justafan

Well this answers my questions as far as timeline and cannon. My bet is it's all just more of a cash grab for the IP at this point with introducing the Beast Wars characters AND Unicron in a single movie which doesn't really make sense for an expanded franchise plot. If they really wanted to retcon/reboot and potentially maximize their profits, they could have loosely followed the -script from the original Transformer's the movie cartoon or just focused on setting up an original 2 or 3 movie franchise (ala MCU) with the final culminating battle with Autobots and Decepticons battling against Unicron at the end to save Cybertron (and Earth). You could even have Prime dying (yet again) or sacrificing himself in an epic battle against the Decepticons, the matrix getting passed on to the beast Optimus Primal (or Rodimus/Ultra Magnus/or how about Bumblebee) and/or somehow lost/stolen, have epic space battles with rock opera type sound tracks, then tease Unicron in post credit scenes at the end of the first movie. Use the 2nd movie as a potential origin showing the start of the cybertronian wars juxtaposed with the present day conflict and then bring in Unicron as the ultimate threat killing off several autobots and decepticons (maybe even get a galvatron and sweeps the process) in a cliff hanger. The third movie could be your typical quest style plot to find find the MacGuffin (Matrix? if not already passed on) or rescue the captured humans and autobots, recruit the big guns like Devastator, Omega Supreme, MetroPlex, Fortress Maximums, and Metrotitan to join the ultimate battle against Unicron. Well, so much for fan boy dreams.

I just saw it for the 2nd time, this time with my kids. The first time I didn't like it very much because I felt that some of the music wasn't a good fit for some scenes and often felt shoehorned in. The usage of some of the characters and long flashbacks seemed to make the movie more disjointed. The premise and flaws of the villain seemed too convenient and a stretch. However, upon watching it the second time I found myself really appreciating the music choices, I gained a better understanding (interpretation) of some of the poor character usages as an inside joke nod for what fans themselves have complained about, and the flashbacks didn't bother me as much. I did gain a better understanding for some of the scenes that my mind was too busy trying to absorb with all the fantastic imagery and action the first time around. It still hit both my wife and I in the feels even the second time around. My kids loved it and enjoyed some good laughs, got grossed out in some scenes, and got sad in others. Overall a very good final Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

As what character? If it's as anything but Mordo, its a hard pass for me. This movie is probably just going to be a hard pass until it comes out in streaming on one of the subscription apps. Even if he shows up as Mordo as a MCU tie in opening up the multiverse, there's still no guarantee of a Spider-Man appearance. It's all just a cash grab and the terrible CGI should always be the key red flag. If they fix the CGI, bring in spidey, and tease MCU multiverse tie-ins it'll still be a cash grab but at least there's hope for a good Venom vs Spidey battle and then maybe even a team-up.

I can try to save you a little time and junker comics there. When using a steamer too close and/or for too long the pages of the comics get heavy with moisture and heated due to the boiling point temps of the steamer. This will cause the pages to curl, mottle, and become wavy. If done too long it can make the pages weak and susceptible to damage from warping, tears, fingerprints, and inkloss sometimes just from holding the book. When you go to press it, you will need to change the configuration of your pressing procedure or will end up under pressing or over pressing due to how the moisture laden pages are affected by the heat and pressure from the press. Sometimes the result will be stuck pages, wavyness, color bleed, or covers that still curl open slightly. You can still get away with a small hand steamer if you use one that allows you to control the output and do it lightly never closer than 6-8 inches from the book, evenly, and for no more than 3-5 seconds but no 2 steamers are alike so don't take those numbers as set in stone. Some produce more steam than others which requires calibration testing on junker books. However, it won't humidify the whole book as thoroughly or as safely as a humidity chamber. If you try to do that with a hand steamer you'll end up with some areas that are overly humidified/heated and at risk. I've never attempted using one of those full garment steamers as they output so much. Hand steamers seem to be good at localized humidity if your technique calls for that. However, it's not a substitute for a proper humidity chamber.

I think it is important that different techniques and practices (regardless of merit) proliferating among the masses are peer reviewed by experts to validate their effectiveness or expose the inherent issues and risks. While tried and true methods that the professionals use and have painstakingly refined over the years should be the standard, it is equally beneficial to all to vet and identify new safe and effective methods as well as those completely detrimental to comic books.

