Tony S

Yeah. Probably at the printer! damn you're stubborn <3 you can see some white from the BC on the front of book in question. The M is fully visible, as is the black line along the spine The copy you picture is has no white from the BC, the black line on the spine is missing and the very edge of the M in Marvel is not visible What you picture shows the books wrap is different. It doesn't prove anything else.

You might be right. But Measuring a book is the absolute least reliable way to detect a trim. As I said, this book in particular is well known for miswraps and funky cutting at the printers. In a period of comic book publishing where quality control was more idea than a reality, FF 48 stands out as a great example of bad. You can actually see the M in Marvel on this copy. If it isn't restored it's worth a few extra bucks just for that.

I do when I submit books like this under the proper tiers. This is a standard tier book. 15 business days. If you watch the website and know what to look for, you'll know if it is getting a purple label in about 10 business days.

I know it's not popular to say, but you can get good books at good prices from dealers like this. Not all of the books they sell have been altered. Their reputation results in many fine books selling on the low side of the price curve. You just need to be capable of evaluating for resto yourself or get such done before the 45 day eBay Buyer protection period is up. That said, I decided to look at the book. I think it is unlikely to grade the 8.5 it is listed at. Edge tanning, and some small chips out the FC. Along top there is a chip out and a bit of the top corner is gone. GPA on this book in 7.0/7.5 is around $500/$550. It sold for $381. An illustration of my point. I personally would pay and look it over closely. If I didn't see resto then I'd send it to CGC to be graded. Within a month I'd know if the grade was way off and there was any resto. Get my refund if there was big problem. If there isn't any problem and the book grades the 7.0/7.5 I think it will, you got a decent deal. The savings from purchasing raw paid for the grading, shipping and you had money left over for lunch. Should it get 8.0 your easily a couple of hundred bucks ahead after grading costs. You can't tell if a book has been trimmed just from a few pics. FF 48 is notorious for miswraps and funky cuts from the printer.

Kav, Kav. What you describe is against the law. This eBay seller does sell a lot of restored books. Amateur Color Touch and Trims. But he lists a lot of books unrestored. He has a 14 day return period and eBay Buyer Protection gives you 45 days of protection for item not as described. His feedback is 100%, which means he is taking returns and refunding money If you got a good price, I'd pay for the book and evaluate it. CGC's standard tier is 15 business days and the resto check will be done after they have had the books for 7-10 days. So you would know for certain with plenty of time to spare to return. Or ask a professional restorer to check it.

You need to call. That is crazy. Standard is 15 business day TAT and it's more expensive than SIX other tiers. I have some regular modern's from 6/30 that are starting to ship

Raw Marvel Feature 1 (Defenders) book just as described, quickly shipped and securely packaged. Thanks Mike! Tony

Books subbed for fast track at SDCC on 07/25/14 were verified on 08/15/14 and just now shipped. Three weeks later they get verified and nearly six weeks later they get sent out??? So fast track is taking two calendar months now? Apparently. I got 75% of my books back and have been waiting on the other part, which is just silly. Not all Fast Track is the same. What tier did you use? Economy is showing 25 business days. If you subtract out the one holiday and all the Fridays that CGC attended shows, you actually get about about seven weeks. Value should be six weeks and Modern about five

Comic was well packaged, shipped lightning quick. And just as pictured and described. Thanks!

+1 especially if you have a Mac because HP appears to have stopped updating the drivers. Yeah, sorta wish I had found about this software before buying a different scanner. Save me a few bucks. But I have to say the HP 8300 is giving better scans than my Microtek 9700xl. It's just the Microtek is really big and can scan Original Artwork as well as slabs.

Of the Microtek scanners listed above, only the I800 plus and the Scanmaker 9800 are currently supported by Microtek. And even that support has stopped at Windows 7. No Windows 8 drivers. The V6UPL, and the Scanmaker 9600 and 9700 have no driver support past XP. Regarding using VueScan as the scanning driver/interface. The VueScan website states Windows compatability up to Vista "VueScan works on Windows NT/2K/XP/Vista, and works with all known SCSI cards" The Epson and HP products look to be the way to go, as they have current drivers up to Windows 8.1 64 bit. I wish I had known about the HP 7780 AIO. I would have looked for one. Though having said that out loud I might pause. Printers wear out faster than scanners.

Some companies are better about updating drivers than others. And if the equipment is "pro level" drivers are more likely still to be updated. HP has drivers all the way through Win 8.1 64 bit for the 8300. Probably for the entire 8000 series, but I didn't check.

Pay more. They still make CCD scanners. Epson makes a good number of scanners with CCD technology with prices starting around $200. Unfortunately, the large format CCD scanners - something that can scan a slabbed comic - get damn pricey. Like $1500.

The article itself is long and quite technical. But for the purpose of scanning slabbed comic books, the chart at the bottom has only one spec collectors need to be concerned about. Focal Depth. The focal depth of CCD is 10x to 30x greater than CIS. (3 to 5 millimeter (mm) Vs .1 to .3 mm. .3 (3/10) of a MM is about 1/100 of an inch. 5 mm is about 1/5 of an inch It is hard to measure exactly without proper tools, but it appears CGC's slabs hold a comic about 1/8 of an inch from the surface. CCD's are able to focus on the comic inside a slab. CIS's cannot. With a CIS sensor, a comic book inside a slab is simply not close enough to the sensor. This is why the test scan posted up of the slabbed Star Trek comic looks soft and out of focus. With a CIS sensor, the book - in a slab - is to far away.

