Tony S

You really need to post some pictures. What you are describing is most likely distributor ink. Many books had the top edge (or sometimes the bottom) spray painted different colors so retailers knew when to send unsold copies back in for credit. They would take a stack of books and spray paint the edges the color of the month. Sometimes the person doing the spray painting got carried away. And the top copy always got overspray. How much it affects the grade depends on how bad. If it's nice and neat just along the top as intended, it doesn't have much if any affect. I have a FF 45 that looks great with a moderate amount of overspray on the back cover that got 8.5

Archival tape should safely come off. You would use a solvent. How safely it is to remove depends on the quality of the paper the tape is attached to and how good one is at using solvents to remove tape. Overall, it's best to leave it alone. Speaking of leaving it alone.... Tape - archival or regular - does not by itself get a PLOD. CGC's treatment of tape is to not allow it to ever improve the grade of a book. If the tape repairs a defect - say a detached staple or a tear - the book will be graded as though the staple is detached or the tear is still there. If the tape serves no repair purpose, it is treated as a defect. But tape itself doesn't result in a restored grade. If your only concern about the tape is the PLOD, you don't need to get the tape removed.

Have you seen the new (pdf) submission form? An entire page of legalese that you sign off that essentially says..... "You have sent us a book already in a CGC holder. It is hard to get books out of the CGC holder. The book might get damaged. It might be damaged really, really bad. You agree to accept the risk that the book might get damaged and hold us harmless." That said, I've unslabbed 2-3 Generation 2 slabs with the inner well. The large flat blade screw driver is the tool to use to remove break open the outer shell. For the inner holder I use a Guillotine trimmer. Cut across the top first, then (super carefully) cut down just a couple of inches on both sides. Lay it flat and slide the book out. The new inner wells do seem to run closer, but it's only scary, not impossible

Detective 359 has been a hot book climbing steadily and aggressively in value since 2012. This is a Silver Age key by any definition. It is also as said a tough book in VF and better grades. Discussing Detective 359's growth in value potential can hardly be called pumping. More like reporting the news. And selling this book can hardly be called dumping. Better to call selling it a mistake unless one really needs the money or have decided to quit collecting comic books. Because it is almost certain you'll pay more whenever you try to replace it.

That's ignorant - but the owner's response was still rather funny.... And having books out on display that are not for sale I find ....not uncommon at comic book stores. Mostly comic book stores where the owner also is an active collector. And there is a variation on this. Some store owners will - rather than say "it's mine and not for sale" will instead just put a ridiculously high price on it.

I think of myself as a collector first. But as a collector, I have a wide range of collecting interests. I grew up reading comics in the 1960's when there were still a lot of different genres on the stands and it wasn't just super powered types in long underwear. But don't get me wrong, I love the superheroes. I just happen to like Thunder Agents and Magnus Robot Fighter nearly as well as the mainstream Marvel and DC heroes. Because I have a wide range of characters and titles I like - and taking into account I cannot own everything I might like to own - if I spend much money on a comic book for my collection I figure it might as well be a comic book that has decent potential to grow in value. For decades that has mostly worked out well for me. Not every book I've put in my collection has increased in value. But most have - and most have appreciated nicely in value. So I guess my point is one can collect and invest at the same time. It's a great way to invest really - because even if it doesn't go up in price 300% over a decade or two you still had the pleasure of possessing a collectible you like.

There is probably a difference. With a prescreen, ONLY the prescreen grader has looked at the book. I assume - but can't say I know 100% for certain - that Voldy's "raw graded books" are graded by more than one grader. The site says the books are evaluated by "graders" using the same standards.

They do (prescreen older books) What they don't do is prescreen very expensive books. Here is the webpage. If you scroll down the list of questions you'll see they will prescreen Standard submissions if "special arrangements" are made ahead of time.. https://www.cgccomics.com/services/prescreen.asp

Actually, prescreening is an available service for Modern, Economy and Value. CGC also says on their website that if you have books that would be Standard Submission and you want to prescreen, to "call and make special arrangements". Only Express and Walk thru are specifically excluded from the prescreening service. Most of the prescreens I have sent in have been moderns. But the modern tier goes all the way back to 1975. While most of the modern books I've sent in were prescreened at 9.8 and a some at 9.6, some of the older "moderns" were screened at much lower grades.

