WaltG12

Bumping this because I've only just seen it. I'm not sure how this can get anyone in trouble, when, as stated, this is how bigger signings have been handled for a while now. Did you ever participate in one of Stan's while he was alive? I don't know how it was wherever you are, but at Wizard in Chicago, the CGC facilitator handling the signing was generally set up across an aisle from the actual signing. You'd leave Stan's area and walk your book across that aisle to their booth. What nobody really talked about, though, was that the aisle you had to walk across was often populated with people trying to catch a glimpse of Stan--volunteers tried to keep people moving, but it wasn't the most effective process. If anyone at that booth was trying to monitor people coming off Stan's line, they wouldn't have had a line of sight to do it, thanks to the massive crowd of lookie-loos. But, due to the "efficiency" of Stan's line, combined with the amount of time it took for them to take your books & get the paperwork & money thing all sorted, they were never well staffed enough to monitor the line, even if they could have. They usually had a line themselves, a few people deep, while their heads were down trying to get everyone sorted as quickly as possible. I harbor no illusions that it'll do any good. As was stated above, it's a trade off that CGC chose to make/allow for the sake of efficiency, as anything else would've created longer lines and more backups in areas where people needed to move. The only viable alternative would be to handle it the way that MLB (and, therefore, Star Wars Celebration) does--put the person at the end of the table, so they can watch what's signed (not that they necessarily do, but there's a lot less room for error & a lot more eyes consistently on everyone involved) and so anyone who walks past them is guaranteed to have gotten something signed. But, the intricacies required here, with the paperwork & the payment & actually taking the signed piece, are a lot more involved than simply putting a sticker on something and/or scanning a barcode. So they can't do it anywhere near as smoothly as MLB can, and when you have a line like Stan did, you want to get people in and out of it, not create a bottleneck at the end of it. So, they did what they could to eliminate that bottleneck and moved that hand-off point further out to its own line. I can't say I blame them for it, as there's really no other way to keep up the necessary pace. (Personally, I always wondered why, with regard to Stan's line, nobody was sealing the CGC bound books in a tamper proof bag like they use at Best Buy at the end of the line, so there'd at least be some level of security, but I figured that even that would cause a moderate bottleneck that nobody wanted to deal with.) With all that, at the end of the day, I trust the facilitators but look at second-hand CGC yellow labels the same way I look at sports signatures with "In the Presence" stickers on them. Is it real? Probably. 99.99% even. Is it the rock-solid, iron clad, no wiggle room at all whatsoever guarantee that it purports itself to be? Not when it comes to big name show signatures. It's why my only CGC yellow label books come from trusted sources directly or verifiable signings with trusted sources. If I can trace a signature back to a private signing with someone like Doug or Rich, then it's as good as gold, as far as I'm concerned. Anything signed on the show floor acquired by a random collector under unknown circumstances has too much wiggle room, as far as I'm concerned--at least too much with regard to the premium that CGC SS commands (or that sellers try to get) over their (also very likely to be good) raw counterparts. Of course, I trust the other guy's yellow label even less, ever since the head of their program defended the choice to appoint a guy as his own witness showed up at a con and went to their booth to request a witness by claiming that he first asked the guy "a series of questions", as though people intent on committing fraud don't lie in pursuit of that fraud. Put simply, I trust most of the people involved, but have little regard for the program itself or its reputation. And CGC doesn't really care about that.

You're welcome. Not sure how helpful "at this point, there's no way to know until it's practically too late" is, but, hey, glad to be of service!

Again, it's all up to whomever runs the Autograph Hall. When OfficialPix did it, which is what everyone's domestic experience will be (as no other company ran the Autograph Hall at a domestic SWC until this year), they sold the tickets online and at the show and ran the booth by calling ticket number ranges (in order sold). This meant that, in theory, you could buy a ticket and get in the line that same day. As many found out who tried that, though, in practice any tickets bought at the show on the first day wouldn't generally get you in the line until the last day or two, assuming they didn't sell out by then. But, again, that was how OP handled it. It'll be up to whomever's in charge this time around to decide if they want to do it that way or some other way. As I mentioned, rumor is that it's going to be Topps, but that's only a rumor at this point. Reed is historically very hands-off regarding that element. Things for Celebration, domestically & abroad, generally don't get majorly rolling until a month or two out. It frustrates a lot of collectors by making them buy tickets without really knowing what to expect, but that's how Lucasfilm has historically handled it. (I keep reiterating "historically" because I want to make very clear that, at this point, nobody knows what's going to happen with future Autograph Halls--all we know is the past, which very well may change.)

It's generally ticketed, but all that is up to whomever is running the Autograph Hall. Reed hasn't published that information (and I haven't seen any announcement from Lucasfilm), but the rumor is that's going to be Topps, based on the new photo deal. In fact, I'm curious about who told you that Mark Hamill will even be there signing? No autograph guests have been announced on the website yet, and a Mark Hamill signing, though more commonplace in recent years, is still far from a given.

On the subject of art schools in general, I know an artist who's had a steady job in comics for 10+ years who credits it all to a failing grade (and, more importantly, the resulting lecture on why it was a failing grade) from Hy Eisman at Kubert. Hy had said artist redo the assignment (with his notes) and it was that redone assignment that got the artist a job with a mainstream publisher that, again, has been held for 10+ years. Was luck a factor in that? Of course. But it's hard to say that, in at least that one instance, the school itself didn't have value. It's also worth noting that Ty Templeton insists that nobody can't draw & anybody who insists they can't just haven't taken the time to learn. Whether Ty had formal instruction, I don't know, but I do know that he offers it. Of course, since these instances are (fairly) comic specific, I'm talking about education that's closer to "here's how to make it in the comic industry" over "here's how to make art in general", but I had to take issue with the "art school is worthless" vibe throughout the thread.

Your logic seems a bit flawed there. I've been researching the market on these issues for about a month, lurking on this website for about a year and a half, and attending conventions since 2010. Just because I only just made the purchase today doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm doing at all. Granted, I am a bit fuzzy on a few of the particulars (hence my questions), but I have more of a handle on what I'm doing than your advice seems to imply.

Thank you! My first superhero comic purchase was today--a few from the "Civil War"/"Death of Captain America" arc. I wanted to get in before the seemingly inevitable price jump that will hit when the upcoming movie goes mainstream. I still haven't decided if I want to try to get them signed, but I'm a bit worried about killing their value as an investment if I do.

So I'm completely new to both collecting comics and getting them signed. As such, I have a few questions that hopefully aren't too stupid. 1) If I don't do CGC at all on my comics (standard grading or SS), will I be severely hampering any resale value if I get them signed? Put another way, will only buy signed comics if they're SS slabbed or can I still get a decent return on investment without that additional expense? 2) I've noticed that some artists, such as Neal Adams, will add a head sketch to comic covers that they sign for an additional fee. Is that a standard thing at Comic Cons or will only a handful of artists entertain such requests? What's the general cost for that? (Note that I'm not talking about the blank covers, but small sketches done by the artist on the standard covers.) 3) If I do decide to do CGC SS (or a later CGC Green Label) and I get a sketch done on the standard cover of a comic when the artist signs it, would that affect the grade since it's more than just a signature? Thanks all!