Get Marwood & I

2024 CGC Grading Contest Season 3 Spring Edition (#10) - 125 participants 1st place @Axelrod won $500 2nd place @zzutak won $250 3rd place @Cerebus3000 won $100 6th place @Ride the Tiger won $500** 2024 CGC Grading Contest Season 3 Winter Edition (#9) - 131 participants 1st place @pastandpresentcomics won $500 2nd place @Ride the Tiger won $250 3rd place @Superman2006 won $100 2023 CGC Grading Contest Season 2 Fall Edition (#8) - 109 participants 1st place @Withering Wind won $500 2nd place @Point Five won $250 3rd place @TheGeneral won $100 2023 CGC Grading Contest Season 2 Summer Edition (#7) - 128 participants 1st place @batcollector won $500 2nd place @Morganmi won $250 3rd place @CJ Design won $100 2023 CGC Grading Contest Season 2 Spring Edition (#6) - 131 participants 1st place @Get Marwood & I won $500** 2nd place @Warlord won $250 3rd place @jbpez won $100 2023 CGC Grading Contest Season 2 Winter Edition (#5) - 115 participants 1st place @TC33 won $500 2nd place @TheGeneral won $250 3rd place @silverseeker won $100 2022 CGC Grading Contest Season 1 Fall Edition (#4) - 104 participants 1st place @Yorick won $500 2nd place @WilliamLunt won $250 3rd place @TheGeneral won $100 2022 CGC Grading Contest Season 1 Summer Edition (#3) - 137 participants 1st place @TheGeneral won $500 2nd place @Electron won $250 3rd place @comicginger1789 won $100 2022 CGC Grading Contest Season 1 Spring Edition (#2) - 154 participants 1st place @jbpez won $500 2nd place @Mr. Zipper won $250 3rd place @Superman2006 won $100 2022 CGC Grading Contest Season 1 Winter Edition (#1) - 354 participants 1st place @Squirrel Guy won $500 **

I see your Miller most definite and raise you a Miller most probable! Or is that lower... Anyway, white trousers? If I was Liz I'd let her have him.

I forgot that you posted a copy too

Philip's very short story "The Commuter" appears in this 1953, pulp sized first issue of Amazing Stories: Shouldn't take me long to read tonight, all being well. It's a UK version of the US book, distributed by our very own Thorpe & Porter. I like the 6d remainder stamp inside, which is also just about visible on the cover Here's someone else's US version, for comparison: Note that PKD wasn't famous enough to be included on the cover back in '53. As well as all the UK specific changes, my version doesn't have 'Or Else' and 'The Phantom Truckdriver' stories. Given that Strato reissued, repackage, repackaged the book specifically for the UK market, I wonder why they left the original US price on it? Maybe to make it look more exotic, who knows. Anyway, some Dick to read tonight if I can stay awake.

US distribution copy to UK distribution copy

Your troubled memory serves you well, Gaard...

@Yorick

Bit of good news though - CGC have announced that they'll be grading buckets in the future.

I agree. That was a slight earthquake. Or a slight Alien Invasion. Or a slight completely rusted staple. Or a slight piece of poop on my cheese burger.

This is one of the areas where I am miles away from CGC. I understand the desire to give a book the best grade it deserves, but I would never give a book like this an 8.0: Rusted staples are degenerative under the wrong conditions, and I just can't get behind the degrees of severity thing which allows books to be graded as high when the staples are sufficiently degraded to have stained the pages all the way through to the back cover. Flaws like water damage, trimming, mould and rusted staples should really have grade points beyond which they cannot go, regardless of eye appeal. If you asked 100 collectors to buy that book, as an 8.0, and then cracked it open, how many of them would be satisfied seeing that rust do you think? How many would say "Yes, that level of rust is consistent with an 8.0 grade"? Still, that's what CGC do and they're a private company. Matt has a lot of experience, but it doesn't mean others have to agree with the standards that he unilaterally commits to paper.

I don't have a copy, but would be interested to see what it says on the matter if anyone else does.

Afternoon I love this. I thought I'd search around for other 1959 WDL books, to see if there were any other Dell UKPV heralding ads, and I happened across this western digest: The back cover is for the shilling titles that were carrying the UKPV ad, including my Flash #3, so I bought it blind just to see what was inside. A Pat trip later and what do we have but another, digest size 'coming in March' ad: Trouble is, the Gunlaw is dated 1958 (or MCMLVIII in old money). So which 'March' are talking about here? The GCD says the Gunlaw reprints the April/May '59 Gunsmoke #14 by Dell: https://www.comics.org/issue/105618/#357908 1958 books don't tend to reprint 1959 books so I can only assume that the date in the Gunlaw is wrong, and should be 1959. Or MCMLIX, in old money. Either way, great to find another confirming advert for Dell UKPVs. All good fun

I'll go with whatever works

I went 6.5 too, basing that decision on CGC's own grading scale: 6.5 was much higher than I would have graded it myself, were I ever selling it, but the point of this contest has always been to guess what the CGC grade is, not your own. To me, that's a major defect whichever way you look at it, and one which will degrade further over time. I'm confident that 98% of buyers would either avoid this book if they new about the hidden damage or be devastated by it if they cracked it open having bought it. Giving it an 8.0 basically says that the CGC grader thinks that staple rust that has migrated through the pages is a 'moderate defect'. And now I see a video from a CGC employee saying - if I heard it right - that she grades books by eye appeal. Not a great advert for CGC. I'm getting to the point where I think my score for this competition will be more than the previous five combined. On we go though, eh.

Stop it, you're embarrassing me. And leave @ADAMANTIUM alone.

What? You're not selling are you, TM? Tell me I've misread that