10centcomics

Agree with others that this is in the GD range due to the spine splitting and spine wear. There also appears to be some cover fading (the reds appear somewhat orange-ish now). I would advise against getting this pressed. Not only will it not improve the grade, but also you risk damaging and splitting the spine further.

Thanks for doing this experiment, I think it's valuable information for collectors to know about when figuring out the right price to pay for books with slight restoration. That being said (and maybe this is an unpopular opinion), I don't think I can support doing further damage to a book to remove restoration. The CT scraping on the spine doesn't bother me too much (presumably it is just reverting the book back to its pre-CT days). On the other hand, purposely chipping off a section of the book with CT is something I think we should avoid. Maybe attitudes towards restoration will continue to evolve (some things that used to be considered restoration are now filed under conservation). For my personal collecting, I don't mind slight color touch if it is honestly disclosed and priced appropriately. I guess part of the reason for these practices is because we view the purple label with a stigma (PLOD), but I don't think it should lead to damaging a book to eek out a blue label and some potential financial gain.

I think FN is okay if it were just a tape pull but it's actually a hole in the cover? I would think that bumps it down to VG range.

I think 2.0 might be a little too harsh. The cover is attached; there aren't missing pieces from the cover; there doesn't appear to be any spine splits. Based on the spine wear, an accumulation of color breaking creases, and the interior page damage, I'd put this around 3.0

A missing ad page (even if non-story) automatically knocks the grade to 0.5 (incomplete). If you are wondering what the "qualified" grade would be, I think we would need to see more pictures. I'm not quite sure what is going on in the 2nd pic (is that a spine split or a detached cover?)

If you are thinking about buying this book, I would advise against it. I'd pick up a low-grade copy with creases but good color strike over a faded cover. I think moderately faded books ends up in the VG range and severely faded books (like this one) would be in the G range.

I'm leaning towards the FN range for this book. The bottom right corner and edge are pretty rough with the color-breaking creases to be considered VF I think.

+1 to this; this is my experience as well with 6.0 being the max grade for cover detached at 1 staple

I'd say this is a 4.0 at best. The writing to me is excessive (this isn't just a date stamp, initials, or name neatly written in a corner). Paul wrote his name 4 times and there's a circle around Hulk's hand and Silver Surfer's board. So while it might be technically a VG grade, I don't know if your average collector would pay VG prices for it due to the major hit on eye appeal.

Yeah I think the guide isn't very useful for GA books. For common things like Silver Age Marvels, it can be a useful guideline. For GA, I'm sure all of us would love to pay guide prices for Timely Captain Americas...

I think it's because major events, villains, and first appearances in Batman and Superman lore generally happened in their respective anthology titles (Action, Detective) or dedicated books (Superman, Batman). WF feels like supplemental material by comparison. That being said, I really like the WWII-era WF covers.

This looks like it might be a copy of Famous First Edition No.5 (with the cover ripped off) which reprints Batman 1 in treasury format. Ask him to send you a photo with a banana for scale

+1 to this. Front cover is VG but full back cover stain knocks it down to 3.0

An accumulation of major defects (top spine split, piece out back cover, large stain, excessive writing, book length crease + numerous other large color-breaking creases) keeps this in the G range in my opinion. Not sure how much a press will really help with the grade due to all the color-breaking creases on the cover. Cool pence variant book though!

If the "color loss" you're talking about is the white streak going past Green Goblin's ear, I think that is part of the artwork. I just looked at my copy and it has the same thing.

Thanks for clarifying! Printing it on the wrong color label seems like a more plausible explanation for this!

Cover detached and spine completely split? That's an easy 1.0 I think. The spine must've split in transit right? No dealer could possibly think this is a 5.0??? Even if the cover were attached, I would be furious at the 5.0 overgrading!

I agree a 0.5 Qualified label is not very informative. I interpret green labels as "it would be the grade displayed on the top left except this one major defect." Just speculating here, maybe this book is missing so many pages it would otherwise get a No Grade (NG)? So the Qualified Label here is actually bumping it up from NG?

As others have said, this is definitely above Poor. Barring horrific defects like a giant rodent chew, a tattered but complete book should score at least a Fair grade. This copy has its cover still attached and no missing chunks. I'd score it 1.8 (Good-) As for getting it graded, it depends on what your goals are. If you plan to keep this in your personal collection, this copy can be a nice reader that you preserve in a Mylar. If you're looking to sell it, I wouldn't expect any sort of big financial bump from grading due to its already low grade.

+1 to this - I think this is a solid 4.5 and exactly the type of book that looks great in your collection and you don't have to worry about condition while reading it!

I would be more comfortable grading this in the G range than VG given the size of the chipping/missing pieces on the top edge and the significant spine tears.

Thanks for sharing the notes. I would think the "top staple front cover detached" and the existing spine wear would hold it back from higher grades. That being said, this is a really nice 4.5 copy as it has no Marvel chipping. I'd recommend just holding this beautiful book as it is and avoiding the risks of cracking it out, shipping, re-grading, etc.

Qualified books are definitely not all the same. I would expect a missing ad page (does not affect story) to fetch a higher price than say a missing CF that impacts story. For what it is worth, I love picking up major GA or SA books with missing ad pages that don't affect story. I see them closing at 40-50% of their equivalent blue label values.