Darwination

In the art world, the value of an attribution to the right artist can be in the tens of millions.  There have been major court cases going back more than a century because experts disagreed.  It has become so contentious in recent decades that some academics won't even offer their opinion for fear of lawsuits requiring debilitating legal fees.

Wow!  My apologies!  I could have sworn I was seeing "Heritage" on the shirt-badge, which is where I made the assumption.
You did a great job... a lot of detail was covered and I watched the entire thing in one sitting (when I should have been processing product, dangit!).  Even though I wrote guides to pulps (by default, as nobody else ever wanted to), I have a love/hate relationship with them.  I love historical artifacts, esp. those of the paper variety.  I like the art and history of them.  But I also find them a pain to deal with, in that they tend to leave piles of debris about as I bag and grade them.  It can be difficult to flip through pages, and tanning and browning would make many unpleasant for me to try and read.  Oddly enough, I find the slabbing of pulps a bit more enticing than I do with comics, for the above reasons.  As a dealer, I doubt if it will be cost-effective for me to slab very many (I tend to be rather generous when buying collections, and the added cost of slabbing might make them too expensive for the levels my specific market will bear).  But I am probably more likely to slab pulps in the future than comics (especially if the internal material is available in other formats).  At any rate, your interview is far and away the best information and images we've had to date about this newest CGC endeavor.

Some nice early True Crime mags. I really get a charge out of these 1930's ones, especially those two dark haired beauties with guns and knives and fire in their eyes     Although the True Detective "Torture House"  cover does have a certain charm of its own
 
February 1930   Dalton Stevens cover art

 
July 1936   Delos Palmer cover art

 
August 1936  Delos Palmer cover art

 
 
 

Here's my handy chart again for these gray-area books, hope this helps:

--
If this book is in my collection = for sure not Baker  
If I'm selling it in the forum marketplace = "some attribute this cover to Baker"   
If I'm selling it on ebay = "classic Baker cover!!!"  
 

Yeah, I guess I don't mean unique in that there aren't attributions out there in comics land (and elsewhere) that are questionable or that the waters aren't super murky in some cases, but the scope and high profile and number of dicey attributions with Baker strikes me.  And the fact that these identifications never seem to go away
Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. (rest in peace to the best IDer I've ever known) used to get incensed at all of this during the JVJ project at the digital museums (in which comic scanners like myself were granted access to his fantastic collection including many Baker treasures) to the point where it was kind of funny. I get that no one wants to see the value of their books decline and that sellers love to tag a book "Matt Baker" (I do!) but there's really no harm in allowing for grey areas. IMO putting it "on the box" is straight up false advertising. You people (excuse the standard snark ) want some sort of assurances about these books in boxes, and this seems to me a very questionable assurance.

In some respect, I can understand the different standards for different purposes.  If it's in the box, the cover is the most important thing.  If you're handling it and want to read it, the overall condition is more important.  One of the funky things that stick out for me with CGC is that you can have an issue, albeit in nice physical condition, that's faded af and gets a good grade.  I'd take a lower grade with good color almost every time if we are talking about display.
Brittleness is the worst problem a comic can have.  I've seen comic issues (as well as pulps and especially newsprint items) that look pretty damn nice but with total brittleness.  Thumb a few pages and the spine just might split down the entire issue. Gimme fat, supple, and grubby pages over clean, thin, and brittle pages any day.
As for Mask Comics, any copy is a good copy                   Good lord - "Classic cover. Bullet in head panel."

With respect, I'm not sure I'd say this is a "unique" situation... even limiting the conversation just to Baker, many attributions made long ago are in doubt. (See e.g. the recent conversation here on the Phantom Lady covers and interiors, which was eye-opening to me.)
Some of these Overstreet notes were made *decades* ago and keep riding on into each year's new edition. Folks on these boards have described trying to correct bits of misinformation in Overstreet and it doesn't sound like a particularly easy/consistent/straightforward process.
 

I didn't mean there was any nefarious connection... but the two companies serve each others' interests (i.e., symbiotic).  It is unlikely CGC would have the position it has today with comic book auctions were it not for CGC grading.  Were it not for the constant publicity said auctions and many record-setting prices bring, would CGC be getting anywhere near the business it does, especially with large and significant collections?  Each company has improved business because of the other, which is to be expected.  It is Heritage interviewing CGC in the above video, afterall.  

