Philflound

I agree. I just grab them unless they look totally destroyed, but getting a 9.4 or higher is rough.

Think it may Not sure. Think it may have to do with the chemical used to make it glossy versus normal newsprint paper.

3/13? Last year? I love purchasing newsstand Image. Found quite a few last week in $1 boxes myself.

If you don't believe me, ask people who own a CGC copy of this not in 9.8 and see if their defects say rusty staples or rust stains on centerfold.

If you buy this comic raw, watch for those advertising 9.8. The staples on OM3 rust easily due to the baxter paper and they won't grade in 9.8 with rusty staples and rust stains on the centerfold.

Is that 2nd print?

I think there are too many speculators and books heat up each time a character or movie or tv show is announced. The smart ones cash in on it fast and most of the time, the books will cool down a few months after said character/show/movie has come out. If you have the right items, your sales will be up. Once the popularity hits again (new movies, shows, character appears again) there will be slight heating up again. If the media remains hot then the book will have long standing value. If not, it will level off and stay stagnant for some years, then you'll see those who just want to discount their stuff to move on to the next hot thing. Example is Harley Quinn. She's been in the spotlight for years now with her own book and many one shots, variants, and spin offs. When SS movie came out, Batman Adv 12 shot up real high. 9.8s were selling between $1800-1900. The book then cooled a little down to about $1600. Now it's back over $1600 with one of the latest sales close to $1700. Once she hits the big screen again, expect this book to go up a couple hundred more, maybe reaching the $2k mark. As there are no shortage of 9.8s out there (over 600 copies including sigs), I don't expect the book to skyrocket past that, if it even hits it.

This topic was aimed at the people who do the pressing themselves, not at professionals as many books will upgrade, most may stay the same, and the few will actually downgrade. There are too many people who think they know how to improve a book on their own. They may have success many times too. But I can't tell you how many spines are crushed, staples popped, pebbling occurs, butterfly corners, rippling, and water stains left behind by those who think they know what they are doing. Don't take my advice. I don't care. But don't make idiotic comments either if you don't agree with me. One other word of advice. If the spine area is tan or even slightly brittle, I suggest not doing anything to the book or you'll wind up splitting the spine and/or popping staples. This post wasn't aimed too much at how to make more money but rather how not to ruin books any further. Making money is a bonus. As for the downgrade in page quality, that'll occur over time naturally. You can't stop it. Slabbing will protect it somewhat, but store the book in heat/cold constantly changing or leaving it out on display for long periods of time for the cover to fade will still happen whether it's in plastic or not. So it's possible reslabbing will downgrade a book due to the improper storage/display of a book over many years. I think some people forget it's approaching 20 years since the first comics were slabbed. Wanted to add a couple more thoughts. Since someone mentioned screening. You can only see so much through the holder. That goes for the CGC screener or if you screen it yourself. So you take chances regardless of how well you think a book may improve. Getting graders notes if there are any should be extremely helpful. Also, acquiring the other companies slabbed books is a risk for upgrading which has been discussed many times.

You take it for what it's worth. I'm sure some of you out there like my advice. If you don't, oh well. You didn't have to read it nor respond. Just trying to help some.

Can anyone confirm copies of ASM 238 with the Mark Jewelers insert having tattooz. Been wondering as I've seen a copy without the tattooz, but the book did not look like it was monkeyed with. (No sign it was there and removed). Though the cover was the same saying it had the tattooz inside. There is one sale CGC slabbed saying Mark Jewelers insert, but no mention of Tattooz missing so I'm assuming it is in there. I have heard rumors that there were copies made without the tattooz despite it saying so on the cover. Just not sure if these were regular copies or MJ insert copies. Any help would be appreciated.

If it comes from the artist themselves I think it does work this way. It may have to be set up ahead of time or something, but I think it is true. You can't take old COA like DFs or something from like 20 years ago, but new commissions may be acceptable. Like I said, call customer service and see if this is possible.