I guess I'll comment on another one of your questions. The question of "how can a book have this and this and this wrong and still get the same grade as one that has just this wrong" There are two answers that come to mind with that question. There might be more... 1) It's a mistake for collectors to believe that the grading notes listed on a book are a complete, absolute and total record of every defect the grader(s) saw. it is simply the defects they wrote down. Entering grading notes is time consuming. They at best enter the notes that most affected their final given grade. I've seen other forums where collectors we indignant that would not be guaranteed a 9.9/10 if they had some tiny defect pressed out of a 9.8. No - nearly all the time it would stay a 9.8 and if it had grading notes (not likely) it would just mention something else. 2) Defects aren't all equal. A 9.4 can have more than one defect. But one defect might be enough to make it a 9.4. At the NM and higher grades it is hard to illustrate. The lower grades are easier. A perfect book with a 3" spine split is still going to land in the 4.0-5.0 range. A single defect took it all the way to low/mid grade. BTW. 9.4 is no hard upper limit for a very light bend. I've seen 9.6's with that notation. And who knows, there might be 9.8's that have such. Hard to say since 9.8 moderns usually don't have grading notes.

I have some concern I'll take some flack over any comments about this. I mostly avoid any comments that could be taken as criticism of grading standards or grading notes. For me - grading consistency is really the important thing. Someone else wrote the standards and they have never been shared. With moderns, it appears to me that "light or very light" bends and spine stresses are just very, very common in grading notes. It didn't used to be like this in grading notes. And go to a local comic book store and look at the new issues just out of the box from Diamond. Nearly all have some level of what you could call bends - too much ink, too light of paper. And with the covers a heavier stock, they can't be folded without showing some stress along the fold. I rarely if ever see these grading notes on older books - especially if the older book has other grading notes of other defects. A year ago, two years ago, a decade ago I rarely saw these notes. Now a common note. I cannot say why. Just as a guess, I think with bends CGC is maybe a bit overly....cautious or sensitive to them because of the issues they had with the Generation 2 slab and no inner well cause some bends or waves. Or maybe it has nothing to do with this. But obviously graders are looking for this. I should mention I've unslabbed a couple of books with grading notes of "very light bend" and there was nothing I saw. But that's me - I'm not a Grader - and for all we know the bend went away once encapsulated and held flat for a while. If/when you have the books, look at them and see if you see bends. Post back up.

In my experience the CGC barcode label is near impossible to cleanly peel off a bag. Maybe Voldy should use those instead of their stickers

I don't mean to be too picky on choice of words - but CGC puts a barcode on every book received. In the case of prescreen rejections the books just didn't get very far into the process. Rejections are returned (raw) back to their owners in the bags with the barcode. But the barcode is put on at the very beginning for every book and it is how they keep track of the book (workflow management system) through the process.

What bababooey said. On ASM 361 MOST copies - nearly all - have cuts/tears along the bottom edge. If you look on eBay, you'll see most of the CGC 9.8's listed have these tears. I sent in 13 copies a few months ago and only one did NOT have the tears. Most came back 9.8 with a few 9.6's and one 9.0. If the book is in high grade, ASM 361 is worth getting graded and slabbed. 362 and 363 not so much.

Only CGC would know 100% for sure what causes the bottleneck in encapsulation. But there are boardies who have been watching this for over a decade. The general "guestimate" is that the encapsulation equipment is expensive. In times past when way behind, it was the encapsulation and shipping depts that started working Overtime first and for the longest. If you think about it, to grade comic books you need a clean room, tables and good light. Obviously encapsulation requires specialized equipment and materials. The correct size inner holder and outer shells, the heat sealing equipment and trained operators. It's also worth pointing out in this discussion that when CGC rolled out the new Generation 2 slab with NO INNER HOLDER, one of the benefits they touted was that it would reduce the amount of time it took to encapsulate books. Right now this conversation doesn't matter quite so much because CGC is kicking on TAT's. But I've been doing this a long time and we all know current TAT's aren't going to last into the Summer. The revision of the Generation 2 slab put the inner well back in. The evidence suggests CGC already tried to "streamline the process" and it blew up in their face. I doubt they need an efficiency expert telling them how to encapsulate quicker. What they probably need is more encapsulation equipment and trained operators. And who knows? Maybe they have in fact already done that. IMHO that investment would pay off. Because if TAT's stayed reasonable in the Summer and Fall, I think they'd get more business still. I am certain that their improved TAT's have already lead to more submissions. It used to be that when books I sent in arrived at CGC on Monday - then sometime during the day on Monday all the books were in the system. NOW when books arrive on Monday, it's not unusual for it to be Tuesday or Wednesday before they are in the system. I called and asked "why" last time (books had been recieved but not showing in my portal) I was told they had received a lot of submissions over the weekend. I didn't even call yesterday or today about all the books they got on Monday that are not showing. I know what's going on. Collectors are rushing out shipments to CGC wanting to take advantage of reasonable TAT.

Anyone that has watched books move through the grading process over the years KNOWS that encapsulation is a bottleneck. Clearly graders can grade faster than the people in encapsulation can slab. Because when CGC is backed up, books get through grading quickly and then sit for a long time waiting to get through the slabbing and QC stage.

