MAR1979

They don't necessarily do it on every auction but they can if they want. Personally when i did use Heritage every single win of mine was at my max or 1 bid below. Glad you enjoy Heritage but those i know are tired of being legally (yep its legit in Texas) swindled in effect by them. Feel free to start a thread with a poll, my guess is those who have had your experience are not in the majority. A poll can easily prove the prevailing perception. BTW: Why is Heritage allowed to be vindictive if one takes 5 business days to pay but it's OK if they take 5-10 weeks to ship out the item.

There is whole bunch of stuff legal for Auction Houses In Texas and the way I interpret what i read is the house is permitted to drive any bid to the max. The horror stories are real. My rule #1 for Comics, Cards and Art purchasing is never use Heritage. It's also my rule 2,4 and 7. I consider anything that goes to them as non-existent items in my mind.

more like 20 , 15 years ago was 2007 Time does fly...

My opinion Generally when a bubble begins to burst on a former hot Copper/Modern book the first to drop is the lower high-grade of 9.6. The 9.8 will maintain for time before it too follows suit. While it does not answer your question it's along similar lines I guess. BTW in the situation I mentioned the only people still buying the 9.8's at top price are; the oblivious, the uninformed, the ignorant, or those with more dollars than sense. During that time is when those trying to manipulate the market on a book tend to go all out knowing it's all about to cave in. Is the $1650 one of the cases, I don't know but it is certainly plausible and explains that alleged sale perfectly. The manipulation also does not need to be for internet sales but to beef up a book's going rate for private sale or trade. The same situation has already occurred with Starslayer #2, 9.8's can now be purchased for less than 9.6's were selling for from late Sept - Mid Nov. It why never purchase a book when hot, never ever at hot market price, is a collecting rule i live by. I simply move on to another book that interests me.

Based on the Cert # look ups around 50% of the books graded late in 1999 had no page quality notation. I have one of them, my first CGC graded DC and ran me $40 in March 2000. My guess is the WP only crowd will avoid these. What I can say based on my experience with the earliest slabs is CCG was more strict on grading than just a year later.

Picked this raw in the early 90's. Back then in my youth had enough for no more than $40-50 in total purchases at show/con then that was it, might as well go home. I decided to go with this over books like ASM50 in similar grade. DC's were much more rare in high grade and Marvel in higher grades seemed to be everywhere. I figured how many more chances would i get at 1968 Batgirl cover in high grade. I was wrong the correct answer was it does not matter how many there are the smart money purchases Marvel. Once again with Supply and Demand takes two to tango. Throughout the 90's I repeated that mistake over and over and over. So yeah perhaps I'm bitter but when I see folks say DC is undervalued I know they are wrong. DC is appropriately valued for the subset of Comics demand it has compared to Marvel Note: much of my Silver Age is un-scanned with nearly all DC still being raw. Raw most of my DC will remain. Other than Keys and Batman at current CGC rates it pays to submit the Silver Age Marvel I do have.

Hi, Anyone else notice that since last August pretty much every week a Fantastic Four 199 "Whitman Variant" in CGC 9.8 has been sold on eBay. Also seem to be many in 9.4 and 9.6 as well https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=fantastic+four+%2B199+cgc+9.8+Whitman&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&rt=nc Via history can only see back now to early Nov, but I'm pretty sure I started to notice these last Aug or Sept: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=fantastic+four+%2B199+cgc+9.8+Whitman&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=fantastic+four+%2B199+cgc+9.8&_osacat=0&LH_Complete=1 Prices somewhat steady, yeah they go up and down but never lower, as of today, than $75 and never higher than approx $152. If prices do fall to $50-$60 I may even break my own guideline about only purchasing books I have can view in hand and pull the trigger on one. Is there a story behind why there are now so many these in 9.8 of what was once a semi-difficult book to find in any grade?

From photo's I never state grades above 9.4 as the pics only tell so much. This is one of those cases where only based on photo's a 9.6 or 9.8 is plausible I have only 15 books Graded/Slabbed that were published this century, Alias #1 is one of them.

8.5 perhaps 9.0

yeah as you mentioned the bottom left back is troublesome specifically as it affects the back cover. I think 9.4 will result with and without a press. It presents nicer than the technical grade but if it was mine I'd keep it raw.

Agreed but with supply an demand it takes both to tango. In my youth during the 90's I primarily purchased Silver Age DC in high grade thinking it would be huge. While it has appreciated its nowhere near a Marvel Silver Age % increase. If I had made mine Marvel in the 90's, I'd be able to retire now.

Highly suspect.

Random sampling of my NOT pressed Moderns from 2021, WW242 was a back issue purchase as it's from before my time. The exact Action #1 reprint pictured was one I had placed in 2 Four mil mylars (1 standard, 1 mag) and hung on the wall of my childhood basement "comic book room" from 1988-1996. The room had no windows. All these samples like most of the raw books I sought out have unblemished spines with flat glossy front covers. A perfect/near perfect spine always went a long way in my eyes...While all these have nice "wraps" that was something I really never was concerned with - still ain't. What is interesting is how many different way people collect a books regardless of technical grade Please note the bowing effect on the right edge is common for my scans of the newer CGC slabs, not sure why...