I cannot answer your question directly What I do know is that good scans of encapsulated books has to do with the type of sensor used. Contact Image Sensors (CIS) are cheaper and smaller and what is used in inexpensive scanners and All In One Machines. These sensors have no depth of field. They can "see" what is laying flat on the glass. Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) are more like a tiny camera and have a depth of field. They can clearly image an item inside a slab I searched high and low for an AIO that used CCD technology and never found anything. So I gave up and bought a scanner with CCD. Maybe there are some AIO machines that use CCD tech, but I couldn't find them. The 8600 uses CIS. That info is hard to find. Anymore, if it is not mentioned what is used you should expect CIS as CCD is more expensive. If the 8600 is giving better scans of slabs than most AIO's, likely it has to do with scanning software.

Hi Sharon I just purchased off eBay an HP Scanjet 8300. I built myself a new PC and installed Windows 7, then discovered that drivers for my old scanner (a Microtek Scanmaker 9700) were not available for anything past Windows XP. There are software work around solutions for such. A dual boot configuration or a virtual machine - with an XP installation. But that was more fuss than I cared for. So I purchased the HP 8300. When I first got the HP Scanner, I was a little disappointed. The Microtek can scan items 12"x17" in size. I knew the HP could only do 11 x 14 - but that was big enough for slabs. But I assumed that if the scan bed was smaller the scanner would be too. Imagine my surprise to find the HP 8300 was actually a tiny bit bigger than the Microtek. The slight disappointment went away with my first few scans. The HP, without any adjustments or tweaking, was giving me superior scans of slabbed books. Even that "other company's" slab - which often had a bit of distortion at the top and/or bottom with the Microtek - looked clear and sharp. Perhaps if I had spent hours figuring first how to - and then calibrating - the Microtek I would have had scans just as good. But the HP's scans were great right out of the box. I paid about $100 on eBay including shipping. The seller I got it from seems to have a bunch from the State Dept and the last several have sold for less than I paid (typical for me ). Here is a link to their current auction. They have been relisting the item over and over for at least a couple of months. They sell one, then list another. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=171357492785

Right after MsSchmidt's comments about his at home test for a year showing no visible fading was another boardie's (Mister_Comics) comment that he worked in product testing for fading and light always fades, even if slowly. He mentions that by the time you notice it - it is too late. I have way too many comics to think in terms of display. I think in terms of collecting and preserving. To each their own. Once purchased, it belongs to its new owner. Display it or not.

around here this topic is akin to asking people what Hitler's greatest achievement was Hitler had one. the People's Car - or the Volkswagen Beetle. I can't think of one for Liefeld.

Great idea Yep, as long as you don't try to sell them on eBay . . . Now you've done it. Caused some good child to go bad. They probably never would have thought of it!

As a test, why don't you put a daily newspaper up on the shelf and check back in a couple of weeks? Take a before and after picture. I think you'll be surprised at the amount of yellowing that takes place. If you really feel the need to do this, then you need UV blocking glass in front of your books on display. Artificial lights are nearly as bad for books as sunlight. Really, the best thing to do is buy a cheaper scanner/printer, make color copies of the front cover and frame and mat those. They look great, it doesn't matter if they fade AND your books are safe in boxes in the dark

They made a decent movie about it. Disturbing because it was true! Thats the dude-havent seen the movie did he do the drink thing in it? Classic sociopath BTW. Ps sociopath does not necessarily mean criminal. You could be living with a sociopath and not know it. Here's a test-ask them: A woman goes to her father's funeral and meets the man of her dreams her soul mate. But he leaves before she can get his number. A week later she murders her sister. Why do you think she did that? Does that fact that I don't know the answer to this question mean I am relatively normal or that I am a sociopath? I"m guessing the options are either to murder the sister to get the guy to show up to another family funeral, or maybe the non-sociopath thing to do would be to check the guest book and see if any single men signed and approach it that way... You would be diagnosed as a sociopath as anyone else wouldn't even be able to conceive the answer to get him to show up at another funeral....but it is not necessarily a bad thing. The emotional detachment of a sociopath can make the greatest heroes....or villains.... I think you did that wrong. I think you say she forgot to get the number and ask how she would go about getting it. If the person then answers kill another family member then they would be a sociopath. Thank you! That makes much more sense This thread has definitely taken a weird turn. But the good thing is I think it can be pushed over 100 pages.

That's not how it's done. By the time the graders get the book, a page count has already been done. The resto check has already been done. Graders know if it has been restored and if there are any missing pages or coupons cut. They only have to grade. Steve Borock shared this with me years ago. It's a little off the OP's subject, but I suggest CGC needs to hire more staff and get more equipment on the encapsulation side. It is fairly clear that is where the hold up is at. Books sit as graded for weeks and months waiting to be encapsulated. Clearly the graders can produce books ready for slabbing faster than encapsulation can slab.

Good luck. I'm not sure this (FedEx account) is going to help much for CGC customers outside the USA. CGC already only ships FedEx for orders outside the USA. And as has been noted on the boards many times, there is no inexpensive shipping method to other countries (from USA). USPS is consistently the least expensive option for international shipments originating in the USA.

Cherry Poptart.. One of the few undergrounds/adult books I own

Another conspiracty theory shot to hell. So sad Thank you for your post. Both your first and this one.