jimbo_7071

Sheena to Sheena.

Fixed it for you. (Sorry, I'm not much of a Bob Kane fan.)

I don't understand why anyone would pay a premium for any signature. To me, an autographed book is a ruined book. If you have to have an autograph, get it on the margin of a splash page so it doesn't ruin the cover art. But I digress . . ..

In some cases an autograph might hurt a book because many collectors would prefer one without an autograph, but I don't think this signature hurts it. It might help it a little. I think maybe @rjpb is being just a little optimistic, though. A raw 1.5 sold for around $600 on ha.com around the end of 2020. $1,500 would probably be a good asking price, but I wouldn't turn down a $1,200 offer.

Jungle girl to Jungle Comics.

That sounds good in theory, but most sellers must not think so because it sure seems like the supply of grade-A material becomes conspicuously absent from auctions whenever prices cool off. Now, you may still see top-quality books offered as Buy-It-Nows without any discounts offered, and there will probably be a few collectors who have to cash out for whatever reason. By the way, are you feeling OK? Your last two posts have only had two emoticons each. But it's OK, I'll carry the banner until you get your health back.

A little bit of searching brought up this one, too.

I don't think I have any to contribute—those images are from the Lone Star / My Comic Shop site—but now my curiosity has been piqued.

I'm not sure, but I'd bet a nickle that Yankee Comics #6 is the only one featuring a beauty parlor for tattoos! Clue Comics #7 shows a baddie holding what I think is a tattooing needle. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some second-tier funny-animal book out there with a tattoo-parlor cover (especially when you consider the way comic publishers back then used to borrow one another's ideas).

Sigh. Collectors were in a mad rush to sell earlier this year on the heels of all of the record-breaking prices in 2021, but now that prices are softening, everyone's a hoarder. I think what we'll see in 2023 is collectors clinging tightly to their nicer books while desperately trying to get rid of their riff raff. On the plus side, if you collect mid-grade copies of titles that no one else is interested in, you may get some awesome deals in the coming year. ETA: I am one of those collectors who likes titles that no one else is interested in. Heck, I even like funny animal books!

Go-rilla and gargoyle to gone gargoyle.

I haven't been to a movie in a theater since 2012. The last movie I saw in a theater was X-Men First Class. (Even though it came out in 2011, I saw it in the fall of 2012 at a dollar movie theater.) Now if there's a movie I want to see, I just wait for my local library to get the DVD. The reason why I stopped going is because of the distraction of people's cell phone screens lighting up during the movie. If I ever go to a movie theater again, it will be for the express purpose of buying a large pop and "accidentally" dumping it on the first person near me whose cell phone screen lights up.

It looks like a textbook 9.2 to me. It would a 9.0 five or ten years ago, but they've really softened up on grading. They used to be very tight on moderns.

I already PM'd Adam about this through eBay. This Catman 25 with a Rudy Palais cover is labeled as a Catman 24 with a Schomburg cover. How does an error like this originate? Is it likely that it was the submitter's error and CGC just didn't catch it? Or is it more likely that someone at CGC fat fingered a 4 instead of a 5 when typing the label? https://www.ebay.com/itm/144873224030?hash=item21bb1df75e:g:65kAAOSwGaJjqcn~&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkM9gG%2FDFN%2B2joYsOUwI01YRXCyetTF5WPOs4S1cTa0TMH9CnwKiS0Dr0jXI2v3%2BP4ODw1qQi%2Fz48ewIeomrDoVyYsrSPMSu4pSKfkYIa8syev7U5NXYXjPfYyKxWeCrr%2BTlgVsgDVLZWup8dLzuvaUHBSFdL%2B91yWvYGKiRJ3YZl6WIhSn5bmBdhyIfqqzBOXA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5iZmZmqYQ

Rang-a-Tang the Wonder Dog to Streak the Wonder Dog.

One red flower to two red flowers and one pink flower.

It seems like every company as been understaffed over the last couple of years. I think CGC has been forced to hire people they wouldn't have to settle for in a normal economy, and now they have a bunch of people who don't know how to grade or who just don't care. That's my theory, anyway. If graders are putting in overtime to try to keep up with orders, it could also be that those graders are burnt out. There have been periods of soft grading before—the pendulum swings back and forth—but nothing like this.

It makes me feel warm inside to know that even westerns are finding some love on Christmas Day.

Methinks it isn't just the Promise books that are getting soft grades these days. These are the notes for this 8.0 copy of Tec 192: CGC Grader Notes:light spine stress lines to coverpiece out left bottom of back coversmall, multiple tear left bottom of back coverstaple detached top of front coverstaple rusted bottom of interior spine I don't think I've ever seen a book with a detached staple get a universal 8.0 grade before.

Wrapped Christmas presents in boxes to unwrapped Christmas presents in a sack.

Fighting North Koreans to fighting North Koreans.

That's true. I was thinking that titles like *spoon* Tracy, Smilin' Jack, and Gang Busters might appeal to older kids (9–11, let's say), whereas Mickey Mouse might appeal to younger kids (say 6–8) who would be rougher with their comics, but who knows for sure.

Hand from an unseen monster to hand from an unseen psychopath.

Captain Marvel to Captain Marvel, Jr.

Is there a census on why it's so scarce in high grade? Was the cover stock defective? Is it because it was mostly purchased for younger kids? Was it the luck of the draw that it was absent from most of the pedigree collections? All of the above? Based on the total census numbers, I'd expect to see more than one copy above 9.0.