Stefan_W

25 Book Modern submission April 1 - Delivered to CGC

I have to pass this time around since I would not be able to complete the contest if I started it. Best of luck to all involved and hopefully I will be ready to go next time around.

Got this in a collection a few years back and I am keeping it. A low value Spidey comic that came with a cassette tape of The Ramones singing the theme song from the Spider-Man cartoon I grew up with. Worthless as a flip, priceless to me.

Call me a sucker if you want, but I am proud to have this 9.9 in my PC. The grading is right, but the art work.... anyone know why Spidey's right foot is backwards?

This show is only ok for me, but I am coming in without reading the books. Just finished episode 5 so I will ride it out to the end.

As far as I know, you are allowed to make buyers pay immediately for buy it now items. It does not work the same for auctions or make an offer sales.

Looks like my timing is unlucky once again. I have a shipment of moderns that are set to arrive at CGC around mid week, and they will enter into the system right after the WonderCon in-person submissions. Last time this happened to me they did make it right on TAT (which still impresses me), but no real chance of getting a quick turnaround.

I've submitted hundreds of books that landed on 9.8 without a single one hitting a 9.9. Out of that group I figure a couple of them had a decent shot at 9.9, but there is only one I still think about. Prior to the comic boom and prices shooting through the roof I bought a slabbed ASM 14 from a local guy. To help make the deal happen the guy threw in his raw copy of ASM 238. When he pulled it out I noticed it was kept in a king size bag and board. When I asked about that he told me that he bought it off the stand, put it into that oversize bag and board, and put it away without ever opening it. When I pulled the 238 out it was completely flawless - the corners were so sharp it was like you could cut yourself on them, the colour was as deep as what you see on new comics currently on the stands. When I opened it up to check the tattooz insert it definitely felt like the first time that comic had ever been opened. I sent it in for grading and I remember thinking to myself that if I ever get a 9.9 this is the book that will do it. The grades came back and it landed on 9.8, and this was the only time I have ever been completely ticked off at getting a 9.8 grade. I kept it for a while and moved on from it at the start of the comic boom when prices started to rise. I did save the cert number, and if I see it again I will probably try to buy it back. I have thought about this book a lot since the 9.9 pre-screen thing was announced and I am conflicted. On one hand I would love to see books like hit 9.9, but on the other I wonder if my 238 got a fair shot at 9.9 to begin with. Maybe it did and I missed something, I dunno. But if I found a way to buy it back it would be at the top of my list of books to send in for a 9.9 pre-screen.

My streak of no MEs has come to an end. Got a shipment back 2 days ago where four books have plastic shards trapped in between the case and the comic, and many slabs have all kinds of scuffing (you can see it in the scan below). I contacted customer service and started an ME for the shards, and asked where the lines are currently drawn for scuffing. I know there were changes a while back, but have not had to return anything for scuffing since then so I dont know what current best practices are.

Different scanners will be set slightly differently. I prefer the scan that is not heavy on the white because it washes out a bit, while the other one has deeper colours. To my eye background white means less than rich reds and blues.

Ok, so if the process is that it is flagged as a 9.9 candidate and then it goes to even more (or more senior) graders for confirmation how does this lead to more bias in the process? More graders seems like it would to lead to less bias, unless I misunderstand interrater reliability.

CGC states directly that all books are evaluated by more than one person. Having more than one person look at a book is their normal process.

Too tin foil hat for me. But even if one is completely distrustful of CGC, there is are still practical considerations that come into play. For instance, if shady stuff like what you describe is happening, at least some employees will notice. In any organization people come and go, and not all leave on the best terms. So if what you are describing is going on the door would be open for a disgruntled employee to start talking about grade manipulation, which is extremely serious. Again, it doesn't make any sense when you unpack the process. But people will believe whatever they believe.

I kind of agree with this, but I believe it still goes in a direction that I believe is flawed, which is to conflate CGC motivations with grader decisions. The basic argument I am seeing again and again is that CGC may have some motivation for books to be graded in particular ways. But CGC management who has this motivation is not sitting in the trenches grading mountains of comic books. So if this line of argument is correct, how does word get out that they are supposed to give out extra 9.9s especially to "friends" of said management? Is there a memo or something that is circulated that tells graders to start giving out some type of quota of 9.9s? Is there a tag put on books in the anonymous grading process that says "this is a friend book *wink wink*". Does management come along after the fact and erase a bunch of 9.8s in the forms and put in 9.9s? What sounds reasonable kind of starts to break down in my eyes when one begins to unpack the in-the-trenches process.

When looking at the total copies I suspect you are absolutely right. When focusing on the books that could reasonably have a shot at 9.9 (which are the 239 copies graded at 9.8), I would guess the dealers are disproportionately represented. But yeah, you are completely correct in that we don't know for 100% sure since we dont have access to submission records.

