ExNihilo

Fair point. I should have added that in addition to market prices, the first appearances have been confirmed by the publishers themselves on official websites and products (like the collectable cards in the 90s). EDIT: oh , just realized this is my 999th post. Gonna have to save up my next response for something good. In all likelihood it'll just be an emoji or some other equally worthless.

Ms Marvel #1 CGC 9.4 sold on 10/22 for $550. Foom #15 CGC 9.4 sold on 10/17 for $194. For as long as I've been collecting, the definition of a "1st appearance" generally relates to canon and excludes previews. To me, this is a case of the true 1st appearance (Ms. Marvel #1) increasing in value to a point that it is beginning to exceed the budgets of some collectors. The answer then is to collect secondary books of importance. First and foremost, this would be Avenging Spider-Man #9 (1st appearance of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel). Once collectors snap up those, then the next inclination would be Foom #15. But even then, I think the pool of interested parties at that point are completionists because the market has dictated that a 1st appearance occurs in a story that is canon. This whole trend of buying up secondary and tertiary books isn't new. As the price of IH#181 has ballooned, so too has the price of #180. Again due to a combination of A) people firmly believing that to be Wolverine's 1st appearance, and B) unable to afford a copy of IH#181 so searching for the next best thing.

Just received the following email from CGC regarding this CrossOver service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CGC Sweetens CrossOver Service with Additional Incentives CGC’s new CrossOver service, which was universally embraced by collectors at New York Comic Con, has been expanded to include all CGC grading tiers on CGC's online submission form. The service has also been enhanced with two amazing new incentives. First, CGC will provide free screening for CrossOver submissions at its Standard, Express and WalkThru tiers. Second, CGC will only charge a flat grading fee of $10 for any books submitted for CrossOver service that go down in grade, regardless of tier and value. These incentives, along with introductory CrossOver discounts of up to 50% off regular grading fees for books that earn the same or higher grade, make it easier than ever for collectors to move their treasured comics to CGC. Here are the grading tiers with the introductory discounts applied: Modern: $12 Value: $16.20 Economy: $22.80 Standard: $32.50 Express: $50 WalkThru: 1.5% of the Declared Value, $75 minimum For the Standard, Express and WalkThru levels, graders will screen the books in their holders for free. CGC will contact submitters with guidance on whether their book will drop in grade, and whether pressing or conservation services might benefit their books. Submitters are not charged any grading fees if they decide not to proceed with the CrossOver. The CrossOver service works like this: Comics submitted for CrossOver must be intact in another grading company’s holder. These comics will be removed by CGC from that company’s holder and graded according to CGC’s grading standards. If the grade goes down, CGC will charge only $10 in grading fees. Books will then be encapsulated in CGC’s state-of-the-art holder, which combines superior optics and the most advanced archival materials, making it ideal for visual display and preservation. Take advantage of the special limited-time discounts on grading tiers to have your comics graded by CGC and enjoy the many benefits that come with trusting the industry leader for over 18 years: The highest prices realized in the marketplace The confidence of knowing your books were graded by the team of experts who have certified over 5 million collectibles The superior protection of CGC’s archival holder Please note: There is no guarantee that the grade assigned by CGC will be the same as the grade assigned by the other grading service. Signed collectibles submitted under the CrossOver service will not receive a CGC Signature Series label. The CGC online form allows free members to submit at shows, and paid members to submit at shows or through the mail. If you have additional questions regarding CGC’s CrossOver Service, please contact CGC Customer Service at 1-877-662-6642.

Thanks for the heads up. I did the conversion and noticed they were slightly wider than 11". Will have to factor this in when buying an art portfolio.

Does he sell 11x17 prints? I picked up Catwoman #4, but it just feels like the art needs to be appreciated on its own without any logos, barcodes, text, and in a format larger than the ~7"x~10" that modern comics come in to be fully appreciated. EDIT: Yes he does! Sent him a PM via FB and he was kind enough to point me to an authorized eBay dealer.

Alright, so this isn't original art YET. They're just blank books for the time being. But I've been inspired by other people's jam pieces, that these books will serve as the perfect canvas to begin accumulating sketches, remarques, and commissions for many years to come. (There was a Superman one also, that sold out at my LCS, but they have another shipment arriving on Wednesday). I almost wonder if I should commission some sort of connecting cover. Either way, very excited to get started on this journey which, like I said, is likely to take many many years to complete. I assume others here picked up the same books with the same intentions. (And apologies for posting in the OA thread with no OA to speak of. I was just really excited to see these on shelves and had to share my excitement somewhere.)

Your account is 10+ years old at this point. It's possible you submitted books via alternate methods prior to establishing your own account. But in the last 10 years, in your experience, have delays been the norm when dealing with CCS/CGC? I've only been submitting books for a year and I've only really been keeping track of TAT's more recently. But in my limited experience, CGC has been able to deliver my books back to me within the specified time frame reasonable time frame. So my question again, have your previous dealings in the past been reasonable and this is one of the first or few examples of a delay? Or have all your previous submissions been similarly delayed? Follow up: How many big hurricane's have rolled through Sarasota since your submission? I imagine that will shut down operations for 2 days.

