FFB

In my opinion, the best in the business is Kenny Sanderson at @sanderson_studios on Instagram. This is for expensive, rare books that need actual restoration, not just pressing and cleaning, by the way. If all you need is cleaning and pressing, there are quite a few professionals who can do that who frequent these boards.

I'm in!

My apologies. I mistook your question for a real question. If I'd known you were just being a ding-dong, I'd have ignored you.

It's the first appearance of the first Baron Zemo, tied with Avengers #6, which came out the same day. This book is an earlier chronological appearance, since it's a WWII story, so for that reason it has additional significance. Avengers #6 has always been worth a lot more because of the costume and the popularity of that series vs. the Sgt. Fury series, but if Zemo becomes a major character in the MCU (which he very well may, in light of the Thunderbolts announcement earlier this month), this book will see a strong increase in demand in my opinion. Granted, this is that Zemo's father, but these books jumped when Zemo made his earlier MCU appearances, and if the father Zemo makes a flashback appearance or something, that's just more fuel to the fire.

I don't think the rust is going to affect the grade very much, if at all, at that level. I would just leave it alone. And nice book, by the way! I just picked up a Sgt. Fury #8 last month for my collection. A very underrated key in my opinion!

You might get a 0.2 or 0.4 bump from a press (mainly at the lower right corner of the front cover and the upper left corner of the back), but it looks like a really nice copy as it is. Early Jim Shooter and Neal Adams! It has a Thorpe and Porter shilling stamp too, so you know it's been across the pond! Nice copy! I love it.

As someone who has received back books that were clearly damaged by CGC after receipt (finger bends and blunted edges on books that were submitted in my Full Back/Mylites2/Archive combo, and shipped within a bulletproof box), I agree with this 100%. Always take photos of each book you send in, especially angled photos to show a lack of finger bends in the middle of the cover. If you don't, it's too easy for CGC to claim that the bends were on the book when they received it and you'll have no recourse. Incidentally, the dramatic increase in reports of books being damaged by CGC during grading is why I've stopped submitting books for grading. I have a banker's box full of books that I planned to send in but I've been holding off for about six months. This is unacceptable and I can't believe the community accepts this level of negligence by the leading grading service.

I agree with the general consensus here. If you remove the staples and put them back in but don't clean them, you will likely get a blue label. Any damage to the staples from reinsertion will be treated as a defect and will result in a downgrade. If you clean or replace the staples, I know that historically the book would receive a green label Qualified grade, but I believe that nowadays that kind of thing will receive a Conserved label. (This is based upon the "CGC: An Overview of Comic Book Restoration" section of the latest edition of the Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics.)

I joined in February 2004 after winning an eBay auction from Comic-Keys for an expensive book. I believe it was an ASM #1 in about raw VF for roughly $10k, but as it was almost 20 years ago, I could be remembering the wrong book. I do remember the $10k price though, and I'm pretty sure it was an ASM1. I called CGC about getting it graded as I had never sent a book in before, and whoever I spoke to forwarded my call to Steve Borock. I spoke to Steve on the phone and he asked me who I bought the book from. When I told him, he said, "Oh no, he's one of the worst scammers on eBay," and referred me to this forum where there had just been a huge thread about a recent article linking Comic-Keys to Danny Dupcak. I cancelled the transaction with Comic-Keys and likely dodged a bullet on a trimmed book. I started posting around that time and was one of the most active posters for several years, until around 2009 when my first son was born. I took a break from buying books for about a decade until recently, when my younger son got interested in collecting and I started helping him get his collection started. This is a great forum with a lot of very knowledgeable people. I've learned more about the hobby from these forums than from any other resource by far and have formed many long term friendships with some of my favorite people.

I know I'm late to the party, but who is Dylan?

It sounds to me like you value color strike and ink preservation over structural defects. That's fine and it's your prerogative. But the grading standards aim at achieving consensus among the collecting community, and structural defects carry a lot of weight among the vast majority of collectors. While you might prefer your copy to a 7.0 with faded reds, most collectors would not. Having said that, the fading on the reds in the trade dress of the FF#1 would keep me from grading it anywhere near a 9.4 too.

+1

What makes you think you'd get any higher of a grade with that big blotch of ink on the front cover?

Great news! I'm in San Ramon now, so pretty close to SF but not in the city proper any more. Once I had kids, I had to move to the suburbs! Is this DD#1 one of your original owner copies?

Hiya Harry! You going to be back for a while, or just to sell a few books?

Size can be an indication but it's not conclusive. I see a bunch of little burrs along the inner pages on the right edge. The cover should have similar burrs that match up with the interior pages. Do they match up? If not (meaning the cover is smooth and straight where the inner pages have burrs), that's a strong indication of trimming. But if they match up perfectly, then it's probably not trimmed.

In sports cards, they grade it "Altered." I'd be in favor of that, personally. But that's just one aspect of the issue. I think it's better to blue-label trimmed books with a maximum grade of 3.0 and a trimmed/altered notation, than to purple-label them and pretend like the missing pieces can somehow be ignored in favor of a higher apparent grade. Missing pieces are missing pieces and the grade should reflect that.

I always thought that trimmed books should be graded as "pieces missing," since the book isn't really "restored" in the true sense of the word. In my opinion, the highest grade a trimmed book could get is a 3.0 even if the book looks perfect. I posted about this here 15 years ago or so, and naturally, no one agreed with me.

I completely agree. With that miscut, he's lucky he got a 9.6 in the first place. There's about a quarter inch of cover missing at the bottom. A press isn't going to get him a higher grade and after they press it, they might grade it lower this time.

No, I'm good. You could be making this whole thing up for all I know.