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FFB
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Posts posted by FFB
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On 4/10/2024 at 7:30 AM, RareHighGrade said:
This pristine Church copy of issue #26 is the jewel of my collection. One of the things that makes it unique is the name written in the upper left-hand corner of the cover. Of the 18,000 books in Edgar Church’s collection, only around 10 have the name “Church” written on the cover. One of the other books sharing this rare distinction: Edgar’s copy of Action Comics #1.
Along with its terrific cover, the issue also includes an ad for Action Comics #1.
#26 is renowned for its rarity. As anyone who frequented the CGC Boards in the mid-2000’s will remember, it was Ian Levine’s White Whale, eluding him for years until it became the very last issue he needed to complete his collection of all DC books ever published.
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Peter,
I remember seeing you post this years ago when Ian was looking for his copy (I think that's when it was, anyway). Any backstory you can share about when and where/how you wound up with this book? I'm not surprised it's the crown jewel of your collection. It takes my breath away just to look at a picture of it. I can only imagine how excited you must have been to hold it for the first time.
- tth2 and Frisco Larson
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Congratulations on completing your New Adventure run, Peter! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the run and (hopefully) hearing a little more of the story about how tough it was to find the last one.
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On 4/6/2024 at 7:14 AM, tth2 said:
It's listed on Clink somewhere.
Ok, so that explains why it doesn't show up in GPA.
What a crazy loss on that book.
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On 4/5/2024 at 1:40 AM, tth2 said:
But they pale in comparison to whoever flipped the 9.8 TOS 39 in this auction. A $1.2m loss!
When did that book sell for $2mm?
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On 7/9/2023 at 3:43 AM, Ian_Levine said:
So by the year of 2004, I had whittled the list down to just twelve comics missing, before the collection could be officially declared to be complete. All of the comic dealers around the world knew of my quest. I took a big colour advert in some of the main comic trade magazines, and one by one I started to get the list down to the very last two, which were New Adventure Comics numbers 26 and 27, which I guess would make them the rarest of all of the DC comics. After so much publicity, I soon found a number 27 which just left number 26 to locate. Finally word of my quest resulted in someone coming forward at last. In the hot summer of 2004, Harley Yee collected this last comic for me, from that year’s San Diego Comic Con, and after that convention, he came back to London, bringing my last treasured prize with him.
Ian, I think your details are a little fuzzy. "Someone coming forward at last" with the New Adventure 26 is not exactly how it went down. I located the book and told you about where it was in February 2005. You asked Harley to broker it for you and he finally secured the book for you in mid-2005, not 2004.
All these years later, I am still very proud of the fact that I located the last book for your incredible collection.
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On 1/4/2023 at 5:21 AM, CGC Mike said:
Hey all
It's time for our 5th grading contest. Please post in this thread to signup. The maximum amount of participants is 150. CGC will be donating 3 prizes in the form of grading credit. 1st place: $500 2nd place: $250 3rd place: $100 The deadline to signup is Monday January 23, 2023 8:00 PM eastern time. I'm hoping for a larger turnout than what we had last time.
Count me in.
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On 11/30/2022 at 1:34 PM, ExNihilo said:
Thought I'd try bumping this question. I just called eGerber and asked if both sides of the board were archival safe and whether I needed to be concerned about the non-white side damaging the books. The woman didn't really provide a convincing response as I suspect she is more accustomed to handling customer service and sales requests. I was hoping maybe she could forward my question to someone with more technical knowledge, but didn't push too much.
So it begs the question, has anyone heard anything more definitive? I like putting books front and back to reduce the cost of materials, but obviously don't want to do that if one side of the board isn't protected.
The entire board is buffered, so you would be fine putting them front to back. It just looks weird.
- ExNihilo and Super Team Up
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On 11/15/2022 at 10:43 AM, MisterX said:
The Thing bruises on the inside!
He don't show his weaknesses! But you don't know that, cuz you a big Barry White looking MFer! Now get off my back, all right?
Wish my B
es would hurry up and get here, I ain't got no time to be sittin' in this cell wit choo.
Favorite comedy of all time.
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On 11/11/2022 at 9:10 AM, MAR1979 said:
Seriously DC Comics on Superhero front goes back to 1938 the best they can pull from that rich tapestry is Mxyzptlk? LMAO!
Gunn's tenure will be short if he thinks any portrayal of Mxyzptlk will put them even in the same conversation as Marvel films. If Gunn is a smart as folks think Mxyzptlk will only be used as miss-direct to keep the real stuff secret for as long as possible from the public. Even then a smarter re-direct would be for a villain who the public might want to see. Guess we will see.
