MGsimba77

I suppose I'd lean a bit more on the physical transit theory as the main cause of scuffing. Maybe these were scuffs already present on the slabs before encapsulating when they're more likely to be moved in larger stacks? Without knowing the process of transiting these slabs of plastic followed by the entire handling/encapsulation process once in CGC posession.... we could only make logical speculation the best we can. I've had a few re - holders come back with a very small scuff mark on the edge of the slab. No biggie doesn't bother at all. In these cases where small debris manage to fall in the wrong place occasionally during a process of mass production I'd be more understanding. How many books do they encapsulate on a typical day? The numbers they have to pump out are probably mind blowing! I don't think these small shards or other debris are avoidable 100% of the time. The encapsulation experiments like you mentioned above might have been something they've done at least for the Newton ring problems. I'm thinking the label mishaps like the Mcfarlane label being obscured for example - are much more avoidable. It's not like they don't know where the cgc hologram is to be located. Thankfully they're on top of that situation👍 I should note the pieces of debris that get into the slab (but not in the vaccum seal) are removable. If it's in the vaccum seal there's no way. So It takes some doing but there is a way to get minor stuff like hairs or whatever out without cracking out the slab. I've done it a couple of times.

It should be noted that the Newton ring problem has been addressed, at least for the most part. That was a huge deal around here once upon a time! The slabs themselves are *mostly* in good shape. The label mishaps are another matter.

Courtesy of International comic exchange and Colorado Comics.

Thank you! Hopefully there could be a correction before the bulk of the subs get encapsulated. Otherwise I suspect the possibility of a massive inflow of resubs coming to CGC. That "Mcfarlane" scroll is a great idea for a label but the "Mcfarlan" version is👎

I figured someone would've mentioned this. Honestly this took me by surprise seeing as how they already butchered the FF label before the correction. I didn't think they could flub it again. Oh well....I shall send mine back if and when they decide to correct this latest label fail.

Whomever was putting their thumb on the scales for heritage auctions last year must've fallen into a deep coma.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275521281803?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=J4dc-ZPjSb2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=J4dc-ZPjSb2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/914521/ Sold https://www.ebay.com/itm/275521295562?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=J4dc-ZPjSb2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=J4dc-ZPjSb2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/914525/ Still available

ASM #83 (new) https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/1028903/ ASM #129 https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/906042/ ASM #136 https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/1023597/ ASM #146 (SOLD) https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/929575/

SOLD X-men #96 https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/906014/ SOLD SOLD

Secret Wars #8 9.8 signed and sketched for sale

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275509639433?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=J4dc-ZPjSb2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=J4dc-ZPjSb2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY https://www.myslabs.com/slab/view/904042/

CGC did a good job dealing with Newton rings! The reslabs have been coming back perfect. Thank you CGC!

Hoping all the folks at CGC are okay and got through this terrible disaster!!! Hurricanes really suck! I've been thrue several myself since Andrew. The sound (even through the shutters) is like an ominously constant whistling sound of varying intensities or a freight train right outside your window. If the gust is strong enough you can almost feel the roof of your house being shaken. It forces your heart to skip several beats. It's tough to really convey the anxiety that creates over several hours. It is scary as hell. In 2005 (Katrina or the other cant remember) driving to work saw a metal railing that was next to a sidewalk completely wrapped around a tree like a snake....cars crushed under trees etc etc etc. One day I'll be able to move out of this place. Praying for all those folks suffering real life changing damage through no fault of their own 🙏🙏🙏! God bless them!

They are building fiberoptics underground in certain localities to replace those old networks. I'm in south east Florida and I pass by construction sites all the time where underground piping is being installed. We get power outages at the first hints of strong winds here anyway. It's really a thing they do here & there locally in places where they think they'll need it like Miami. The Ft. Myers Tampa area hasn't seen a serious hurricane in 100 years so perhaps they've done it maybe not? I agree with you. There should be an effort to refit these networks on a large scale in Florida. It would cost a lot of money though and people wouldn't want to pay for it. So that's not something that's going to happen here anytime soon unfortunately.

Sure the wealth trends you refer to go without saying. I'd assume there's overlap between these white collar telecommuters and the rise of crypto. But anyway, that insanely wide wealth disparity has been established for decades now so not sure that in itself explains alot. It didn't seem to impact the collectibles market to the recent extremes I'm referring to in such a relatively short burst. 2020 actually saw a decrease in wealth disparity. What I'm theorizing is there's a strong connection between market forces that both supercharged then precipitously devalued crypto between ~mid 2020 and early 2022 and the collectibles market. The idea behind crypto is a hedge against centrally controlled fiat currency as are most intrinsically valued risk assets as you probably know. Debatable whether crypto has intrinsic value but that's another subject. Between 2020, end of 21 bitcoin (not sure about crypto as a whole) increased ~500%. It then began a precipitous decline similar to collectibles. So at the risk of oversimplifying, I think the massive wealth created from the pandemic induced crypto boom (largely by millenials) greatly influenced collectibles by creating more of those "lucky few". Maybe these new millionaires decided for whatever reasons to diversify away from crypto for some tangible assets like collectibles or they simply liked baseball cards and comics? Or maybe both. So since then in last nine or so months, the dollar started kicking the rest of the world's arse (federal reserve action)....crypto, risk assets reacted accordingly....collectibles followed down 🙂

Yes the stimulus could explain away some of it. I'm getting at the sustained hyper increases in the upper five and six figure books through all or most of 2021. That's not attributable to a few thousand stimulus dollars in the hands of non needy people. That began to cool off substantially ~ early 2022 following a similar trend in crypto. Btw not everyone receiving funds from uncle Sam were college kids in part time jobs. Some were like my next door neighbor in hotel industry who couldn't work for over a year with three young kids to feed and wife barely having work. But that's another debate for another forum 🙂

At this point it's overwhelmingly clear the catalyst for the hyper rise of 2020 21 was crypto. Just check any bitcoin performance chart and the relationship with collectibles is almost identical. The crypto suspicions were accurate!

Funny how in 2019 the TAT was three weeks instead of the six they have today. BTW this is what I was thinking of from last year.... https://www.cgccomics.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=9331&

My memory is a bit fuzzy but If I'm not mistaken, the last signing was very limited to just certain Spawn books. If this was the case then it makes sense to charge more for it this time. I actually thought they'd be charging more than 120. Anyone know when he starts signing? They said they're expecting this to last at least a few months. Crazy to think how many signatures they squeeze out of this guy!