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Or someone bumped his elbow in a packed convention hall while he was signing? Autographs are not performed in a vaccuum.

Ah, 1994...when Stan still cared about signature placement(rather than over Spidey's or Polaris' face). Cool books!

I wouldn't put it past him... I still wouldn't put it past him...

The other thing I always liked about his signature(especially when he was younger) is that you ]can almost make out "StanLey"(His real name) as though the underline was completing an angled stylized "Y".

That has the old "L" which I like better. At some point after 2006 he started looping the L, but I love the vintage L that almost looked like a severely angled Z.

Stan's sigs present a much bigger issue than someone who rarely(I'm not even sure that word is really apt) signed books like Ditko. This brings me to a recent event that occurred to me. In early 2021 I bought a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #38 that was qualified CGC 6.5 with "Two names written on the cover". One name was Stan Lee, the other was Steve Ditko. Now...I know Ditko rarely signed books. And when he did sign them it was even more rarely on the cover. However, there was something about this that seemed different to me. He even put "Regards,..." before he signed his name and I was pretty sure he never did that on comics. Still, the price was right even with the Stan sig and that looked authentic to me. So I bought the book and sent it off to...the other guys to get re-graded and (hopefully) authenticated. They rejected it before it even got past grading. When I got it back the tag said "Bad sigs" as the reason. They were apparently so offended they rejected the other book I sent and I know those sigs were good since it was a CGC SS crack out. So, fast forward a few months and I decide to sell the ASM 38. Of course, I stated in both the title and the text of the ad that I wasn't certain about the Ditko signature. About a couple of days into the auction I get contacted by someone with the username "ditko59". He asked if I was the one who bought it back in 2021 and offered me less than the starting bid(which was rather high). I said I would wait until the auction was over since it had a lot of interest. He then offered me the starting bid. I figured he must be a Ditko fan and I really wanted the book to go to a good home and not someone who would flip it, so I accepted. After he received the book he messaged me to tell me he was Mark S. Ditko, the nephew and godson of Steve! And that this book was originally bought by him in 1992, and he had it signed personally by both Stan and then Steve a while later! Apparently, he gave it to a relative who eventually sold it and now he finally had it back! I told him he should thank the nice(not so nice--another story for another time) folks at CBC---well, you know. Because if they had authenticated the signature I would have never sold it! I will now show you the signature. And, it's a weird one because Steve put these large squiggles when crossing the "T"s, something I don't think he ever did. But, it dawned on me prior to my knowledge Stan had signed the book before he did that Ditko probably penned the large squiggles on the "T"s in a sarcastic way to spite Stan... I guess the moral of the story is that like so many things in life, you can't judge a book by its cover(and that is so true in "regards" to comics in general)!

"Solid mid grade" $439.99 (I got my CGC 8.0 for $500) https://www.ebay.com/itm/175264729034?hash=item28ce9787ca:g:1TAAAOSwBsVibqYv

I waited and got another copy for $200(I know I probably overpaid...but it completes a HUGE run). I think it looks nicer than the 7.0 and it even has a star stamp! I had offered the 7.0 seller $100 hoping he'd come back with 200 but he scoffed---I hope he sells it now since it will make what I paid for this all the better. I'm just five away from the entire collection! 160, 164, 167, 174, 181.

Absolutely. It has all of the features I look for in a Stan Lee sig. I look for four things initially, #1- There are exceptions, but he usually has a little curve coming off the bottom of the "T" that points into the direction of the "A", #2- The "A" is bigger than the "N". #3- A strong "hairpin" point before finishing off with a full or partial underline. And #4- (Other than when he got frail right at the end) a smoothness and confidence in all of the strokes---this man was one of the most confident men that has ever lived and it showed up in his signatures! So, a forger may get 1-2 of these right, but they rarely get 3 and NEVER get 4.

Ummm… https://www.ebay.com/itm/233504242823?hash=item365deffc87%3Ag%3A8~sAAOSwSJ9iHeaO&LH_BIN=1

Three things come to mind here: #1- The sellers you point out are mass sellers so they could simply be typos, #2- I would assume that if there was any question in the grader's mind about the legitimacy of the insert and whether or not it's original or married from another copy, they would simply not list it on the label rather than put "Married Mark Jeweler's Insert." and #3- CGC is not perfect.

After some investigating on Mike's Amazing World(love that site!), I found the book it connected to: Justice League #107. lol.

Received it. It's in great shape. But it has a major miswrap and I was wondering if anyone else has seen this? It has a back cover overhang that shows what looks like the edge of a cover to a completely different book. I found another CGC graded one to confirm that this was also on other 124s. Anyone wanna hazard a grade? Most of the wear on the book is from the overhang/miscut on the back. I just want to...I won't even think it...lol.

A CGC 7.0 just got listed...at $500!

Got 124!

I think I have one that was bound upside down. I know I have a few that were cut short at the bottom, not one that was cut short at the side though. Yet again proves that inserts and covers were cut before getting the final trim. Makes one wonder how many books which CGC has deemed as trimmed covers truly are and how many are simply miscuts.

You will give it to me now...

I have all of the Pizzazz variants, 30 cent & 35 cent price variants, I have a Bose wrap in my 262 and I have a CGC 9.8 of the #245 Bubblicious variant, but once you get past the MJI era, all I look for is newsstands(which I have an extensive collection of, including Australian price variants of 361-363). But inserts post-1992 just don't thrill me.

Now down to 10! Just got: Thanks to Marwood for the heads up!

That was a nice one! That issue is important to me because Tarantula was the villain in the very first ASM I ever bought at ten years old: #235. Plus it’s got Punisher’s second appearance at the end. Most of what I’m missing is right in that tough late 70s era when the staple positions are hard to read. #160, 167, 170, 171, 173, 174, 178, 181, 189. Other than those I need #124(which I mentioned above) and 220(which is hot right now due to Moon Knight). But yeah, 227 out of 238 now, or 95%. Not too shabby. I really appreciate you guys making me aware of the issues I needn’t search for, made things a lot easier. That was one reason I let you all in on my staple discovery. My wife was like “you let them know your trade secrets?”.

Make that 11. I just found 187, 190 and 192. I think he’s sold through most of them but I’ll see if he has those the next time I go in there.

I finally found one of the tougher ASMs: #134. I hadn’t seen one since I started this endeavor back in 2019. My friend who had recently opened his own shop came by a huge collection with Mark Jeweler inserts and he held all of the Amazings for me. It started me on this journey and now I’m only 14 issues away…

Be very careful with late 70's books. I have found that with some it is better to look at the top staple(you want it closer to the bottom of the character box than most of the run is) to discern if it may be a MJI than the bottom staple as a lot of the issues had high bottom staples. Like I said, there a many exceptions to the general rule of high bottom staples. What I do is run through the books available of the specific issue I'm hunting to get a general feel for where staple placement usually is, then when I see a staple is a different spot(or, better yet, compare to an actual Mark Jeweler issue), then I go for it. My percentage for being right is running about 80%.

That's awesome. More proof they aren't as rare as I first believed. A book from my childhood, if you ever want to sell it, let me know...