MAY1979

Usually spoken by the same type of folks who say/write "minty" or "minty fresh". The less I say about that the better

Agreed. The way CGC physically manhandles comics now, coupled with zero quality control, odds are high 1 of the books will be damaged to a 9.2 or lower.

Agreed! Back then I serious doubt Valiant would have run less than 1000. Which still may have been under minimum print run? Once valiantman joins the convo we'll likley have the facts

50 copies ? In the mid 1990's that would been negative revenue. Not sure what the minimum amount would have been then but no way only 50 were printed and distributed. @valiantman might have a more accurate estimate and more info. if not then no one will I was a big Valiant fan until just after Unity. For me it fell off a cliff. Too bad the "Shooter" era for me was something special. My top 3 favorite issues are Solar 10, Shadowman 1 and X-0 4.

All that matters are White Pages. All else is meaningless

9.0 / 9.2 , flip of coin which it will get

This is my assessment as well unless that is a fingerprint on top left back cover. If so then feel a 9.0 at best.

Correct

Notice NO DC's !

That would be my guess. Playing Devil's Advocate for moment; on a sub-reddit jumping in as a new collector and displaying 50K+ worth of Key graded comics might come off as humble bragging or worse. Here it plays much better. Still probably better to ease in? P.S. Once again based on topic title very refreshing NOT to see ASM361, X-Men (1991) #1,#4 and Spawn #1

Once upon a time I would have soooo agreed with you. In Oct 2007 I figured art would be dropping so hold on to my currency and feast a few months or so later. Well that never happened! The art I seek never went down in price only up, up, up. By early 2009 I was priced out of Bronze Age Marvel covers and splashes, then a year or 2 later mostly priced out of Marvel Bronze battle pages. Will be interesting to seeing if a correction occurs I for one look forward to purchasing some stuff i previously was unable but I wont get my hopes up...especially since "average" Wiacek Man-Thing v2 1980 pages are now testing 1000 level

Agree with above on pressing items. While a 9.0 is possible, I feel its an 8.5 with a quality C&P - as last 6 months CGC seems to be very strict on Modern Books. If you still decide to go ahead on this I recommend using a private presser otherwise it might only be an 8.0.

Based on the experience of myself and others the past 18 months, CGC damaging a book is a realistic possibility. I do not recommend rolling the dice and re-slabbing.

Apologies in advance for being blunt From what I see in the Pic's for the most part you will pay as much for grading as the cards will command in the open market. To maximize sale value PSA should used however their charges+shipping+very long turn around time will be a losing proposition unless the cards at at bare minimum PSA 9 Mint although turning a profit (vs expenses) on what I see even in PSA 9 will be a challenge. With PSA's harsher recent grading and forced maintenance of census medians 10's are not a possibility based on the pics provided. Other than the Star Wars and what you term "1979 Topps Chewing Gum" all cards are "Junk Wax" Era which is approx 1987-1993. During the pandemic collectible bubble 10's and some 9's depending on the card were going for rather decent coinage. Now there is pretty much zero interest if not a 10 and 10's are difficult to move in some cases. "1979 Topps Chewing Gum" those are 1979/1980 Wacky Packages re-issues. A very low demand set. From your pics the condition is optimistically middle grade (PSA 4,5,6) Even in PSA 8 they are not worth grading. The Star Wars stuff definitely has a market but the bubble burst has hit those as well PSA 9's are way, way down compared to last year. 7's and below except for some outlier cards are not worth grading. Based on your pics I see nothing that would score an 8. It is a condition sensitive set. As for the Star War stickers the pics do not show if they have the common pack seal line pattern, if they do they are PSA 6 at best and break even in terms of cash outlay but the time you get them back from grading it may represent a loss of $. If they do not have the sealing line pattern then you may have some 7's or 8's. Keep in mind centering is a huge deal in getting grades higher than 8 from PSA. The first 2 stickers are badly off-center. Card grading is much stricter than comics, magnification is employed, and centering is huge factor in getting above an 8. On PSA forums you will find many stories similar to yours and in every case what the inexperienced greenhorn thought was Mint or Perfect was at best middle grade. Which is great on pre 1974 and earlier sports cards but is the complete opposite for Junk Wax era stuff. Outlier like 1986 Fleer Jordan or during the bubble the 1989 UD Griffey Jr not withstanding Current July 2021 Junk Wax Era general rule of thumb of grading costs and resale potential.: PSA 10 = Profit usually, sometime great depending on card. Since Jan 2021 PSA has been miserly issuing 10's to the point Pro's who have submitted for 2 decades are very upset. PSA 9 = Possibility of profit exists, but break even on all but outliers and cream of crop or GOAT type stuff. PSA 8 = almost certainly a loss if not an outlier card. This is the normal grade of card taken from a newly opened pack back in the Junk Wax day PSA 7 = almost certainly a loss if not an outlier card. This is the grade non-experienced neophytes usually think is "Mint" or "Perfect" or "Great" or "Nice" PSA 6 = definite loss not sure if any card in the Junk Wax era is an outlier. Based on your pics you do not have any that qualify as that type of outlier of outliers Apologies again for my bluntness. IMHO there are many other ways to make a bit of money, keep these cards for the memories of your Dad and share them with your children one day. P.S. If you have already sold these raw and have got what you feel is fair price then congrats! Disagree with anything I wrote no issues and try https://forums.collectors.com/categories/sports-cards-memorabilia-forum or https://www.net54baseball.com/

I've seen Huge differences between weak 9.6's and strong 9.8's. But yeah a strong 9.6 compared to a weak 9.8 might be nothing more than the graders mood. The ol' chestnut of "buy the book not the slab label" applies!

