Chaos_in_Canada

3 hours ago, delekkerste said:

So, I acquired (either bought or submitted) almost all of my CGC books between 2000 and 2004 before I just quit cold turkey and moved full time to collecting original art.  As a result, however, my grading standards are pretty much frozen in time as to what prevailed back then, which, despite "soft grading time periods", was almost universally more strict than what I have seen has become of grading standards over the past 10 years (to the extent that I have looked).  

The one major exception regarding the older books being, by and large, more tightly graded (even during the "soft" periods) was in the very early days of CGC still figuring things out.  I don't know what qualifies as a 9.9 nowadays, but, back in my day , there's no way that 9.9 should have gotten a 9.9 back in the period when I was actively collecting, which I can only chalk up to CGC still finding their feet very early on.  Even on the small-ish scan posted above, you can see that the upper RH corner is a bit blunted, and very slight wear on the lower LH corner, along with that print roll artifact (I very vaguely recall noticing some other minor imperfections as well; we'd need a better scan to confirm, though). I am certain that there have been other Hulk #181s as good or better than this one that have passed through CGC and did not get a 9.9 because that 9.9 was a mistake to begin with. 

I think people forget that even a 9.8 used to be a very tough grade to get back in the first few years of CGC grading (I'd send in cherry-picked off the stands Moderns and many would come back 9.6s!)  If you were collecting slabs from the outset, surely you remember when that nothing book, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #15 CGC 9.8, hit eBay and sold for stupid money back in the day, just because a 9.8 was so rare.  Remember "danten311" who was scooping up all the PPSS #1s 9.8s for ridiculous money? We had some chats off-line where he said, sure, it's a common book, but, he felt safe with the 9.8s...  

All of which is to say that the Hulk #181 9.9 should not have been a 9.9 either then or now, just as the "Gretzky" T-206 Honus Wagner confirmed through court testimony to have been cut/trimmed from an uncut sheet shouldn't have been a PSA 8 either over in baseball card land.  And, yet, in either case, it hasn't really mattered - for better or worse, there's only one CGC 9.9 Hulk #181 and only one PSA 8 T-206 Honus Wagner card, and people want them.

But, in any case, the 9.9 copy is no longer at the top of the Hulk #181 heap now that the original cover art has been confirmed to exist (not widely known, but, the word has been out for the past 18 months among the OA cognoscenti).  The complete story also exists; contrary to erroneous reports, it was not destroyed in the Len Wein house fire, it was merely damaged and has been restored.  

The PSA8 T206 Wagner was sold for $2.8 million in a private sale to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick in 2007.

The Wagner card was not cut from a sheet. The Wagner T206 was originally "football" shape & trimmed/cut to size (0:22 / 2:19).

There is an episode on CNBC's American Greed.   

33 minutes ago, Kevin76 said:

I'll take the 9.9 any day of the week 

+1

The CGC 9.9 is cut better than John Verzyl's IH181 9.8 (MH2+CVA) 

4.0

2.0

On 1/25/2019 at 9:16 AM, delekkerste said:

Yep.  Just because one can afford to overpay and look  doesn't mean one should open one's wallet and remove all doubt, just as you don't pay $1800 for an $18 pizza just because you're Jeff Bezos. 

I held the 9.9 in my hands at an SDCC sometime in the early 2000s (2001-03 timeframe).  Back then I was known as a big Bronze/Copper comic guy and the then-owner saw my name on my badge and invited me over to check it out (I forget what price he had on it at the time, but, it was way out of my league back then).  It didn't look like a 9.9 to me even before the SCS.  It's been too long to remember specific details, but, I remember my impression of it:  gift grade from early days of CGC grading. Not that it matters to the label-chasers out there. 

Poor scan, but OLD Label>not pressed 

Another Fantastic Four 52 (CGC9.4 oww), sold on ComicLink yesterday ($12827).

I guess the underbidder didn't like the date stamp or the previous grade, (CGC9.2 oww)! 

2 minutes ago, Hawkman said:

Very deserving. Black Panther was an emotional roller coaster with a great story and one of the best villains, and especially should win Costume Design.

+1

2 hours ago, Crimebuster said:

Excellent movie, and deserving of the nomination.

I don't believe it will win, but I wouldn't completely count it out. There have been many, many years in Oscar history when the Best Picture award didn't go to the objectively "best" movie, but rather to a good movie that was very popular, or a decent movie that had a great Oscar campaign generating buzz for it, or for all sorts of reasons beyond critical opinion. The people who votes for these things by and large aren't critics or film scholars, they are actors and directors and writers who often judge things through their own specific lenses. 

