MGsimba77

Well everything regarding eye appeal you mentioned is fine. Nothing that wouldn't compare to a 9.8. Staples back cover are fine. I don't really see any production flaw that wouldn't be acceptable on a 9.8. Besides I don't believe production flaws like small bindery tears are considered but I'm not entirely sure on that. I'm just using this as an example to underscore Amadeus's point . Like I said there's wiggle room with both 9.8 & 9.6

I'll give you an example. I just crossed over an ASM 148 that came back a 9.6 after getting it pressed. I've compared it to a number of 9.8s I have. The only difference being four spine stress lines on the back spine only visible with magnification. I've seen the same book in 9.8 with minor edge wear or having a little more color break on the front spine than my 9.6. Yes there are plenty of strict 9.6s that are indistinguishable to 9.8 with the naked eye and others less so. There's wiggle room with 9.6s

Does CGC decide that a spine tick is not there or is less significant because it happens to be over a white miswrap? I think the grading standards are the same regardless of how the book is wrapped. There's an argument to be made over eye appeal factoring in to 9.8s but then the graders would risk subjectivity pitfalls imo. Grading would become less cohesive. How would they grade a book that's mostly centered only having a very thin white border? Do they start using centimeters to measure the miswrap? The market has already weighed in on eye appeal by putting a premium on it. BTW If you were right on the spine ticks then my IH181 along with a host of others would be 9.8s. Eye appeal only becomes a factor when they get into 9.9 & 10

It's just not going to happen. Endgame just made more money than God! Heck even Venom from way lower budget Sony made a boat load! I don't know if a movie studio's decision to move forward on something they didn't think would be profitable has anything to do with superhero films. They're not going away nor should they if public demand maintains. There is enough room for the the "Philadelphias" (Tom Hanks) and "Ghost" (Patrick Swayze) of the world along with superheroes. I don't think it's a zero sum game.

This is true!!! One if the most egregious examples of this is IH181. If you have a strict 9.6 often times what separates it from a 9.8 are a few small non color breaking stress lines on the back spine which are mostly white back covers on silver bronze. You can't even see them either unless you shine a light down the back spine with magnification. Another difference could be a teeny tiny amount of wear on 3 corners instead of 2. I totally agree how It's maddening!

Unfortunately anything graded by a non CGC grader would not command equal value on the open market most of the time. People have to consider market value. That's what I mean by serious competition. The consumer (us) loses when options are limited. We either have to put up with these awful looking slabs or take time out of our day subjecting them to some homemade backing board solution. I'll take the time to do it so it's not a big thing with me but it shouldn't be necessary. Why is it that complicated for CGC to figure out how to produce a clear slab?

Unless there's a high resolution scan like Heritage offers it's of no use to try and confirm whatever grade the seller is alleging. I'm not even sure eBay would accept a high quality scan even if the seller wanted to provide it? The image quality for eBay listings is usually less than stellar to put it kindly. Most sellers on eBay selling raws just offer a couple of pictures and that's it. A few to their credit actually go through the trouble of taking several pictures from different angles which is helpful in determining a grade range. I bought 1 raw book on eBay thinking it was going to be a 9.6 judging by the images but it turned out to have some tanning on bottom edge of back cover which was a white cover. This wasn't entirely clear from the images. It turned out to be a 9.4 after submitting. The tanning was notated on the grader notes so I'm pretty sure it factored in. I didn't mind in this case since I didn't pay that much for it and still presents like a 9.6 on the front cover at least. The only way to really judge is by holding a book in front of you and seeing for yourself. Trying to pinpoint a grade from a few pictures on the internet is foolish

So I got back the 8 books I sent out through Brittany (before learning about Kevlar's backing board method). 5 of the 8 came back with just as many NRs as before. One of them was actually worse. I was able to get rid of the deepest NRs which are usually in the middle of the front cover with the backing board but not the lighter ones particularly higher up or off to the sides of the front cover. This took up a good chunk of the day as you could imagine doing this to 5 books being as careful as possible! One of the three that came back clear (IH 182) had another problem however. It was misaligned in the holder positioned much closer to the right side leaving a big empty space on the left side of the holder. This is not the first time this has happened either. To me this misalignment is just as bad as Newtown rings. If it's not one thing it's another! I essentially paid 35 dollars which is what it cost me to ship/insure these books to CGC to get 2 out of 8 satisfactory books back. It's a disgrace!!! This is what happens when there's a lack of competition in the marketplace! You think for a second CGC would be putting out those feeble cut & paste email responses if they had a serious competitor or competitors out there? Of course not! Sigh... I don't know what I'm going to do at this point ? CGC deserves to lose business over this! I wanna give another thanks to @Kevlar for offering up that idea. I'd be stuck with a pile of nasty looking CGC holders without him

Kane & Andru died way too young! Kane in 2000 & Andru in '93 I think. I would have paid more for any of their witnessed cgc signatures than Stan and I love Stan too!

