MAY1979

eGerber 914M2 - usually can find decent deals on ebay with free shipping

@Jay Kurian order BCW from Amazon it's usually 25% less!

On 8/17/2024 at 2:51 PM, Sauce Dog said:

Some people on other boards are reporting their 434's are also bowed/warped inside.

434 series was Oct/Nov 2023. I examined both my Vintage and Modern subs from the series and they look about same as the 395 series slabs I had handy for comparison.  My 434's are all pre-fixed 4342

If correct This makes the potential start date prior to "Slabgate" being identified. 

Re-calibrating:

I agree, too tiny and low res to make a determination

On 8/17/2024 at 1:44 PM, Yorick said:

Big ole convention this weekend in San Jose, CA.  Close enough to drive to.  I gotta get outta here and take my bent CGC book to show off!

and let the folks knows CGC's current official Customer Service Stance is it's normal and expected for CGC to damage your merchandise.

On 8/17/2024 at 12:33 PM, Ninja0215 said:

I did crack my ASM 41 ( it was a harder break than I thought, split like broken glass). I pulled the well out, and it kinds looks like Stefan was right! There is still a bend in the book but not as pronounced.  I'm standing firm on the notion that I'm not sending cgc any more books, but this was an interesting find. 

To complete the ledger; you spent all the money to have the book graded and slabbed, Now have cracked it out thus defeating that purpose and are left with a book that is worse (even if only by a little), due to the Slab inner well issue, then when you sent it in!

I'd love the defenders to explain how that is in any way a positive thing. 

Where I come from what we have here is called a No Win Scenario or in today's vernacular; LOSE-LOSE or translated to Star Trek; Kobayashi Maru.

Which begs the question why on earth would a non-masicist collector continue to submit or purchase (post Nov 2023 slabs)???

On 8/17/2024 at 3:06 AM, WernerVonDoom said:

Well, the fact that I was about to start sending in a bunch of submissions, I'm really bummed.

On 8/17/2024 at 12:00 PM, LordRahl said:

Most of the stuff I see you post is vintage, you should be OK. 

unless the issue is expanding. By that I mean if the root cause is a change in the manufacturer of the inner wells and Vintage was using stock that pre-dated the change at some point that stock will run out.

Yeah huge speculation on my part but since we have no information and CGC ain't saying anything, the question for Werner is does he feel lucky? Me personally I feel why take a chance. My pre-1975 books are fine in their Mylar. Perhaps on some of my minor keys I'll consider the premium slab the Newport Beach/Santa Ana folks will offer...?

note the corner box + Marvel banner. Clearly an enlarged b/w photocopy made from the comic book on standard paper.  The "Iron Man" Logo looks not right as well but difficult for me to tell from the pics.

The "By Demon Possessed" blurb appears to be original.

Garbage may have been too strong a word, "non authentic" might have been a better choice

I don't recall this cover coming up for sale in at least the last 10 years.

On 8/16/2024 at 11:33 PM, LordRahl said:

Why? That looks flat to me, which would be in line with the other vintage subs I've seen so far.

Agreed.

BTW: I was just looking at 2 boxes of my slabs; One is all 2nd Gen slab's, each Comic is flat as pancake...  Same for a box I have with all circa 2019 slabs. 

I do miss those older slabs... "All Good Things".  oh well with the extra funds my T206 HOF collection will grow.

Predictions?

It's not a "Demon In A Bottle" cover, but it's close, and the fake stats look like garbage, but nekked it's a true frame hang on the wall conversation piece.

I'm going to say $40-55K. Thoughts?

https://www.comiclink.com/Auctions/item.asp?id=1787427

On 8/16/2024 at 4:47 PM, Silver Surfer said:

Heritage is a machine. Maybe the only auction site I don’t experience a migraine when I try to search data. 

For the amount of Vig they hit you with at least they have website with code from this century

self-redacted

^ not sure of which numerical series it starts but for now I'm considering 434 and lower as "safe".  435 & 436 may be a slab by slab basis?

Anything CGC 437 series or higher is an instant swipe left for me.

On 8/16/2024 at 10:02 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I thought  the @LordRahl boardie said vintage or bronze and older weren't the problem?