This is actually one of the signs Matt describes as indicating a cleaning with solvents or water bath was done. If a silver age book with a white cover has an unusually (too bright) white cover but the rest of the books pages shows the gradual slight tanning/yellowing that is typical with the aging process of even a well preserved book, they'll know something other than dry cleaning was done because dry cleaning doesn't make whites that much brighter.

This is in reply to a question brought up earlier in this thread. "What does CGC consider cover cleaned with respect to restoration"? According to the "Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics" by Matt Nelson 1st Edition, Section 5 Index of Defects and Enhancements, p250 Cleaning, 1st paragraph: "Cleaning is the first step in restoration,". (But it isn't saying that ALL cleaning is considered restoration according to CGC, just that it is the 1st step in their restoration process.) It goes on to state (and I'm paraphrasing and summarizing) that it involves removing all foreign substance and aging from the cover, pages, staples to include things such as tape, soiling, writing, stains, tanning, foxing, rust and any amateur repairs. It states the next step as being structural (leaf casting, tear seals, reinforcements, etc) and aesthetic repairs (color touch). It then states, "Certain books only receive the first two steps to achieve a conserved grade" (Again, by CGC's definition of Conservation in their process). The 2nd paragraph clarifies further stating: "The first step involves three types of cleaning; dry cleaning, solvent cleaning, and water cleaning. Dry cleaning removes soiling and writing, is not considered restoration, and is often performed in conjunection with pressing." (yes, "conjunction" is misspelled in this 1st Edition, Note to Matt for the next Ed.) This statement separates dry cleaning from the other 2 forms of cleaning for the categorization of restoration. It goes on to define: Solvent cleaning as removing "tape, rust, and yellowing on Silver Age comics, often leaving no trace of its use. Water cleaning as "the most aggressive form of cleaning, removes tanning, staining and foxing by submersing the cover and pages into a water bath, often involving chemicals that aid in the process." We can also infer and draw the conclusion that dry cleaning does not involve any chemicals or liquids. Absorbene could lie in a grey area where it applies as dry cleaning only if it is undetected. And here's the clincher in the 3rd paragraph. "When cleaning is identified by CGC as one of the enhancement processes, it usually refers to a chemically treated water bath." The key word being identified. Just as proper pressing is virtually impossible to identify so is proper professional dry cleaning which is where CGC draws the line. If they can't detect it, it isn't restoration. However, water cleaning and improper or amateur solvent cleaning is often identifiable (not just by the presence of residue), and they go on to show and detail examples of such. It is very likely that if those books were cleaned with peroxide, immacuclean, or blue or UV light were not thorough in their cleaning and detailing of the book that it became evident to the graders that a cleaning enhancement was done. The big question for this thread has been from the very beginning: Did CGC detect cover cleaned based on dry cleaning or the use of solvents/chemicals and/or water baths? If CGC graders are trained to follow the guidelines outlined in Matt Nelson's book, they should only have given those books a PLOD grade due to having detected solvents or water bath cleaning. If we take the OP's word for it and only dry cleaning was done, then there are 3 likely possibilities: the dry cleaning was mistaken for solvent/chemical/water bath cleaning based on a narrow or erroneous interpretation of the detected enhancement. they were able to detect a bad/flawed attempt at dry cleaning that left the book damaged/weakened (forcing them to forego a conserved designation but should have been a down graded Blue or even Green label) CGC has recently changed their stance that any cleaning detected will be considered restoration and receive a PLOD. (And Matt will be updating this in a revised edition) I'm going with the more likely scenarios that those books were cleaned with more than just dry cleaning methods and are now being detected by better trained personnel OR at worst the dry cleaning result was mistaken for solvent/chemical/water cleaning and given the PLOD. If the OP feels this is in error, they can send them off to any other established restoration detection professional for a second opinion and resub them. If he did use solvents/water bath, he can probably just crack them out and do a more thorough job on them to hope they beat the resto check next time around. I am so glad pressing won out over trimming in the acceptable hard to detect restoration techniques. While I love sharp edges, I love a full sized book more.

