Tony S

I go into a local comic book store on Wednesdays and help out some. Wednesday is new comic book day - I'm constantly amazed (and disappointed) at the condition new comics arrive in. I've seen worse plenty of times with "new, unread" books right out of Diamond's box. Most books new out of the box are not 9.8's. Not even close. Like Bob, the book looks 9.0 to me right now. All the defects appear to be ones pressing would fix. Of course that costs money and takes time.

If money is no object, most would argue ASM 300 is the best book to have McFarlane sign. It is without a doubt his most widely recognized and iconic cover image. Todd has (re) used it many a time with his other characters. If cheap is necessary, I'd consider in the following order... Coyote 11 - his first work in comics. Dirt cheap Rust 1 - Spawn ad inside back cover. This is the first published image of spawn. The limited edition foil cover has a print run of 10,000 and can be had for $50. The regular edition is cheaper still Malibu Sun 13 - cover dated May 1992 just like Spawn 1. But it actually arrived in comic shops a couple of weeks before Spawn 1 did. Spawn on the cover. It is an advertisement, so calling it the "1st appearance" is sketchy. But Spawn is on the cover. This one gets sorta pricey, it's hard to find a copy under $150-$200 As others have mentioned, you cannot get CGC graded as a Verified Signature (Yellow label) books signed by Todd at comic books shows/conventions. CGC Yellow label is only available when signed at his 2x a year private signings with NY Comics. Next one is coming up sometime in December. However, it is my understanding that at most shows (where you cannot get CGC) Todd signs for little or no cost.

Fill out the submission form. You have a choice of a pdf form you download and fill out or an online submission. Online is better and costs $3 less. After the submission form is done, print it out and put it with your books. Package your books up securely and ship them to CGC. It's wise to pay for shipping insurance and require a signature on delivery. The above actually summarizes it. You can find - if needed - tips on how to package your books so they arrive undamaged. But it's not rocket science. Use a sturdy box and package the books so that they cannot slide around. there is space between the books and all parts of the box and packaging material - like bubble wrap or crumpled up newspaper - filling up all the empty space in the box. Welcome to the boards.

I did not know this. Put him on my fav list....

I'll assume your friend has some resources since he's a physician. Hire a lawyer. Chances are the comic shop can't afford a legal battle to try to keep property that doesn't belong to them. There are all sorts of things a lawyer could do that would make just giving the books - or at least the best books - back the easiest thing to do. Haul them in for a deposition. Subpoena an inventory of the books, when and for what any were sold, those still in their possession. Ask for a copy of the written policy that says "they are mine after xxx months." Make them jump through hoops -and the first time the don't jump haul them in for contempt. If they hire a lawyer, now they are spending money and the lawyer is just going to advise they reach some settlement rather than spend more money on legal fees than the comics are worth. if they don't hire a lawyer a good lawyer ought to be able to work them over easily. It won't be free, but it'd be worth it.

It is a 3.0 that presents well for the assigned grade. But the graders notes list NO defects that would be improved by pressing. The tears and stains are the "why" of the grade assigned. If you feel like rolling the dice you can always have it regraded instead of reslabbed into the new Gen 2 holder. It is hard to imagine the book dropping in grade. You can also call and ask that the book be directed to CCS first and pay for having it screened for pressing. All of those things cost a good deal more $$ than just reslabbing. But maybe you could get a grade bump. Won't know unless you try

If CCS does the work the book would retain the signature series (yellow label) designation.

I see nothing that causes me any concern

NO. CGC does not consider it a defect that damages the comic in anyway.

No, generally speaking, boomers are not cashing out. Some books have gone up so much (say Amazing Fantasy 15 and the other major keys) that collectors who have owned those books for a long time and purchased them at (by today's standards) very low prices are now very, very tempted to sell. In the late 80's early 90's a VF copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 might have cost you a three grand. CL's auction of an 8.0 last month closed over 250K. That makes owners notice - and think about selling.

Oops! That's a crazy labeling error. I kinda collect labeling errors. So I think it's cool. But I'd want my Hulk 181 too....

What you say that I have bolded also applies to services.... Like GPA At $120 a year, they are the most expensive pricing tool I purchase. The OPG isn't near the "Bible" it used to be. But at $30 a year, I find it worth the cost. I pay $120 a year for GPA based upon the belief that it is a REAL TIME reporting of ACTUAL sales of CGC slabs from the largest auction / exchange houses. We have had the discussion about GPA not catching Craiglist, convention sales etc, etc on these boards before. I don't WANT those sales to be captured. The data is too unreliable. Too many reporters would simply lie about the actual sale prices. Lie the same way we see a potential skew of data here. Prices too high. The sky isn't falling here. But I take a lot of interest in this because I buy and sell a lot of comics. Stuff I pay money for needs to have value to me. Goods and services. If I can't trust the numbers in GPA it's not worth $120 a year to me. That's it.

