MAY1979

On 10/27/2021 at 9:45 AM, mysterio said:

I'm getting the impression that GEI is the new purgatory. I have had two individual books from signings sitting in GEI a couple of days shy of a calendar month now. Recently it seems that if a sub hits GEI it either moves to shipped like instantaneously, or you need to get ready to wait for a looooong time. No inbetween.

Here is what I believe is going on.

CGC is taking a small and random sampling of new arrivals, lets say 10%, pushing them through very fast and attributing it to some "new" but nebulous process in the "testing phase"

What this does as word leaks out to Social Media, messages boards, etc,  that some submissions are being turned around very fast it will instill many with hope  that their orders will be on this new process and that all orders currently pending processing will proceed faster as CGC reduces backlog. 

I feel this alleged "new" process is nothing more than vapor-ware. The true result of which is order that have had no movement for many months will continue to have zero movement and turn-around will have no end in site.

I have several submissions that have arrived at CGC in April that are either still in "Scheduled for Grading" status and one that has been in "Grading/Encapsulation/Imaging" now for 6 weeks. Conversely a submission that did not arrive at CGC until Oct 4 was graded and shipped early this past week. Guess I was lucky that il fell into the random sampling group - HOWEVER, CGC split up the order into 2 submissions so that only 25 or 40 books were graded and shipped. The other 15 I'm guessing will Winter and Spring in Florida. All submissions were on the same form same services levels, all modern - they were exactly the same - Baffling!

On 9/27/2021 at 9:34 PM, Toombs said:

Hello. I need your opinion on something. I have a ASM 361 CGC 9.6 old label. The book was graded over 9 years ago. It has graders notes. The graders notes state the following:

1) Bottom Back Cover Small Multiple Tear,

2) Right Top Back Cover Small Bend.

The 1st note mentions the tear that most if not all this specific issue has which is considered now a manufacturing defect and therefore does not affect grade. The 2nd note proves that the book has never been pressed. I can't even see the small bend probably because it does not break color and it is in-cased in the CGC slab which has it pressed down. Based on all this information, my question is, in your opinion, would it be worth cracking it out of the case, getting it pressed and submitted to CGC hoping to get that 9.8 grade? Please let me know. Thanks.

Did not realize the 361 had that defect. The 2 I purchased back when new do not have any tears - I sent 1 for grading earlier this year and got a 9.8. While I've never received 9.9 I thought mine had a punchers chance.  If you are positive that it's currently recognized as a manufacturing defect then my opinion send it in.  But if that is not the case then 9.6 sounds right and 9.4 not out of the question.

On 10/28/2021 at 5:21 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I thought it was a 1975 issue, but your right they're all silver age.

Epic fail in my part

It's close to being totally bronze if kept to 45 and higher.

Great stuff.  Josie DeCarlo was one of, if not THE nicest people you'd ever meet at a con. I was lucky enough to purchase some art from them in around 2000. Dan was great people as well. Shame the way the Goldwater's treated him.

Why Bronze sub-forum not Silver?

I have 6 submissions since 1st week of April, the first one that had been shipped back to me is one that arrived in Sarasota on Oct 4th, Scheduled for Grading 10/25, Shipped 10/28.  My April Submission was sent before the price increase was announced and flood gates opened as folks scrambled to send in before it took effect, it was Scheduled for Grading on June 14th.  That early April submission has spent, spring, summer, fall thus far and what i assume what will be a full winter in Florida.

Hardly seems fair that new subs are being worked on while submissions that have been aging in CCG's storage (hopefully temp controlled?)  since April are not being addressed.  Line cutting of the highest order

On 10/27/2021 at 5:40 PM, djzombi said:

CGC really needs to come up with a way for customers to see the credit in their membership account and see when/how it was applied.  I'm astonished by the lack of transparency with this.  

Agreed it was barely acceptable on a  commerce site 15-20 years ago but in 2021 seems CGC and or parent company is too cheap to pay for couple of hours of coding and QA testing  

On 10/28/2021 at 1:15 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

I’m curious what your end goal is once you get 80 copies.  Doesn’t seem like an investment, as you didn’t sell at its peak.  Or do you believe the book is going to surge again and break new highs?

I just now read the first post it explains JJJ11's goal

On 10/27/2021 at 2:53 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Just a correction…my goal is 80 copies, and I’m at 54 now (maybe 55?  It’s been so long since the most recent copies were submitted to CGC for grading)

However, I had to hit the pause button on my ASM 300 purchases because I was able to strike a deal on a piece of OA that I’ve wanted for some time.  The seller and I worked out a time payment plan and I still have several months to go before the artwork is mine.

for me, OA is a one of a kind item that will always take precedence over comic books so I likely won’t be acquiring additional copies until the new year (unless they arrive via trade) 👍🏻

Interesting goal.  My opinion OCA over Comics.  Great thing about art is a small overlooked defect 10 years back does not affect the items value. Not to mention so much easier than various degrees of feeding into "OCD-ness" that exist with condition being king type collectibles. 

Continuing my scanning "project" another I did not realize I had newsstand edition.

My 2nd favorite Joe issue.

"Fanttastic Four #112 Society"

Curious is the misspelling intended?

On 10/11/2021 at 4:23 PM, TheLostDreams said:

If you make an average salary (30k to 80k) and don't have any art to trade, I don't think it's worth going to shows anymore if your hope is to bring home something decent.  If you just want to go  to hang out, pass the time, take a break from things, and look, that's another thing...but the prices these days for anything decent/good is impossible for virtually most everyone.  

 

"Decent" is highly subjective.  If someone is seeking to begin collecting 60s or 70's Marvel Covers or even splash pages then yeah best to think about a different hobby. As for panel pages (likely non battle, non a-list artist) perhaps they can pickup a few nice items per year?

