gadzukes

That Picante is "saucy"!

Leggo my Eggo

I used to do a lot of exploring in the woods around my small Georgia town. Mostly enjoying the hikes, but also looking for bottle bumps and whatever weird things might come my way. One day I found the ruins of an abandoned house, and next to it a shed that was falling apart. The house was too dangerous to go into, but the shed was small and leaning to one side but seemed stable enough to explore. It had a loft and I could see a dilapidated trunk at the back of the loft (which really perked my interest). I was carefully able to get the trunk down. The top of the trunk had holes in it so rain had gotten into it so I knew what ever might be inside was probably severely damaged. My comic book mind always thinks, "Please please please have an Action Comics 1" inside. Long story short.... when I got it open there was a bunch of World War II USO items inside: pamphlets, flyers, etc... all in horrendously bad shape. AND THERE WAS A STACK OF COMICS!!!! All the comics were the same. It looked to be some sort of USO giveaway comic. The stack was severely damaged by rodents, bugs, rain. Not one comic was complete. It was kind of like throwing 20 comics into a blender for 10 seconds and then pouring out the contents. In looking at the pieces I was able to at least get the gist of the story. The comic was called "Little Willie" and the story was a warning to US soldiers abroad about hooking up with whores. "Little Willie" woke up with all kinds of sores on his "Little Willie" and had to go to the Doctor. The comics were in such bad shape that I left them there at the shed, but I kind of wished that I had put together the jigsaw puzzle to complete one of the comics. This "Little Willie" comic in the pic above is the same comic I found. The CGC label states "no date", but if my memory serves me... every USO item in that shed was from WWII.

So incredibly cool. Thanks for sharing

Maybe Dave Chappelle signed it?

I'm with 5.5 - 6.0

I definitely caught it. Well done. (I'm surprised the owner of the book didn't catch that and have it addressed). Did you miss the part where the grader bent the lower corner back further than he probably should have? Yeah, I'm probably over reacting. That bend may not have done any damage at all.... probably none, but like I've said before, the optics were not ideal there. I too am going to side with the company that has graded 5 Million comic books. I have no problem sending my books to them and will continue to do so, but maybe I'll question their Social Media for letting that vid go out.

If I let you win the argument that this comic came out exactly the same condition that it went in, can you tell me this..... if the next 200 GA comics are "page counted" in exactly the same way, can you guarantee ALL 200 come out in exactly the same condition as when they went in, if handled in the same manner? From what I saw, I don't think I could make that guarantee. I think perhaps 1, 2, or even 3 of the next 200 GA comics have a chance at some damage if they have a similar crease as what we saw with the Supe 1. Fragile cover creases in the corner of an 80 year old comic should not be bent over when handling IMO. Covers can be curled (just like he did), but creases should't be bent over. Every time a crease like that gets bent over, the fibers get a tiny bit weaker. If you bend them 1 too many times, God forbid... they can pop off. It didn't happen this time, but this was only the page count. What if the 3 graders who handle this comic next all bend that same corner back and forth when examining? And inner pages are usually weaker (or possibly slightly brittle) at the edges/corners of the page. I know we're being very critical here, but it simply looked a teeny bit careless when he got to the last couple pages and optics are everything when you're the leading comic book grading company showing a video of how you handle a $100,000+ comic.

How many times did DC "Jump the Shark" in this era? So many stupid ideas.

Now many collectors will be looking, but I hope you are the one who finds them.

So Paquito 253 & 254 NEED to be found.

This is SO true.

That's a lot of reading there. I am kind of looking for the "must read" House of M. I know anytime one of these "events" happens in the Marvel universe they stamp the name of the event on EVERY comic as a money grab for more sales, when in actuality many of the comics have little to no part in the actual story arc.