Mr. M doesn't have to be the main driver of the film. He could be a supporting character who is included for comic relief. All I'm saying is that I haven't seen a superhero movie or show yet from James Gunn that wasn't great, Marvel or DC. I would be reluctant to insist that I know better than he does what can be a successful character in a film. Until he screws one up, I'm not going out on a limb to proclaim that they should just shut the whole thing down because Mr. M is in it.
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On 11/10/2022 at 12:14 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:
Sounds like a fantastic idea if you want to make the worst Superman movie ever.
I would agree with you, except that if anyone can pull it off, it's James Gunn.
- Microchip and Superman2006
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On 11/3/2022 at 9:43 AM, mnelsonCGC said:
Hi Scott, I appreciate you taking the time to review the book. Good information that will certainly be taken into consideration for future editions. I welcome feedback from others as well!
I do want to address a few things you mention; yes, there is plenty of information that doesn't necessarily pertain to grading defects, like the pedigree and reprint/variant sections. But these attributes are an essential part of the "grading" process that establishes value and demand. A significant portion of the guide's audience may not know things you and I learned a long time ago, like label categories, enhancement, ideal storage conditions, or even how to properly handle a book.
There are grade range cutoffs for many defects listed in the index of grades, and also throughout several other areas in the book, particularly for certain defects in the defect section. Some defects are impossible to quantify or provide cutoffs, like stains, tanning and foxing. But the majority of comics exhibit a combination of defects, and to cover most, or even a significant range of those combinations would require way more than 1, 5 or even 10 pictures per grade, especially in the lower grades.
The guide was laid out to flow from the most broad topics to a granular level, and is meant to give collectors the tools to grade. Accurate grading ultimately requires handling thousands of books--something no grading guide can teach in 350 pages. For new collectors, this book establishes a solid foundation to build on, but there's also plenty of detailed information for the more seasoned collectors.
Matt,
I appreciate the reply and appreciate even more the herculean task you undertook to get this book published. While my review primarily focused on what I saw as the guide's shortcomings, I hope that it did not seem that I do not like or appreciate the book at all. I'm still glad I bought it and it does have some very good information. I just won't be using it as much as I use the Overstreet guide, because the Overstreet guide is a more useful tool right now for figuring out where a book falls on the scale.
That said, if you would flesh out and organize the text sections at the beginning of each grade level and include 5 or 6 examples from each grade level in the next edition, it will make it a much more useful "grading guide" and I could see it being my go-to when grading books. I would even happily buy an "Expanded Edition" where you add more pictures and leave the rest of the guide as is. Take my money, please!
Thanks again,
Scott
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On 11/3/2022 at 8:21 AM, marvelmaniac said:
Unfortunately there is no "black and white" in grading comic books, there are lots of "gray" areas such as a book that would otherwise be a NM 9.4 but has a small piece (1/8-1/4") missing from a corner or edge (this is only allowed in books VG+ 4.5 and lower), how much of a hit does the otherwise NM 9.4 take, there is nothing in the grading standards to cover this which means it is all up to the grader to decide and his/her perception can change day to day, after all, we are only human.
Comic books are not always assigned a grade by their worst defect only, when they can publish in writing how much of a hit a higher grade book takes for only one defect not allowed in that grade it is still just a guess, how much of a hit does an otherwise NM 9.4 take for a small tear, small piece missing, small crease, folded corner, slight spine roll, color break, foxing, etc.? IMO, this is the part of the grading system that needs to be clarified and until it is there will always be contradictions/disagreements on grades.
I agree completely. This is why the Overstreet Grading Guide's method of showing multiple examples of different comics with different defects in each grade is so important and helpful.
I would also really appreciate seeing the initial text that appears at the beginning of each grade level be expanded to two or three pages to better explain the basics of each grade level and to address and include the various "limiting defects" that cause a book to top out at a specific grade. Further, it would be helpful to include in this section the defects that no longer affect the grade (like distributor ink at VG+ 4.5 and below). The chart is helpful and should continue to be included at the very beginning of the grading section, but the guide would be better if there were clearer, better organized, written standards preceding the pictures showing examples of each grade. The same applies to the page color section - that section should be at the beginning of the grading section, not buried amid a bunch of other unrelated subjects. And fix the pictures for God sake.
The bones of a great grading guide are here in the CGC Grading Guide. I just think that if CGC takes this feedback into account, the second edition will be the best grading guide available.
- jcjames and marvelmaniac
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Last month, I was really excited to see that CGC had released a new grading guide. For many years, a big complaint from the hobby had been the fact that CGC did not publish its grading standards. Now, at last, the curtain would be pulled back and those grading standards would be revealed! Right? Well, not exactly.
Those of you who know me know that I am a grading nerd. I'm a lawyer, so I am very rules-oriented. I've owned a copy of every edition of the Overstreet Grading Guide since it was a 100 point scale. My 2nd Edition got so worn out that I took it to my printer to comb bind the spine for me, as it was falling apart. I use my 6th edition copy just about every day. Although not perfect (the pictures are still too small even in the larger 6th edition), the Overstreet Grading Guide has been my go-to for grading since I first started using it all those years ago.