The value limit is needed for two reasons that immediately come to mind. Maybe there are more.... I've been told by a trustworthy source that the grading companies make very little profit on the regular modern tier. The $250 value limit prevents this new "raw graded" service from cannibalizing sales of much more profitable service tiers. The $250 limit is also needed to discourage fraud. If expensive books could be sent in, passing off professional restoration by using the raw grade might well go from rare to common. At $250 value limit - considering what professional restoration costs - this shouldn't be a big problem I've mentioned before that books with obvious amateur restoration - stuff the graders will easily see - is I am told going to be rejected. It's a professional restoration check that is missing.

There is a FMV of $250. My understanding is that they will reject any books with obvious (call it amateur) restoration - but will not be performing a professional restoration check. With the value limit, there isn't going to be much economic incentive or opportunity to pass off professionally restored books. All that said, the service would offer more value if it included a restoration check

The Voldemort price for this service is $10 for moderns, $15 for books pre 1975. There is a FMV limit of $250. So this is not intended for expensive books and it is my belief Voldy will be fairly strict on enforcing the value limit. They have no reason to cannibalize the encapsulated market. BTW - this is $10 and $15 period. Voldemort offers no dealer or member discounts on their "raw graded" book service. This will be a deal breaker for most, as it is just not all that much cheaper that encapsulated for most comics. It seems unlikely to me that dealers and large volume submitters will have much interest in the service. Dealers cost for moderns with either company is about $14. So for just four bucks more you get a restoration check and encapsulation. For older books it's a bit more mixed. Dealers, larger volume submitters and economic minded individuals take advantage of CGC's Value tier. Dealer price $20. Again, $5 isn't much of a savings. However, for those that pay full retail it might be worth a look. It might be Penny wise and pound foolish - or maybe not. Depends on "why" you are getting the book graded. IMHO, where the service has some real potential is magazine and treasury sized comics. For magazines the cost is less than 1/2 CGC's least expensive services. Obviously there is not - and may never be - any encapsulated competition for Treasury size books. I also - this just speculation on my part - would not be surprised if Voldy looks the other way at magazines and Treasury size value limits, since this service wouldn't steal any encapsulated business from them. As for value on the selling market, time will tell. Only one seller I'm aware of on eBay had any stock - and the results were rather mixed. A lot of common books didn't meet the opening bid of $20 last week. Decent, minor key stuff sold for about 65% of what slabbed averages on GPA. The few really "better" books actually came close to GPA prices.

Probably the AF 15. HOWEVER, if one wanted to gamble a bit, you could argue that as major keys go, FF 1 is a bit overlooked and under appreciated. At 9.0 it is also a great deal rarer than AF 15 in 7.5. There are 81 unrestored copies of AF 15 graded 7.5 or better. There are 15 unrestored copies of FF 1 in 9.0 or better. So it depends on your intent. As a collector, Spidey is my favorite character and I'd be inclined to get the AF 15 first. But if I was investing, I think I'd roll the dice and grab the FF 1 in 9.0. A book that appears to be undervalued in a grade that is rare.

Awesome pics... Or "groovy" as we used to say back when psychedelic art was popular

I think that CGC just goes out and buys such

No. I don't believe so anyway. Low or high dollar. The closest to this is a book - Detective 400 - that was a CGC 9.2 Universal that I sent to Matt back when he was Classics Inc. He pressed it and it came back 9.4. Qualified with bottom staple pulled through FC. He thought CGC probably caused the staple pop. I had no way of knowing of course. I chalked it up to anything can happen. The restoration check does indeed require the book be opened up good and flat to look for repairs.

Most of the books I've received back the last month (maybe a dozen?) have had small Newton rings (I prefer prism effect). Back in the old days you could do the sheet of paper inserted from the side of the case to push the two layers of plastic apart and get rid of the Newton ring. The new, otherwise gorgeous case is sealed all along all four sides so this is no longer an option. What I don't understand is that I have NEVER seen the prism effect on PGX or Voldemort slabs. Why is this. What is different that causes either the plastics to not touch - or if they touch no Newton Ring appears? I've unslabbed hundreds of books from all three companies and I just don't see what the difference is. Surely CGC could figure this out if they tried.

I just called Customer Service to say "great job" on TAT and then logged in here to do the same thing. Found this Awesome job CGC. I have been submitting books since maybe 2003? This is as good as it has EVER been. And soooooo much better than the times where regular moderns were taking six or more months. It is truly appreciated Thank you!! BTW - Brittany and the other Customer Service reps over the years have always been helpful and patient - even when I'm sure helpful and patient was not easy .