I love the way he drew the water splashing then rolling off his rear shoulders. The way water reacts to objects is not easy to capture on a sketch board. Can you imagine having to ink the intricate details of all that water splashing?! The differences in color depth of the water the shadowing etc etc. It's a hell of a challenge! I know Romita drew the cover & inked the interior art but did he ink the cover too?

That second copy is as badly miswraped as the first. I'd think it went lower because it wasn't white pages? The second copy sold for a reasonable number but that first one was

Bob, color loss "itself" is not enough. Yeah of course I'm talking about finite stress marks, edge wear or whatever. Im aware that severity/size of the color breaking defect matters most. The point still stands that a 9.8 is allowed to have one within acceptable standards. I have at least one 9.8 that comes to mind with more than one example of color loss graded recently. The color loss I showed amounts to less than 1/16 of an inch. I don't even know if I'm going to submit it as I think it's a borderline 9.4-9.6 If I do it'll be screened first but we'll see

Appreciate the feedback. I didn't ask about the grade just if the bend could be pressed out. I could show close up pictures of a number of 9.8s I have with color breaking defects that appear just as bad or worse than what I'm showing here. Even moreso with 9.6s I have. Color loss itself is not determinative. A color breaking defect is allowed on a 9.8 In this case it's not a 9.8 due to other defects combined with that color break. It appears to have a better shot at a 9.6 The reason I don't ask for grading opinions is because there could be tiny subtle defects not visible even though a high resolution scan that can make all the difference between high grades even if that bend wasn't there. The only way to get a good grasp of grade is by looking at it in person. Thanks anyway for the feedback

I have a slew of if 9.6s with more color breaking defects than this and a few with less. I don't yet know if I'll submit but overall it looks consistent with every 9.6 I've seen. I'm implying that it's not reasonable to determine what the grade is just by looking at that small area even if you were the best grader ever.

How do you know the grade wouldn't improve? You haven't seen the rest of the book. I was just asking if this bend could be pressed out and if anyone had a similar bend pressed out. I'll leave the grading to the graders

BTW this was relisted several days ago after being relisted earlier this month I think the first "sale" was for ~14,200 before being relisted the first time. Both were BIN listings. The thing is this type of weirdness is hardly uncommon. If they're doing it deliberately then what's the point??? If someone is checking sold listings on eBay they'd see that this copy was "sold" twice in a short period of time and would look a bit suspect. This grade has had false starts after false starts! The only consistency with 9.6s is chaos.

Why wouldn't they press it?

9.4

Grader notes state: moderate bend left top of whole book through book. From looking at the bend it looks as if it's confined to the top edge area I pictured. Obviously I see that it goes through to the pages but not sure what they mean by "whole book"? Has anyone submitted a book with similar bends for pressing? What were the results? Thanks in advance for any feedback

Daredevil #227 "born again" it's part of the 5 issue arc but it's my favorite But hey if you really wanna walk on the wild side there's always...

Yes this is true. I used the same board on 2 of them but after the second time it got a little too jacked up. Advisable to use new one each time

Word!

I have an update. I tried your idea on 3 slabs. I was able to get rid of the deeper rings that were plainly visible without any scratches or streaks. I wasn't able to get rid of the more minor rings that were only visible by angling the slab however. I'm very happy that I attempted this although with some trepidation since one of them was a 9.8 GSXM. Results are great! They're cleared up for the most part. I actually saw the rings being cleared out while I was putting in the backing board. Here's why I think I avoided scratching. I kept the bottom edge pried open with a small thin pair of scissors while I put in the board as opposed to the board being moved around with the slab shut closed. I think a butter knife might work too. The key is to give the backing board enough room to move within the inside of the slab and not to sort of shut it in too tight...if that makes any sense. It takes forever though to pry the slab open in order to do this. I wasn't sure how much force I could apply without braking the integrity of the holder. Patience is required! It's been 5 days now and they're still cleared up. The rings haven't reappeared. Thanks again for the idea!!!

Eh...it looks better than others I've seen. The marvel banner is not too high and aligned unlike others where it's all out of whack. The white sections appear to be bright. I think they paid around 15,090 counting the 95 dollar shipping.

You're right. Some if us have lower expectations than others.