Lightning55

If you use Terapeak, you can see eBay sales a few years back. Maybe longer with a paid subscription.

Cool books. I hope you are able to pick them up. Please let us know if you do.

First 2 things to check... Does the book inside match the title and grade? Meaning someone could slip in a cheaper version like a 2nd print, or a lower grade. If it looks right, probably is right, just a case anomaly. Is the book worth more than $300-$500? If not, no one has gone to the trouble of messing with a lower value book. It's likely legit.

It wouldn't hurt to run this all by your insurer, with a few "what if" questions. And the same with the shipper, if relying on their coverage. Sounds like the collection in Hawaii has financially changed hands already, and you are arranging shipment to take physical possession?

Your policy doesn't cover your collection while in transit? How good is the shipping company's insurance?

So it looks like he put in an offer, you accepted it, and now he wants additional photos before paying? And you have Free 30 Day Returns, meaning he would get a free look and be able to return it for any reason at your expense? Should be blocked just for being ultra stupid.

It looks better, but no change in grade or value, mostly due to the water damage. I think it would have been better to put the $15 toward a nicer copy. CGC might delete your post since it is about a competitor's pressing, which is a service they provide through CCS. But maybe not, I'm pretty sure a Facebook presser is not a serious threat. In any event, I'm in before the lock.

I think it was mostly that 9.8's exclusively were being sold by the scammer, and many sure didn't look like 9.8's. And they were unusual 9.8's, like 9.8 Mark Jewelers Newsstands, unicorns. But not really too rare if it's a 9.2 in that 9.8 case. And not really caught by the notes, because 9.8's typically don't have notes. Some of his did, which was in itself suspicious.

There is no easy way to block sellers. The only thing I have found is to use Advanced Search. Near the bottom, you can add sellers to exclude. But you have to do it with each manual search, or save the search for repetitive use so you don't have to set it up each time. I don't know how many bad seller usernames can be added, hopefully as many as necessary.

Photos of the comic have only been available on the CGC registration lookup page for less than a year. If you are buying at a convention, you may not have internet access to check, and viewing on a phone is less than ideal. And the grader notes are practically useless, very vague, if there at all.

Putting him on your Blocked Bidder List only prevents him from buying from you. We need a Blocked Seller List that prevents us from seeing listings from sellers we don't want to accidentally interact with again. As for the feedback, considering the lack of cooperation you experienced, you can add a response on your feedback received. Maybe describing what happened, and which seller to avoid. And of course you could leave negative feedback on the seller's feedback, and let him work as hard as you did to try to get it removed. You could also just let it go, or anything in between.

CGC Grading Scale 10.0 ---- A little better than 9.9 9.9 ---- A little better than 9.8 9.8 ---- A little better than 9.6 Etc. Work your way down.

I see this is from Heritage. Looks similar to Overstreet, excellent detail. Here is what 9.9 looks like to CGC: CGC Grading Scales CGC uses a highly accurate, industry standard 10-point grading scale to evaluate collectibles. Mint. 9.9 The collectible is nearly indistinguishable from a 10.0 but will have a very minor manufacturing defect. It will not have any evidence of handling defects. What a joke. "Highly accurate"

Never mind. I see that it is there already. It didn't show as an underlined link in my email.

What source is this definition from, please? Just comparing notes. Do you have a page link for the complete grade list?

Maybe they did take it into consideration, you'll never know. Could have been they thought it was a 9.0 and dropped it a step. Or a vendor "code", and didn't knock it. What you have is much better than getting a 9.8 on a book with an obviously bent corner, missing corner, or other defect that shouldn't be on a 9.8. I've had that happen. Makes it hard to sell as a 9.8, hard to sell as anything else, because the grade is definitely wrong.

+1 with above.

I wouldn't cut it. Maybe send it in for Restoration removal assessment, see what they recommend, try to gauge the impact of that, and go from there. I think its value as a Restored 6.5 will be in the ballpark of a lower grade blue label. Presents very nicely as is. But if you hate the label, and you can get your money back on the comic (presuming you haven't owned it for decades), maybe best to do that.

I didn't know that you wind a compass...at all.

Did these books actually go missing, or were lesser copies substituted? I could see a scenario where the employee sees a key comic receiving a high grade, like a 9.8. He has a 9.2 copy at home, raw or slabbed, purchased ahead, waiting for the 9.8 match. Smuggles his in, makes the swap before encapsulation, smuggles the 9.8 out. If this could be done, there is no red flag along the way, no triggering of suspicion, no accounting deficiency, no lost book. Only a camera, another employee, a security person, or a manager could catch it. If the submitter claims the book he got back is not the one he submitted, CGC could say it must have been damaged on the way in, not their responsibility.

You can't swap in a raw book, unless you access or ability to duplicate the inner well. Which has yet to be shown to be in practice. And if you had that capability, along with being able to discretely open and reseal a slab, you wouldn't be wasting your efforts or resources on $100 slabs. As @Dr. Balls said, no one swaps out cheap books. You'd move backwards financially, like spending 35 cents each to counterfeit quarters. If a comic is under $300, no one has messed with it.

Cheating on taxes is stealing, and not uncommon, unfortunately. You said: On 2/1/2024 at 6:57 PM, Math Teacher said: "Unfortunately, Mr. Terrazas will not have to pay taxes on his ill-gotten gains, as the government has kicked the "anything above $600 is taxable" can down the road." The $600 threshold, or the currently higher threshold that varies by state, has nothing to do with whether anyone has to pay taxes or not. Every dollar of net income is taxable. People can choose whether or not to follow the law. Some people choose to rob banks, but they risk getting caught. Some people, like yourself, confuse the reporting threshold as being an allowance of money you can earn before paying taxes on it. It's not.

Every dollar of net income is taxable. The $600 threshold pertains only to 1099 reporting requirements.

Looks like a printing/cutting/manufacturing defect to me. My opinion doesn't count for much, unfortunately.

It's a plastic case, stuff happens. Its purpose is to protect the comic, which it is doing. Sending them back may not help. They can come back with even more visible problems. I think you should quit while you're ahead.