trademarkcomics

I just got a ASM #177 CGC 9.6  white pages with a star stamp. It's an older case which means it probably isn't pressed and all I can see wrong with it is a slight wave at the top of the back cover that would easily press out.

So...anyone have a CGC 9.8 MJI with a star stamp?

(Or is a stamp a deal killer in 9.8?)

On 5/4/2022 at 9:01 AM, Catwomancomics said:

@ryanritc

I’m sorry to say that the signature looks off to me. I’ve never seen a Stan Lee signature that looks like he stopped after the N in Stan and started again with the L in Lee.  It’s not a continuous flowing motion.  

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

On 5/3/2022 at 6:55 PM, spracknetch23 said:

Looks legit to me. For comparison's sake, here are a few authentic raw ones from my collection. I witnessed Stan sign these in 1994 in Philly. I'd guess that yours was signed around the same time period, maybe between 1990-2005. 

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

On 5/3/2022 at 8:27 PM, toro said:

Didn't one year he go out for a beer in NY with some of the boardies and he signed a waitresses breast or her behind?

I wouldn't put it past him...

On 5/3/2022 at 9:07 PM, oakman29 said:

I once got caught in the bathroom with Harman Killebrew when we left the bathroom he signed a ball for me.

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".

On 5/3/2022 at 12:35 AM, Snowlock said:

Took 2 hours of searching and a brief heart attack thinking it had been in a different book.. but I found the sig I have. Sorta wished I had saved the ticket to the event. Signature from 2006. Best provenance I can give is a fantastic story about the event /signing and then running into Stan Lee and his small entourage again by happenstance at dinner about 45 minutes later. He took time to sign things for the waitstaff once they found out who he was... Just seemed like an all around nice guy. 

Responding specifically to the OP... they look pretty damn similar. 

 

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.

On 5/2/2022 at 8:52 AM, Qalyar said:

There are legitimate specialists in document foresnics. They're called "forensic document examiners" or "questioned document examiners". Certification through one of several certification boards (BFDE, SAFE, ABFDE, perhaps some others) requires a related bachelor's degree, two years of training at a document laboratory (and, for some of the certification boards, two years of independent document authentication work), plus a certification examination. Does that make a difference for signature authentication? Well, a 2001 study in the Journal of Forensic Science looked at exactly that question. Between Type I (inauthentic signature declared genuine) and Type II (authentic signature rejected) errors, their FDEs failed on about 4% of samples, which is a lot better than their random layperson control group, which failed on a little more than 15% of samples.

Comic book signature authentication, specifically, is fraught with complications. Stan Lee, in particular, did not maintain a consistent signature style, especially over the last few years of his life -- which is, of course, a period when a lot of books got signed. Even FDEs are likely to have a higher error rate than normal. And let's be honest here, a ~5% error rate on signature authentication is not real great to begin with in terms of confidence that a signed book is or should be worth more than normal. But, of course, a bigger problem is that the people doing signature authentication in the comic book industry probably aren't FDEs. The "other guys" in comic book encapsulation almost certainly don't have certified FDEs doing their signature verification process. Maybe the people over at PSA are certified -- the company certainly plays up the technology aspect of their authentication service -- but given PSA's issues of late, well, maybe not; either way, PSA's on-item authentication labeling make them a poor fit for comics.

Of course, most signed comics are authentic. This isn't sports memorabilia, and there's very little incentive to forge most comic creators' autographs. Unfortunately, the ones that are the most likely to be forged are some of the ones that would provide the most challenges (for various reasons) to an authenticator. People like Stan Lee, Frank Frazetta, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Gil Kane, and Stan Lee. And sure, even then, most of those "verified" sigs are probably legit. But there's a lot of them, and the unavoidable errors rates involved mean a lot aren't legit, too.

  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

On 5/1/2022 at 4:10 AM, oakman29 said:

I can tell the OP that THAT signature is a genuine signature. 

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

On 4/23/2022 at 5:33 PM, Gaard said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/353862095962?hash=item5263d3145a:g:4IAAAOSw01th5Z14

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234168379764?hash=item368585e974:g:XlsAAOSwl25hMBW8

Here's a couple examples of slabs for sale that are advertised as having the MJ insert, but the label doesn't say anything about it. I, personally own a slab that I know to be a MJ, yet there is no mention of it on the label.

I'm so confused.

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.

On 4/19/2022 at 4:56 PM, trademarkcomics said:

Got 124! 
 

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.

On 4/18/2022 at 8:49 PM, ganni said:

@trademarkcomics You don't want my asm 220 copy ! Check out grendelbo copy at page 28 ! 

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

Got 124! 

On 4/18/2022 at 8:49 PM, ganni said:

@trademarkcomics You don't want my asm 220 copy ! Check out grendelbo copy at page 28 ! 

On 4/18/2022 at 7:39 PM, ganni said:

Miscut???

Bought this new back in the 80s.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

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. 

On 4/18/2022 at 5:27 PM, ganni said:

My 80s copy,  bought it and read it ....

 

You will give it to me now...

On 4/18/2022 at 2:21 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Well done!

Not sure if it has been mentioned already, but ASM #262 has copies with a Bose wrap (newsstand only). I had one copy with a MJI, and one without:

When you've finished the NDS and MJIs, maybe go for all the other insert types (if you haven't already)?

Pizzazz is in ASM #176-179:

 

#179 has a different one to the other three.

And some ASM #245 copies have the Maxwell/Bubblicious ad - unusually, it can be found in both newsstand and direct copies:

There are inserts in other issues too, but these are mostly generic / in all copies - well, all of whichever type I listed - but there are some different configurations to collect (e.g. #389):

And if you really want to tear the arse out of it, you can go for variations like these (click to enlarge):

There are so many 'variations' in the Spidey ASM run.

They'll keep you going for a while, if you complete the MJI set 

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.

On 4/14/2022 at 5:47 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Niiiice. I wish I'd kept mine now, which I deslabbed:

 

What are the ones you are missing, TM? We could keep an eye out for you...

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?”.

On 4/13/2022 at 8:46 AM, Cpt Kirk said:

That is a great looking copy and also "amazing" that you are only missing 14 of the ASMs..  If you friend has any jeweler variants in the title of Batman, Superman, Detective, Action or Justice League of America, I would love to get in touch with him.   In those 5 titles, there's approximately 690 jewelers variants and I've managed to get all but 10 of them.  I would gladly pay a hefty premium if anyone could find the following for me:  Batman 245, 247, 390; Superman 255, 291, 292;  Detective 470, 548; Action 579; and JLA 107.

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.