scburdet

Local Steranko signing announced. On the fence.

I'm into FM for way more than is reasonable. 2 Wolverine 1s, DD 158 & 168, Spider-Woman 32 (personal preference), Amazing Heroes 69 (novelty factor) & PPSSM 27 Hopefully, I can recoup some costs by selling off one of the Wolverines.

Ah, OK. The way CGC handles defects is to start with the one that is the most severe and sort of works backwards more or less. There's even a little grid of what defects are allowable at certain grades and relative impact in their new book. Like if the cover is detached, you start at a 3.0* so a normal amount of handling wear doesn't further reduce the grade (*unless it's an otherwise perfect book & gets a Qualified grade). It's still a little bit of a black box, but stains and missing pieces are two of the most impactful defects & both based on area. Could be as low as a 3.0-5.0 is sort of the range for where a 1"×1" piece would be closer to 3.0. Of course, it being the back cover helps b/c the aesthetic are not impacted as much. IMO anything less than a 4.0 would be a miscarriage of justice.

Thanks all. Here's the "reveal" since enough of the community has weighed in. Probably reserving this in case there's another TM signing sometime in the next decade.

Sitting in my reserves in the event Sam Keith ever shows up at a signing. It another rare case where I think the seller undersold the grade. One stress line on the front spine. There's a tiny bend on the TLBC that kind of looks like a small piece out, but it really just needs to be flattened out. Thanks

Only CBCS does after-market signature verification I don't think the back cover writing is going to matter much given the rest of the book 4.0/4.5

Piece missing is consistent with a 5.0 ceiling. Maybe 5.5 since it's the back cover. It will matter if they ding the stain too, or just go with that defect being consistent with accumulation at 5.0

Solid list. I got my 94 (color touched) & 101 last year. Maybe 109 this year. I did 129 as a regular submission (should be my highest graded bronze X-Men key 🤞). For the rest of those keys you list, I can't convince myself they would hit at least a 9.6, which is around the breakeven point given the graded books FMV. Same with some of the candidates I posted here recently. Certainly justifiable at Modern tier pricing, less so with the signature surcharge. I did learn an important lesson about stains with my IF14 as these were among my first submissions. Sent a few books before learning about this forum or having experience submitting my books and a few wouldn't make my cut now. Live & learn

don't see any reason why this wouldn't get a 7.0. Most of my readers from wee lad days average about a 3.0. Of course they survived younger brothers and other boys on a few school trips.

stain plus the chew has be around 5.0 although the latter is hard to assess in photos. Whether it's a good investment is hard to say since there are not a lot of sales for comparison

the two corners, TLFC and BRFC are much less than perfect. I initially missed the lighter creasing in the yellow around 6.0 is likely the ceiling.

4.5/5.0

press for 9.2/9.4

8.0/8.5 the latter is the best case scenario. My general rule, especially with writers, is that a signature book should represent a significant creation (new character, etc.) or landmark in the creator's career. I've had some mild disappointment with some sig books coming in lower than anticipated but if it's a significant creation, then it's not so bad. Does a first full appearance of Proteus fall under this category? It wouldn't for me, but others might think more of the character.

6.5±0.5 Looks like a reasonable c/p candidate for some of the defects

9.2±0.2

8.0/8.5. It's probably safe to consider most scratches as one would a color breaking crease of similar length

About a 5.5/6.0. Giving the amount of tanning, I'd want to know how robust the paper is, especially before doing pressing.

5.5±0.5. The edge chipping at Quicksilver and BRFC corner are issues obviously. think the tanning on the back is going to help keep it lower by CGC standards than it might look at first glance

According to the CGC guide, they have 8.0 as the low end of the range for a book with just a shadow as a defect. 7.5/8.0 seems fair to me for the shadow plus spine stress. It is true that most collectors wouldn't bother with a book like this since you can pick up a high grade copy for $10 or less

3.5

6.0

around 4.5. Looks and is placed like other JK signatures I've seen. Of course there are no "witnessed" cgc signatures for comparison. I'd call it genuine as a unqualified analyzer

2.0/2.5

2.5/3.0