But, as much as I love my OGG, I was ready to chuck it aside if CGC could publish a grading guide that was superior to the Overstreet guide. As soon as I could place an order, I jumped on the CGC store site and the book was on its way. After a couple/three weeks in transit, it finally arrived! I was so excited that I cut open the box and started devouring the book.
My initial impression was one of excitement. This book is BIG. I mean Heritage catalog size. Pictures of comics are actual size.
There is tons of information in this book, too. Information on pedigrees, restoration, common printing defects and other issues, and a list of every type of defect they could think of, with a description and a picture or two.
Where the book is lacking, in my view, is in the actual explanation of clear grading standards, i.e., "What is allowed and not allowed in each grade?"
One of the areas where I feel the Overstreet guide does a good job is that every level of the grading scale has a full page description of what is allowed and not allowed in each grade. This page of text is very well organized and succinct, and is followed by several pages of pictured examples of books that exhibit the type and quantity of defects that are allowed in the grade. In my view, this is what is most helpful in a grading guide, as "a picture is worth a thousand words," so the saying goes. The only downside to the Overstreet guide is that the pictures are not full size, so a lot of the defects are not shown clearly. But this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that many different examples of books at each grade level, with different types and numbers of defects, are shown.
The CGC guide, on the other hand, uses only ONE example for each grade level - and in each case, it's a different copy of Incredible Hulk 181. All the way to Gem Mint 10.0, I might add, even though no Gem Mint 10.0 copy of Hulk 181 exists in the CGC census.
So did the owner of this million dollar book just decide not to get it graded? Or is it not really a 10.0, but rather, a book that looks like a 10.0 in the picture?
There are multiple problems with this "only one copy of the same book used in every grade" approach. First, it does not show how one grades a squarebound, which tends to have different defects than a saddle stitched book. Second, by using only one copy of one book to illustrate a grade, it does nothing to educate the reader about how different types and quantities of defects may be permitted at different grade levels, or what defects are acceptable in certain eras but not in others. Third, I'm sick of looking at Hulk 181 after a few pages. I spent good money on this thing - how about a little variety to spice up a pretty dense read?
I'm not sure what the thinking was in doing things this way, but the result is that the CGC grading guide reads less like a grading guide and more like a bunch of different books on comic history, pedigree history, the history of CGC's labeling styles, restoration detection and quantification, international editions of comic books, and finally, at the end, a bit about grading. The actual grading section of the book is roughly 20% of the pages. The rest is everything else. It's all interesting reading. There's nothing wrong with having it in this book, or even better, in a different book. But what I was looking for, and did not get, was a grading guide that was at least as thorough as the Overstreet guide at going through multiple examples at each grade level to teach the reader visually what defects are allowed in which grade. Another gripe is that, although most of the pictures are good for what they are, the least valuable pictures in the whole book are the ones used to demonstrate page quality. They are too dark! Literally ALL of them are too dark. The white page picture is a muddied gray. So are the pictures of Off-White to White, Off-White, and Cream to Off-White. They are so dark that it's impossible to tell the difference between the levels of page quality.
One final bit of constructive criticism is that it's not particularly well organized. If I had to use this as a grading guide, I would constantly be flipping back and forth between the grading levels in the index of grades and trying to find the couple of helpful charts that show what range of grades certain defects are allowed in, and the page quality section, which are not next to each other.
I can't really see myself using this CGC Grading Guide on a regular basis. I might use it as occasional reference if I'm looking at the effect that a particular defect may have in the hands of a CGC grader, but this is, to me, the only real value in this book. It is by no means a grading guide in the way that the Overstreet guide is.
Having said all of that, if this book were reworked to address these issues, I would happily buy a second edition. But if it is just a second edition with a single copy of Amazing Spider-Man 129 at each grade level, along with the same bunch of extraneous information on international editions, pedigrees, and other stuff that I don't care to have in a grading guide, I'll skip it.
I know a lot of work went into this book, so I don't want to hurt feelings or come across as too harsh. It's just that this book was an opportunity to show "how to grade a book the CGC way," and on that, it falls well short of the mark.
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On 9/16/2022 at 3:35 PM, Domo Arigato said:
After decades of selling Full-Backs with two white sides, you would have thought at least ONE person at E.Gerber would have said......."hey, collectors might not like this change or might be confused about it....let's include a simple one page printout in each order explaining the new boards".
Exactly. However... they appear to think it's better policy to say nothing and field a bunch of questions from people who think they screwed up!