I hear there's a movie supposedly coming out so that might be the time to offload some WD books. About what I have no idea as I bailed on the TV series when they and on the books when they I should have quit both the show and the books when most everyone else did when they

For moderns that tend to be volatile in price it is much worse indeed. For a single raw modern that needs a press now you're looking at $10 priority mail shipping to CGC (2-4 days) Receiving/processing (7-14 days) $15 pressing $15 pressing fast track (7+ working days) $9 Grading pre-screen for those that don't pass. $25 Grading fee $15 Grading fast track (10 working days) $5 submission fee Encapsulating/QC (5-7 days) $15 FedEx return shipping (3-5 days) Total Grading costs: $100 and a door to door turnaround time of 33 to 47 days for volatile moderns. Minus any membership discounts or credits. You can trim the costs of shipping by sending in multiple books or save on outbound shipping by dropping off at a show but those failed $9 grade pre-screens will eat up any savings. At its cheapest you're looking at Show drop off $0 (3-5 days) Grade only $25 (20 days) online processing fee $5 Encapsulation/ QC (5-7 days) FedEx return shipping $15 (3-5 days) $45 and 26-30 days Also, since eBay charges FVF on the taxed amount as well as an extra international fee for international sales the true fee is closer to 14%-16% per sale as Tnexus referred to.

Even if it were 100% pressable to becoming invisible to detect any defect existed there its chances of ever grading at 9.9 are slim as those are highly subjective and representative of the graders grading it then vs now. Though if cgc wanted to make a lot more money they would be giving out a couple of 9.9s every 6 months on some of these keys. Could you imagine sending in your copy of IH181 and having the fmv charge bumped from the 9.8 to the 9.9 value?

This is the real answer. Low census count + near perfect wrap and centering + white pages = best possible copy. Only one of the issues (possibly 104 or 106) had a perfect wrap. The rest offered had a slight 1/16" to 1/8" miswrap to the front or back covers but still better than what these issues commonly have for wraps and pq in 9.8. Like many other ASM 9.8 collectors, Ive been tracking these books for a while and these were the best copies ive seen in over 7 years of auction searching. I bid on most contributing to the run up in some of those prices but had to bow out once i saw that getting some of them would cost as much as a key and possibly getting locked into a bidding war (something i vowed not to do after last year.). I probably could have gone harder after one of them and won but i could see these going up to $15k+ and im not trying to overinflate the market. The problem with gpa, which i could have made worse, would be driving up the price unnecessarily for all 9.8 copies but thats not the true market for these. Most that care and can afford them only want the best copy and willing to pay more than $2k and apparently upwards of 9 or 11k for these. Most of us would not pay more than 1 or 2k for the copies with miswraps or ow/w pages. In fact, I've never bid on any in the past that dont have perfect wraps and pq for that very reason. Id rather own a cheap lower grade copy with a perfect wrap and white pages than pay an overinflated price for a 9.8 with a horrible wrap and ow/w pages. So the prices for these didn't surprise me but the visibility these got from a thursday evening heritage auction did. I had assumed some of these would fly under the radar. I nearly forgot to bid as i was in the middle of a dinner party and playing games. Perhaps they would have gone for more in a featured auction.

Great looking display and cool books! Congrats on joining the club and im sorry for your pocketbook.

First question: shouldn't it be a quadruple cover? Quintuple Cover would be 5 cover wraps. Sounds like either a mislabel or miscount of the covers. Only you would know for sure so how many covers did it actually have: 4 or 5? Sight unseen I'll give you mmm......tree fiddy. For me the price would depend on the following: Do all 4 covers have a perfect wrap? (no orange from the back cover appearing on the front cover and no black from the front cover appearing on the back.) If not, does at least the first cover have a perfect wrap? Are there any gripper tears at the bottom back cover edge of any of the 4 covers? If so, is at least the first cover free of gripper tears at the bottom back cover edge? If all 4 covers are perfect then shoot the moon. If not then my 1st recommendation is throw it up on a Heritage or comiclink featured auctions and see what it goes for. It's gotta be more rare than a 9.9 which can have both of those defects. If you don't get at least 5k for it, then my 2nd recommendation is to crack that baby out, carefully remove 3 of the 4 covers and sell the other 3 or 4 9.8 covers for $500+ a pop.

Here's my contribution to the preservation of the "Old Label Goodness". I might have more but this is what I've found so far.

