scburdet

Found another one. Wish I could remember if it was disclosed as a MJs when I bought it since it I didn't record it as such in my app. A semi-key with the 1st app of Razor-Fist, who just screams the 1970s

Alternating between nice looking silver age semi-keys and some bronze age books I'm less happy with. I had this one with the Ghost Rider 1 in the pile of shame, but I pulled it out for a 2nd look. Maybe I'm weighing the spine the stress marks too heavily. What say you?

Let me throw my 2¢ that no one asked for and probably isn't worth 3¢, even with inflation. I also sent a book CC signing, X-Men 94. I posted about this in the grading issues forum. It had some color touch on the cover, which I knew about when purchasing (why it sold for a price I could live with), but the seller missed a clipping of an ad inside the book that didn't impact the story (how I got a partial refund that came close to covering the SS/grading cost). CGC caught the color touch, but either missed the clipping or didn't put it in the graders' notes (https://www.cgccomics.com/certlookup/4030430001/). Feel free to reject any or all of my hypotheses. Graders are human and as susceptible to mistakes as the next person. As perfect as I am (), I occasionally make mistakes in my work and catch them later. That's not an excuse, but there's inevitably going to be a rate of failure >0 at CGC. I think it's possible that once a significant defect is found—color touch or back cover tear—there may be a tendency to jump to a grade. Your book front could have been a >9.0 on first look and a tear automatically drops it to 8.0. There isn't as much incentive to scour the rest of the book so something like a page tear or clipping could be missed. It's also possible that a single tear that goes through multiple pages could be considered collectively and viewed less harshly. I do think the default should be for more graders' notes, but I'm sure that has something to do with volume of work. It could also represent a disagreement in different grader's assessments (i.e. only consensus defects go into notes). I can't see how a tear could be ambiguous, but on the other hand it's visible in the holder unlike an internal defect or maybe light creasing. My understanding is that the SS process is completely separate from the regular grading, so when people are generalizing about grading, they're potentially talking about two separate business units with different staff, etc. An outside hypothesis would be some sort of leniency for MJs copies. I see the belief that there are different standards for some kinds of books, so it's not too outrageous to think something that came from a newsstand on or near an army base could be treated differently than a direct edition of a book (although XM101 are all UPCs). My XM101 (not a MJs) came back from CC as a 9.0, so I don't want to throw too much shade on their grading.

You did well with the post. Welcome to the loony bin. From the front you have something that is near 9.0. The outer corners are blunted so that would keep it on the lower end of high grades. You are correct that the back is going to be the issue. I'm interested to hear other opinions b/c I have several SM books (not post yet) that look pretty great from the front and have some rear cover stress marks that are moderate in number and degree. That includes my entire run of McFarlane issues that I also bought online, but since it was >20 years ago I've long since forgotten if it was disclosed. Kind of typical for some sellers to sweep easily hidden defects under the rug. I think the rear cover damage here knocks you down to an 8.0, hopefully not worse. It would be less bad if the ad wasn't a dark color. I would call this a good example of "buy the book not the grade". Slabbed or not, this would look great in a collection and most of us spend less than a microsecond looking at Atari 2600 ads from the 80s that make a game look a lot more fun than it actually was.

8.5±0.5. The stress marks on the spine and there are tiny defects around the top corners will be the tipping points. I think these will be treated less harshly b/c the book is almost 55 years old. I have one, great colors but it has a 1/2-3/4" tear in the cover, so this one wins by a mile. Great looking and one of the better covers in the late silver age Hulks.

There's always been a bit of nostalgia with Abomination b/c we had the Power Records book/45 vinyl that was a reprint of Hulk 171. Nice book. Has a date stamp in the "H". Little bit of internal page overhang or whatever you call the pages not being stacked perfectly

I've got plenty more

Kind of like my Luke Cage 1, I pulled this off of the pile of shame for a 2nd look. It also seems like the prices have spiked since the last time I checked in. I've tentatively identified the yellow on the top left corner as overspray, but would not assert that with a ton of confidence. I suppose it could have been next to a book with yellow ink, it just doesn't look like color transfer to me based on location, etc. The defect that really was bugging me is the split in the spine. I tried to show that without exacerbating the problem. It's small, stopping just above the price box. It does not seem like there is reason to believe the spine would more readily split below that more so than any book this old. The rest of the defects are pretty standard fare.

