scburdet

Really nice one, although it looks like a crunch that goes through the entire book (FYI TIL that crunch is CGC for whole book, indents are corner issues that are mostly cover). I would guess 7.5 as is, but could get into the 9s with a successful press. Lots of room for improvement.

9.0/9.2 The corners here look a little blunted & some light soiling in the white of the UPC

6.0±0.5 for the color breaking edge wear. A little curious what the darkness around the center of the bottom edge on the BC tho.

≥9.2

Pulled this one, along with a dozen or so other early X-Men out of a clearance bin at New England Comics in Harvard Sq. around 1999/2000. Can't remember exactly what I paid, but I do remember being very excited about getting them all without spending a fortune. Pretty nice book minus the obvious crease on the one corner

4.5/5.0. I only thing the upper limit is possible b/c the outer edge looks better than the spine, otherwise I'd have said it tops out at 4.5

That's the one I had growing up. I still have that beat to spoon copy. Another copy, a replacement I tried to buy >20 years ago that the seller accidentally got tape on the cover during shipping, & a 9.4 1st gen slab that I got shortly after instead of trying for another raw copy. The DD158 cover was advertised in so many comics that I had a connection to it even though I didn't own a copy until >20 years after it was published.

Purchased from listing as a 6.5, so maybe I made out well again 🤞

I doubt that happens. It's a really weird scuff. It's still slick like the rest of the cover, not like any scuff or tape pull on any other book I own. I suppose it could be a production defect, but I've also never seen anything like it period

the missing corner sets the ceiling and at that size, I'd say 4.0. Given the rest of the book, I'd not expect huge additional deductions, so 3.5

2.5/3.0 Important to know if the staples are attached. The tearing at the staples looks significant.

3.0/3.5 Tears in the TLFC and BCBC & just too many color breaking creases and spine stress to get into the solid VG range. I think more 3 than 3.5

Pressing happens after the signing. Usually within 2-3 weeks. The Received at CCS is just the default classification until something happens

Probably not quite as nice as some of the other Thors I share. A possible bindery tear on the bottom back spine side and a scratch/scuff along the top edge above Thor. It's a double key though. First Wrecker and Black Bolt origin.

5.5±0.5. Tough call here b/c it looks pretty good, but I can see how the specific defects highlighted don't knock this down. I could make cases for it to be higher or lower though. Interesting book. I'm handing out controversial opinions today free of charge today, so Rolling Stones >>> The Beatles

A trick I use is to upload the front cover photo, then separately the back cover, then the rest since it doesn't let you re-order images & it sorts them by some other order. Having the 2 main pictures first is better, but this is nitpicking, you're good. The back cover is pretty unforgiving for showing issues. The accumulation of color breaking spine stress and whatever is going on with the back cover says to be 7.5±0.5. I think 8.0 is a longshot, but that all depends on how one views the black cover highlights the issues. I believe this copy is nicer than one I posted of this book that the good folks here scored at 6ish.

I've used MCS for years. If they say it's a 6.0, it's at least a 6.0. I've received books that were undergraded IMO several times. It probably pays for them to be conservative with grades and not have a bunch or returns from unsatisfied customers. Not a paid endorsement, just my experience. On the other hand, I believe they overprice a lot of merchandise to compensate, so I usually don't find a lot of key issues at prices that I'm willing to pay. That's not an issue (no pun intended) here.

Not sure I'd send CCS any books that were fragile or potentially fragile. Look for a CGC authorized dealer and see if they do pressing in-house. That's how I found someone reliable that I could work with. Given the color breaking creasing & such, I don't know that the grade will improve much, but flattening it out would have it present better. 4.0/4.5 unless some of that tearing around the staples is worse than it looks in these photos.

FWIW, I did a quick search to see what the market looks like for this magazine (since I am just learning about it). mycomicshop.com has a FN (6.0) copy for $15. They're pretty strict graders. If I was going to pick a copy to send to CGC, I would take a $15 flyer to see if this copy is better. I didn't find any others, although I did not spend a lot of time searching.

For a comic, a small spine split (1/8") brings the limit to 9.4. Beyond that, the documentation for how much splitting leads to how much of a deduction in comics is vague (1.8–9.4 is what the book says), let alone magazines. It looks like about a 1" spine split at the bottom & maybe a little at the top. If this was the only condition issue, I could see 6.0–7.0 being the upper limit. However, even ignoring the label, there are other issues, esp on the back. There's a long ?crease? that breaks color on the back cover for example, and the white areas of the front are slightly soiled. If an experienced C/P person worked on this, I might be persuaded it could get to a 5.0, where a comic with similar issues would be 1–2 grades lower (4.0/4.5).

depends on how much/if it's the result of the cutting process. My presser has a decent track record of maxing out the potential, so we'll see. We just couldn't find anyone to sign the book over the scuff. Everyone who worked on the book is dead, which left us with Chris Evans.

0.5/Poor

4.0/4.5

First, I must state my controversial opinions that Chevy Chase is not funny & Christmas Vacation is a terrible movie. I won't be taking questions. You should take it out of the bag and photograph the front and back to receive a grade. Removing a label is risky depending on the adhesive. It could come off cleanly (using a hairdryer) or it could result in an ink lift/tape pull, which would be worse. Should defer to someone experienced who has the book in-hand. Absolute ceiling with the label is 8.0, but a real grade requires the bagless photos

Well, snap to it then! I want to see how it turns out, since it's a cool book