That is the lowest cert # ive ever seen. I always wondered if they started at 0000000001.

I'll take some of the bait. I agree with your opinion but the industry certification standards have moved on from that position and have left me with little choice in using other services to do it due to their backlog and costs. Despite the huge hit CGC took to its reputation recently, it is impossible to eliminate the acceptance of pressing from virtually all buying venues. I commend you for being a purist but that is a struggle I gave up on years ago when I realized that it would be impossible to distinguish all professionally pressed books from unpressed books in the grades I was seeking and no one was providing a certified "unpressed" graded comic product. Though there are telltale signs if a book was not pressed professionally or properly. I don't think you'll ever need to worry about the books I press. They are primarily for me and my collection alone. They are mostly moderns. When they finally hit the market many years in the future (hopefully) you can be assured they were most likely pressed (by me or a professional presser). Though I'm sure I have some graded books that are unpressed and older raws that I will never plan on pressing.

This is among my top reasons for wanting to do it myself. No one will ever be as satisfied or work as diligently on your book than you will. At least I can review and put more of the attention back into the book or decide to try a different approach or a different pressing service before submitting. I know there are very diligent professional pressers out there like Joey do a good job of reviewing each book after a press to see if it needs more work but everyone doing pressing is human, has human faults, emotions, external pressures, and different factors that may prevent the fullest attention in every scenario. That is why I will spend the extra shipping $ to have the books shipped back to me for review before sending it out to get graded.

This is the way. Keep at it and dont get discouraged. Dont be afraid to try different techniques and make mistakes as long as u learn from them and do them on cheap common books first. Try different presses too. Ive got 3 now for different methods and always experimenting with new approaches. Im loving the results im getting for my own books so far. And i like to think im helping to alleviate the CCS and Joeys pressing queue by pressing my own drek books. I dont think ill ever want to do this as a business as it becomes tedious and repetitive but it is far more economical for me to press my $1-$50 books than sending them off. I will stick with the pros for the specialized and really high dollar stuff.

Some more ASM v6 #2 regular cover. I didn't really check condition for books under $3 so this one slipped by my eyes as well. Very disappointed when I got it home and looked at it. I would have been content with just moving on and grabbing another better copy at another time but this defect made for a good practice as it had some very deep and sharply indented defects that are hard to show in addition to the 3/4" bend. I used higher heat and pressure for this than the others. Defect: light NCB bend to the Top Right Front Cover corner that propagates through the book to the back cover. Small sharp creasing lines at TRFC corner Front Cover Before After Inside Front Cover Before After Back Cover Before After The rest of the interior pages had a similar Non-Color Break bend as the Top Left Back Cover page above and all interior pages no longer show the bend. Though if you look close enough you can almost see the faint outline of where the bend used to be on the After photo but only when zoomed in like this with light at the right angle. Perhaps another round in the press would remove even the slightest trace but for now I will leave it to see if any reversion occurs.

So I've been polishing some turds lately and here's some results. Nothing major but just perfecting the craft. ASM #5 unknown comics variant. purchased at shows which is where I like to buy higher priced raw books for being able to verify condition. However, at this time it was late on Friday and rushed through the inspection of the books I was buying. When I got home here I find a ding at the top left front cover corner that propagated all the way to the back cover. It also could have happened as I put it in its protective box and shoved into my overcrowded suitcase. In the past I would have just had to eat it and hunt for a better copy. But with some elbow grease and refined pressing techniques I saved myself another $10-15 and more time spent looking for a better copy. The annoying defect: NCB spine corner bend that propagated through the comic. Before After Before After

Well either that or its time to move to using the clear backboards that are out there now. Maybe Ill spec on those i case they suddenly raise the price or start to make one side brown instead of clear.

Probably because its their most submitted book in all grades. 🤣🤪

Im pretty stoked for this one. I plan on going all 3 days.

The biggest in my opinion is saving on the shipping fees and efforts in having to pack the books yourself. Knowing which ways cgc wants them packed can be a PITA for new submitters. Theres also the added assurance that you can get by having someone from CGC review your books and packing slip to ensure everything is in order.

Someone needs to tell all the heritage buyers. Bidders on there are still bidding like its summer of 2021 or completely ignoring the buyers premium added onto the price.