Or are we talking late 70s books?

1975-present (aka Modern from a submission standpoint) issue is epidemic.

pre-1975 seems to be a lot less affected

Large 1975-present book submitter's, JoeyPost for example, have alluded to not being affected.
 

The only logical thing CGC had done is allowed this thread to continue where eyeballs are minimal vs folks here taking to the 'gram etc

On 8/16/2024 at 10:56 AM, southern cross said:

Like cleaning and pressing?

Dressing and Tossing Salads

On 8/16/2024 at 5:35 PM, Sam T said:

https://www.kval.com/news/local/holy-comic-book-theft-batman-thief-arrested-for-stealing-collector-comic-books

 

This guy that ComicTom has been promoting for a while turns out to be a standard con-man. Influencers promoted this guy but he was just stealing the books or selling them for himself. It's pretty gross. This is what happens when someone is willing to promote a strangers business with no due-diligence.

 

Good luck out there!

Yet another old white guy stealing comics. Probably graduated from shoplifting them at conventions

On 8/16/2024 at 5:26 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

If.true and likely and easy fix...!!

I wonder which will annoy me more, being a worry wart, having a couple not so good issued slabs , or that it was an easy fix but the chose not too quickly

All of the above sounds like I need to eat a snickers

Only a few for you. It's over 1000 for the topic author.  Avoiding any book slabbed after Nov 2023 is the only way to be safe! That of course hurt$ the Author even more as potential bidding and purchasing pool is reduced.

On 8/16/2024 at 1:35 PM, DanJD said:

Keep seeing people post their “Mail Calls” on social media, and just looking at the spines of these new “9.8s” with all the color breaks, you can tell the inner wells are warped.  Either that or the graders have lost their minds.  People are just excited about the grade. I guess a real fear becomes that CGC starts accepting all these color breaks as 9.8s to save face on these warped inner wells and to avoid paying out on damages.  At least 8 full months and counting of this going on.  I guess 9.0-9.4s are the new 9.8s.

Collectors will not care about slab weight nor how it fits on dealers convention selling wall. What they will care about is accurate grading and getting the condition for which they have paid, and that the book is protected.  

On 8/16/2024 at 2:16 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

some one cracked it and put in a bag and board it laid flat again after a couple of hours, I'm not suggesting this but replying that someone DID, so ask him? @Stefan_W

This post is in general, not a shot in any way shape or form at you my friend and i genuinely mean the friend part.

Even if that is somehow the true situation for a subset of books that were in a slab for less than 4 weeks my opinion is SO FRIGGIN WHAT! 

Why bother to submit if you need to crack the book out immediately to protect it?

On 8/16/2024 at 9:20 AM, DanJD said:

I am also now open to different grading companies slabs too!

That is a truly key point!

For collectors; Buy the book not the label/flip. 

As you can see by my sig I am a fan of the CGC registry, but I will not allow that to dictate what I purchase! I will be glad to pickup slabs from the NJ folks and CA folks as long as the book meets my criteria. As for the CGC registry, the "All Good Things" saying applies.

BTW this morning 4 9.8 Bronze comics in my eBay searches popped up in my email notifications, all want list books for me. Saw they were all 443 and 444 series and I deleted the emails. This is now the NEW normal for me.

Will be using my what was my monthly comics "budget" this month like last on Original Art or a Slabbed T206 Hall of Famer Baseball Card. 

^ IMHO this has potential to be a huge foot in door for Newport Beach / Santa Ana folks. They simply need to market their slabs won't curve or bow Comics and that they will lay flat and actually protected.

Those CA folks may very well be salivating at these/your pictures and the absurd response from CS,  it could easily translate, to $$$ for them. 

On 8/15/2024 at 9:41 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

A 9.9 set?  That's something special.  But my OCD cannot handle the three different generations of slabs represented here and submitting for reholdering would be too risky.

Summary verdict:  Brief hesitation followed by hard pass.  

Agreed, not very appealing on the eye with the different labels.

At least the certs are pre 2023 otherwise bending caused by the slabs would prevent them from being true 9.9's

Received this as part of 2024 Award package

"Protect" ?,  seriously...