Randall Ries

On 1/20/2022 at 11:56 PM, valiantman said:

Yes. It's actually close to 11%.

That really is remarkable. I wonder if other titles make up 10% or even more of slabbed books. And that doesn't count PGX or CBCS slabbers?

Curt Swan Supermans
Weird War
Ghosts
Neal Adams Batman
Green Lantern Adams run
Archie Comics. MAN those things were funny. Plus the little reprint digests were hot. Archie was HUGE in the 1970's.
Captain America
Spiderman
Classics Illustrated became collectible but it was tough for us to determine 1st prints

On 1/20/2022 at 10:52 AM, valiantman said:

Amazing Spider-Man has 672,000+ CGC slabs, and there are another 240 different series with "Spider" in the title graded at least 25 times by CGC.

http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/cgctitle/

Roughly 1 in every 10 CGC slabs is a Spider-something.

So, 10% of everything slabb-o'd is a Spider book?

On 1/19/2022 at 8:00 PM, thehumantorch said:

New processes?  Is that new process grabbing the box near the door that just came in rather than the box that's sat at the back of the room for 6 months?  If they have a new process I'd appreciate them using it on my year old submission.

This is what I'm talking about. All the talk about "new ideas". The "OLD" idea is to get comics back into collectors hands. Perhaps there's the rub:

The duality between "Collector" and "Capitalist".

As a collector, my view of CGC is based on that. I send in raw books I want to have preserved and graded so I can keep them either as a fetish or an investment somewhere down the line.

As a capitalist, I buy tons of modern books and send in thousands of them per month (Don't really know how many a dealer would regularly send in). I want the 9.8 or even 9.9 so I can push them off on my customers and make money to feed my family or drug habit. Or my family's drug habit. This is my bread and butter but I am not necessarily a collector and my interests lie mainly in making money and less with the aesthetic.

As a collector, it's grinds my ash when I have sent in - say - A Batman 227 and I have been waiting for 8 months for it to come back. I get little help from PR because really, what can they do about it? Nothing much but tell me to be patient and they are "so sorry". Fair enough. They are the front lines. Just like any other business.

As a capitalist, I send in - say - 1,000 per month. If I gave it much thought, I would realize that I am actually part of the TAT problem, if not THE problem. But that doesn't matter because I am entitled to the same services that the guy like me - who sends in one puny book - is. In fact, I may think I have MORE entitlements because of the cash I am paying to get 1,000 books graded. The collector can just cool it. I spend $1,000's per year. He pays - what - $200-$300?

The collector loves the books and remembers a time he wasn't stove up with arthritis and addicted to narcotic pain meds. The books are a touchstone to something more valuable than money. They remind him of being young. Going to school in the late 1960's early 1970's and trading with the few friends he had. At the very dawn of the comic book collecting hobby. Or putting on his towel or bed sheet and beating the Hell out of a shrub that is a super villain.

The capitalist may have began there, but the love of money is far greater than such silly musings as that. The capitalist would prefer not to dig ditches or work at Denny's and so sells comic books online, mainly. He loves his business but perhaps the books are or have become simple product. To be bought and flipped. The capitalist has little interest or time dealing with sentimentality and a dollar is a dollar. So, if he buries CGC in "product" every month, why that has nothing to do with him. He is well within his rights as a paying customer.

So - as I see it - MY concerns and a sellers concerns are very different. I had a very wealthy friend who had 2 Tec 27's. One was on a shelf with her other books. One was on a dining room table. A cat peed on that one, ruining it. As a collector, I was mortified, even offended at her carelessness. And her attitude when she said "Oh well. I'll just buy another one." She was a weird hybrid of collector/capitalist.

I guess that's all there is to it, really. If I were to send raw books to CGC, I would expect them back within 30 days of receipt. No if, and's or buts. I would expect a company like CGC to be able to meet that demand. And not return my book a year later possibly damaged. It's a simple requirement. When CGC consistently does the opposite, that tarnishes their reputation in the eyes of a collector. They are likely deluged with books from capitalists. Modern stuff that is less important in the eyes of the collector. But valuable to the capitalist.

In this event, the "little guy" gets hammered as he always does. Even though he ha the same entitlements as the "Big Guy" who wants to make his money. What good is a new modern if he gets it back after the fad he was banking on has died away?

So, as a collector, I keep my raw books and try to grade them fairly. That's all I can really DO. All I need a grading company for is restoration detection. I am still capable of eyeballing a book and asking a reasonable price.

On 1/19/2022 at 7:02 PM, 68redlines73 said:

As the CGC brand is primarily associated with a buyer’s perspective of their grading vs. their competition, could you be more specific about just what part of their brand has been damaged? I have my own perspective. Interested in yours.

Well, my perspective lies mainly with members here complaining. Some of the horror stories I have read. The damages and the high turn around times. It isn't that these problems just went away. They are never really addressed by CGC. Grading comics has become political.

At this point, I think CGC's mythical golden reputation is just that. A myth. I can pull dozens of grading examples from any 3 of the grading camps and show plusses and minuses. Anyone can.