Thanks all. I really appreciate the feedback on this one. I had to reassess my priors on this one after hanging out here for the last few weeks. I had initially relegated to the pile of disappointments despite really liking the book.

My (limited) experience is that the shipping out of Sarasota is managed by these guys. Takes like 3-5 days to start heading out of Florida. I've been looking at a book sitting in GEI for over a week now. First time something turned over to that status and didn't get pushed forward within 48 h. Not sure if that's typical or if the postal people have taken those open jobs at CGC.

4.5±0.5

Yes. Apologies. I meant to mention that this looked like overspray to me.

Book that got bumped for a Strange Tales post. My Spider-Man collection is pretty lacking due to poor decision making over 30 years. This is the oldest.

Wait for a 2nd opinion, but you might only get a 0.5 bump up. As has been discussed with several issues, once you get an accumulation of other defects a detachment doesn't detract as much.

2.5±0.5. IDK about the staple placement vs. detachment. Seems like the manufacturing standards were not the greatest or consistent in those days, and kids beat the books up too. Hard to parse the reasons for structural integrity.

9.0-9.2. Top corners look a little blunted. Top edge appears to have something that looks a little white. Hard to do much better with the ≥9 books based on photos since so many little defects don't show up very well.

4.0. Every time I want to bump it up, I find another little defect that keeps it there. I'm always a little shocked by how "affordable" some of these old books are. They all should get a few hundred dollar bump for just making it 60 years. I'm pro-encapsulation to protect these old books. Based on a few ebay sells, you might get it done economy tier, which isn't a huge investment.

+1

b/c of the large-ish missing piece, you probably can't do better than 2.0/2.5. Use ebay to search for sold books in the same, or close to, the grade. That's the best way to set an expected price since the market can be volatile

TIL you the word ldlot is automatically changed to "insufficiently_thoughtful_person" on this board even if you're referring to yourself

As I was commenting on @Bayowolf's ST141, I just love these Silver Age Strange Tales covers. Double if they're by Steranko. I have a 159 too that I sent to a Steranko signing, but like an ldlot, I didn't take pre-photos suitable for posting (it's still sitting at CGC). This was a recent pickup that I am rather pleased with.

4.0±0.5. I've been looking for a nice copy of this one. Mostly found a vicious combo of beat up copies and/or prices above market. I was getting ready to post a silver age ASM tonight, but now I guess I have to throw up my favorite silver age ST from my meager collection (7 SA books). TBF, I was on the fence between the ST and the ASM b/c I like the ST covers so much, even if the ASM my be "more valuable"

No one has bit yet on my Avengers 47, so trying something from a different era and adding a question. Considering some of the other books I bought during the era, the Star Wars run has a lot of really nice books. Way better than anything I bought as a complete set (see Joe, G.I.). Newsstand for those who care about that. This one wasn't really on my radar until I saw what some copies were selling for recently. I'm as big a Star Wars fan as the next child of the 80s and I get that this is the "1st appearance" of Boba Fett & he's on the cover, but he's literally in two panels on one page. From a comic perspective, I'd take the issue 68 I posted a while back over this one any day. This ordinarily wouldn't be the kind of book I'd seek feedback on b/c it's at the limit of grading by photo, but I wonder if this book is overvalued right now b/c of the Mandalorian, etc.

9.4 give or take. very had to get more accurate with NM books with just photos. I recommend pressing anyway just to maximize grade with superficial finger bends or whatever a grader will zero in on.

The CGC grader notes (I think these are now free, so you could find some graded books on ebay or something and try a couple Cert #s to see various reports. Here's one of mine: 3090454725 that is a crease that doesn't break color. Here's another: 4001282001, also not color breaking but creases. Both of these books look very nice. So, there are creases that are noticeable, but don't have the hard white crease where the ink is gone. I can't think of any Cert #s in my books (yet) that have color breaking creases listed. Spine stress that breaks color yes, creases not yet (I'm pretty sure they'll be one soon). Color breaking creases are going to be dealt with more harshly than non-color breaking ones. I think people list what they see and focus on the most impactful flaws. And don't forget finger bends, which, IDK, are listed on the first report I provided but I can see anything. The book literally was never handled outside of the polybag until I sent it to CGC.