Stronguy

That's true but tape we not considered restoration even before the clarification. CGC used to not count off as heavily for books with tape. There are many instances where a book that had a completely split cover that was taped back together then reattached got a 1.5 rather than a .5 like it would receive today.

Don't ever, ever, ever do a crossover. Crack that book out yourself, evaluate it, then send it in if you like what you see. NEVER leave it up to CGC to do this. There are way too many stories of CGC screwing people over on crossover grades because they didn't opt for CCS pressing after it was cracked out. "Dear Customer, we think your CBCS 9.2 book is really an 8.0 but we can press it up to a 9.2 for you. Do you want to spend another $100 so we can do that for you?" It's a freaking scam.

Lighten up, Francis. I'm just saying that tape is not considered restoration by CGC. It's not convoluted, it's very clear and CGC clarified it 9 years ago.

This is incorrect. Tape on an book (ref. the link in another post) is noted on the label and the grade is treated as if the tape doesn't exist. You do not get a restored grade for tape alone.

I've worked on many, many, many ASM 361s and what you describe is right on the money. The cover attachment is really, really sloppy and the vast majority of the time at least 1 staple has a problem. The QP on that book is horrible. The first thing I would look for on a multi-cover version is the grabber marks on the bottom of the front/back cover. Those would need to align but I suppose it's possible that the interior cover would not necessarily be perforated.

The spine of a comic should be rounded when it is properly pressed. Some pressers think the answer to stubborn spine ticks is to up the pressure. Oftentimes, especially if they use a lot of moisture, you will see a crushed spine. It's more of a V shape than a U shape.

100% incorrect. There a many, many documented instances where people have submitted books under the right title/issue/print/variant and CGC has just screwed it up. Heck, I've had to send the same book back multiple times to get them to get it right. And they should. It has been a problem for DECADES (ref. the 3rd print TMNT 1 9.8 that was labeled and sold as a 9.8 1st print.)

I'm guessing if it were possible to calculate the probability, with all the moving parts and stars that would have to align, it would be in billions. However, there is one right there and OtherEric said it was sold shortly after it came out and wasn't being sold as such (which lends veracity). It's like the CVP with an MJI -- it shouldn't exist yet one exists (and I'm still skeptical about it despite CGC verifying it).

I think that's more likely than 2 different version of a cover getting pulled. Heck, I have a Many Ghost of Doctor Graves with Top Cat guts.

It's important to remember, possibility =/= probability, and possible absolutely =/= likely. There would have to be a perfect storm for it to happen. The feeder for the covers gets adjusted to control the feed and sometimes that gets out of whack, thus you get issues that are known for having multiple covers. In this case, the feed adjustment would have to allowed for 2 covers to come out at just the right time. Could that have happened, sure - but not probable. Could there have been something on the bottom of the direct cover that stuck it to the top newsstand cover, maybe. In fact that would be the most likely explanation IMO.

I don't know if we discussed it here but I did talk to someone in the printing business and he said it's possible but improbable. Covers are manually loaded into the bin for assembly. Someone would have had to have loaded the Direct covers on top of the newsstand covers (not out of the ordinary) and the bottom cover of the Direct pile would have had to somehow stick to the top newsstand cover.

All the books I've ever seen with archival tape are graded just as if it were regular tape. That was confirmed by Paul Litch several years ago, before the Conserved label came about, when I asked him about what would be allowed on my ASM 1. There was a piece on the back cover that was barely handing on; Matt Nelson had reinforced with rice paper. Paul told me, because it was rice paper, regardless of its function, it would be PLOD. The only way around that would be to tape it. It wouldn't matter if it was archival or not; it would get a blue label with a tape note.

I know for a fact that Matt used heat (in conjunction with moisture and cold pressing) when he owned CI. His office was about 10 minutes from my house and he and I talked pressing several times. In fact he was the one who encouraged me to press my own books. Heck we would get brownouts when he fired up all the presses. (Okay, I made up that last part.) I recall hearing he had 60 presses at one point (unconfirmed).

On sale during Christmas.

The lighting is completely different. I took the first photo on the seller's dining room table with one of those horrible white lights they have in the hospital. The other one (slabbed) is on my desk with much less harsh lighting.

That's really interesting. Knowing how the manufacturing process works, I would be very suspect of something like this actually being legit.

It's a monster. This one got 9.6, 9.6, 9.8, 9.8, 9.8, 9.8, 9.8.

I'm not sure if I shared this one in this thread or not (but I will never pass up an opportunity).

Probably 9.6

walkthru - that's why congrats, great story! Hopefully win - win for both parties ! WT is the only way to do a $30k book. The Avengers 1 (also on that sub) was $3k+ so it only made sense to put it on there. Blood Is The Harvest is the 3rd book. Even though it qualified for a much lower tier, it was actually made more sense to do WT after you factor in shipping and TAT.

Heck, 5 days. They got them on a Monday, had them in the system by Wednesday, and mailed out the next Monday.

From a small OO collection I picked up last month. This book was a beater but I was able to massage it into decent shape.