scburdet

7.5ish as-is since there is a bend & the back seems pretty grubby. Maybe two grades higher if a c/p was very successful

8ish. The light background makes some defects hard to detect in photos; however, I feel like the rough edges are characteristic of many SA Marvel books, and these defects aren't treated as harshly.

1.0

My suggestion is to go into the Grading and Restoration forum b/c it's possibly a post-grading issue. That said, 9.6 is within the accepted range CGC will assign to warping. CGC grading standards are what they are even if they are more harsh/lenient than what we would personally assign.

Silver & Bronze Marvel horror is my jam & if I won the lottery I'd start in on all the pre-code stuff. More recent stuff in the genre is not as interesting; however, this is the first pro work of Greg Capullo, and creator firsts are something I collect too. It's not a rare book per se, but b/c it came from a small publisher & I assume a lot of the readers weren't traditional collectors. What I've seen out in the world is often mid-grade (made worse by the black highlighting every little crease & tic). Came across this one that looked decent enough, but the sellers photos/description didn't really highlight the TLFC where there are some speckly little defects. It's kind of like a scuff, but not like other scuffs I've seen, so IDK exactly how to characterize it. Tried to highlight the defect; as always, the lighting makes it look a little worse than a "normal" viewing. Trying to figure out if I should keep it, or send it back.

0.5

From a different era, 4.0/4.5. For a 1954 book? 4.5/5.0. If this was part of a board grading contest, 6.0

White covers are tough & this one looks pretty clean. Maybe some light soiling or foxing on the right side. I'd want to look at it closely in hand. My biggest concern is what is/is not going on at the bottom staple. It looks like there could be some small tears there, but I am not confident just looking at the photos. If there are tears around the staple, I'd set the upper limit at 8.5/9.0. If that's not what's going on there, I can see this getting as high as a 9.4 after it's been c/p'd

4.5/5.0 Welcome to collecting! I am old to collecting, but newer to using 3rd party graders. If your intention is to buy books for CGC grading, I would avoid stained books like the plague. They treat stains rather harshly and if/when you resell, there would be a grade on the corner that might negatively impact how much of your investment (in the book and grading fees) that you could recoup. On the other hand, if you're just collecting raw books and only care if the front cover presents nicely, buying slightly stained books would be a great way to acquire some comics that might otherwise be unaffordable.

4.0. A little allowance for square bound binding that's not robust

4.0/4.5. It's the creasing & discoloration (back cover) not the distributor grease pencil or the name that sets the upper limit

4.0, maybe 4.5

Probably not the best forum for your question b/c the book is already slabbed.

Concur about the grainy photos. I see what might be a decent size crease on the BRFC. Unless that's something about the photo, not a crease, I'd max out at 7.5/8.0

I see what appears to be a water stain on the bottom of the back cover. If that's what it is, I'd say max 7.0

The back looks like moderate foxing to me, the resolution of the photos could be misleading. CGC hates stains, foxing and the like. I see 6.0 as the max unless this is soiling that cleans. I'm not sure CCS is the most thorough with the cleaning part of c/p

5.0/5.5. Photos are a little low resolution too. Pretty grainy if opened up to examine in detail

Back cover photo is of insufficient quality to grade the book

6.5

4.0

4.5 maybe 5.0 cleaned

4.0 maybe a grade higher with a good c/p

1.8/2.0

4.0/4.5 train. I'd like to see it pressed to optimize appearance if not the grade.

7.5/8.0