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troydivision1

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Everything posted by troydivision1

  1. Very interesting. Presume most (if not all) of these were processed as walk through due to being higher than $3000. Would it have been in CGC's (fiscal) best interest to grade as loosely as possible due to being able to charge 3% FMV?
  2. From what I remember...they did have to 'press' the staples tighter at the centerfold so they wouldn't be too loose.
  3. re: Sonic the Hedgehog As someone that knows firsthand that someone purchased stacks of Justice League International #33 (regardless of conditions) from Mile High Comics back in the day for an average price of $1-$2 a piece. They would tear the outer pages (to keep staples intact) until they reached the Sonic promo in the center. They would press the insert and submit to CGC as Sonic the Hedgehog #1. They would all end up graded 9.8 They would then be listed one by one (to not flood the market) on eBay for approximately $99 each. It looks as if CGC has identified this loophole and 'closed' it by creating a separate Promotion Insert listing.
  4. I can only provide context in my tracking month-to-month of my personal collection. (As I've previously shared I initially ignored Miles until my little guy said he was his favorite Spider-Man...'Rule of 25' and all that...so I was late to the party) My copy of UF #4 9.6 was purchased in September of 2019 for $150. A year later with the release of the PS4/5 game in September of 2020 the book was trending at $413. In 2021 the book went from trending at $570 in February to $1050 in March! Can only presume that was when confirmation of Multiverse of Madness and the multiple Spider-Men leaks occurred...
  5. What can you expect from CGC? Their eyes are strained from "grading" invisible comics.
  6. Amazing Spider-Man #129 Purchased raw in 2012. Not much of a story here. Purchased raw via a VCC as GD/VG (3.0) I thought it presented well and it was priced below market trend. Pressed it...back when I was trying my hand with pressing... Came back a 5.0 (VG/FN) once submitted. Thought about selling this back when Daredevil Season 2 dropped, but Jon Bernthal did such a great job I couldn't part with it.
  7. Another comment from the Bleeding Cool article... (edited a banned word and a politician's name)
  8. From the Bleeding Cool comment section...
  9. Anyone know the policy with cross-posting some of the comments from the Bleeding Cool article to these boards because some are quite funny. (Obvs, remove foul language and such)
  10. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/cgc-asks-bad-idea-to-stop-selling-the-slabbed-invisible-comics/ Well...Bleeding Cool posted an updated story... Guess CGC dragged their feet long enough to absolve themselves of this marketing fiasco. Important quote highlighted below: Middle Earth Comics of Houston messaged Bad Idea's Dinesh Shamdasani saying "Hey Dinesh, what's the word on the invisible book and CGC's stance on selling them? Seeing some things online that they're not exactly behind the idea." Dinesh replied "What are you seeing? We only built one mechanism for purchasing (and a lot of hoops to jump through!) Demand was insane and all the copies we made available were purchased immediately (on NYE!!). We have 3 big giveaways coming up very soon for copies in 3 promotion partnerships." So, basically, Bad Idea is happy to stop selling the invisible comics. Because they already sold them all. And we are aware that offers of five figures have been made to those who have copies. We look forward to seeing what happens when the first one hits eBay… My question still stands to CGC: Was this the first time a company / person paid for the exact grades they got OR is this the first time CGC was caught?
  11. Didn't see anyone else post this yet, BUT whilst we have numerous Wolverine movies with FOX we now have the opportunity to potentially see Wolverine face off against Hulk in live action. That is something I am excited about.
  12. There's a comment in the Bad Idea thread in the Modern Age Comic Books stack by @Crops068 that reads IF those initial 5 orders were sent out immediately and IF nothing else is SOLD beyond that... I'd say the over under on this manufactured (aka bought and payed CGC grades) collectible is at least $3001
  13. I now look forward to the eventual post in Moderns Heating Up On eBay about the invisible books once this fiasco is picked up on various comic sites or featured on 'recalled comics'.
  14. I'm genuinely surprised CGC did not think this through when agreeing to it. You should always start from the end goal and work backwards. Who signed off on this anyway? Sure Bad Idea approached with an idea. I will venture to say that part of the proposal was "We are coming to you guys first. If you say no, we'll go the other guys." CGC didn't want to lose an 'exclusive', saw $$$$, and didn't hesitate the ask questions. This definitely highlights the need for a PR / social media team for the company + brand. The optics on this are really bad here. And if any of their competitors were worth their weight this would be an easy opportunity to diminish CGC's reputation.
