James J Johnson

Most oxidized staples have also rusted the paper. Sometimes you get lucky and the rust of the staples hasn't migrated enough to the surrounding paper from around or under the staples to be visible to the naked eye without using magnification. In the case of this 97, it has. There's rust on the spine, and we can't see how much there is or isn't on the centerfold paper around the staples. The grade here depends on being able to see the centerfold, inside the spine, etc., etc, in other words, to grade it with some degree of logic, when you see rusted staples, you need a 360 degree view of those staples, as much of them and the paper immediately surrounding them to give a good grade estimate. Based on what images are provided, 7.0 would be a safe guess.

IMO, the only way to tell for sure, with that much color flaking on the spine, is to first view the spine edge on, and then open the cover to see the spine from inside to determine what's just top layer flaking, and what, if any of it is complete paper loss, daylight shining through, or tiny splits along that spine. Based on the image, it's probably little of both, how much of each the determining factor between 4.0 and 5.0.

Here it is online for those that would like to read what you're referencing. http://pangolinbasement.blogspot.com/2014/09/toth-our-fighting-forces-146-burma-sky.html

9.0 sounds right. That small upper right break shouldn't drop this beauty below 9.0, but it won't make 9.2 because of it. Also worth noting is that "scuffed" stress area on the spine line immediately to the left of the MARVEL COMICS GROUP box 'M'. It's not a defect of wear so not a deducting factor. All 18s have it. it's a printing plate production flaw, just like the "breaks" on the spine line on Cap 110 and many others.

You and me both!

David, this looks to me that it would grade much better than 3.0. It's very clean and the colors look brand new, front and back. I think even given the small split, it looks solid enough to at least get into the 5.0 range, and probably more if when the spine is carefully opened and viewed from the inside, there's no daylight peeking through, other than that aforementioned split. Again, if that split occurred from wear and not the paper drying out, and the paper is as fresh as the colors are, this will present like many 6.0s in the slab and bring a 6.0 price at market. This particular set of colors is unique to golden age and not often seen is such contrast making this a very desirable book with plenty of pop. This is the type of book that commands attention on any dealer's wall. The eyes are drawn right to this, "Wow, what's that?. Can I see that, please?".

And I just wonder where Mike Sekowsky got the crazy idea for this cover.

Once it's open, how do you close one of these doors?

I think you're right on it. 3.0. Just general overall wear. A lot of it, but no piece are out, tape, soiling, rolling of the spine, or tears. That black/purple ink splatter is on just about all of them, usually through the logo right about the same place. Part of the manufacturing, very few escape it, even the ones that seem to have bear some of that transference even if it's to a very small degree.

This is the type of spine roll that doesn't even have to be dismantled to re-align it back to it's pre-rolled state. It looks supple enough to open it flat to the cneterfold, press out the spine altogether; flatten it open, then refold the spine carefully in the right place (the original placement) and press it back into a book. You may get it up to 4.0 using that maneuver. As is, I'm thinking 3.0.

It's not. It's an art and there's logic behind it, but not absolutes. Subjection, not objection. The CGC made that exact point on the back of their label when they first emerged. "We don't guarantee the grade or the process". What the CGC did guarantee is that 3 graders will review it, a best faith effort would be made to detect resto, neither of those processes coming with guarantees and they guarantee that it's a comic book. That's really all they could have guaranteed because grading is not science. It's an art. A skill. And like in any skill, consistency is King.

2.0!! "Wow" is right. I'm getting a batch of low-grade keys together for submission, while the getting's good.

This high-demand book, in this grade? Any color CGC label at 0.5 will fetch about the same price in the ebay market, IMO. Whoever has been looking for an affordable low-grade and seeing VGs bring $2000 or more won't care. Blue, purple, it won't matter as long as there's one to grab for under $500.

