newshane

In the end I'd say mainly VF to NM books. Maybe a few dozen 9.8 candidates..just 8 or 9 that might come close to 9.9 and I am likely going to narrow that down to just 2 or maybe 3 that really stood out as "wow" comics...even then it's going to be a moonshot, but the copies I pulled look at least as good as 1 or 2 of the dozen or so 9.9 slabs that I already own.

The following picture captures something that made my skin crawl. Look at that bulge created by the cardboard! No wonder that murked the first dozen or so copies!

The shot attached to this post should create in the viewer a sense of sympathy. My heart kind of sank when I looked at the spine wear from some of the books that were packed with the spine edge towards the side of the box. Of course, books that were packed edge-wise against the side of the box had other issues, such as tiny folds or impacts along the far edge of the cover. The good news is that, believe it or not, there were still dozens of 9.8 candidates (especially with pressing) taken from this box. The bad news, for a collector like me, is that I found perhaps 2 or 3 contenders for 9.9...but only one that I feel halfway lucky about and even then it is a shot. One out of 200 copies. A .5% "success rate." I'd give this single issue about an optimistic 45% chance of scoring a 9.9.

This is what the contents looked like. I started by removing the books from the top, but I quickly discovered this was inefficient. I could immediately ascertain, for example, that the first several copies were total duds. None of them lay flat. At that point, I decided to carefully slit the box down the sides. This afforded the following view, which allowed me to quickly assess which books simply had no possible shot at a 9.9 (and there were many). As you can see, the contents weren't tightly packed and had shifted around quite a bit over the last 18 ( ) years. I was disappointed at the total lack of padding or protection within the distributor's box.

I cracked open one of the boxes today. I'd like to share the initial result, which only reinforces the reputation of the 9.9 book as a true rarity. I mean, the average collector probably thinks a sealed box of comics from the distributor would contain dozens of perfect copies. This is not so. Thankfully, I realized that finding even a single 9.9 copy, even out of hundreds in sealed boxes, would be a moonshot. Consequently, I wasn't too disappointed or surprised at the things I found inside of the boxes. I will post the full results shortly, with additional pictures...

I am cracking open the boxes this weekend. I'm pretty excited. I will definitely keep in touch! I'm not expecting much...maybe a handful of potential 9.9s. If I can just get one per box I will be thrilled.

Apparently I was wrong? "A forum dedicated solely to asking forumites to guesstimate the grade of book from a scan. NOTE: GRADING FROM A SCAN IS NOT RELIABLE, it's just interesting." I'm sorry guys. Noob to the boards. Don't know if this thread can be moved but...

I was just wondering what everyone thought about my chances looking through a sealed box from the distributor. Is there a 9.9 somewhere in there? I apologize if this is in the wrong forum. It's grade-related so I thought it was appropriate to post here.

From an investment standpoint, it is horrible. I don't collect for investment purposes. I collect Spawn because I enjoy the art and love the character. One man's trash is another's treasure? Like I said, I have lots of cash ready for slabbed 9.9s and would consider raw books if they had an honest-to-goodness chance. So if anyone wants to dump off any "garbage" then let me know. ..and yes, in a pinch these would make great kindling or toilet paper, so I don't feel like it's a total loss.

Thanks for the well-wishes Speedmaster! I know this might turn out to be a colossal waste of money, but I'm not sure if there is a better way to find perfect copies of these books. I guess either way this will be a learning experience for me. Wading through 1,000+ books is going to take me a looong time but I will keep you guys updated. ...anyone care to make an offer on my rejects?

I'm going to wade through them in search of gems. Otherwise I guess I will sell them for .25 a piece.

When it comes to 9.9 hunting you have to wade through a lot of and spend/waste a lot of money.

This is newshane's feedback thread for deals made on the CGC forum.

Wish me luck! I recently acquired 7 sealed boxes. They came straight from the distributor and have never been opened. The boxes appear to be solid and intact. Other than buying a graded book, I think this may be my best shot at finding the elusive 9.9 book. Does anyone have any advice? I don't want to open up a bag of worms, but should the candidates be sent off for pressing first? My plans are to put on some latex gloves and to carefully remove and examine each book. ...yes. My girlfriend thinks I've lost my mind! What do you guys think? By the way, if anyone has ANY Spawn 9.9 slabs...I've been known to pay top dollar. hahaha