Cool Ghoul

I've done the exact same thing -- opted for lower Bronze age grades with W pages & Centering vs a higher grade (and price) on a 9.6-9.8 OW/W with a miswrap. I'm perfectly fine settling for a lower grade with nice presentation.

I would have to 100% agree with you on this book, especially with the key phrase you used: "As there are so many copies of these issues." In addition, this book is not WHITE pages, which would be a must for me for any comic from the 1980s, when knowledge of preservation was more widespread and Mylars were abundant. That said, if the book was from the early Bronze Age (1970-75), I would consider this acceptable centering, especially when factoring in scarcity and less consistent spine wrapping at the time.

In my OCD world, the copy to the left is not centered (white border showing); the one on the right is. As a collector, I would only be interested in the copy on the right.

First off, I would not be sad at all. As a collector, I focus on the quality of the quality of the actual book, not just the grade assigned to it. Secondly, I feel that in the future, page quality and a nicely centered presentation will command even more of a premium. My collection is limited but with keys (TOD #10, MS #5, WBN #32, etc.) that all share the same qualities: 9.0 or above, WHITE pages, and a nice center wrap (no white border on left; fully framed or just a hint of white space between spine and price). In the example shown, I would not purchase the 2nd copy for my personal collection; it's only value to me would be what I could re-sell it for. Just my 2 cents. To me, your book is worth the ~ $1K price delta.

At this current glacial pace, it might not be a bad idea if some of us put: "pending comic grading submissions" in our will.

I was just informed by a PMG Representative that it doesn't matter when your books were submitted. The current CGC turnaround times apply to ALL books -- regardless of when submitted. From Jennifer F.: "The turnaround times listed on our website are the current times for each tier. This would be for all submissions under that tier regardless of when they arrived. Everything is processed in the order that it is received so if you have an invoice received in March, it will still remain in that same place in line, there just might be 50,000 other submissions that came in at the same time as yours that are also in line from that same time which will increase the total turnaround time. The turnaround times will fluctuate week to week based on the volume we have at any given time. We are working hard to get these times down as quickly as we can without compromising on the quality of our services."

I appreciate the clarification (or lack thereof), but probably the best response to this question from everyone would be: "Our volume is extremely high, and at this time we cannot provide even a reasonable estimated turnaround time as our volume is constantly changing. We hope you understand the dynamic nature of our business and appreciate that we would prefer not to provide estimated times when they are likely to be updated/extended at some point in the future."

Inconsistencies on a possible $10K bump for one number grade is really inexcusable.

I'm thinking the same thing -- that's why I hesitate to give the OP an estimated grade on THIS book.

Would love to give you a grade, but CGC is all over the make on this book. To me, it looks like an 8.5, but can anyone explain how the following book got a 9.4? I've NEVER purchased a 9.4 in this condition -- with so many spine stress marks and upper left corner creases. Would be interested to hear an explanation from someone here who apparently knows more than I do.

As CGC TATs are based on when your shipment is delivered to their facility, you can calculate the approximate date when your books will ship back to you. For those familiar with Excel, copy the following formula: =WORKDAY(A1,B1). In cell A1, put in date your books arrived at CGC (for example, 6/21/2021). Your shipping company will have this date. In cell B1, put in the working days CGC says it should take to grade and ship books (for example, 63). In cell C1, copy the above formula. Make sure cell C1 is formatted for "date", and it will calculate when you can expect your books to ship. In the above example, your books would approximately ship on 9/16/2021. NOTE: This calculation will not help you if your books were sent to CCS first as they have their own turnaround times.

I have a similar situation with a package sent this month. GGC reassured me that as long as the sender (USPS, UPS, Fedex) indicates that the box was received, there is nothing to be concerned about. They get approximately 20,000 packages a day, so scanning may be behind. One thing I always do when sending to CGC is to require a signature from someone on the premises. That way there is a record that someone signed for it. I use USPS because CGC literally has a postal receiving center on their premises.

1) To believe that the millions of books sent to CGC are accurately and equally graded is specious at best. They're many examples on YouTube of collectors sending in the same book a second time and sometimes getting the same grade, sometimes getting better, and sometimes getting lower (with or without a press). 2) They're paying for what CGC says it is. Nothing wrong with that. CGC is still 1000x better than a biased opinion.

Just like GCG's grading of White vs White/Off-White pages, there's clearly a lot of discrepancy in their grading between 9.6s and 9.8s. Then I realized, most people aren't paying for what a book actually is. They're paying for what CGC says it is.

At this time, we're all aware that CGC is dealing with a massive amount of submissions to their company. Like many, I've recently sent books in for grading and/or re-holdering. While the USPS indicated one of my package was received over a week ago, the CGC portal has not indicted my receipt. The customer service manager, who was very friendly and courteous, alleviated me of my concerns as she noted that if the USPS indicates delivery, rest assured the package is in their hands. She noted that it might take a couple weeks for it to show (and will be longer to appear in the grading received portal). I was 100% satisfied with their response and explanation and would encourage others to be patient as well.

This is what I was looking for! Thanks. I agree -- this book is near perfect. Great copy!

I guess it comes down to personal preference vs actual grade. I seem to have poorly worded by initial post, so to reiterate, does anyone have a picture of a Marvel Spotlight #5 that grades higher than 9.0 that doesn't contain a miswrap (i.e., off--centered). Was just curious as I have yet to see one. Here's a 9.8 MS #5 and yes, it is a miswrap.

So anytime a book isn't perfectly centered it's considered a miswrap? Wouldn't that cover most books since very few are perfectly centered.

It is widely agreed that high grade CGC copies for Marvel Spotlight #5 are hard to achieve, particularly because the book has a black cover and spine breaks are much more visible. However, I've noticed recently that the copies that do receive a grade higher than a 9.0 are almost always off-centered. Could this partly be attributable to the extra white border prevalent on the cover, which is better at concealing spine stresses -- or that those stresses are more easily pressed out than if it was a true centered black cover? Included are two examples. One is dead-center with a 9.0 grade; the other is off-centered, with a white border on the folded side. Which book do you think collectors would prefer for themselves (other than the fact that 9.2's are worth $ more than 9.0's). In my opinion, any MS #5 that grades high and isn't off-center should command an even bigger premium. Logically, how difficult would a book from 1972 with a pure black cover be able to obtain a CGC 9.4 grade or higher? Just a thought to consider. Would welcome any images of high grade examples of this book that aren't off-centered.