I got a reply back from GPA. The summary is that they pull eBay prices from eBay API's. They know there is a "handful of slightly off prices" because of the way some eBay offers are handled . They say "these are a tiny fraction of BIN prices". And that they continue to monitor all prices. I'm going to write back. I can see where it is completely true that a "handful of slightly off prices" might not make much difference on the average for say a New Mutants 98 in 9.6. But on much less commonly traded books - say a Batman 47 - where there are only 6-10 sales a year recorded a few that are way off could have an oversize effect. Addressing a few comments here - I don't use GPA as "gospel". But if I have to start searching half a dozen websites manually to double check on what GPA is listing, why am I paying $120 a year for? Right now I (most of the time) use GPA and ComicLink (CL not reporting to GPA) for slabs and Overstreet and eBay for raws. I can't spend an hour researching prices on every single comic I buy and sell. I pay for pricing tools to speed that process up.

I also believe what Bomber-Bob says is correct. And I would note that CGC has gotten stricter on tanning, stains and foxing the past year.

60 is the new 40

Once again, Comicwiz lives up to his name. We can't really do anything about eBay's behavior, but paying customers ought to have some influence with GPA. I'm repeating myself, but GPA customers will be much better served by a small high quality data set of comic sales than a larger - maybe much larger - data set that is has much lower quality data. If there is no way to be certain that data captured out of eBay BIN sales is accurate, better to just exclude it.

George is a member here (pretty sure it's George) but I don't remember his board name. The few times I've messaged him it has just been through the GPA website.

Well, as someone that pays $119 a year for a subscription to GPA, I find this information both new and unsettling. I thought that on BIN's and offers, GPA ultimately recorded the actual sale price as reported to them by eBay. I don't want pricing data that is skewed on the high side by recording BIN prices never actually achieved. I maintain that paying customers of GPA are better served by a smaller data set of sales that consists of high quality data than a larger data set that is of lower quality data. GPA should exclude sales where they cannot be confident that was in fact the price paid. As a paying subscriber, I''ll be emailing them my concerns.

If determined to use a camera, a lightbox is the answer. You can make your own - find instructions online at sites like wikihow. Or buy decent ones for $50 or less on Amazon. I'd steer clear of the ones that are sold for under $10. The key is indirect lighting and white background. Personally, I found it easier to just buy a scanner that works well with slabs. You need legal size scan bed AND you need the scan technology to be CCD, not CIS. CIS is what is now almost universally used because its cheaper and smaller. But it won't work with slabs. New scanners using CCD that are legal size start out at $700 - $800. So when looking for a scanner for slabbed comics, older scanners on eBay or Craigslist are your friend. As Overclck mentioned, I too have an HP Scanjet 8300. They were widely used by government agencies and large corporations so are reasonably easy to find in good shape.

When professional restorers use glue, it can be safely removed. It's typically a wheat or cellulose or both type of glue. Such glues are both archival and easily removed. The fact you can see this so easily is proof by itself that it isn't professional. Something like Elmers glue isn't coming off without damaging the paper.

Selling a book raw a sticker will cause the book sell for less. A sticker on the back cover usually won't affect the value as much as the front , but it's still a defect that lowers value. CGC will give books with a sticker on the cover - front or back - a green Qualified label. The numeric grade won't be affected. But the Green label is affectionately referred to as the Green Label of Death (GLOD) Because Green label books nearly always sell for substantially less than Blue Universal labels Welcome to the boards!

Great answer Shadroch. I wish more people collecting newstands understood that a newstand issue from 1978 isn't scarce. It's the direct editions that were scarce at that time.

I have not seen this in person, but have had one person tell me about something similar. They had a CGC slabbed book that seemed to get a long crack along the bottom for no apparent reason. They said they received the book in the mail (a purchase) and it was fine. They put it in a box with other slabs and when they went to get it out a few weeks later it had the big long crack.

Good point. Makes sense.

Apparently if you play Overwatch, which has a huge number of players (30 million) you'd recognize it right away. I'm also told it's not consider impolite to ask cosplayers who the character is that they are playing. I've taken many a picture of a cool costume but didn't know who the character was that they were playing. So I'm just going to start asking....