comicginger1789

Therein might lie some problems for the MCU moving forward. It can be a challenge to take an existing story people know and adapt enough to make it enjoyable. People will complain if you just recreate the same story, and if you deviate too far (and call it something it barely resembles) similar criticism occurs. It is a fine line that I feel Marvel is having a harder time navigating now....

I can't believe I almost missed this..I am IN like mandrake the magician!

Pick meee!

8.0 Clean that back for chance at 8.5

Lol I would not call this guys work “mastering” Stans signature. A quick look from anyone even remotely familiar will tell you those are fake. Plus on books that true fans would be unlikely to ever have him sign…red flags. But you are right if one wants to avoid buying a fake signatur, stick to yellow slabs only and you should never be burned.

Book does not have a pin up but you still wanna flip through to check for no cut coupons. As for the asking price, $600 is a pandemic price. That book as others have said as a VG is maybe $120-150 raw. Tops. A Stan Lee signature (which looks legit but you will never be 100% sure of that unless you paid another company to verify it and even then CGC won’t care) is not worth 4x the value. I’d value it at around a $400-450 comic tops.

7.0 range. Looks to be some dust shadow/tanning to cover edges. And then the wear at the corners and staples.

6.5-7.0 seems about right...just some spine/staple stress and that top left corner shows some wear but other than that, it looks solid!

A flamethrower cover (and SOTI book?) for $100? Of course!

Another vouch for not wasting time and money doing a crack and press. A crease that breaks colour is there to stay.

Considering I just discovered Dino Riders and the toyline they subsequently produced, I think I am out....by the way, those toys look horrendous. Cool box art though, fugly toys.

Funny you posted this recently as my brother found this recently at a thrift shop. He recognized it looking kinda like Galactus and thought it might be an artist I knew. Admittedly I didn’t until I searched and saw he worked on American Splendor which I had seen before but as someone unfamiliar with the underground comic scene, that was all I knew. Not sure of the age…any guesses out there?

I will also add to the notion of the boards being the least sketchy place to buy and sell. Bad people are banned quickly. Hoping that is not the case here. As long as you never ask/never pay anyone requesting payment via Friends and Family (such people should be reported), you will be safe here. In regards to this thread, I personally never like threads or posts where the lead is "I am in financial crisis, and need money". I get that there are reputable people who have legitimately been in such a scenario and sold stuff by leading with that info, but for me it is a personal turn off and could...COULD...be trying to appeal to potential buyers in two ways; by getting you to feel sorry for their situation and, potentially providing a reason why valuable items are being offered at a very good price. It is a classic way to scam people. And the smart comic book scammers have books....maybe they are their own, maybe stolen ones. So they come to a place like this, sell some legitimately, gain trust and then try to do what they can to scam (like this if it is the case) so they can walk away with 10k and still have the books so they can continue said scam in a year's time, on another platform or whatever. Really hoping that is not the case but a sinking feeling is telling me it is here. Like I said, these instances here are usually few and far between but have happened. Perhaps something needs to be put in place where you need to be a member for "x" amount of years before you can start selling? I dunno......

5.0 seems right. As it is a GA book and presents infinitely time better, they might get it up to a 6.0

CCS does a very quick wipe down of the book. Their cleaning if done at all is a dry clean which does not remove stains. In general, removing a stain is not possible unless selecting an approach that is much more invasive. Some independent pressers and cleaners will do this but they can be expensive and in the case of this book, likely not worth doing.

This right here, because of the stain mostly. I don't think a press and clean would do much here other than improving presentation.

Heck I would even consider this hitting 9.0 potentially. Great colours, spine ticks are the main culprit here and a slightly dirty spine on the back.

As for the scrape, perhaps the grader viewed it as something coming into contact with the book, thus creating some sort of scrape. It does appear to be blackish in colour, somewhat, so if residue or whatever it came in contact with was left on the book, maybe that is why they noted it as a stain

See now this is where CGC could help themselves with a little clarity. That is a severe amount of ink bleed...are we as collectors to say that this should or should not affect the grade? For me, it definitely makes a difference compared to a copy where this has not happened. I think considering how the ink staining occurs is also something that should be considered (was this or could it have been so from day one? Or has time/temperature and storage conditions caused this?) At any rate, knowing the stance on this and whether this is a defect CGC considers a flaw or not would be good knowledge to share with collectors.

For consideration, many 9.6 books and 9.8 books can get the same grade or vice versa depending on the grader. And if trying to find why, comes down to edges, corner sharpness and how it looks around the staple (usually). Also the possibility of something very minor inside the book that kept it back (a minor bend on a page corner for example)

Perhaps a fun mark from someone distributing the comic? Yes A rare inking error that commands hundreds more than a “normal” copy? Lol

This right here You get those tiny yellow stain marks from the acid on the inside edges. If that’s not it then you got a very harsh grader (possible) or someone putting the wrong notes and grade for your book (equally as possible)

And just when I've always considered the graders of the older books to be more thorough....sadly, with humans involved, I am sure this is not the only blue label book with something missing inside that exists out in the world. I am wondering what one would expect CGC to do here? For me personally, I would expect them to compensate in some way the value that I had assumed in my purchase (even if they did so as a credit). For example, if I spent $500 on a book I thought was perfect and found it was not, and should have been labelled green, I would expect to at least get the value difference compensated. Preferably the whole amount because in all liklihood, I would not have purchased said book in the first place. At least with partial compensation, I can sell the green label to recoup my losses. Does this sound fair? Curious to see how CGC approaches it.... A company with great customer service at least should consider the customer's request when failure occurs and see where they can meet in some sort of resolution in between the max demand ("Give me my money back plus more!") and a failure to negotiate ("So sorry you are unhappy, too bad, goodbye!").

That upper staple rust hurts. 4.0 from me also

Can it be fixed? Yes there are ways. But from what I know, they are expensive (if done by someone who has experience) and as has been mentioned, is becoming more and more detectable. I mean, imagine CGC got this book after it had the foxing removed. Those spots would be very white and compared to the rest of the book (the tears at the staple as seen, the piece missing at the bottom of the spine and the likely general wear the front and back covers show), and it would look very out of place, hence why this is starting to be caught and rightfully labelled as such. Now I know there are people who think that pressing and even dry cleaning should be labelled as restoration but I think that if you found any old collectible item of value (a car, or an old vintage toy) and all it needed was a good bath to make it look new, I don't think that changes it. The pressing aspect does but that is because paper is a unique material where it is malleable and can be returned to original/almost original form without any detriment (that we know of) to the comic. Peroxide and other such methods like UV baths and the like....talk to me in 15-20 years. Maybe those comics are fine....maybe they very much are not.