I keep careful notes of what I send to CGC that included my estimated grade In Mar-Sept 2021 I submitted 110 Modern Tier Books (most were 1979-1987) to CGC. I have thus far received 64 back. Of the 64, 54 were books I purchased raw myself when they were newly on-sale. None of the 64 books was pressed. Of the 64, 59 received CGC 9.8. To break down further; 4 book I felt were 9.6 received 9.8's , and 5 book's I thought would be 9.8's were lower 2 by a lot Of those 1 would have received higher if pressed due to a noted ripple. 1 was mention had a stain on back so pressing would not have helped. 2 had tiny rub's with some color loss that I can see in my before scans but somehow missed or i would not have submitted. 1 book was damaged during encapsulation by CGC These numbers were consistent with my past submissions except for the one CGC damaged. What this means to me is I appear to know pretty much what will get a 9.8 and what will not. Also that I tended to not purchase any book that was less than optimum condition. Sadly purchasing (new and back issues) only what i thought were perfect books I know prevented me from owning what today would be Bronze and Silver keys in 9.2-9.6... So point of my post is pressed or NOT pressed if the book merits it CGC does give out 9.8's. Unlike PSA who now depending on age of card only gives out 9's and 10's through census based quota's and pretty much only to their their largest customers. For average submitter 8 is the new 10 and 7 the new 9 and they simply attribute all to invisible "spider-wrinkles"

Sorry and sad to hear what happened to the OP. Situations like this are what grading/slabbing of comics was in effect created to prevent. What I don't think was envisioned when grading was being proposed in the late 90's was the slabbed book costing many multiples of raw. I seem to recall from back then the prevailing thought was a graded book would cost approx the raw price + the fees associated with the grading.

"Breakin' Rocks In The Hot Sun"

8.0/8.5 , not sure a C&P will help based on the defects I see. Of course that is based on the pics, so if you see things in hand it may that a C&P will be needed just to ensure the estimated grade based on the pics

As a child I was fan of the 1985 Series. A few months after 6 came out 7 had not appeared. I still recall the owner of my LCS telling me almost no one was buying it and he was stuck with boxes of the first 4 issues. He closed shop in 2019. Guess all those long boxes of "Fists of Konshu" went to the dealer who purchased the name of his business and inventory. Moon Knight probably has had more series' than most have had hot lunches

Folks Moon Knight "Fists of Khonshu" was NOT a limited/mini series. It was on-going and cancelled at issue 6 due to poor sales. Comics Shops had long boxes full of the title that they could not sell. It was supposed to be a "hot" book and simply was not. The first 3-4 issues were ordered heavily then when the shops saw they were barely selling for them cut back their orders to the minimum. Which I think then was 5 or 10 pieces aka low selling DC title numbers.

The back cover of Starslayer 2 is my favorite Stevens Rocketeer piece. When I pull mine out to display in my home office I keep the back facing front. I'd really like to send my slab to CGC for them them have the front of the book be the back of the slab!

Based on the books I sent in 2021 under Modern service level and received back (during Oct, Nov and Dec) all was "normal". There were quite a few of mine that as 9.8's were over $400 but all those were under 400 if 9.6 or lower. Not once did I receive an up-charge. Any book that if graded lower than 9.8W is under $400, should never be up-charged if it grades a 9.8W. Assuming a 9.8W is unrealistic, something I believe CGC has always recognized BTW to charge for a level of service not delivered is tantamount to fraud. CGC is/was smarter than that, is Blackstone?

you make a good point. Take 1977-1980 Marvel for example, I don't think those pages were truly white from the moment that cheap paper was manufactured. Still there must be a metric by publisher and era...?

Here's a question: There is Bronze Age book you you want and in 21 years of CGC only 1 is grade 9.8 and it has OW/W pages. There are several 9.6's with WP. Do you continue to wait (possible rest of your life) for a 9.8 WP or do you grab the 9.8 OW/W? I can tell you I go for the 9.8ow/w every time, but I have collector buddies who prefer to wait forever. I have one such example of the case I described in my current signature. I also do wonder if re-submitted would it get WP? Perhaps? In general I feel pre 2015 CGC was more strict on paper quality. IMHO CGC should sell same comparison strips (or whatever they are called) they use to measure page quality as well as mention what recommended type of lighting and wattage to use. That way remove some of the guessing for those submitting.

Want to hear about WP talk to Bob Storms, I think that guy would take a 8.5 WP over a 9.8OW Book in old school slab I picked raw for $2 in the late 1990's then self submitted. Book in modern slab cost me a lot more that When I view the top, bottom and side of the books through the slabs the pages on the older slab look just as if not more white. Given the older slabs are not as transparently clear as new I do think if I re-submitted the old it would get bump. Since mine encased in only 9.8 in in original CGC slab I'm not going to do that. I've soft spot for the old slab labels. BTW the reason I picked up the new slab is I wanted a copy with WP. P.S. Love the story and cover of this book. My favorite in the Godzilla run. Now if Disney and Toho could get the Avengers and Godzilla to square off in the same feature film I think many heads would explode due to Pop culture overload. My personal collecting rules - I've zero issues with 9.8 ow/w for Silver or Bronze. If book is 1981 or newer then must be WP. For 9.6 WP if book is post 1975, 70-72 OW/W is OK, 73-75 case by case basis, Silver 9.6 OW/W is still fine by me.

Cates may f-around and buy one at 1k. Then hurriedly run to return it after he's told it's not the original 1980's Eclipse printing. For those not in the know: Issue #1 brings my mind back to Aug 1985 every time I see it. Which is both good and bad. Although I have 9.8's just for the memories I probably will submit my childhood copy even though it's 9.4 at best.