scburdet

my read of those notes is that 2 stains & color breaking spine wear are going to limit the ceiling regardless. When we see the reverse, the back creases can be assessed. The one thing I see is the notation of the date marking. IDK what the standards were in 2002, but these distribution/store marks might be treated less harshly now. I don't think it buys a lot, but maybe 1 grade if the current standards are more lenient?

5.5/6.0. I've got one of these that's a couple of grades lower. It's a great book.

5.0±0.5. Looks nicer than a 4.5 (different book) I own, so I'd come in higher. Looks like it could use a press for those indentions

1.0. Anything with that many of a corners off would have to be in the 1s, and that's a big chunk to boot, so the low end. Pretty nice otherwise.

7.5/8.0. Maybe 9.0 pressed.

I've got a few books with that kind of color rub on a black back cover ad. I've seen inconsistency in how it's treated (some high like this, other times more like the 9.0 we guessed), so I've been hesitant to throw mine at some of the signing & grading. Glad yours landed on the good side. Looks great.

A few little scuffs around the spine on the back, which is a hard back cover to keep nice. A little white streak in one of the 0s on the bottom right. Not sure what that is. I think 9.2/9.4

Very nice for +60 years old. I think C/P can get this to 7.0/7.5. The little spine split with the rest of the little defects might be enough to dip under 7.0, but I think this has the appeal of something in the lower end of VF grades.

I think it's too worn for a press to really have much benefit, and the magazine stuff at CGC makes glacial seem like a generous description of speed. Probably a year to 18 months for press & grade.

FYI, there is an entire forum that's monitored by CGC to post questions/issues rather than filling this one up with things other than sharing sketched books https://boards.cgccomics.com/forum/23-ask-cgc/

9.2/9.4

9.2/9.4 Staples look a little recessed. Maybe due to the miswrap?

Just got this one in. I want to verify that the grade is in the ballpark of the advertisement since it's a little more of an investment than usual. Also, I just like looking at the cover. Ignore the shadow in the left side close-ups. I didn't notice the bad photography until I cropped the photos.

very nice results on the press. How long was this actually at CGC in the +1 year since you posted?

Production issue I believe. Kind of similar to the cover overhang in a lot of silver/bronze era books. I don't notice any significant issues here >9.2

I really appreciated how he swapped colors for the different books. I can't tell if the Black Panther red is the same as the ASM red. In hand they look slightly different, but it could just be the background creating an illusion. Regardless, better than having a stack of books all signed in black!

From Oct 2022

I'm going to say 9.2 b/c of the little chip out of the back cover and the soiling on the back. Also looks like a slightly blunted outer corner. Cleaning might make the back look better.

gonna say 2.5. IDK how many of these we got, but my younger brother had a subscription for quite a while. They're probably pretty beat up if we still have them somewhere. Got a lot of use trying to beat those old original Nintendo games.

I have a desktop folder semi-full of comic photographs taken in my early days of boarding here. I'm going to work through them periodically to clear some space. Grabbed this one a while back to replace another copy that the previous owner "inked" some of the cover & internal art with a ballpoint pen. Not perfect, especially the top edge, but also no big defects. I kind of aspire to get a Conway signature on someday, which would doom the grade based on my experience with his last signing event I sent books to 🙄

8ish for the kind of color loss along the spine seems right to me. I'd hesitate to send CGC a modern like this b/c they could really hammer it compared to something from an earlier age where production wasn't as consistently good and books got handled more harshly.

The upper right corner on the front, is that so color loss or glare on a light bend. It's the one corner without a close-up and kind of important given what it looks like in the full cover shot.

There are some indentions on that back especially that would likely press out. I'd set an upper limit of 6.0 based on the creases, but my quick survey of listings shows that 6.0s of this book typically don't have this level of creasing, so I'm more like 5.0/5.5

Need the back cover too, especially given the "heavy" creasing on that corner. I use the scare quotes b/c the black cover really makes these stand out and might not be as pronounced if it was on a different color background.

I think 3-4 is about the right range. I'm going to say 4.0, especially since there seems to be evidence that early ASMs can get a little bit of a bump. I wouldn't storm the CGC complex in Sarasota if you got a 4.5 post-C/P. There is some risk with the pressing if that staple is barely hanging on. Get someone that knows what they're doing obviously. It might be a case where the potential improvement is marginal and worth skipping to avoid additional damage.