scburdet

Submitted to a facilitator almost a year ago. They didn't get signed at the advertised time. Took a few months for the facilitator to let me know. Finally signed & returned. Happy with the results at least. The pink really pops.

7.0/7.5

I'm declaring myself the winner as the only person who entertained going over 7.0

So I guess blue 3.5 rather than green with a higher grade? I've heard Secret Wars 8 is on the list of books that routinely comes back lower than people expect. Like CGC just sees too many of them & is extra critical.

Another tape pull by the issue #? The penalty for tape pull seems to depend on the magnitude and impact on aesthetics. I've got one with a couple, but they're on the back (7.0). This is on the cover, but maybe isn't as aesthetically ugly b/c of it's location. In the absence of anything else, I could see a 7.0/7.5 just for the cover defects. The tanning is not good though. I'd offer a 5.0±0.5

I've got anecdotal evidence that CGC doesn't treat miswrap production issues as kindly as other production defects. Looks like some foxing or something on the inside page. 7.5±0.5

Just the two largest color breaking creases look like they'd measure 6", so with the smattering of other smaller defects like the spine splitting at the corner & staple impressions in the cover, I'd go with 5.0±0.5

There's a lot of creasing that breaks color, so pressing isn't going to help. Looks like pressing could also damage the binding if it's intact A experienced pro might make the back look better. 3.0±0.5

The tanning here is moderate. I'd estimate that knocks it down to 6.0 for a start. One of the front corners is chipped. 5.5/6.0

Some spine stress, hard to tell how sever it is or isn't in the white areas. Some tanning around the edges of the back. I'd like a closer look at what's going on with the frayed paper along the outer edge as seen from the rear picture. It looks rough, but assigning a grade will be hard without further details.

I haven't seen anything in the CGC book about the corner thing being an officially recognized defect. This book is newer than where the Marvel tear/chipping group printing defects are known to be common. It could be production, but in the absence of a history of this being commonly observed, I'd treat it as a missing piece to be safe. The book gives a wide range of possibilities for missing pieces, so 8.5±0.5

4.0/4.5. I have a couple of 4.5s that are similar in types/volume of defects.

I'm a little curious how much of the waviness is moisture damage. There's clearly a good sized water stain by Torch. I'd be curious what the insides look like b/c it could easily drag the book down if there's internal staining/moisture damage/compromised pages. 2.0±0.5

I'm at a pressed 5.0. The creasing around Reed & the tear around the Thing's foot along with the issues on the back (some tanning here) make it hard for me to see this outside of grades with a VG attached. Love it though. One of a few Thing vs. Hulk books I've never gotten my hands on.

The CGC Guide sets the range for an otherwise perfect book with a sub crease between 4.5–7.0. That sub crease looks to be from the severe end of the range, so starting at 4.5, deduct for anything else. It looks pretty solid otherwise, so I'd stay at 4.5.

I agree 6.0 is the ceiling based on the apparent tanning. Pressing to take out some of the dents is necessary to maximize the grade

8.0

I see some minor scuffing in the black along the spine possibly. The black background is unforgiving in this way. I also see a light vertical line next to the spine. I just got a book back with something similar at 9.4, so that's where I land.

Like seriously, who kept their comics pristine in 1968? I'm assuming mostly people that grew up to be serial killers or sociopaths

Pretty heavy creasing, some ink lift and the back cover shows evidence of tanning 4.0±0.5

It appears there are 3 or so small tears along the top edge, maybe the start of a reader's crease on the spine & I can see the staples pushing up with a little color rub that is typical for the square bounds. The biggest issue is the color rub/ink lift in various places along the right side of the cover. Unless that's somehow deemed to all be printing related, which I doubt, I think this volume of ink-related defects will drop things down to 5.5/6.0

Some spine stress lines that come close to breaking color, a corner bend on the BLBC that looks like it might be through the front cover, a spine roll or another indention along the back spine, a bit of soiling on the top & bottom edges of the back cover (possibly cleanable). Other than that, it looks like there might be a small tear below the L of JACKAL on the bottom edge.7ish as is. An effective c/p might get this to 8.0/8.5