BTW it's not what you make but what you keep I'd bet there are some in the salary range you mentioned who have little to nothing in the way of expenses. Still though your point is valid most vintage Marvel Art, and to a lesser extent DC has become a hobby for the wealthy. Although since at least the late 90's has always been a hobby for those with at least some "disposable income"

Don't think it will have an bearing. CGC does not hold manufacturing against you like [begin homer simpson voice here] stupid PSA, Stupid SGC, Stupid BGS do with Stupid trading cards.

CGC should note fragrance on their labels as they do page whiteness.

"Echos of Morning Dew"

"Notes of Vanilla and Elderberry"

"Basic Newsprint Aromas"

"Hints of old Moldy Sock"

"Light Sewage Stench"

perhaps even a quote "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, This book Stinks and so do You"

Pics sadly don't show everything, especially ripples. However based on your pics I've seen what to my eyes are many worse looking 9.8's than your 9.6 

A 9.8 on technical merit does not always look nicer to me than strong 9.6. It's why "buy the book, not the slab" applies for me at every con I attend.

BTW what I've seen the past few years is CGC is very strict on anything that represents color loss, but yet lenient on things I find  worse like ticks/ hits on the spine or blunted corners.

On 10/25/2021 at 6:58 PM, valiantman said:

The number is derived from the market sales recorded on GPAnalysis.com.  GPAnalysis.com has been separating direct edition and newsstand for ASM #300 for a few years.  We can see the relative frequency of newsstand and direct editions coming to market across all grades.  Over the past 12 months, there have been 2 copies of CGC 9.8 newsstand ASM #300 with recorded sales.  In the same timeframe, there have been 87 copies of CGC 9.8 direct editions sold.  That's 2.2%.

Since there are 1,479 CGC graded 9.8s, at 2.2%, that would be 32.5 newsstand copies.  That's the source of the 33 estimate.  The same can be done for 9.6, 9.4, etc.

I'm sure people have all kinds of anecdotes they'd prefer to use, but putting actual data toward the problem, we get an answer.  It's an estimate, but the chart is based on nearly 2,000 sales.  You can't sample 27,000 of something 2,000 times without getting a strong correlation to reality.

Let's see how it pans out over the next year or 2 as more an more folks send them in when they see the going rate.

On 10/25/2021 at 12:57 AM, Randall Dowling said:

Man, the number of books I'd rather have for 20k is unbelievably long.  

This thing is really out there right now.  This is not buying time, this is selling time.  Lock in your gains and get out.  Having watched this sort of thing play out in the early 90s, I can tell you that once the first few speculators start selling their multitude of copies, the price drops really, really fast.  You can try and weather the storm, but it may take 20 or 30 more years to get back to this place, if it ever does.  

I do agree with what you have mentioned. I'd also like to add the Social Media crowd has virtually no attention span so I am surprised their interest with Comics (and trading cards) has lasted this long.

Still books like ASM 300,361,362 , Star Wars 42, insert name of high population hot book here, etc are outliers in that the CGC 9.8/9.6/9.4 pops are so very high and seeming growing exponentially each month.  There are still many quality investments that may look less "sexy" now but may not give up their gains. Won't mention any examples for those .   I don't like my use of the word investments in the last sentence how about opportunities instead.

Of course Keynes statement still applies! ; Markets Can Remain Irrational Longer Than You Can Remain Solvent

On 10/25/2021 at 2:35 PM, valiantman said:

A reasonable estimate for the number of CGC graded 9.8 newsstand Amazing Spider-Man #300 is around 33.  Sure, more can be graded anytime, but that's after 20+ years of CGC grading.

How many collectors have multiple CGC 9.8 newsstands of ASM #300 to "lock in the gains and get out"?  There are about 33... total.

The total number of CGC graded 9.4+9.6+9.8 newsstands for Amazing Spider-Man #300 is hundreds less than the number of CGC 9.8 ASM #300 direct editions alone.

While all copies of ASM #300 spent decades as "no difference", the market is quickly seeing that these are almost like two completely different books when it comes to (high grade) slabbed copies/quantities.

Hi,

You mentioned earlier that the newsstand data was/is not tracked by CGC from 1999-2020. The figure of 33 how exactly is that derived? Also do you believe it to be accurate and complete data OR merely represents a bare minimum of those in a CGC 9.8 slab?

In process of scanning my collection and found this among my digests.  Another Canadian Variant that states "Canadian" right on the cover yet not correctly noted by CGC. Not to mention it's actually #34 not #35 which is 2 mistakes by CGC .  #497 is indicated on the cover which is a whole other matter.  This book was graded in 2016 so no relation to recent "issues".

Hannigan was a great cover designer.

On 10/24/2021 at 12:14 PM, BigLeagueCHEW said:

Another just pooped up 

Pooped is right, expect to see more and more of these appear like brown trouts being release into the wild.

Edit: I see BigLeagueCHEW corrected the spelling in the post I quoted. Rendering this post significantly less humorous.

On 10/22/2021 at 7:57 PM, comix4fun said:

 

On 10/23/2021 at 10:38 AM, shadroch said:

Anyone could end up bitten by a radioactive spider, or be a mutant, or a volunteer in a secret government supersoldier project.  People can identify with those things. However, none of us were born on a foreign planet with god like powers. That ship has already sailed.

Genre inspiring but less relatable as years pass.   Superman will never overtake Batman for the masses, but why does it need to be a competition???

On 10/22/2021 at 3:26 PM, durabill said:

Here's another couple examples where CGC missed that they were CPV's...   

They have missed every one of the 6 Canadian Newstands I've ever sent in... What gets me is one clearly states Canadian on the book. I also did the submission forms 100% correct.

..SMH