Definitely agree with the broader point, and maybe even more importantly, all the other modern auctions places like Whatnot driving modern grading. That's probably where CGC makes most of its money because it's a steady stream of income on new books. 
But that was actually me interviewing Matt and I can guarantee I have no connection to Heritage 😁. I've actually never even won a book on there, I don't own a single comic, and I much prefer hunting pulps and not paying crazy prices. The folks at the Summit asked if I would do the interview so I checked with a few fellow pulpsters on what questions they'd want answered. I had the brittle page question queued up and totally forgot ....my bad... I'm super curious about that one too. And I did later ask about Pedigrees and the answer was essentially "Strasser and Yakima, and any other comic pedigrees that had pulps". Strassers have markings which make that easier, Yakimas obviously don't and have the certificate from Dave and whiter pages, but I think there might be a list so the same book doesn't pop up as Yakima twice, not sure.
Hopefully I covered most of the bases in the interview, and if not then...luckily I have a day job to go back to! 😂. I'm also cool with grading taking another 6 months so I can keep scooping up more pulps
And now a recent pickup because I can't post without sharing a pulp!

So what is the deal with Overstreet (I assume that is where the ID comes from) and all of the Baker misidentifications?
The way artist identification works is that an expert (who often will have an intense focus on a particular artist or area and is also armed with the knowledge of what artists worked for what publishers or titles and when) makes an ID when absolutely positive. Otherwise, we use words like "probable" "likely" "suspected" or "possible." In comics, it is more complicated because of interplay between pencils and inks and studio work but the same rules apply, and we openly discuss the possibilities.
The Baker misidentification situation is perpetually ridiculous and unique, is there an origin story?

The Saint #4 -- It's a lovely cover, and we've posted it here/argued about it here enough that I kinda sorta want one. But yeah, the formal poses/layout and the super-tight inking style are iffy at best. It doesn't feel Baker to me.
 

It's not by Baker, who didn't do any art for Avon. 
It is by Lee Ames, who did draw covers for Avon (Murderous Gangsters 1, King Solomon's Mines).

Stumbled across this one at eBay tonight and am like, Baker, really? The box says so, cough.
But maybe possible? An article on BC from just last year makes an argument for some sort of proof or portfolio piece or something.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/leslie-charteris-and-the-mystery-of-avons-the-saint-4-at-auction/
I'm gonna stick with no.  What's the consensus on this one?
 

That is not Baker art. And it would be nice for the Bleeding Cool author to point out exactly "the undeniably "Bakerish" aspects to the piece overall". I do not see them.
Without a scintilla of proof, he also states, "Baker's involvement in this cover is certainly possible, and perhaps more likely than not." 

I stepped outside of my comfort zone on this one, but, man, is it pretty in hand. GOD BLESS ...
-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Stumbled across this one at eBay tonight and am like, Baker, really? The box says so, cough.
But maybe possible? An article on BC from just last year makes an argument for some sort of proof or portfolio piece or something.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/leslie-charteris-and-the-mystery-of-avons-the-saint-4-at-auction/
I'm gonna stick with no.  What's the consensus on this one?
 

A couple of pre-loved Atlas readers in....
 

Mail call! As you all know, I'm a superhero guy, so this is slightly out of my wheelhouse.   But, something about this little run from Street & Smith has me picking them up whenever I come across them.   I probably have 5 or 6 of them now.   This one has a nice bright yellow World War II cover.   Pioneer Picture Stories #8, September, 1943. Only one copy in the CGC census.

I've watched some videos that cover Wata Games (video game grading company) and their relationship with Heritage, and it just looks downright criminal.

The old pulp collector way of grading (which has always been good by me) is going to run headlong into the slab culture of expecting some sort of exact standards or "assurances" about what they are buying.  If you want some sort of estimate at the percentage of pulps that have had at least a little bit of what collectors freak out about here as "restoration," I'd only say it's very high   I promise there will be books graded in the higher ranges that will still fall apart immediately with almost any handling and books in the lower ranges with nice fat pages and only semi-tatty covers that you'd be happy to own. I guess "handling" isn't really what a book in a slab is about anyways.
FWIW, the older generation of pulp collectors (almost all of whom are readers and more distinct from the comics crowd than you might imagine) is absolutely horrified at what CGC coming in has already done to the market, terming the new generation of buyers from the land of comics as "suckers," even if they are happy to be moving a lot of books right now.  I don't quite see it that way and welcome newcomers to the fabulous world of pulps but do expect the prices from the last year (and maybe the coming years as well) to come back to earth.