It is a fact that there are 239 copies of GSX 1 in the census at 9.8. It is a fact that the likelihood of hitting a 9.9 is linked with the amount of high grade copies (9.8 or better) that someone submits. I specifically used "if" as a guess at how many of the highest grade copies come from dealers since that info is not publicly available. The other facts and the larger story do not change if the percentage of the best copies from those dealers is 50, 70, or 90 - the point is that they submit more copies than regular Joes like us so they have a greater likelihood of hitting a 9.9. If you believe that the largest dealers are submitting roughly the same amount of books as, or less than, anyone else then we probably dont have a starting point for a rational discussion.

It is an even smaller wonder when using math and stuff instead of conspiracies. Here is a quick rundown: From the point that CGC opened its doors up until now CGC had never awarded a 9.9 for a GSX 1, so this is the first. Through that entire time only 239 managed to get to 9.8. Mega dealers are the ones who submit the largest volume of high value books. So up until now, and just like anyone else, these massive dealers like Metropolis/Comic Connect etc had 9.8s for the best copies without a single 9.9. Since these big dealers submit the most books of this type (i.e., the highest grade of GSX) the probability is that one of the dealers will hit 9.9 first. To put it another way, if these folks submit 90% of the copies that are at least a 9.8 they are 90% likely to be the first to hit 9.9. So nothing even remotely "off" is happening here, at least so far. Conspiracy theories make my head hurt, especially when Occam's Razor applies.

So we seamlessly shifted from CGC being awful because there are no 9.8 copies in the census to CGC being corrupt because there now is one? This is like the re-holder scam thread all over again except there is no scam or wrongdoing.

So this is kind of strange. I was curious to see if there were any other copies at 9.9, and when I checked the certification number it would not link to the census. As a work-around I checked other GSX and linked to the census that way, and no 9.9 copies show up even though the cert number checks out. **EDIT** not sure if there is normally a lag between grading and a book appearing the census. It seemed odd to be but it could be perfectly normal.

Mine is definitely not a 9.8 copy since it has a crease (I can get most of that out) along with a tiny bit out of the top right front corner. Known error variants can be really erratic when it comes to pricing, and my guess is ones not acknowledged by CGC would be even moreso. If someone told me I could make $50 as a novelty item I would believe them, and if someone told me I could make 500 since completist collectors who have all the other variants will want one of the rare copies I would also believe them.

Hi Folks, I am hoping to draw on the experience and expertise on these boards for something I found baffling. I was sorting comics for my next show and I normally toss Death of Superman stuff in my dollar bins. I am not an avid Superman collector so I don't know the ins and out of the run, so I set it aside to check it out. It appears to be an opened Superman 75 Platinum edition, but there is no number printed on the back. I searched online, including these boards, and it seems like there are others but I could not get any info on them. Specifically, roughly how much are they worth? How does CGC handle them when they go in for grading (green label, blue label, etc)? And are they some type of error variant that is not identified in the census yet? Here are pics of my copy. Any input is appreciated.

When I sell comics I sell at full market value on Ebay and take the 15% hit, accept the risk of selling on CL and take a 10% hit plus the amount it goes below value (which may be a lot), and when I sell in person I ask for 85-90% of full market value. Works for me. When I buy books I pay close to value for a raw key books and expect to get a steep discount on filler books. Most people have no ability to sell filler in any meaningful way so my offers typically go over well with people selling their collections to me. I then clean and press the keys to increase the value on them, and I take the filler to comic shows to offload a few boxes to make room for more buying along with replenishing a bit of the cash I set aside for buying collections. Again, works for me. The biggest thing is a deal has to make sense for both sides. When I buy collections I make offers that are super reasonable to the person selling. When I sell off books I offer them below market value so people have a reason to open up their wallets. So often I see prices at comic shows that just make me shake my head. It is like they are hoping someone comes along who does not know how much the comic is actually worth. I also sometimes see completely unrealistic price expectations from a few people selling off their collections. I once had a person offer me their collection of 5,000 comics that she said has a total value of $18k based on MCS prices (with no books worth over $20 to show me), and she offered me a "deal" at $14k for that collection. The math suggests those books were listed on MCS shop for $4 or under which makes them books I throw into my dollar bins at shows. Full value to me for that collection would be roughly 10% of what she wanted for it, so different universes in terms of valuations. It takes all kinds to fill a freeway.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. People may be saving their books for the Con season and things may slow down again when that glut of submissions starts to come in. It is a part of why I am trying to get the last of my next submission pressed and out as quickly as possible. I think there is still time to beat the rush.

25 book modern submission Mar 8 - Shipped to CGC Mar 12 - Arrived at CGC Mar 13 - Box opened and SFG Mar 20 - Variant editions updated in submission tracking Mar 21 - G/E/I Mar 22 - Q/C Mar 28 - Shipped Really happy with both the speed at which this went through and the results. Trying to get another shipment finished so I can send it in before the Con season slows things down. Kudos to the CGC team for their hard work!

25 book modern submission Mar 8 - Shipped to CGC Mar 12 - Arrived at CGC Mar 13 - Box opened and SFG Mar 20 - Variant editions updated in submission tracking Mar 21 - G/E/I Mar 22 - Q/C This one flew through the process!