The trimming is on the bottom edge of the front cover. Looks like trimmed with a scissors. On a comic like this, of this low grade, not what I would have called a concerted effort to improve the appearance, restoration in the traditional meaning (as is typical of resto).

technically 1.5, but bumped to 1.8 overall for clean, bold colors, (only very mild edge tanning).

You're welcome, Ahoska. Here's how it may work in practice. Say you have a Captain America Comics #30 that looks to be a NM quality piece, but it's got foxing (paper microbes/oxidation) on the back cover. Foxing is far more prevalent on GA than on SA, so in the lexicon of golden age grading, there's a tendency to be far more forgiving. In that genre, mild foxing on a NM GA of WW2 vintage won't ding the overall grade as much as on an otherwise NM Avengers 30 of comparable grade and with comparable foxing on the back cover, the Cap 30 NM with mild foxing = VF/NM, yet foxing on a NM Avengers 30 would definitely drop that SA book's grade to VF, maybe even less depending visuals.

More like a mild curve than a bump. Most long-time hobbyists and astute students of CGC grading do note that where you have two comics of just about identical quality and wear, the Golden age one will be favored with a slight skew upward, deference given to the Golden age book and not the Silver age one. Not much, mind you. Typically, just a tic. One notch on the grading scale, not a full grade, although there are some flaws like tape and foxing that appear to devastate the grade on Silver age to a more overt degree than on Golden age. The same holds true for the newer books, Bronze to Moderns vs. Silver age. Most note a slightly tougher stance on flaws, the newer the book gets. This mindset seems to permeate all grading across the board in the entire hobby, professional or otherwise, and not simply a phenomenon that many note of CGC grading.

They tend to get those triangular shaped bits of paper pulled off the corners in production. From the front, the narrowing at those points gives the impression of rounding because of the paper loss flattening out what should be a square area.

102! Although the particular set of defects on this 103 would greatly benefit from being housed in the CGC slab. A bigger than average bump in appearance, IMO.

Yes, that tiny puncture mark did go through the cover, but the paper was pushed into the puncture, it's still there, and in this grade range, considering the other flaws far more detractive from the overall whole, I don't think it's a factor. The same puncture on an otherwise NM book? Devastating. A drop from 9.4 to 8.0 automatically. But on these lower grade books, a non-starter, IMO.

Production creases, crimps, crunches are a way of life on this issue, any other manufacturer with exacting tolerances of quality control would have to either retool or toss 95% of the books coming off the line into the trash. The big plus here is that the staples don't poke through the cover, front or back. The majority of them do, so you're a leg up here right away with eye-appeal desireability. Spine has all the lettering and on my monitor it appears that the letters are not fractured. Another big plus. I only see what might be a few stresses on the spine, but the art work of this book has some break in that black line ordinarily, so I can't tell for sure if there are transverse wear/rack stresses. The line does fade in areas in normal production, so again, there may or may not be some rubbing at mid-spine, in this image I can't tell for sure. The major thing I see is rounded corners and again, a lot of these were produced that way, some square at the corners, some rounded, there's lots of latitude in production on these. Looks like a real nice book and super-desirable as explained why so for lack of being able to rotate it in my hand to catch the light at different angles across the surface, I'd give it a 9.0. Great colors and no transparency, again, rare for this issue. Real nice catch.

And with the type and degree of flaws present, you'd need at least moderate resto to get this anywhere near fine, and extensive resto, a rebuild of the spine to get north of Fine. Although the price gap between slight resto and unrestored in the lower grade ranges narrows as the grades progress lower down the scale, moderate and extensive resto isn't only more of an expense having work done (typically reserved for Golden age books of higher value), but a marketability killer on Bronze age books.

I thought that would be helpful for those that haven't spent a lot of time in either Pa., NJ, NY, or hanging out anywhere with Joe Pesci.

Not exactly worthless. The seller got almost $200 for tearing the cover off of, then mangling and soiling a 40 year old reprint. Lots of these in those ebay shallows.