I think FastTrack is great under some circumstances (like if you need to get a book back in time for an upcoming signing). It's also fine if you have a small number of books and aren't going through CCS. Otherwise, if you have a ton of books, you have to pay $10/book which can be a lot. Not to mention if you are pressing those books, you have to FT through CCS as well which just adds additional (likely unnecessary) costs. Unless you're selling these books and need to beat others to market, whether you get the book in one month vs six shouldn't matter all that much. That all being said, the few times that I've used FT, I've loved it simply because I'm not worrying about where my book is.

Have a book sitting at Shipped/Safe for the last week now but no Tracking # provided. Realized that it was due to the fact that I listed FedEx as my preferred shipping method but that they no longer ship to California via FedEx. Called up customer service and got it sorted out. So PSA: if you listed FedEx as your shipping provider but live in a region where they no longer ship via FedEx, call them to avoid delays.

I'll play this game. In no particular order: - Thor: Dark World - Suicide Squad - ASM2 - BvS - Justice League - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - X-Men 3 - Wolverine Origins - Thor: Ragnarok - Spider-Man 3 Movies I didn't even bother to watch: Fant4astic, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, Batman & Robin Some of those movies had perfectly enjoyable moments (Justice League) or were by and large moderately enjoyable (Thor: Ragnarok), but there had to be some titles to round out 10.

I assumed a Comic Book Movie referred to a movie in which the original incarnation was in a printed format. Garfield would have been an acceptable answer as would a Calvin and Hobbes movie (if Watterson were to ever loosen the rights on his creations).

ooo, forgot about Road to Perdition. Great movie.

Avengers: Infinity War The Dark Knight Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The Winter Soldier Avengers Guardians of the Galaxy V For Vendetta 300 Logan Iron Man Honorable Mention: Batman, Spider-Man 2 The top 4 are pretty much locked. The rest of the list is largely interchangable. I just didn't feel like taking the time to sort those out.

updated for accuracy.

It sounds like you underestimate what the worst case scenario actually is. You shouldn't be worried about a blue 4.5, you should be worried there's a chance that it comes back purple. The comiclink user base is going to be far more educated on CGC vs PGX than a buyer on eBay.

I thought the comment about having 50 keys (in conjunction with the fact that the books are from '90-'93) was amusing. I'm curious to know what books OP is considering sending in for grading since some of them might not be worth it (especially considering the premium paid as he's from Canada).

Pretty sure that Stan Lee is forged as well.

Who sends a slab in a flimsy mailer? Are you kidding me? I would expect people who deal in slabs to be somewhat of a collector themselves to know better. Crazy.

I have a pull list where I give them the titles I want and they place a copy in my folder. For books with multiple variant covers, they just take whatever cover. This has become especially problematic with the DC books of late. I explicitly emailed them and mentioned cover preferences (for example Jim Lee variants for Justice League and Artgerm variants for Catwoman), but they never seem to take it into account. I wind up just calling each Wednesday to make sure the correct covers are in my folder. I guess I could ask about ordering from Previews. I never did in the past because I was afraid of locking myself in to a title 2 months down the road that I might not like.

I run into this problem from time to time. I have a pull list which makes it easier, but with all the variant covers these days, sometimes i prefer one over the other. I usually have to call in and specify which cover, but sometimes i don't call until after lunch and on a handful of occasions, those books are gone by then. At which point i'm scrambling and calling up other area shops to see if they can hold a copy for me.

I think for OP, it's a Schroedinger's Cat scenario. Presently, he is unaware as to the accuracy of PGX's grading and restoration check. He could re-sub to CGC and the book could come back with a blue label or a purple label. The book in the PGX slab is akin to the cat in the box...no one knows which of the two scenarios will play out. The book in essence occupies both...it is both the cat being dead AND alive at the same time. The fear is that it could come back purple which would devalue the book when compared to a "blue" PGX label. So does OP keep the book as is, blissfully unaware and believing the book is whole and unrestored? Or do they sub to CGC and run the risk of this bubble they've created being shattered and finding out the book is faulty/defective?

Anecdotal support for RMA's assertion (for whatever it's worth), but I myself had no clue slabbing existed as a thing until early 2017 and I have been collecting for nearly 30 years. Bless my uneducated soul, but all I knew was to handle with care and put in a bag/board/comic box. I had no idea that getting books professionally preserved and graded existed. I imagine I'm not alone.

Where does the 1-5% come from? For example, if I look at the census, I see that roughly 500 copies of Batman #24 (the proposal issue) are on record. But I have to imagine the print run must have been somewhere above 100k resulting in roughly only 0.5% being graded. And that's considering that Batman #24 is a minor key of sorts. Batman #25 for example only has 33 books on census.

I guarantee you, the majority of people buying books at my LCS are not getting books slabbed. I would venture a guess that most of them are unfamiliar with the process and the various companies involved.

Unfortunately, the internet is rife with people who ask questions looking for an easy answer instead of doing the work themselves. If they wanted to, they could take the data (as they've done) and present it in the format of a PSA. At the end of the day it's "give a man fish vs teach a man to fish" type of thing. Most of the time I'm inclined to give the quick easy answer. But sometimes you just see one too many and have to help a person by teaching them to help themself.