jimbo_7071

By the way, this book used to be a 9.2. It is now a 7.5 because, in the original holder, there was room for the pages to tear away from the cover. (Note the tearing at the upper staple.)

Sorry for the slow reply. Of the old-label slabs that show less bowing, two of the books in them are 64-page books. The third is not, but for some reason CGC used one of the thicker slabs normally used for 64-page books (maybe because the book exhibits a slight amount of spine roll).

Under water to under water.

All I know is that Cap 3 has been on my want list for a long time, and now I'm kicking myself for not buying one while they were still affordable in high grade.

You're right. The song should have been Short Fat Fanny by Larry Williams and the Vipers.

Leader of the Pack - The Shangri Las

Who Let the Dogs Out? - Baha Men

You Keep me Hangin' On - Diana Ross and the Supremes

Killing me Softly with his Song - Roberta Flack

Maneely died young, right? How many Maneely covers are out there? For a Maneely fan, maybe there aren't too many choices. That said, the Lone Star price is an asking price; asking prices don't mean much. There's a guy on eBay asking $599 for a pair of used 90s Overstreet price guides--plus $50 shipping. https://m.ebay.com/itm/DETECTIVE-COMICS-31-COVER-SWIPE-OVERSTREET-PRICE-GUIDE-31-ST-40TH-EDITIONS/112808753043?hash=item1a43ecf793:g:4UEAAOSwG1Naf54X

Bat flying out of a coffin to bat flying around outside the window.

The Way you Look Tonight - The Jaguars

Yellow beam from outer space to yellow beam from a mad scientist's gizmo.

3-D skyscrapers to 2-D skyscrapers.

The Warrior - Scandal

Pain in the Neck - Ace Frehley

Waterloo - ABBA

From drilling down to drilling up.

OK, here's the scoop. I have ten old-label slabs, and all ten have some bowing. Seven of the slabs are very thin, and the other three are very thick. The thick slabs exhibit significantly less bowing than the thin ones. Of the seven thin slabs, the one with the least amount of bowing is also the newest (dated 6/30/2002). The one with the second least amount of bowing is the second newest (dated 8/6/2001). (Those two also haven't been in my collection all that long--maybe five years.) The one with the third least amount of bowing is--dig this--the third newest (dated 2/26/2001), but that one is only slightly less bowed than the remaining four, which are all similar (dated 7/18/2000, 9/23/2000, 1/22/2001, and 1/25/2001). Incidentally, the thicker slabs are dated 9/14/2000, 2/3/2001, and 6/26/2002, and the two older ones have been in my collection since 2001. I did find a couple of newer slabs that have some slight bowing; those particular slabs are of the very thin variety as well. The bowing may very well have been present since the slabs were made; it's possible that I simply didn't notice it. At any rate, the condition does seem to be worse in the older slabs, but only in the thin ones.

I've never stored my books standing up; I've always kept them in stacks, so that wouldn't be a factor with my books. I've tried to keep my books away from temperature extremes; there have been short-term lapses, but nothing prolonged. I can look at my old-label slabs to see how many have visible warpage.

Bare chest to bare back.

That slab has the most bowing of any that I've noticed, but I've seen a slight amount in others, too. Just to clarify, the slab is not opening; the dime is slid between the table top and the slab itself, not between the two halves of the slab.

I wouldn't expect the tightness of the seal to be a factor one way or the other. The warpage probably has more to do with the material properties of the polymer that was used and with parameters of the injection-molding process. (It's possible that the warpage occurred at the time of manufacture but that I simply failed to notice it; however, it seems like something I would have noticed.) If there's less space in a particular slab (between the outer and inner wells) then warpage of the outer well has more potential to cause a spine tic. My old-label slabs vary greatly in thickness and also vary in the tightness of the book within the outer well.