RockMyAmadeus

Printing artifact, will not affect grade. Very, very cool. I don't have an unslabbed copy at the moment; can you thumb through the book and see if it corresponds to an ad?

How eeeenteresting......... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Legionnaires-0-1st-app-of-XS-Flashs-granddaughter-CW-Rare-Zero-Hour-UPC/163325329344?hash=item2606f2bfc0:g:ltAAAOSwi5hbyxwS

That's just madness. 5 figures for 80s books. We're in uncharted territory, that's for sure.

I've never complained about TATs, unless there was something else involved that exacerbated them. Let's not get off-track talking about notes for 9.8s. As 9.8 is the de facto highest grade, I don't think anyone has an issue if they're not included. Notes are only FREE to the submitter so long as the invoices are on your account. Once they roll off...no more free notes.

What is often overlooked are fingerprints, loose/bent staple, tiny fuzzy at the staple hole, not just creases or bends. And don't forget about the interior, maybe a loose centerfold,maybe one of the pages has a bend or tear. IMO, the notion that a press will ensure a better shot at a 9.8 on what appears to be a flawless comic is dangerous. Sometimes, the press itself will introduce the slightest damage . Good luck with your review. They often relent just because it's not worth the hassle ! YouFoundDonon is an excellent example of what I'm referring to. A small grader note might have mollified him/her (as it occasionally does with me) to the point that I mentioned before: "yeah, ok I see where you're coming from. I accept your conclusion. Next!" Instead, there was a call to customer service, which I guarantee you took more time than it would have to add that small note. Another perfect example: I recently subbed a Shadowman #8 SS that came back 9.6. Now, I selected that book from several dozen myself, and made sure it was of usual 9.8 quality...but I apparently missed a small bit of foreign debris on an interior page, which was the grader note. It happens. I'll assume I was the one who missed it, and it wasn't introduced by anyone at CGC. And with that note, I'm perfectly fine with that book being a 9.6, and I will likely crack it, see if it can be fixed, and resubmit it. If it can't be fixed, I might resub it anyways. But it will be on my dime. Had I not gotten the note, I would have put it in the "goes back for review" pile, and I would have wasted my time and money. So, not only did that little note help CGC, it helped me. Everyone wins.

If the material is actually metal, or a metal amalgam, then it's usually of the "leaf" type, ultra-thin, and generally applied to a cardboard substrate. Since you're mostly dealing with cardboard, *generally* this can be manipulated by a press, to an extent. Think Venom #1, or, say, this book: If you're talking about any kind of plastic material, like the so-called "chromium" books (X-O Manowar #0, for example, or Danger Girl #1 Go-Go)...you're generally going to be out of luck....or, at least, I've been unwilling to experiment with very high heat to see if the plastic can be re-molded without doing permanent damage to the surrounding area. The new DC convention foils look like the plastic kind, rather than the metal leaf applied to a cardboard substrate kind, but I could be wrong. Can you tell, drotto? If it's actual metal leaf applied to a cardboard substrate, then yes, they can sometimes be fixed.

http://www.paperslurry.com/2016/03/10/sizing-and-paper-watch-this-to-learn/

If you want to be a dink, buy them all. It is up to the store owner to limit copies. If they are for sale, they are for sale. That doesn't mean you won't be a dink...but, if they're for sale, they're for sale. You're not doing anything remotely immoral or unethical if you do. It's a little rude, but again...that's not your problem.

Was it a variant of a regular chromium book? It was probably Zen #0? In either case, if the chromium was "the variant", then it doesn't fit the criteria I'm looking for.

Hyping is not reporting facts. These are different things. If I say, "hey, this comic got optioned." That's pump and dump? NO Read it again, this time critically.

Welcome to 4 months ago. Please tell me how reporting a fact is pump and dump? "when you are hyping something you own for the express purpose of building interest, and thus demand, and offering it for sale, either then, or at some future time"

My opinion, converging with other statements here, is that Modern was to Charlton what Whitman was to DC and Marvel, only on a much smaller, much less successful scale, and using reprints, for the most part. Did Modern take part in the early Direct market...?

No. It is when you are hyping something you own for the express purpose of building interest, and thus demand, and offering it for sale, either then, or at some future time, whether the information presented is true or not, whether the motives of the pumper/dumper are known or not. If you believe your definition, your accusations over the past year are even more insidious and offensive.

You and me both. My 30 copies of ASM #361 are itching to find new homes...

Speaking of which, have you subbed any of your Last Galactus Story in Epic, or is that on your radar? It was #25-34, right? What a fantastic 9.8 run that would be.

Interesting collection of books in that picture.

I almost bought it...almost.

The excellence of this run cannot be overstated. It is John Byrne at his absolute best. Man of Steel is fantastic, his Superman run is good, and Alpha was also quite good...but this is where John Byrne put his heart and soul, and it shows. He loved these characters, and he created what can arguably be called the best long run of Marvel books in the early/mid 80s...and yes, I'm saying it's better than X-Men, because it is. If you have not read FF #232-292, I cannot recommend it highly enough. You will not be disappointed.

I remember that purchase. It was quite the buy. $100, right?

By the way...I imagine it is functionally impossible to go to a convention and be totally unaware of the existence of slabbing in 2018. However... I believe it is not only possible, but is, in fact, likely, that one could visit any number of local comic stores around the world, and never see a single slab, ever. Why? Lots of theories, but the main one is that store owners don't want to have their customers question their grading, and a CGC slab can do that quite effectively, simply by its mere presence. And while that may not be true of most retailers, it is most certainly true of some. It's just not something that retailers get into. It's most certainly mainly an online phenomenon, followed by conventions.

1-5% is my own estimate, from being on convention floors 15-20 times a year, and dealing with CGC on a regular basis. I see a few dealers with no CGC books, but most dealers I see have some, while a handful have mostly. I've rarely seen any dealer with nothing but slabs, but they do occasionally exist. I set up at a convention once with nothing but slabs, about 10 boxes of hardcovers, and a single short box of raw books. I don't use print run estimates or census numbers to gauge CGC participation, as those numbers fluctuate wildly. And I don't refer to single books in that estimate. I mean "of the percentage of back issues sold to, and/or dollars spent by, collectors." Obviously, 99.9% (or more) of new issues aren't being slabbed, and perhaps 50-99% of new issues are sold to readers, not collectors. And as I mentioned, that number could be much, much lower, and probably is.

That's an argument I use all the time. The total print run, according to Jim Lee, of X-Men #1 was ~8.2 million copies, of all flavors. That's just a single book. There are BILLIONS of comic books in existence.

It's not that "no one outside the CGC Forum much cares" (which is debatable), it's that few outside the CGC forum know. But it's not even that. A book doesn't become valueless inside a PGX case. It's not about the case, and never has been. It's about the book inside. When a "graded" book like X-Men #1 sells for HALF what a CGC graded book in the same "grade" sells for...then the market very much does understand who and what PGX really is. PGX is still in the marketplace because comic books themselves are still in the marketplace. If I'm offered an X-Men #1 that happens to be in a PGX case, I'm not going to reject it just because of the case. I'll examine it, offer what I think is fair for the grade I think it is, and that's that. I will then crack the ever living snot out of that case, examine it for myself completely, and potentially see what CGC has to say. After all...I don't lose my sight when examining a PGX slab...I just treat it as if it's a raw book, and act accordingly. So, I imagine, does anyone else. Again: it's not about people not caring, so much as not being aware.

Also something that needs to be remembered. Although graded books are often the flashiest, most valuable ones, grading represents PERHAPS 1-5% of the entire market for comic books. And even that estimate that could be a much larger number than actually exists.