Simply put - as a customer - waiting for almost a year to get my subs back isn't reasonable. From what I read here, nothing has changed. When more people begin to complain and it starts getting in the news, things might change. CGC isn't some magical talisman. Another company could come along and be better than the big 3.

On 1/17/2022 at 4:44 PM, 68redlines73 said:

My observations would indicate that your suggestion would seriously damage the CGC brand.

CGC is doing just fine damaging their brand. If they weren't, there wouldn't be so many threads here on A FAN SITE demonstrating it.

I USED to think scanning the front an back covers would help with grading but can we imagine the uproar if grading when hyper-tight? Scanner or computer, either will pick up marks and ticks that are usually passed over or ignored.

So, I have a question of my own: Since people keep saying: "CGC is trying to address these TAT issues" (Trying isn't doing), how long do we think is long enough where there should be clear evidence that they are smoking submissions now and returning them in - let's say for fairness - 45 days?  There are submissions that have been in CGC hands for a year now. And the complaints were there BEFORE COVID.

If it IS COVID increasing wait times, and since COVID isn't going to go away, then what is going to have to change the grading/TAT times? No help=no expedience.

On 1/18/2022 at 4:05 PM, kav said:

after issue 150 i'm betting.

That doesn't seem to matter. Go to any sales or auction site and look. It's remarkable. Maybe the same could be said for Batman, Superman, Detective Action etc. I was thinking that as "hot" as Marvel is, SO. Many. Spiderman. Books.

Man. Whenever a new auction cycle comes up, I enjoy browsing. On each site, there are TONS of Spiderman comics. Pages of them. Same with sales pages. Pages and pages of those things. Doesn't matter if it is before during or after a movie cycle. Doesn't matter if Spiderman is gigantically popular or is seeing an ebb in popularity.

It's like every person in the US - the WORLD - received tons of Spiderman books at birth. I can't think of another title that boasts so many available back issues at all times.It's aggravating to a degree to scroll through pages of them on a new auction listing. I just brace myself for it. Just jump ahead 5 or 6 pages and I'm STILL in Spiderman land.

7.0 Congratulations!

2.5. I can give $90 for it.

4.5

5.0

5.0

Am I grading 59 or 76?

5.5. You must be over the moon with this. Congratulations.

9.2

On 1/8/2022 at 8:31 PM, dover said:

A few raw books from WorldWide as well. Sharon is great to work with over there. 

Neal covers.

Great Neal books. When did TCOTU start wearing fur trim? I got a Neal cover not long ago with them wearing the trim as well.

I don't know if these qualify as bronze age, but I have taken a shine to signed copies of DC's Facsimile editions.

i see 6.0-6.5.

On 1/11/2022 at 11:45 AM, The bard said:

First, thank you all for the input on my poorly worded original question. 
 

After looking through my graded baseball card spreadsheet (which includes when I bought, what I paid, but also my wants list and their price when added to my list), I realized I was about to make the same “mistake” I made on comics that I did with baseball:  that of prioritizing things I had nostalgia for over the rarer/more expensive wants further down my list (because while I can still afford say a ASM 361 if it doubles, I couldn’t afford say a 9.6 ASM 121 if it does too).  Thus, I have done some reordering and am now trying to decide between ASM 121 or 122 in 9.6 or a 238 in 9.8 as my “first” pickup (I will likely only get one of these 3 at least for a while) and then will target the lower pop stuff before larger pop cheaper modern stuff  (learning from some of my baseball regrets). 

Good man (I assume. LOL!)

I try to never tell anyone what to get. You love what you love. But I have discovered the newer books are HEAVILY speculated on and they go UP! Then dooowwwwn. Through it all, there have always been books that are the backbone of the hobby and have increased not only in value in a reasonable fashion but also in desirability. There ARE some nutsy books like IH 181 or even HOS 92 which exploded suddenly when Wrightson died but mainly they steadily increase in a reasonable fashion.

I personally think you will thank yourself for this decision later on. Just IMO, but I would get the Gwen Stacy "death" issue first. That thing will never go out of vogue. It'll look good on a wall, too. Out of sunlight, of course. Or ANY glaring light.

On 1/10/2022 at 9:07 AM, Lord Gemini said:

And how are you determining what has "actual value"?

My way and probably not your way.

On 1/9/2022 at 9:34 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

Have you read the OPs posts?

I read the opening post, yes. He wants a book to display in his office. He could be convinced otherwise. I took it out of the 1980's and suggested books with actual value along with a coolness factor. He does not need to consider my suggestion.

Why not buy something that's actually valuable or at least has a track record of slow, incremental growth? I bought an HOS 92, a Bat 251 and Bat 232. And so forth.

There has to be Marvel counterparts. Books that don't go ***POOF*** in the night. Or books that we don't have to sweat every day. An Iron Man 1? An FF 112? That thing is fire right now. ASM 121? 129? I can't see where a collector could go wrong with those books.

Stan Lee once said that the Golden Age books are the ones that are actually valuable. The ones to be proud to be a custodian of. I think we are at the point the same can be now said of late silver/early bronze. A lot happened then.

7.0 as is.

I m saying 5.0 as is.I am saying 5.0!