Randall Dowling

Doesn't it depend on grade? I've seen a lot of Vampirella 113s with fingerprints on the back cover (a plague on copies of that book due to the all black back cover and paper stock) that are otherwise easy 9.4s but I wouldn't grade them higher than 8.5. Collecting Vampirellas, Creepys, and Eeries (Original Warrens) is an exercise in suffering through fingerprints due to the incredible number of black covers.

I'm in the same place. I love the look of fresh, glossy copies of the doubles and I have a lot of them. But it's a long way to go to complete the set. Feels like a 10-15 year goal if I embark on it. Especially when I'm working on a Midwood run, an Ace F-series run, a Popular Library run, etc. Then toss in various digest runs and man, it's a tall climb to the top! My challenge is creating bookends (metaphorical) for where to start and stop pursuits. Still working on it.

Hey! Weird- when I first clicked on the link, it went to a results page that wasn't sorted. When I just clicked it again, it landed in comics. Please accept my humble apologies for this insult to your search integrity.

All I've learned from this thread is that @kav needs to learn how to narrow eBay results by category.

That's a great book to start with! Believe it or not, my entry into digests was many years ago and was also a quarter book- Leg Art Virgin. Looking forward to other books you find!

This is a very cool book!

It was ever thus.

Congratulations, SA! That's an incredible piece to own!! And it's signed!!

This is a particularly tough book in high grade. Great mags!!

I like buying in bulk. These are all due to arrive tomorrow! For the record, I did not purchase this group because of Big City Nurse. It's ridiculous to imply that I did!

Falcons are super tough (as you well know). I'm still working on that run but once I get organized and can tell what I have, I'll post some group pics. Might take me until Thanksgiving, though.

Gorgeous copies!

No. This is incorrect. Most books were all being put through the ringer way before this. And there's a good chance that most of the Twin Cities books were "optimized" prior to initial slabbing.

I hope they're right. Unfortunately, the last few years they've been making claims contrary to known preservation techniques. I blame sales and marketing. It's an easy claim to make especially since they don't have to back it up. It's not as if they will pay for the book if something happens to it. And, the causes and conditions that lead to foxing are still poorly understood. So I think the claim is dubious. The best bet is to store the slab in a supportive atmosphere (cool, dry, etc.) and it should (hopefully) be okay.

As you know, they're not waterproof or air tight. I think whoever said that made it up. And no, slabs do not stop staple rust. In fact if slabs are stored in the wrong conditions, they'll accelerate it. Many years ago, CGC put out a warning for storing slabs in fireproof safes because a very high grade Hulk 181 had been stored in one and the staples disintegrated. I've said it before but I'll repeat it again- slabs are not archival for long term storage.

If it's completely rusted with migration/staining on the paper around, I think you're looking at a 4.0-4.5. But others will feel differently. I just particularly dislike staple rust. It's the bane of many, many stitched periodicals.

I agree. But if the book is otherwise a 7.0-7.5, then I would drop further for rusty staples on top of other flaws. Personally, one full grade so final grade is 6.0-6.5 (assuming otherwise 7.0-7.5) Rusty staples are bad.

If you always keep the lion fed, it won't look at you as food...

Bugs in slabs are gross.

It's pretty funny if it isn't given how many were printed.

Can't get enough Spawn 1s graded, apparently. I hear it's pretty rare and worth lots of money.

Although Heritage obviously has the best website, CC isn't the worst (Comiclink's always reminds me of the front page of a 1999 Netscape browser window). Given how much these guys are making on every auction, it's crazy to me that they don't all have A+ interface design. But the dollars are flowing more than ever and that doesn't create much of an incentive to reinvest.

Yes, and I'm getting a little tired of that from you.

One of the reasons these boards are such a great community. Especially the magazine section!

Nice solid copy, by the way!