VintageComics

Absolutely. Even in mid grades, it's affected the grade on books I've submitted. I had an FF #1 that was just gorgeous and white. The book would have graded in the 7.5/8.0 range if not for Marvel Chipping. It graded a 5.5 and when I questioned Borock about it (he was the finalizer) he stated that they couldn't grade it higher because of the amount of Marvel chipping. If I remember correctly, namisgr bought the book. I remember that because I remember him telling me that he didn't care that the book had Marvel Chipping.

Eye appeal is also factored into the grade, again just not to the same degree that we might want it to be. Miswraps will keep books out of the highest grades and on an otherwise perfect book miswraps alone could be the difference between 9.6, 9.8, 9.9 and 10.0 based on how bad it is. CGC does down grade for writing on covers if it's not date stamp or Pedigree related. If there are corners torn off a cover or pieces missing, they definitely down grade heavily. I can't think of any other examples right now but they do definitely factor eye appeal into the grades. Obviously, like MC, there is much more of a deduction in high grades than there is in lower grades. Why do they not take as much off for things like MC and eye appeal as some collectors would like? I'd take an educated guess and say that it's because they want people to continue submitting and if they hammer grades they might appeal to buyers but not to sellers. So their grading standards are a compromise to appease both buyers and sellers.

As someone who has had literally 1000's of books graded and has spent the last 15 years reverse engineering CGC's grading standards as well as spoken to graders about it, they absolutely take Marvel Chipping into account and it does affect the grade.

Scans updated with CGC graded fronts and rears.

But they do hammer the grade. The chipping just has left effect on the grade as the grade drops. But a 9.8 with a chip could end up grading a 9.0 with one chip (or something along those lines). If there is enough chipping it could end up in the VG range. There's no way the gap will be as wide as restored vs. unrestored (and I don't think that's what you meant, just clarifying).

I agree with namisgr. They do downgrade, it's just done on a sliding scale. Low grade books can have so many accumulative defects that the chipping may not even affect the grade. I don't think any blue chip books get a pass. You need to remember that there is some inconsistency in grading which might account for some variance.

The did away with notes on the label because notes make a book look inferior compared to a book without notes. You'll never see them do something like that.

I don't think it's been a factor. Low interest rates have been the norm for nearly a decade now.

Comic Con in SD wasn't an issue for dealers until it became difficult for customers to get into the show. Now, even if you want to get in the door and spend loads of cash, you can't. Because the badges sold to everyone else. That is the main reason I've heard dealers have either cut back on their booths or stopped doing the show that was once considered the Superbowl of Comics. That and the costs (hotel, airfare, booths) have made it unprofitable. My first time in SD was only about 6 or 7 years ago. Even as recently as thatI could still find a nice 4 star hotel room for about $180. I stayed at the Westin SD and literally booked it 2 weeks before the show. Now? Good luck finding a place for under $300 or $400 if there is any availability at all. Tickets? Good luck. Sharing badges? So you've been setting up at SD for decades and want to get your best customers in so they can shop with you? If you get caught by SD you'll have to work really hard not to get thrown out by SDCC at worst and at best not have all of your badges confiscated. The show is a real problem for those who just want to buy comics.

Without being insulting, if there was a cosplay convention it would not make any money.

I'm glad you finally admitted what was obvious to everyone else.

If I had to guess, I'd say that whoever bought that book did so expecting at least a 90 at that price point. I'd be more worried about missing a defect in the grading process or missing restoration / trimming. All grading companies miss things including CGC but for a long time I had heard that PGX had only one grader grading everything. I'm not sure if that is still the case.

By the way, I am not only talking about AF #15. I'm talking about any book (including GA books) that go up in price very sharply.

There's nothing wrong with talking about money. There's nothing wrong with making money off comics. There's nothing wrong with comics getting more expensive. There;s nothing wrong with comics becoming extremely expensive. What can be a problem is the way it's done. If there is organic and general demand causing prices to rise, that is a healthy market dynamic. If there is market manipulation causing price increase, it's not only unhealthy, it was fall back and crash on itself. That's why in sales threads people call out sellers who only quote GPA high prices when selling. It's a form of market manipulation. And while you may not purposefully be trying to manipulate the market, posting only record sales prices does manipulate market perception. When you post only record sales prices AND also keep talking about how hot and awesome the books are (key books and not run issues or story lines) it gives readers the impression that you are pumping the market. Pumping the market is not looked at in a positive way by most people. As a dealer, I don't care whether prices get more expense or not. I'm still making money. But I've been a reader and a collector for over 40 years. What I do care about is the health of the hobby for the long term, because if the hobby becomes unhealthy that's bad for everyone. And personally, if you want my opinion anybody who only talks about money is not enjoying the hobby. They're enjoying speculation and the hobby becomes no different than a stock market ticker.

Because people can go into detail about their books in other threads here it's all about sale prices. But you're only posting strong prices. You're not posting weak prices. So it's just a thread to pump books you have a vested interest in. If you were really interested in market discussion you'd discuss the entire market, not just the sales that keep going up, up, up. And that is the issue that people take with your posts. "OMG, this book should go for a zillion dollarssszzz!!!!1111" when in fact, it shouldn't. But people have tried to explain it to you several times and you either don't understand or don't care. EDIT: And I'll add that you are free to discuss anything you want but I think people take issue with you calling it a hobby when your posts are only worried about dollars.

DD #131 sold immediately after I updated the thread. That was quick. Thank you fellow board member!

I'm sorry gang, I was in a rush last night and made some typos in the title. Typos have been fixed. Someone should have bought the Hulk #1 CGC 9.4 for $5K. Now it's gone. Also, I can't seem to find the raw scan of the DD #131 so I'll post that book once I have the book scanned in it's CGC holder.

Showcase #22 CGC 2.5 COW (Book is CGC graded, this is just a scan of the book when it was raw) Asking $1600 ON HOLD

Incredible Hulk #181 CGC 9.4 OWW - stunning copy Asking $5000 $4700

Going to reopen this thread with some fresh books rather than start a new one.

Now you're throwing all sorts of qualifiers into the discussion. Hulk #1 is picking up steam again. I have no idea what fraud you're talking about. The book legitimately jumped across the board, stabilized (and pulled back a bit in lower grades) and now is climbing again. Anyhow, back to the discussion, this is what was said: Sure enough, over the past 6 months you could have bought an AF #15, paid it off for 6 months and then resold it for a profit. You can add pre Robin Batman, Detective #38, Batman #1, Action #1, Detective #27, possibly TOS #39 and X-men #1 and Showcase #4 to that list. There are probably other books too but you get my point. Does that mean you can do it every time? No, but certainly over the past year this seems to have been the case.

I suspect you'd be just as annoying to some people.

And the typical borderline hyperventilating, personal attack from you (whenever someone dares to remotely disagree with one of your opinions). There's no hyperventilating. Just an eye roll because you always post an opinion as though it's fact. As in this case: If stating the obvious (that you are generally contradicting thorough logic) and you take it as a personal attack, well then...

I'd be open to evidence as well but at this point I'd trust someone who has a lifetime of handling and grading GA books and who has held the book in their hands over an internet opinion. If it was a sun faded book it would have graded in the low to mid VG range as a universal so actually, so the market priced it as such. The difference between this book and others with color plate defects is that the eye appeal is greatly affected with this copy. On books like FF #110 where there is also a color printing error, the eye appeal isn't greatly affected and it has become a collectible to itself for completists and those that collect printing defects. Unfortunately, they tend to focus on SA and later books. If in fact this Cap #1 is a printint errror (which I believe it is) then it's an interesting historical anomaly.