  15. Response from CGC regarding the 'invisible' comics.
  16. Thank you for the update. Will wait until we know if Bad Idea does cease selling them. Will CGC be making a statement regarding how the graded books span all grades (except 1.8) without grader notes to explain how they span all grades? Has something like this with CGC, a person / company paying them for specific grades, occurred before?
  17. To each their own. Personally, I find it upsetting that CGC® (Certified Guaranty Company®) took money from a customer and gave them the EXACT grades they wanted. I'll ask this - Is this the first time they've done this OR the first time they have been caught doing it?
  18. Posting @Qalyar Questions from - Page 1, Post 8 "I have two concerns here, neither of which is "Bad Idea is synonymous with stupid gimmicks," because that's self-evident at this point. The census report on this book is extremely, extremely concerning. Why was CGC willing to assign grades here at all? This is, all other nonsense aside,a published cover-only book. Yes, a blank acetate cover, but whatever, that's not the point. CGC has previous advised that the Sensational She-Hulk #14 Brian Bolland variant would only be eligible for slabbing with a CVR no-grade. For those who aren't familiar with this book, they originally printed Sensational She-Hulk #14 with the wrong cover. To "fix" the problem, Marvel printed the Bolland cover without any interior pages (but with interior cover text that is unique to this printing) as a sort of weird giveaway item. They're actually kind of hard to find in good condition, and I'm sure there are collectors of the title or of Bolland's work who would like to have copies graded. So why is a book intentionally produced as a cover-only item, but with legitimate unique cover and interior art work, not considered eligible to be assigned grades; but this book, intentionally produced as a cover-only item but with no art or text or any production elements at all except for staples, qualify for grading beyond the CVR no-grade label?? Perhaps more importantly, how is there the full spectrum of grades on these? I find it, shall we say, extremely unlikely that they submitted copies that just happened to result in 1 book scoring almost every possible non-9.8 grade from 0.5 to 10 (there is no copy in 1.8), with all the rest in 9.8. Which means that there was some arrangement between Bad Idea and CGC to issue labels to these books in those specific grades. There are two options there, and neither is very satisfying: Are the labels legitimate grades that reflect defects or the lack thereof in the slabbed acetate? If so, were there other copies of these acetate books submitted but not slabbed (not like we'd know, really)? In particular, pre-screening isn't even normally available for 9.9 and 10 grades, so how did unique, specific copies in these grades come to pass? As for the lower graded books, were books intentionally manipulated by adding defects to produce the requested grades? If so, did Bad Idea perform this manipulation, or did CGC? The alternative is that these aren't real grades, and CGC acceded to Bad Ideas gimmick and simply created slabs in each grade upon request. This is far more disturbing, but I suspect is what actually occurred. If so, what assurances do we have that publishers cannot do this in future with books that have actual content? Let's say that I self-publish a book tomorrow. Can I pay to ensure that copies exist in every specific grade? How much? What if -- instead of just a cover -- it's an 8-pager that's entirely blank acetate? What if its blank acetate except for a printed title? Is there some threshold of actual content above which CGC actually grades books versus handing out specifically-purchased grade labels? Or was this a service that was only available to Dinesh and Bad Idea? @CGC Mike I'm sorry to be a curmudgeon here in what was probably thought of as just a silly gimmick. But especially after a year with concerns about QA across the board and concerns about double standards as displayed by the Promise Collection books, this is not just a silly gimmick. Yes, I get it, that this is a dumb piece of acetate and not a "real" comic book, but CGC has given these slabs their imprimatur. As a customer of CGC, and on behalf of other customers of CGC, I'd really appreciate some explanation as to why this was allowed to take place ... and some assurance that it is not simply possible to buy grades from what was and ought to be this neutral authentication and grading company."
  19. It has now been 14 business days (1 day shy of three working weeks).
  20. Thank you. I was always a little confused by the store / pricing. Went back the following week as they had received more comics. I didn't buy any comics, but I did pick up some Famous Monsters magazines. Got to speaking with the clerk and they explained what the shop did. They cleaned out residences of people who were recently deceased on behalf of family members that are not able to come in from out-of-state to handle such things. Then the shop would determine what to donate and what to consign on behalf of the out-of-state family. They charged the family 15% of the total sale price for doing this. They list the high dollar items (purses, jewelry, vintage clothing, etc...) on eBay and the remainder in-store. Learning this actually made me sad that someone had passed away with no one wanting to handle their comic collection. That their ASM #1 ended up in my hands for only $2. I began wondering if they had bought it for that price many moons before it reached me decades later. The how of it is not something I reflect on often, but when I do it makes me realize that we all need to make a plan for our end of life because often the things we love die along with us. Oh boy, that got way deeper than I expected... How about a change of pace?