Pressing is not a miracle panacea. My opinion is only a subset of books benefit in terms of grading bump from pressing. I'm sure Joey can go into details. The key is knowing what may or may not be a pressing candidate. As for CGC's lack of quality control or rather having no quality control; this is what happens when a greedy cooperation has no true competition. They will do away with anything to add a few pennies to their bottom line. Other than strong completion only losing business will wake them up and even then probably not given the amount of Stockholm syndrome-d apologists even on this board.

#299 it was a last page full page Venom splash which some like myself consider to be one of the definitive McFarlane Venom Images. IMHO is just as definitive as Cover to ASM 316. Venom has no full splashes in 300, nor no half splashes in #300 but the collecting powers that be have deemed 300 as the issue to get. =================== You point on Art prices is linear and is coming from a position of logic but appears to assume the collectors of Art and Comics are the same factions. I disagree with your assertion. I've been in the OCA hobby since 1999. From my observation Aragones art has always been in demand. Keep in mind that most OCA collectors do not collect Comic Books and most art collectors collect artist rather than titles. Yes on the CGC boards here it skews towards those who collect comics, but for every 10 art collectors i know perhaps one that also collect comics. As for me I pretty much stopped collecting (but holding onto) comics the moment I started with art. Only having returned the past few years due to late 1960's to early 1980's art prices being more than my wallet can handle thus I'm now in hold mode on Art Another factor: A decent page from a $20 1981 DC Comic by even a B list artist for example, may command $500-$4000 depending on it's imagery and other factors. Yet the comic is still $20. Art prices seldom affects comics, Secret Wars 8 recently come to mind as rare outlier, although that bump may have already faded. In reverse comics prices are likley to boost art prices and that does happen all the time. My opinion if you have a DD#1 or even Groo PC 1 to sell do not wait it might be decade before the prices even sniff levels of just a few months ago.

CGC seems to be very tough on this issue probably due to the mostly black front and back. Looks a 7.0 to me with 7.5 plausible if grader is having a good day.

Your post may be applicable to some but not for me. I do agree though that many Comic Book/Comic Art/Trading Card dealer are clueless lacking even the most basic acumen. Your post focused on selling. I do not sell comics and if I did it would never be directly to any dealer. If one day I decide to sell some it might be via CLINK auction. I have sold under 5 pieces of Comic Art using their auctions the past 12-15 years. Other than their "policy" on delaying payments and their dated 2004 style website they are somewhat easy to work with. My post you quoted has to do with the lower than used car dealer integrity of every comic dealer I've ever personally met. It's totally off-topic for this thread so won't comment further.

Be sympathetic as not everyone who has Internet Access is able to access : Google Microsoft Bing Yahoo Baidu Yandex DuckDuckGo Ask.com and all CGC Comcis Forum Members here do not have access to: https://boards.cgccomics.com/search

Not even a good buddy of mine who had a shop for 27 years although he was not as bad as most of their ilk. "G" if your reading this we both know it's true! BTW: We actually talked about it after seeing Dr Strange in May. Still I persist knowing there must be some out there. Its a Coelacanth rather than a Unicorn situation

I'm positive there are honest Comic Book/Comic Art/Trading Card Dealers and Auction Houses out there even if in my 40 years (counting childhood) I've never encountered a single one. Perhaps now society on the whole mirrors them???

Not used to seeing semi-positive news from CGC.

This post is in a single aspect of the situation; CLINK refund. If Comiclink is not happy about a thread like this and the number of views then they could have and still can rule the sale void and refund the money. Instead they are using the money as a floating loan and impact to their reputation be damned.. Delaying seller payments and buyer refunds is a long time pattern of behavior with CLINK.. I'm not questioning the legality, but I find it to be despicable moral behavior. Who do they think they are a Fortune 1000 company?

Of course as you mention current drop, and perhaps soon freefall, parallels the Comic market as a whole. But additional factors for Groo may apply? This Post as usual is in IMHO Groo for the most part since day 1 has been niche at most. The animation rights exploration announcement, which anyone in the business will tell you pretty much almost always leads to nothing, cause many speculators and flippers jump into the fray and gobble up DD1 and Groo PC 1. A few of them of course made coin, but I'm sure just as many lost given market events. Those who have been burned on certain comics in past will likley not want to get burned a second time on the same books. Sergio and Mark are both getting older (we all are), while they are not wealthy they are comfortable, based on musings in Evanier's blog going back the past decade they have no desire to take on the type of workload a series will involve. In addition it appears Sergio is adamant about controlling His Character. Without Sergio and Mark attached, any effort would simply loose its charm and character like Groo will become very old and tired very fast. Again even for Comics Book Readers and Collectors Groo is niche with most having little interest in seeing ship after ship the character is on sink. Will the general public really care to see that or care about Cheese Dip or Mulching? Dead cat bounces aside, I think best to accept Groo values have already reached their high tide and that tide is going out possibly to pre-Covid levels in the next 6-10 months . Which I think is excellent news as Groo should be about fans and collectors of the character not about mendicants buying up copies in hopes of making a quick profit per unit. Disclosure: I own 9.8w slabbed and raw copies of all books I've mentioned, and Eclipse #1 has a special place in my nostalgic memories. So "take me for the fool that I am" as I care more about enjoying and having others enjoy the Character than personal profit or the dopamine hit that most get when they see a comic go up in value.