I'd like to read the House of M story arc. Can one of you in the know, direct me to the TPB or TPBs most relevant to the story. I know marvel spreads their story arcs far and wide, but I just want the "must read" TPBs that might give me the best of the story arc. Thanks

I'm subscribed to ComicToms youtube channel (ComicTom posted the vid to facebook) ComicTom's youtube channel is great channel, check it out. I love how passionate Tom and all his guests are when talking comics. They tackle ALL topics, so I'm actually pretty shocked Tom hasn't addressed the fallout from the video he took on his youtube channel. I wonder if CGC asked him to keep any youtube discussion about this incident on the downlow. Or, maybe Tom will have a new video on this topic coming up really soon. I'd really like to hear Tom's comments. Perhaps he could help illuminate the moments before the video started.....maybe the Supe 1 was examined for weaknesses in the spine before the page count started, or any other illumination of prepagecount examination.

This is the moment in the video that I had a little problem with. The last couple of interior pages and the front cover had a (fragile?) crease in the bottom corner. IMO there's no reason to be putting this pressure on the bottom corner of a $150,000+ comic. Move your left hand up a couple inches and move your right thumb up a couple inches to avoid the crease and finish your page count. Maybe Matt had done a precheck to determine the integrity of the crease and the pages right there..... or not. Matt's definitely a pro so I'll trust him, but appearances mean a lot, so a little more care would have gone a long way for a video.

I really feel bad for this seller. He picked the wrong week to have his AF15 auction end. The buyer on the other hand KNOWS he got the deal of the century. Seller could probably flip this the day he receives it and make a tidy sum. I'm glad I don't have any major comics in any auctions right now. Too much volitility in the markets to confidently sell right now.

Since the staples are on the edge of the spine I'm thinking miswrap, but you're right.... gotta see the back cover.

Is that spineroll? or was it just slightly miswrapped? Are you handling the press on this Joey?

What about the final few pages and front cover where it was clear that there was a crease and that it might be more fragile. It seemed like he was applying a lot of pressure to flip those pages. After rewatching the video many aspects about what he is doing seem fine (professional). The bend of the book doesn't bother me. No gloves doesn't bother me (as long as his hands are clean). But I don't get a sense that "care" is being taken. Even if this is what he would do behind closed doors on a page count, he's doing this in front of potential customers so I believe he should have shown a little more of an appearance of "tender loving care". And the water bottle..... I've seen videos of museum paper restoration experts, and they show an unbelievable amount of care & respect for the papers they are handling. I didn't see any respect for the paper shown here.

Hmmm.... it seemed a bit rough for a super valuable comic. The bottom right corner of the front cover had a fragile crease that extended into the first 3 or 4 interior pages. So the technique being used for the quick page count was putting pressure RIGHT ON THAT FRAGILE CORNER. IMO I think there needed to be a moment shown in the video where the grader looks for weak spots in the spine & cover before the page count starts (and maybe check the staples at the CF to see if it's tearing out). Now to be fair, the grader may have actually done that, but it's not shown on the video, and it's important that you show your patrons the care you take with their rarities. I didn't like seeing the water bottle on the table at the end of the video too. If I'm having my Superman 1 graded I expect that there WILL NOT be a water bottle on the table.

I agree. To me it seemed like investors in 08/09 were taking their money out of stocks and looking at alternative places to invest. Comics saw a surge in buyers. That's what my memory is telling me. Am I wrong? At the time I thought "Wow, comics seem to be recession proof"

In hand to me it feels like a 7.5. The soiling on the back cover looks worse in the photo than it is in hand. The blue mark is not a stain, it's something on the surface. Mostly, I'm just impressed that an Atlas comic from this era looks this nice.

It's hard for us to detect "pressable defects" from your photos. When you hold the slab and tilt it around to reflect light off the surface of the comic, can you detect "pressable defects"? If you detect many, then yes, it might be worth a shot. It's also hard to see the possible "cleanable grime" on your comic by looking at your photo. Two things that would concern me in the graders notes are "Spine Burn" & "Spine Tanning". If the spine is burned and tanned it might mean that the spine is brittle so you would NOT want to press it IMO lest you cause more damage to the comic and possibly lower the grade. I think it's a good looking 4.0, and could maybe get a 4.5 just from a resub, but I don't think i'd risk a press, because of the spine.

I was going to say 2.5, but the tape pull on Karen's boob pulls it down to 2.0 for me.