Westy Steve

So they'll all be way off? (sorry...couldn't resist)

I feel your pain. I went 9.0 for the Aviation book and 9.4 on the Baloo. On my screen, the Baloo looked like it had a 9.6 cover but a weaker back, hence the 9.4. But the Aviation book had what I thought was scratches on the CGC case, and I guess they were a fold or tape or something? Can we stick to straight forward books that have a grade in same zip code as their appearance? I guess I can't grade through plastic via a monitor.

I don't know about overshadowed. Aparo is one of many artists who would be rock stars today if they were still with us.

Submitted. I'm swearing off zooming in on the pictures...makes me grade too conservatively.

9.4 with that bottom right corner? Interesting!

Actually, I think we are to assume that the books were pressed. But in reality, they may not be. But still, we're not supposed to grade them based on what they could be improved to be, but rather grade them at face value. I think it's safe to assume none of the books in this contest have a soft bend or other defects invisible in a scan.

Sadly, I did see the stain, but I guess I under-estimated how much it brought the grade down. Ah well. I'd be sorely tempted to have that book cleaned and resubmit.

Looking at the distribution, more than twice as many people thought the ASM 129 was a 6.5 than a 5.5. Furthermore, almost twice as many people thought the ASM 129 was a 7.0 than a 5.5! Maybe it's time to crack that puppy out and resubmit it.

Hi, they have sold for a lot less unsigned. Stan Lee is a great man, but his signatures only add so much value...either the cost of the signature, or something like a 20% bump in value. But since 20% of $42 isn't much, it's probably the book's value graded plus his signature. I'd put the value at around $150.

The top one is much more egregious. Sometimes the graders ignore or at least minimize production flaws. But even if they didn't, that bent corner is worse than the little color fleck.

Thanks. I'll definitely share the results.

I personally think the dealers should take the difference between the selling price of the trade-in and the desired book, and multiply that difference by a reasonable profit margin (for example, like adding 30% to that difference)

Say I had a bronze key book in CGC 8.0 and I wanted to upgrade it to a CGC 9.0. Any recommendations on the best way to go about it? Are dealers receptive to allowing you to do a trade plus cash without having to give up the farm? Anyone care to share their experiences?

If you are a coin collector, you may be familiar with the Box of Twenty Concept. For those who aren't, you may know that coins also have grading services. Yes, you can send coins off to be slabbed. If you send a bunch of them off, as dealers often do, the grading companies will return them in plastic boxes that hold twenty slabs. Those plastic boxes are desirable as storage boxes for a collection of slabbed coins. Coin collectors came up with a concept called a "box of twenty". It's a way of collecting. The idea is that the collector must limit themselves to a collection that will fit in one single box. At first, it's not a problem, but over time, it gets harder. The rules for collecting this way is that once the box is full, you're required to swap out coin per coin. So if you want to add a new coin, you have to sell an old one. While this seems restricting, what it forces the collector to do is to collect what is most important to them. And what happens over time is the collection can become spectacular because the proceeds from the sale of an old coin can be used to fund a new one, so lots of upgrading occurs. I'm doing this myself with my own coin collection, but I don't have the box filled yet. However, I am aware that any coin in my collection may be sold at some point, so I try to keep an eye on how much I spend on coins relative to their value. In short, I want to be able to sell it for at least as much as I bought it for (after fees), so I try to find good deals on what I buy. Well here's the thing. In my safe deposit box, I've figured out that I only have room for 30 comic book slabs. You can see where I'm going with this. If I'm going to collect nicer bronze comics, I'm going to use a "box of 30" collecting style. So I will do a few things: 1. I plan to limit my Bronze Keys to 30 comics. Therefore, I need to be fussy about what I add. 2. Because I may need to sell my acquisitions later so that my newest purchase can fit in the box, I intend to make sure that I get a good price on what I buy. 3. I need to learn to upgrade. For example, my X-men set will top out at nine (9) slots in my 30-slab collection. It will take up a lot of room, but I don't want to break the set. So I will upgrade them here and there. To do that, at any given time, I may put my comics up for sale at a price that makes me happy. When one does sell, I will then add some money to the proceeds to buy and upgrade for the slab I just sold. Makes sense, right? The other thing I may try to do is just take my slab(s) to shows with the idea that I can pay a dealer to take my lower grade comic in trade for a higher grade one. I have only tried this once, without luck, but that was because the dealer had another copy of the same book in a comparable grade that I owned and they didn't want two of them. I understand this because having two different grades provides choices to their customers. Also, this might be difficult depending on how much profit the dealer is trying to make on the upgrade. If they try to get all of their profit in that one transaction, we probably won't be able to make a deal. Please tell me your upgrade stories. Hmm...since nobody reads this thread but me, I might ask that question in the main forums... So that's it. I intend to have a small collection of kick azz comics that will get more impressive over time. (When I'm not spending money on my coin collection or collector car!) Any feedback on this method? Steve

Thanks for the input. Ya'll are confirming my own estimates. Here's the thing... What you can not see in the picture is that there is a nearly invisible diagonal bend in the cover. That bend is not color-breaking. It's so light that when I bought the book, I didn't even see it until the ride home when I saw it when the light was shining against the gloss. I felt like a noob because you always need to check the reflection of the gloss and I forgot. Anyway, the book is/was sitting in a CGC 6.0 slab, so the graders at GCG saw it and factored it in. So I bought it for the price of a Fine, but the bend will easily press out. At the time I bought it, I thought it was horribly undergraded. So I've sent the book off to be pressed and re-graded, and your guesses are (literally) as good as mine regarding how it will come back. Without the bend, I'm hoping It'll come back as an 8.0, but I could see either a 7.5 or a 8.5 depending on the how well the pressing works and how grumpy the graders are.

That's hilarious!

That does beg the question of when you'll give the grades for the first two books. Do we have to wait for the end of the contest, or after grade submission for those two books are closed? Thanks for doing this...lot of fun!

Ok, it's my understanding that Marvel Entertainment (or Disney), (or whoever), can't produce movies with "mutants". And that's why they were looking at emphasizing the Inhumans. Last night, I was watching Elektra (sp?), which was the sequel to Daredevil. And I realized that there were a handful of bad guys who had mutant powers. Then what about Bullseye in the Daredevil movie? I was thinking of other examples of characters in Marvel movies with unexplained, mutant-like abilities. So is the simple answer for Marvel just not putting a label on it? I mean, why not bring in any mutant you like as long as you don't label it as a "mutant"?

Not the best picture, but I'd appreciate opinions. It has an assigned grade. Wonder what you think it would grade with a press. Please don't post if you already know the answer.

Question for the OP....did you get it pressed? If so, can we see it now for educational purposes? I have heard the pressing decreases the appearance of spine ticks somewhat.

FWIW, Terrapin, I completely agree with you to the last digit.

Is that a tear on the lower right corner? I think the spine really hurts the grade of this. Just too many little ticks. It's nicer than a VG, but I don't think it makes Fine.

7.0. That big diagonal crease and the tear brings it down from what would have been about an 8.0

If that's a tear on the back cover on the left, then 8.0. If it's not a tear, then 8.5 to 9.0.

Post a better picture of the lower right corner. Can't see the crease.