Point Five

Really nice!

Hmm. I've got shadowed books that got dinged harder than that. TBF, if the preliminary notes hadn't mentioned the shadow, I would have gone higher, but still wouldn't have guessed 9.6. Also TBF, grading high grade comics in scans is hard. I feel like I'm trying to find the hidden defects Ah, fair enough. It's been a while TBH but I do remember some GA books with heavy dust shadows getting into the 9s.

I can kinda sorta buy the bottom edge tear as a production defect, like those gripper tears that show up on the bottom edge of ASM #121. Less so the other half dozen or so defects this book seemed to have.

Seems like CGC graders pretty much tune out dust shadows just like foxing. It arguably makes little sense but there you have it.

4 points.

"Forget it, Jake. It's comic books."

Wow, beautiful cover and copy. How thick is the slab exactly?

Grades in! I could go with this gif... This too seems appropriate... And yet this one just keeps calling to me. Yep, it's this.

Right? I can't even afford the green slime!

Kaanga #12 is great, but #15 is my favorite of the run. Incredible Whitman bondage cover, and those jade greens really pop!

I'm at a funny place with pulp collecting and grading, and would love to hear where you guys come out on this. I dove into pulps heavily years ago (2015-2016 or thereabouts), bought and sold lots of them and more or less moved on and went back to comics. In recent months I've slowly gotten pulled back in. It's been great fun exploring new-to-me covers, and it will be a major but potentially fun challenge to try to land some of the ones I want. I've bought a few and have more on the way. But at least at this stage, I don't care about slabbing pulps... at all. I'm happy with any decently presentable raw copy and I doubt I'd pay even $50 more for a graded Universal slab copy. I care minimally if they have minor restoration or maybe even fairly serious condition issues, as long as they present reasonably well and don't break the bank. And at least at this stage, I'm not worried about values or protecting my investments. (I dunno, maybe I'd feel differently if I had a major stash of them already?) It's weird, because I regularly get comics CGC graded and definitely see the value that CGC brings to the table, and slabbing has become part of my collecting process... maybe a small part compared to some folks here, but definitely not an 'insignificant' part. It almost literally feels like I'm using a different part of my brain when I collect pulps. Anyone else feel this way? How much slabbing or buying of slabbed copies do you foresee doing?

This isn't a shirt per se but seems to belong here. This guy's tie got more drawing love than some entire comic covers!

A round of all coverless books might be just the balm I need.

Agreed with all. I can get behind CGC’s grading philosophy the vast majority of the time, and even when I don’t quite sync up I can understand the underlying logic. But the pretend-it’s-not-there policy re foxing is puzzling, and IMO one of their biggest misses.

[dealer] But this makes no sense. You’re asking for… [customer] That’s right. That book on your site — I need to see a back cover scan before I’ll buy it. [dealer] You need a back cover scan? For a slabbed 9.6 book? It’s a friggin’ CGC 9.6 UNIVERSAL WITH WHITE PAGES!!! [customer] Dude. Just trust me on this.

#9 slot is somewhat disappointing, but this guy will come roaring back in the Top 10 LB Cole Men’s Footwear thread.

We now take you live to Book 3

TRUE LOVE PICTORIAL #6 CGC 3.0 Universal, OW/White Pages. Matt Baker cover with bold colors; nice eye appeal for the arguably strict grade. $325 SOLD Back:

SUZIE #56 CGC 2.5 Universal, OW Pages. Racy GGA cover that's seen some strong recent sales... check GPA. $250 SOLD Back:

SPOOK #27 CGC 2.5 Universal, OW Pages. Wild LB Cole horror/psychedelia cover. Really weird lurid colors and beasties. $300 Back:

This is one of my very favorites. Such a bright and snappy cover, and you've got Batman cheerfully knocking a thug clean off a building. (Look out below!)

Thanks for looking! More books tonight.

So it does! MY OWN ROMANCE #50 CGC 5.0 Universal, OW/White Pages. Uncommon Atlas romance book with strong eye appeal and composition; presents better. The cover gal is stylish and a real cutie. $350 Back:

JOURNEY INTO FEAR #20 CGC 5.0 Universal, OW/White Pages. Awesome horror cover from Superior; the ghoul has kind of a Mexican Day of the Dead look to him. Great zingy colors. $500 SOLD Back:

FIGHT COMICS #27 CGC 4.0 Qualified, OW Pages. Beautiful copy of one of the standout GGA bondage WWII covers in the run, qualified for a piece missing from the first page. Strong colors and eye appeal, and very respectable reds/oranges which are often a problem for Fiction House covers. A non-qualified 4.0 sold for $922 in 2021. $395 Back: