scburdet

I'm going to check with my guy. Both the graded copies I have are 9.2s and were graded during the first year of CGC's existence. There are no graders' notes and my gut says these were graded before pressing was common. One of them is miscut, so I don't see it getting a better grade. The other.....maybe. I'm hesitant to crack a book that's been encased for over 20 years though. I have nightmares about the ink sticking to the plastic or something. Anyway, I'd love to take one of these copies and see it grade at a 9.4 (or better) and find a new home for the 9.2s. I definitely don't need 5 copies of this book (the 5th is like a 7.5/8.0 and not worth mucking about with), and I'd rather not just buy another graded copy

It definitely has color bars (both these copies do) at the top throughout the inner pages. Is that the same as the black boxes on at the bottom of the back cover which only appear on the cover?

The C&P might help the appearance (I am for this if you are grading), but the preponderance of the defects look like things pressing won't help. Color breaking spine ticks, tears and so forth. I can't tell if you have rust transfer on the interior pages from the staples or just shadows. I am going to say 5.0±0.5. Other than the tanning, the tear on the back cover is going to keep you lower than what the book might look like. I love this book though as I probably expressed when I posted mine here.

Looks to me like you might have a small tear or something along the bottom edge in the center and it goes at least into the title page. Standard C&P recommendation, with those 3 tears/chips, I have this at a 7.0±0.5. Very sharp looking and it's just a matter of whether those 3 defects are deemed minor or moderate. My 2¢ is that you could get this through express. My understanding is that if they deem a book to been in too low a tier, they'll bump the fee up anyway. I've never had a walkthrough book (I'm not 100% sure how they calculate FMV b/c my some of my express books price out above $3K in comparable sales). The listed price of 3% of FMV with $150 minimum means you need the FMV to be $5K or over to reach $150. I'm positive this one isn't a >9.0, so your grading fee is either $130 or $150. The turnaround time is 3 days vs. 5. I'd try express and at worst, you have to give them $20, but miss out on getting it back 2 days sooner than if you'd paid the full amount up front. $20 is $20. If you use CCS pressing, the turnaround is the same, but you would save $50 by being in express not walkthrough, which would be the best reason to pick one over the other.

quite a bit of edge and spine wear. Is there a chip in the top left (spine) corner or some kind of discoloration? I can't tell. It's impressive that this cover has a lot of white and it's still pretty clean. That's a plus. I think you're looking at a 5.5±0.5.. I have a little trouble seeing a 6.0 as a possibility, but the book is over 60 years old so there might be a little bump b/c the overall appearance is quite good.

It's a little hard to see the details of the smudging. Is this like an ink smudge from a fingertip or some foreign substance? CGC hates stains and might penalize several grades depending on the size, number and severity. I think you'd be lucky to pull an 8.0 and it could be much lower. Since this books is still quite affordable compared to the cost of grading ($24 grading, $20 C&P & shipping both ways), I would be inclined to shop around for a better raw copy or buy graded if that's something you want in your collection. There are recent ebay sales for 9.4s in the $80 range and listings for ~9s around $100. With a little shopping around, I bet you could find/make a good deal for one.

7.5/8.0 seems about right to me as well. Corners are a bit rounded. There's the obvious most significant issue with the top left corner that will set the ceiling. There's something, perhaps a crease above the E in ...BLE. The spine along the back is a little soiled and might have some pressable issues. C&P to maximize potential.

Several tears along that back edge. The crease on the top right corner (oddly this looks like it stops in a strange spot), the wrinkles around the green burst. I'm a little curious about how tight that top staple is, it looks recessed. So, this depends on what is a small and a moderate defect and accumulation of such by CGC's standard, which are not entirely spelled out. I'll say 5.5±0.5 based on overall visual appeal. Nothing in that range would surprise me.

With pressing, going with 5.0/5.5 b/c of the crease on the reverse that breaks color and the inscription, which isn't a distributor marking (clearly). This would fall solidly in the looks better than the grade category. Pop's penmanship was not bad at all.

as someone with absolutely no experience, I'd say yes.

It's not overspray. That's why I think it's some printing defect b/c it's the same tone of blue that's elsewhere on the cover and I don't see evidence that it's color transfer from another book

The tanning is pretty significant if the images I found are accurate and then it depends on how harshly CGC treats a 70-year-old book with normal aging. It would be useful to check the staples for rust, and rust transfer on the inner pages since that's pretty common. The upper staple looks OK, but I can't see the bottom one. I don't have much experience setting a grade with tanning, but the overall appearance is in the 7.0±1.0 range. I would hesitate to give a more narrow assessment.

8.5±0.5 with C&P pending what the black marks are to the right of "CHILLERS"

Without boring everyone with the details, I ended up with several copies of this comic for reasons. This includes 2 graded copies from the first year of CGC's existence when I'm not sure anyone really knew what to expect with slabs. Anyway, I am trying to figure out what to do with the other copies, particularly if they're any better than the graded copies I already have. This one has some stray black ink on the top left corner that appears to be a printing defect. I have a 3rd raw copy of this book that was the first "big ticket" back issue I ever bought at my LCS in the early 90s. It's in the 7s, so no need to throw that one up too.

Without boring everyone with the details, I ended up with several copies of this comic for reasons. This includes 2 graded copies from the first year of CGC's existence when I'm not sure anyone really knew what to expect with slabs. Anyway, I am trying to figure out what to do with the other copies, particularly if they're any better than the graded copies I already have. This copy has some blue ink along the bottom edge that appears to be a printing defect not an ink transfer. The black at the bottom left edge is part of the printing along the bottom of the back cover. I look forward to someone telling me that those little black marks have a name that I've never heard before.

It looks to me like an oil transfer stain, something @zzutak recently educated me about. I will defer to those that have seen this in more than 1 comic to confirm this, but I don't think it's treated as harshly as a water stain. I'm going to say 7.5±0.5. I think this is a sharp looking copy and unless you paid a VF≤ price, you probably did OK.

IDK, maybe 0.5? I'm not experienced, but it seems like the curl would press out. I somewhat price in pressing when I give a range (which I didn't do this time).

7.5. I was headed higher until I got to the bottom edge and then I looked at a blowup, and there's enough wear all around the edge, I think you get nickel and dimed below 8.

7.5±0.5. If that's a light stain on the back cover, expect the lower end of that or a grade lower

4.5/5.0. Back cover needs pressing to max potential

Definitely have some of those (see my profile cover photo)

I promised (threatened?) to post some more Roy Thomas sword & sandal books that I might want to get signed the next time there's an opportunity. There was another copy of this book posted here a few weeks ago that reminded me it featured a Conan/Kull prototype. I guess this is a pretty important book given what Conan became in the 70s for Marvel. I looked around for better copies b/c of the tiny tear at the top of the front cover (above the B in CHAMBER), but I have only found listings for overpriced books no matter the grade. Anyhow, I am interested in what everyone thinks about the tear, especially since I have a graded magazine-sized comic as a frame of reference. The magazine tear is almost in the same spot (but it's a much larger small tear), and it also has some tearing at one staple.

Same as the other one, >9.2. I can't tell if it's the art or something else, but it looks like some unevenness to the left of Thor's cape. If it's not art, it does appear to be something that would press. Am I missing something on this series? The CA SoL are readily available in NM+ raw, so the $40 or so to C&P and grade seems steep unless you just love the book.

More of a commentary on MSHSW8 than refusal. I definitely had more high value books for him to choose from. Eventually, I'll probably get this one done (or signed w/C&P)

>9.2, no noticeable defects