The fact that it was as popular as it was is a major benefit. Oscar voters get free screener copies, but a lot of voters don't have time or inclination to sit and watch dozens of films. I'd bet money there will be people voting for Best Picture who have not seen all the nominees — but they may have seen Black Panther because it was such a phenomenon. That gives it a leg up out of the gate. What it does with that advantage we'll see  — Marvel has never run an Oscar campaign like this before, so it will be interesting to see what they and Disney do in this situation. 

That's why Marvel Studios is the only studio that matters.

Nice book send it in for grading$$$$

The abrasion along the spine is a printing defect and there are multiple spine breaks that break colour.

I'll grade it 8.0/8.5

7.0

58 minutes ago, Red84 said:

Black Panther is nowhere near close to being an Oscar worthy movie. It's good, but it's not that good.

Logan was Oscar worthy but didn't get the nod last year.

BP is a pretty good movie & is the ONLY superhero movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

You can't change history.

14 minutes ago, paperheart said:

got the nomination, has no shot as neither coogler or adapted screenplay were nominated, but still an amazing step forward (w/ nod to Christopher Nolan who should have had the first). 8 nominations in all, 1 more than Dark Knight

Bravo!

1 hour ago, grayzr said:

Why would someone take a risk resubmitting a 9.8 key like SS #1 though?

Unless CGC know that back in the day the lighting was bad and when they get old gen 1 holders they re check the PQ?

Older Blue Labels are undergraded (not pressed)  

Hoping for a CGC 9.9 ? 

2 hours ago, grayzr said:

Trying to upgrade my Silver Surfer #1 CGC 7.5 and can't seem to find one with white pages. Searched on heritage sold archives, looked at books from 8.0-9.2 and while they exist its damn near impossible to find a copy with white pages.

 Is there something about the book that makes it hard to find with WPs? I guess I got lucky when I bought my 7.5 copy 

Boston copy

Old Blue Label (ow-w pages)>Newer Blue Label (white pages)

1 minute ago, Oddball said:

No one said it won't be nominated, just that its not deserving of Best Picture. Speaking of Oscars, did you know that Shawshank Redemption had multiple nominations and was a box office failure?

Sorry Oddball,

You didn't mention the Oscars.

I know Shawshank did poorly at the BO.

19 minutes ago, Oddball said:

Seriously? You're going to make me do this?  This is not hard at all.  

Mr. Oddball,

Let's wait for the Oscars & I'll have my Victory Dance 

9 minutes ago, Oddball said:

I disagree. You listed the TOP FIVE grossing movies which I personally agree are top notch. I could now counter you with ten times that amount of movies that were box office successes that were just... dumb.

Go ahead. 10X equals fifty movies.

I'm curious with your selection & their domestic BO results.

It's not easy.

9 hours ago, Oddball said:

If that 700 million refers to box office, it’s something that is no indicator of the quality of a movie in my eyes. How many billions has the Transformers franchise accumulated? Though I did hear the last one was pretty good. And as I said before, I thought Black Panther was great. I’ll also add that it’s more rewatchable than The Dark Knight for me. But comparing the two is like comparing Heat to Den of Thieves.

Sorry, you're in the minority.

The top five domestic BO movies are, SW:TFA, Avatar, BP, A:IW & Titanic. All top notch movies. 

Comparing domestic BO results is a good indicator of the movie's quality.

12 hours ago, Oddball said:

I don't believe there is a single comic book movie that resonates like Dark Knight. Iron Man and Black Panther were great popcorn fun but pretty much on par with about four other Marvel movies in terms of quality.  In Dark Knight, I hated the Bat suit and thought Bale was not a good fit at all for either Bruce or Batman. Don't get me started on the voice. And yet its still a monumental film. Its not often a comic book film dares to become something more, in this case a psychological neo-noir thriller.  And it annoys me that we haven't seen that level attained in any other comic book movie to date. I'm not a kid anymore and don't leave the theater high-fiving my buddy talking about Easter eggs or end credit surprises. I want to contemplate what I just watched long into the evening. Of course I'm not Marvel's target audience either. They make the masses happy and make money so there's no reason to take a risk and make something thought provoking like Dark Knight. So what happened to DC? They just got cocky after that and made some huge miscalculations. Who knows how long it will take to right this ship now.

There is a movie...Black Panther & 700 million reasons 

Just now, bb8 said:

I SWEAR 

Okay 

2 minutes ago, bb8 said:

I actually have a copy (kind of an impulse eBay buy) but it’s not graded. I like the character and I liked the movie but it didn’t warrant the media attention from a quality perspective that it received. Culturally I don’t think it was overly earth-shattering either.

Really?

I don't believe you

4 minutes ago, bb8 said:

Best picture? Really? I mean it was ok. But...best picture nomination? I don’t think so.

Let me guess, you don't own a CGC FF52?

5.5

7.5

7.0