flashlites

Yes, you won!

Did anyone figure out a better way to see/clean up the results sheet ? Its so small and when I enlarge it its very blurry--readable but blurry.

Reading them is always more than half the fun!

Just a great contest! Congratulations to the winners!

Ahhhhhhh the old color breaking crease on the X-Men 101 is still being hotly debated I see. Yes I too counted that non color breaking part of the crease---still I gave it a 9.4?

And that's an important lesson for me because I tend to focus on certain defects at certain grade levels and need to remember to take the whole book into account. Are there offsetting attributes? Like a rich glossy cover. That would offset some of the ding I would normally give that reading crease. CGC takes the whole book into account. And that really is the right way to fully and accurately grade a book.

I guess we will find out the results sometime tomorrow. Congratulations to all the winners. My best guess is that if you're over 20 points you're pretty much out of this thing. It was a lot of fun and it is greatly appreciated, helps me keep my grading skills sharp. I tend to grade harsh and I need to re-calibrate a few times a year. So many, many thanks again to Mike and everyone who helped put this thing together!

love the emoji!!!

I went back and forth on this one but in the end I just could not in good conscience give it a higher grade than 5.5. A 6.0 to me just shouldn't have that much of a reading crease. (A 6 is a Fine condition comic "minor to moderate creases") I gave it the best possible grade I could and even that was a stretch for me. Raw, at your local comic shop, an honest dealer would price it as a 4.5/5.0 book.

I gave it a 9.4 knowing that the little crease broke color. My thought process was: to me its a 9.0 with the color breaking crease, but it was such an outstanding copy in every other way so I would have graded it a 9.2 and then I foolishly gave it a CGC bump...lol

Thank you Mike for running this thing! There were some moments there where I was sure you'd had enough. Thanks for sticking with us through till the end and laughing with us and all of our shenanigans!

I figure I scored a 4 on that round with 2 bulls. I bumped that X-Men up to a 9.4? I think I will be at 22 points for the contest. Gotta go check those grading notes for the X-Men. Just so glad there were no Spider-Man comics in this round!

Tonight's the night!....Finally

Very interesting Terry. Thanks for sharing. There is a pressure adjustment on those 'stitching' machines , if it were turned up too high I've seen it happen with brochures back in the days when I worked in the print shops. It would be fun to visit one of those comic print shops and watch it all get done.

How does that qualified label stuff work? I guess I don't really understand. Would this copy get an 8.5 Green label? Do we get a say if our book gets a 7.0 blue vs an 8.5 green. Or does CGC make that call?

I'll take a Hendrix reference any day of the week! Huge fan! "I've made up my mind Yeah, I'm tired of wasting all my precious time You got to be all mine, all mine (even at 3.5...) Foxy lady"

She's a real beauty no doubt about that! It just goes to show that as this hobby progresses and a new generation of collectors come into the fold (with big bucks), the true rarity of these early DC's in high grade are bound to sky rocket. We as the old guard of Flash collectors are all too aware. This was 1959, heroes were just beginning to make a come back, almost no one was really collecting these things. These books were bought off the spinner racks by kids who took them home and read them 2 and 3 times, traded them with their friends, They were stuffed under beds, thrown in toy boxes and sadly most were just thrown away in a year or less. The fact that any survived in this condition is a miracle. Marvel collectors on the other hand came in 2-3 years later and many were bought by older readers and the first inkling of real collectors were starting to develop. Still amazing to see a SA Marvel in 7.0 or above but a little more common.

I was even tougher on that book and gave it a 3.5 and felt it deserved it/ still staining and discolored is kinda baked into 4.0 ("Some staining, minor soiling" as it reads in the grading guide) but for me if I were handed this book at one of our club meetings to grade I would have given it a 3.5. Just a little too much grime on there for me to go to a 4.0.

But squeeze in all the Silver you want?

Game on for Bronze then?

Grades in!

I will have my grades in tonight

That ASM Annual #1 killed me! Don't you know? Spider-Man comics are Kryptonite to Flash collectors!

So hard to believe he's gone! If any of you are interested over on the YouTubes there is a great discussion on the Cartoonists Kayfabe channel. Nearly an hour long interview with Rob Liefeld on the mastery and influence of Neal. Just amazing stuff!