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On 9/16/2022 at 1:41 PM, Gaard said:
@FFBDoes it make a difference if you switch the convexifness of the 2 half-backs? (yeah, I made that word up)
It will make a difference in terms of flattening them out, but together they're still flexible as hell so they don't provide the rigidity that I am looking for.
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On 9/5/2022 at 1:20 PM, ttfitz said:
I thought the whole thing about E Gerber boards were that they WEREN'T coated.
They aren't. I emailed customer service in June when my order of 2000 Full Backs arrived brown on one side. This is what I received as a response from George:
"As we explained they are the same buffered and only boards that are truest buffered on the market. The only paper mill in the country has refused to make white on two sides anymore. They have no coating at all and never have. You can return if you wish as we may stop carrying them due to paper mill not meeting our expectations."Clearly E. Gerber is getting a lot of questions about the brown-on-one-side Full Backs and they're sick of it.Also, I bought a few hundred Half Backs when they were sold out of Full Backs and tried the two-Half-Backs-instead-of-one-Full-Back thing. It isn't nearly as rigid as one Full Back and the Half Backs are not completely flat anyway (they are convex). This puts stress on the spines of the books inside the Mylar, even when you use two of them, and is unacceptable to me.Bottom line is that this OCD collector is just going to use the Full Backs even though they are brown on one side. It wasn't a cost savings issue, it was a problem with the paper mill refusing to make the boards white on both sides. That's not E. Gerber's fault. -
On 9/14/2022 at 8:47 PM, Nick Furious said:
I actually think the better initial chess move is to tell Ebay that you want a legal claim filed by either them or the buyer before you will accept any outcome that impugns your (sellers) integrity and indicates that you committed a crime. When someone falsely accuses you of a crime, demanding that they put it on the record through an official filing with law enforcement will often cause them to back off. I think this could cause Ebay to take the seller out of the loop and make it an issue between Ebay and the buyer. If that didn't work, then I would go to step #2 and file my own USPIS claim as a seller. By constantly siding with the buyer without proper investigations, Ebay has been complicit in mail fraud for a long time in my opinion. They encourage it by making it easy for buyers to scam sellers through their platform without proper investigation and without even filing a legal claim.
What's the next chess move when ebay ignores your request and sides with the buyer?
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On 9/13/2022 at 6:02 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:
Definitely SCS
Classic case
When the man who literally invented the term SCS tells you that's what it is . . . THEN THAT'S WHAT IT IS.
- The Lions Den and THE_BEYONDER
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On 9/13/2022 at 4:35 AM, WolverineX said:
Take him to small claims
What if you live in a different state? You gonna spring for plane tickets, hotel, filing fees, and lost time away from work to chase down someone over a few hundred bucks worth of comics?
If this guy is using the U.S. Mail to defraud someone out of property, file a mail fraud claim with the USPIS. They live for this stuff and they don't play around with people using the mail to commit fraud.
- Upgrayedd2 and jimjum12
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On 9/12/2022 at 11:06 PM, Nick Furious said:Did you ship USPS? Tell Ebay that someone is committing the Federal crime of mail fraud, either you or the buyer. And if they choose to conclude that you committed mail fraud, you want it to see an official report to a law enforcement agency by either Ebay or the buyer. Might not work but might scare them enough to take you out of the loop and pay for it themselves.
I think you mean "Tell the USPIS," not ebay. Ebay's investigations suck.
The United States Postal Inspection Service investigates mail fraud and they do NOT F around. https://www.uspis.gov/report
If this happened to me even once, I would file a report with the USPIS.
- Upgrayedd2, Nick Furious, jason4 and 3 others
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On 9/12/2022 at 10:51 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:
I skipped those too
You HAVE to read them!
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.JPG.5185f34fec5644a6dcf1ffd1b5f0d806.JPG)
es would hurry up and get here, I ain't got no time to be sittin' in this cell wit choo.
Favorite comedy of all time.
So did the owner of this million dollar book just decide not to get it graded? Or is it not really a 10.0, but rather, a book that looks like a 10.0 in the picture?
Marvel Multi Packs Question
in Ask CGC
Posted · Edited by FFB
I know this is an old thread, but I'm just seeing it for the first time.
When I was a kid in the early 1980s, I got virtually all of my comics from "Marvel Multi-Mags" that were on the spinner rack at our local Stater Bros. supermarket. I am quite certain that the "Marvel Multi-Mags" multipacks were distributed by Curtis Circulation. Over the course of four or five years, I bought more than a hundred of these multipacks and still have quite a few of those books in my collection. Every single book in every single pack was a Curtis Circulation "newsstand" copy.
Any other non-Marvel Multi-Mag multipack that I've seen had the early Marvel direct diamond price box. I've never seen a CC newsstand book in a non-Marvel Multi-Mag multipack.
Skwerl, a belated thanks for your input on these topics. You've clearly done your research.