James J Johnson

That's what it seemed like to me, but if so, out of place on a 9.6.

That little bit of rust should affect the decision of grade progressively more as the grade the grader is considering ascends along the scale. For example, not nearly as much in Fine as in VF, and not nearly as much in VF as it does in the 9.2 and up range, which this book appears to be. After all, the only defects I can spot are the crinkling of the top spine corner and defect related to the machining of that top edge. I don't see chipsor hanging chips (like on Marvels), so to what extent that top edge unevenness affects the grade remains to be seen. It depends on it being viewed as production defect (negligible grade effect) or more (greater impact on the grade). The top edge is bothersome and a huge red flag for trim, just by nature of that twisting cut, the edge, the way the pages twist and turn at the top reminiscent of the way water flows from a faucet, not straight down, but in a spiral. It's what happens when someone of limited skills tries to execute too little of a trim, the blade twists and turns, not biting into all of the pages evenly. It's not machine-like at all, very imprecise and that top edge has those attributes and look, like it was cut with a scissors rather than the blades of a precise cutting machine drawing the blade along a track at a rigidly fixed angle.

Could be. Hard to tell, and that's ironic as the scan does appear to be high-res and sufficiently large.

CGC graded that appears to be inexplicable. Bottom left corner on this Wolverine 1 graded 9.6? Is this a piece out or am I interpreting the image incorrectly?

Those appear to be Marvel staples, common for the period, and original to the book. The scans are slightly blurry but it looks to me as though the top staple pulled through the cover alone (indented top staples in production very common on AS 23 and AS 36), possibly the first wrap and the bottom staple was still seated, but loosely. The book was dismantled, tape applied over the spine from the inside, to re-secure the staples, giving them something to grip when reinserted, and then closed at the centerfold. Removing the staples, the opening of them at the centerfold typically weakens the paper of the centerfold at the staple, so I would also look for tape used at the staples on the spine side (back) of the centerfold to reseal the centerfold securely. It looks very tightly done so that may have been done as well.

I can't foresee even several pressings making much of a difference in this case due to the pervasive scuffs/rubs on the front cover. While the structure of the book is very nice, indicative of higher grade copies, I think it's going to be difficult to score beyond 5.0 on this, there's so much scuffing to the surface color as to relegate how much of it is actually environmental or storage effect and how much is printing or stacking defect to a moot point. I've seen instances where rubs didn't seem to impact the CGC grade but nowhere near this extent. I'll go 5.0 on it, with or without a press.

This. Once a tear enters the equation, chances favor that the remedying of one or two other less grievous defects will not elevate the grade to any appreciable degree.

It's real nice. There's very little scan evidence of defects other than those isolated to that oddly cut top edge and the top left corner defect. While examples of this issue due tend to crop up with tendencies of manufacturing glitches with respect to centering/fold and cut, this one's top edge machining is a bit extreme. It's the type of untypical manufacturing cut that would cause me concern and to closely examine the page ends for signs of trimming, due to the twisting (the cutting blade constantly changing it's angle), multi-directional, non-machinelike edge the scans appear to be showing.

Absolutely. Stan is to the comic hobby like if a pterodactyl flew in and landed in the Smithsonian's courtyard at the annual meeting of the paleontologist's society to pose with them for photos!

Any rust evident on the staples or surrounding paper at the centerfold?

Nice buy! 7.0 overall, grade a book on a whole. The front cover is about 6.0 quality but that back cover and rear spine are spectacular, 8.0 quality or better and bring up the technical grade, somewhat mollifying the scratches in the black area on the front and many spine ticks breaking across the spine line. Fantastic eye appeal.

Don't forget the GA bump!

Should grade 6.0, maybe a 6.5, that half point dependent upon if those several wrinkles on the back cover can press out. That's the only thing that I foresee being improved by a press, provided the back cover is first spot cleaned in those areas.

It is OK. No trim that I can see any evidence of going by the shape of that edge front or back. What's important to note is that a trim could have been on the top of the right edge, a narrowing to square the corner. This looks good all the way around.

Of course there aren't ink lines. Why would there be? It's traced over. It's actually kind of sad to see someone so down on his luck that they have to resort to writing Stan Lee's name on comics to pass off as genuine, and try to foist this embossed nonsense as something of value, instead of being the worthless garbage that it is, to make ends meet. There's only one end that will eventually meet. The end of his butt and a 6 foot metal shelf with a mattress on it stuffed with cardboard.

Back cover image, please.

Ironically, a seller as cavalier as TONFULLE-84 assumes his buyers are marks. They never consider that one or more of their buyers may be law enforcement and they may already be under investigation. Stupid is as stupid does.

What he's fishing for is:

No different than the 100 or so Stan Lee forgeries TONFULLE-84 has sold on ebay over the past months. This traced on garbage is just one more spurious nugget of excrement out of his bargain box manure inventory, just one more try in his succession of efforts to defraud on an interstate (Federal) level. #NotSoSmart

It's a tracing. Some 10 year old placed transparent, or some type of wax paper on the cover and traced on it. I did it too when I was a child, however I never thought that the damaged byproduct of my tracing might be worth $750 or more, especially on bargain box quality trash! It's worthless, except as a reading copy or bird cage liner.

Yes! Looks like the typical CGC 7.0 X-Men 94.

I agree. Generic VG, the spine is nice enough to overcompensate for the missing corner piece. Might pull as high as 4.5 at the CGC because those staples appear to be seated perfectly (due to the way it was factory folded).

5.0 is a about right with the little bit of splitting and other minor defects. It's a phenomenal cover!

Any splitting from the bottom staple on down?