Mr. Zipper

I agree… But they PLOD low-grade books with marker touches or glue that don’t improve the appearance or technical grade. So how is that really “restoration”? It seems as though the PLOD policy is as punitive as anything else.

I suspect if they saw bleed through to the interior cover, you’d probably get hammered anyway. That said, a strategically placed arrival date, store sticker, owners name… Might be worth a try if it’s a tiny color touch.

Certified Mail just means you get back the green signature card of the person who signed for it. It's not the same or as secure as Registered Mail Registered Mail travels separately in locked cages every step of the way. Certified does not. And I agree Registered Mail is by far the safest way to ship anything. Plus, you can insure very high amounts relatively inexpensively.

Congrats. Sweet book.

It’s like déjà vu all over again with round one. I under graded everything. According to the Overstreet grading guide, the highest grade a book with a spine split that long could get is 1.5. I know CGC doesn’t follow Overstreet to the letter, but there appears to be huge disparities. The incredible hulk 181 was a joke too. Gift grade. An 8.5 with a big color breaking thumb crease on edge? It was fun and very eye-opening. Back in the day I always did very well in these contests and typically placed high enough to get prizes. I don’t know if I’ve gotten tighter or CGC standards have evolved.

My old HP 7400C is still chugging along, but wow... it sure takes up a lot of space in the closet. I only take it out to scan slabs once they start to pile up. The initial scans on the 7400C are always hazy and a bit washed out, but I open the photo in Photoshop and hit "Auto Smart Fix" and they are corrected perfectly. They tend to have a bit of a scanner light reflection on the bottom rail.

I'm in New York and they follow the Federal threshold of $20k for 2021 Tax Year. I suspect the issue is this... I have two PayPal accounts. One for my biz and one for my personal hobby stuff. My biz paypal account gets a 1099k because it meets 20k threshold. Earlier in 2021, I got a notice from eBay that I had to provide tax ID for my personal account. So, I think they are now linked and I get the 1099k on my personal account as well because both accounts total over $20k. I pay what I am obligated to for business income, but not excited about getting nickeled and dimed on personal hobby transactions that amount to garage sale level stuff.

I believe this may be the color touch. Thumb dent with a fine crease top edge.

The other possibility is it's a smear of glue. You can easily tell glue by running your finger over it and feeling the difference in texture of the surface. Then again, seems like an odd place to apply glue.

I think it's foreign matter that just happens to be a similar color. Actually looks like toothpaste. The spine has a number of creases in the dark area. It makes no sense that someone would touch up this minute crack in the upper edge and then leave all the spine stresses.

My kids are teenagers and they like the Marvel movies and videogames, however they have no interest in the old comics. (Although my daughter does read manga.) I am a little concerned that once the 30-somethings work their way through the system, there will not be sufficient demand from the following generations. Regarding baseball/sports cards... that hobby is hotter than ever after being pronounced dead many times. Hopefully that is good news for comics!

Last Thursday? That's not even close to "lost" yet.

Why would you want to do this? It's a 9.8 from one of the two reputable companies. Spend your money on something new.

I’m seeing Mylite2 / Fullback Silver combo packs for as low as $66 shipped now on eBay. Also $74 price point. Prices are starting to drop. I’m looking forward to being able to order direct from Gerber for the “normal” price and turnaround soon.

I wonder if it's a typo in the notes and it's really on the bottom. That black area would be a prime candidate for a touch up. Especially in a corner crease.

I think black light is kind of fake news when it comes to resto detection. I've read that the companies rarely use them. It takes a certain frequency and strength and even then they overlook some things and pop false positives on others. Good ol' fashioned eyeballs work best.

I think it would be considered "writing on cover" and not restoration because the marker does not appear to be "fixing" any flaws.

Let's be honest... the scan was too small and too grainy resolution for anyone to get a truly detailed read on the ASM 300. Black covers do not translate well in scans. Is it scanner glare? Is it a scuff? Is that a spine tick or a scanning artifact? You're just guessing. I blew it up to 200% and thought I saw what appeared to be a handful of ticks in the spine as viewed from the back. Plus a little corner wear. I got it right at 9.2, but frankly it was 50% luck. Using that photo it could have been anywhere from 9.0 to 9.6. .

Agreed. A book should not go over 1.0 with a significant portion of the title graphic gone PLUS another corner chunk missing. I suspect it was given a bump because the book is so clean otherwise. The key takeaway is that (apparently) there are no grading absolutes.

Same. There are CGC 5.0’s online with a worse spine. Frankly I think it is a 4.5, but CGC seems to go easy on Action 242. And given I under graded so badly the last time, I gave it a 5.5. I overthought it.

Same here. 6 points. Not great but better than round 1. The scuff on Scooby threw me. I undergraded again on that one.

That is something else. Thanks for sharing... I've never seen it before. Is it possible there was also an issue with the ink that resulted in adhesion problems?

I made the mistake of sending in a few DF books signed by "Jack Kirby" to add Stan Lee though CGC SS. I got the yellow label and they came back as 8.5s due to the previous signature (even though the books were structurally 9.4ish). The real problem though is, as was revealed years later, the DF "Jack Kirbys" were not signed by Jack Kirby in the opinion of experts. The authentication companies will not pass these DF Kirby sigs. I wasted several Stan CGC SS on these damn DF books.

I'm sorry. Come to New York... we'll take care of that with some thin crust Brooklyn pie.

4.5