreds of defects could have a hundred different degrees of severity. It would also be very easy for a book with lots of defects to get into negative numbers if it was a start at 10 and start subtracting. Finally there is "if it already has this, could it also have that?" to consider. A closer approximation of grading is more along the lines of "what it the best a book could grade with a 4", moderate color breaking crease on the front cover". Not how much such a crease takes off. Ultimately there is subjectivity. What is the overall appearance? Which is why there are three graders with one able to "finalize" the grade.

Absolutely. Keep as is. Very cool.

I too see light black prints in the yellow area. Any attempt at dry cleaning them off will remove some of the yellow ink. Any use of solvents risks both removing some ink and a restored grade if CGC detects the solvent cleaning. 9.2 is probably the highest the book can grade.

Worth the effort as long as you can remove the tape successfully without further damaging the book. I suggest sending it to a restoration expert. CCS - the in-house restoration and pressing service of CGC - would tell you if it can be safely removed. When done it's transferred to CGC for grading.

It is not as thin as tissue paper. It does feel lighter in weight than standard 20 lb copy paper. Maybe like 16 lb. It also has a softer feel to it than copy paper.

The only insight you are likely to get is that comic books with inserts like the tattooz stickers or trading cards can be safely and effectively pressed. If the pressing service knows how to do it properly. You are correct in assuming that inserts in a comic book are a potential problem for amateur and do it yourself pressing. BTW, the challenges with pressing a book with a tattooz sticker shouldn't include the heat. If it is, the person pressing is using way too much heat and shouldn't be pressing any comic books.