  21. to keep the desire for an open dialogue going.
  22. Amazing Spider-Man #1 signed by Stan Lee - Top 10 Book Purchased raw in 2011. Forewarning, I have never typed this story out and when it is shared in person I give a TL:DR version. (I'll include one at the bottom of this message) So...grab a drink, some chips, and get comfortable...as this is going to be a long post. Sometimes there are certain comics that you cannot imagine purchasing / owning. You may desire them, but the cost keeps them firmly outside your reach. Amazing Spider-Man #1 was one of those books for me. One day in early 2011, I responded to a Craigslist ad about having comics for sale. ONE MONTH LATER! I received a reply apologizing for the delay as their internet was cut off, they had moved, and that they did still have comics available. They sent me the address. Jumped in my red 1993 Ford Ranger with no A/C, manual transmission, and broken tape deck (this part comes back later) to head to the address they gave me. Upon arrival I discovered it was a consignment shop. I went inside and was directed to 4 short boxes of comics / magazines. What I found in the first 2 boxes were complete garage sale drek. Thinking the drive was a waste of time, I got to the third box and was taken aback by a very familiar cover. I froze. Sitting in a bag, without backboard, with a handwritten $2 on a blue circle sticker in the upper right-hand corner was The Amazing Spider-Man #1. My eyes widened and then I looked over both my shoulders to ensure I wasn't being Punk'd. I slowly took the ASM #1 plus the books that were immediately before and after it out of the short box. Then I placed the three comic stack directly in front of me. At this point I should have stopped, but I proceeded to look through the rest of the 3rd box and then the 4th short box 'just in case' another key book was present. During all this my mind was racing. I began thinking every person entering or inside the store was there for comics and would take the book from me. Suddenly, fear gripped me that they may even pull an Overstreet Guide or use their computer to check eBay once I bring the comics to them. After finishing the last box I asked the clerk if the prices on the comics are the prices they'll charge. The clerk confirmed that the price on the sticker was the cost of the comic. I fanned the three issues (top book, ASM #1, bottom book) only showing the stickers in the top right-hand corners. The total was $7 for the three comics. I handed the clerk a $10 bill, said to keep the change, and quickly exited the store without another word. My goal was to reach my truck, place the comics inside, and lock the door in order to prove ownership just in case the police were called. BUT I don't remember walking to my truck. It felt like a dream as I floated there. The truck seemed to pull further from me as I got closer. The entire time I expected the shop owner to come outside and yell and chase me down to return to the store. Upon entering the truck I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. I wanted to scream and yell and cheer. I 'had' to immediately share this joy with someone. Quickly I called my best friend at work and told them about it. They were excited for me and couldn't wait to see the book in person the next day. After hanging up the phone it took me a minute to remember how to drive. Suddenly, I realized that I didn't want to drive in silence as I felt a once-in-a-lifetime moment like this needed a soundtrack. I racked my brain as to which song in my tiny music library stored on my Samsung Galaxy 1 would work best to be played through the phone's speaker. (again, I was driving a 1993 Ford Ranger with no A/C, manual transmission, and broken tape deck at the time) Somehow the only thing I thought would work best was Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". It wasn't the lyrics or the song itself...it was being able to drive home singing along loudly whilst it played from my phone. Drove home quickly but safely. Jumped on eBay for current values of 1.8s / 2.0s and was overjoyed. Immediately opened the comic to check if it was a 'Golden Records'. It wasn't. It also wasn't missing any coupons. Then it dawned on my that there may be missing pages. Downloaded a cbr file to check. That is when I noticed that the 1st and last wrap were missing whilst comparing the comic to the digital file. (CGC lists the centerfold is missing. That is not correct at all. Trust me it is the first and last wrap.) I hatched a plan to purchase a complete coverless copy and marry it with my $2 copy's cover BUT I figured I would get caught so I placed it in a mylar with fullback and put it away. A few months later when Desert Wind Comics announced their next Stan Lee signing I realized I could plus up the value of the incomplete book by adding Stan's signature. Got in contact with DWC. Sent them my book. They confirmed it was received. And then they lost it for the signing I sent it in for. Yep...lost it. At one point they were going to send me a check for the value of the book if they couldn't find it before the next signing. They didn't know it was incomplete so in hindsight it would have worked out better for me if they hadn't found it. It was eventually found and got Stan to sign where I wanted and with a silver sharpie like I requested. So that is the story of my Amazing Spider-Man #1 signed by Stan Lee. TL:DR Bought ASM #1 for $2 from a consignment shop.