I'm not sure if this was covered in any previous topics in the past, but I figured I would get some information out there for those of you who purchase slabbed books to try and get an upgrade and make some extra profit. Here are some pointers. 1. Examine book closely to see defects which may press out to get an easier upgrade. 2. Examine defects of book both front and back and make sure they correspond to grade. It's very disappointing that a book may be slightly overgraded and have the resub come back lower. 3. If you open the book, make sure you don't damage it. This may seem logical, but I can't tell you how many times someone slips with a blade, especially trying to open for a signature at a con and slices the end of the book. Or when removing book from the slab/well winds up putting some finger bends or even tears the book. Also, artists may damage books with finger smudges, creases/bends, or spine dings. Window bags help a lot. Just because a book was 9.8 universal doesn't mean the book will retain the 9.8 with a yellow sig label. 4. Older slabs from early 2000s may have a better chance of upgrades as most weren't pressed at the time and bends will usually come out. But be wary about "time" damage. What I mean here is was this book sitting out on a shelf for years? Or stored in a hot attic? Had drastic temperature changes over the years with the seasons? A book may be a 9.4, but sitting out for long periods of time can fade colors, especially the red. Page quality may have dropped from the temperature. So again, examine books before you buy them. Make sure the grade seems to correspond with the quality from what you see. Grades will drop on occasion. 5. If you work on books yourself, watch the pressing. Trying to get that 9.4 up to a 9.6 can be rewarding, but popping a staple will kill any money and time you put into it. Pressing defects will also drop a grade if done improperly. Butterfly corners, rippling, staple indentations all can lead to even just a slight drop instead of increase. If you don't know what you are doing, don't work on expensive books. Learn by practicing on $1 bin books or leave it up to the professionals. Anyway, good luck with trying to make some extra profit. Hopefully you can take my advice and use it to your advantage.

I would contact customer service, but if you are getting a commission that may take several days or weeks, I believe you can have the artist send the book directly from them and sign an affidavit (sp?) saying they are the artist and was the one who did the art and signed it and then the book is sent to you. I don't know all the details, so thus call customer service. As for the book, it doesn't matter. There were some commissions done on a valiant sketch cover with non-valiant drawings. In fact the artist covered up all the logos and such with the drawing. It would make sense if you can get the title matching the drawing, but it is not necessary. Say for example you want a Terminator drawing and there are no Terminator sketch covers, just grab any and ask to have logos covered up like the example I just gave.

There are 5 different labels. I believe it costs $5 to have a special label.

This is British and I think it stands for 1 pound. The other comics usually will have something like 9p meaning pence. If you have a price of 1/-, then you own a UK edition.

It's not a book but "original art". I doubt he'd sign a blank sheet. in the exact spot the original art has his signature. https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/12/01/liefeld-mcfarlane-forged-original-art/

I read the article on Bleeding Cool. Not sure what happened with the whole Liefeld thing. I saw there was fake art that was supposed to be done by Liefeld. If they were saying the signature was authentic when it wasn't, then they were lying as I couldn't see Liefeld signing a piece of art that was a poorer copy of his original. CGC just witnesses the artist signing the item and says that the signature is real. That is all. They can sign a napkin and it would all be the same.

I'm not assuming anything. I'm telling you the decision was made, it was announced publicly what that decision was, and what more can CGC do to give the public knowledge that they aren't going to grade these books? There are many books that are submitted to CGC that are rejected for one reason or another. Too big to fit in the holder, too thick, doesn't fit the criteria for being a comic, too brittle, etc. CGC isn't responsible for everything sent in. I think there would be more of an uproar of complaints of people finding out CGC slabbed fake copies of a comic and the customers paid big money versus a few who sent them in and had to eat shipping cost.

We will, however, be allowing this book to be submitted under our Signature Series Celebrity/Sketch service for copies that have been signed and witnessed. Copies witnessed are eligible. The 250 or whatever that were signed and inserted are not. Only future signed copies will be slabbed like they do for only signatures. There is no grade or certification number assigned to these items as they are not in the comic database.

I don't understand where you come up with the idea of false impression. By not grading it, CGC relinquishes any responsibility of supplying grading to counterfeit copies. I think it helps the consumer not be the victim of fraud. They authenticate a signature through witnessing. So the signature only is the part that is authentic, not whatever is being signed.

On top of that, you would think the person would have watched all the episodes by now since it's been out a few weeks.

There is plenty of risk sitting on books. I always say is it better to hold or sell? So for example, if you have a book you paid $5. In two months, you can turn it into a $30 sale. That is a $25 profit. In one year, if you held the book, you could have sold it for $75 and made a $70 profit. Could you turn that $25 profit and reinvest it that 10 months later yields you more than $70? If you believe you can, you sell the book at $30. If you don't think you can, you hold onto it and hope for the best.

Paying 1 lb per tpb is great if you want to read them. Frank Miller year one is awesome.

If your local lcs has membership, you can probably use them. Possibly even one of the online dealers. Not sure how sending through a middle man goes nowadays. Like you said, question has probably been asked a thousand times, but if you have any questions you can't find on the chat boards, call customer service and ask them. Do you have other books you want to slab?

There seems to be a lot of space on the bottom before printing, so the bottom may be ok. Right edge to me doesn't look good and I can't tell the top. Thing is, most Silver Age had overhang on the cover, so it's possible the cover is trimmed but not the pages. Sorry, can't help you without it being in hand. Maybe someone else has an opinion. You should probably send it in to be graded and find out for sure.