MGH

will anyone care? A) no doubt will return in near future anyway. B) even if it was permanent, is it really going to upset the comic fandom like Marvel was letting on?

That's explained by them only grading the acetate cover and ignoring the actual comic it was applied to post production .. That in itself blows my mind because typical ( correct) procedure would be to grade the comic as if the acetate cover wasn't attached.. And apply a green label to recognise the score ignores the damage caused by the extra staple holes

Cgc grading it is not illegal. But recognising it as a legitimate book was pretty stupid.

All cgc has to do when receiving a book they hadn't seen before was check the barcode and they would have known straight away it was an augmented version of the previous variant, not a new comic This is something I personally assumed cgc does as part of their verification process. Evidently, they do not

What you are talking to is pretty reasonable for near mint and below provided there are no major defects in the interior such as staining tears creases etc When we cross over into mint 9.9 and gem mint 10.0 the whole book should be pristine.. 10.0 is the unicorn.

But do they honour it to the letter? Or are favours granted? SS is not a recorded process where we can say watch a video of every signature being created and how it s slabbed .. The whole SS Simply relies that the customer trusts that the right thing has been done and the rules have been followed .. Like trusting that cgc, as an impartial grading company, will only certify legitimate books per their grading standards at all times

I'm far from convinced it was a mistake beyond mistaking how the response to this poor decision making process would be and how much exposure it would attract

@TTony Re: response above specifically says "The grade assigned will take into consideration the grade of the acetate cover as well as the interior book." That should address your concern. How does that address concern... It implies they only graded the acetate until they succumbed to public pressure and agreed it should be the book.. Is this a one off? Or is this common practice where only the exterior cover of a modern is used to determine grade

It does appear to be their approach to moderns. Id like this clarified as don't want to be in scenario where pay premium to buy a slabbed modern 9.6 / 9.8 only to crack it and find out its full of crisps, greasy finger marks and creased pages on the inside

Seems like that's their position they are walking back to. Certainly aren't going back to where it should be in my opinion ( the fact they have to qualify that the whole book is graded is a head scratcher)

I believe this statement addresses that "The grade assigned will take into consideration the grade of the acetate cover as well as the interior book" The way I read this, those books were not graded this way.. Ie, only graded cover

I bet you regret not pressing it.

I suspect if there was a response will be another strawman like ' marvel states no retailer can modify books but states nothing of the original artist modifying the book which are the rules we determined when assessing this artists variant'

@CGC Mike Will CGC still be responding to / further clarifying their current position given marvel has gone out of their way to state this practice is not accepted with their books? They have all but confirmed the acetate is an unapproved post production modification that they don't want to be associated with. Surely 10.0 blue label is sending wrong message to your customers, now and in the future. "all cover artwork must be created and approved by Marvel. Once submitted and accepted, no retailer has permission to use these comics or art to create new products, edit, or change the published comic in any way. This of course pertains to all past and current comics"

"Engraving and cutting cellulose acetate sheets with a laser cutter is doable, but not ideal. Compared to PMMA it creates more smoke, smells strange and creates a residue which is hard to remove at least from the cutting area itself. This is especially not nice for clear cellulose acetate sheets, less of an issue with colored ones. So while cellulose acetate sheets can work, PMMA or Plexiglas is a better material for me." - thanks google

and to get that razor sharp 10.0 edge, would assume would need to take a little off the original book too. ( i.e. in theory its only achievable to get a 10.0 cut in the original production phase when dont need to TRIM the final book to get things to line up as in production they are all cut together as one. i really would like to know if it can be done another way )

There is no way that there was a legitimate arrangement to prescreen for these types and amounts of grades. What, did they print 100,000 books to be screened I still don't know how these books could not be trimmed post acetate to get razor flat edges... There is no world where these books should have any way of being legitimate blue label 10.0 .. End of story

you can see an entire run of 50,000 books with no 10.0 .... why would there be an advanced service to find a unicorn amongst even 1000 books ?

I still for the life of me cant understand how anyone can staple a cover to an already existing book and have all edges line up flawlessly to achieve a 9.9 or 10.0. the only i can think of is to trim the book back after it was stapled otherwise there surely must be some misalignment. has anyone been able to explain this oh thats right.. it doesnt matter if you are an 'established artist' buying slabs in bulk

CGC dont prescreen over 9.8 right ? so , no, its not possible they did a prescreen to get an unfathomable amount of 10.0 and 9.9 from a lot of 30 post-stapled covers

Out of all this can definitively see a market for marvel and others to move from blank sketch variants to blank acetate cover variants going forward Get those 9.9 and 10.0 yellow slabs for remarks etc on acetate

hah.. can you imagine. from now on UF4 gets 'missing cover' and green label

exactly my point... its business as usual at CGC ( who are the primary reason for this mess) . All the uproar, but people keep on going back .

black flag were a bit dumb / naive doing what they did thinking it was totally OK. At the end of the day i dont blame them or their staff that for this mess. CGC are representing themselves as the gatekeepers of this stuff and collectors rely on them. if CGC never graded this book in such an unprofessional manner, the only story would be about how silly the influencers were falling on each other's swords - hyping up a poorly modified comic and wasting their money on it . instead, CGC they have validated this by grading the book the way they have and proceeded to double and triple down on it , creating a massive backlash in the collector community. Once again the financial fallout is currently only hitting the comic dealer who did something dumb to try make a buck and now has an empty booth and copping heat on the floor at Boston. As long as collectors keep putting value on the CGC slab over a raw or competitor's history tells us this will continue and get more blatant. Has anyone approached CGC at the con?