scburdet

5.0±0.5

You might be underselling a little. Obviously, there are a lot of stress marks, a few scuffs and some edge wear. But from what I can see, there are no tears (and assume there are no problems with internal pages). The staple detachment (as discussed for several books lately), probably isn't a big penalty at the low grades. The staining is going to be the deciding factor on where this lands in the G/VG range. I might start at a 2.5 and a good C&P *might* improve the appearance enough to guarantee the 2.5 or stretch to a 3.0. Now, is the expense of a C&P & grading a worthwhile investment? There's a CGC 4.0 for sale on ebay right now for $165. The raw price for this book in this condition is probably <$50 and if CGC C&P'd & graded it would cost you $60 just for the service, so I would expect no better than breaking even if you sold it since you would get some bump in price for being slabbed.

I wonder what % of books from this ear have these kinds of defects. Several of my otherwise nice book from this ear have cover issues like this that seem directly related to the cover hanging over the internal pages. Kind of like the staples on the square bounds, there's very little hope of avoiding some wear, it's just a matter of how much.

I suppose the Morbius bubble has popped, but I was a fan before as evidenced by already owning every comic appearance (i.e. excluding magazines) up to 1984. I did not know this, but I checked for my amusement and realized there was some completeness. I now blame Jared Leto for not being able to retire a couple decades early.

I was wavering between 4.5-5.0 and then I scrolled past everyone's posts and I don't feel it's an original idea anymore.

Consensus. Can't get to 2.0 with big chunks missing and other wear like this imo

1.8

2.0 b/c it looks like a lot of pages are damaged behind that back cover.

I'll go 8.5 b/c of the discoloration and maybe you'll get lucky and get to the 9.0

I'm not expecting mine to come back at a 9.8, I won't complain if it does. I've said it before, but the paying a premium for 9.8s seems crazy to me when the same book could come back with a 9.6 depending on the how well the grader slept the night before. It's not quite buying it cover price b/c I took a break from buying Star Wars comics for most of the Dark Horse era, but I snagged a copy for $60 in late 2019 or early 2020. I remember balking at buying the variant cover, which was a few hundred dollars raw. That does not seem to have been justified hesitation. For today's prices, I'd rather get a mid-grade GS X-Men My C&P guy was envious of my copy b/c he sacrificed a lot of his PC to create inventory to open his comic store and accidentally put his Clone Wars 1 in the back issue bins. He's apparently been looking for an affordable copy since. I suppose if mine gets "lost" at CGC I will know who to suspect

9.2±0.2

I've had pretty good luck with my guy. The first batch were in a 6 week backlog, but he turned over the next batch quickly having caught up https://tosscomics.com/ is a bit of a hike from Queens, but he might take a reasonable amount of work by mail. Just as long as you don't create a backlog that slows my C&P down! He hasn't taken on a really tough case yet IMO, but he did get an extra 1.0 over what I was expecting on my Hulk181 and ASM129, so I can't complain.

Yeah @Galen130 there's a lesser, but noticeable discoloration on the inner pages unfortunately. @BSC249 I watched that exact video a week or 2 ago. I'm a chemist by training and did my fair share of work with hazardous, volatile and otherwise sensitive stuff in my days before becoming mostly a desk jockey and IDK if I'm brave enough to start squirting DI water on my comics. I haven't watch the whole series, but I assume you have to do a pressing at some point to get the covers back to flat.

Since the issue of stapling has been running rampant here lately, I contribute the following ToS 77. You only have yourselves to blame for this one. This one is fairly typical of most books I've posted from this era, so I have a pretty good idea where the grade would be minus the stapling. Important to know this is not completely detached, just torn at the back and rough around the area generally. I tried to photograph it was well as I could, but I don't want to mess around with it too much and completely separate it. Other than that, I would like to question the placement of the date stamp. Was some store owner in 1966 trying to be a wise guy? Pretty attractive book otherwise.

I hope so, but I'll take a 0.5 hit on this one if I can use it to guarantee my Clone Wars 1 comes back at a 9.8 @AhsokaTano Jedi Apprentice

It should not take a year. A 3.0-3.5 is probably in the express tier (turnaround 2 weeks) or standard (turnaround 31 days) after the ~3 week wait for them to open shipments. Return shipping by FedEx fully insured is $20 now, so whatever rate to get to Sarasota, say $25-50 by USPS depending on the amount of insurance. Alternatively, you can find an authorized dealer. The one I used does my C&P (faster than CCS) and does not charge for shipping to CGC. IDK if this is typical, but I get an express tier book C&P & graded for $10 less than if CGC did it all, and I don't pay a shipping fee. $230 for all plus shipping if you send it on your own express ($150 for standard). Alternatively, with this book you could get this C&P'd and graded on the "cheap" by sending it off to the Roy Thomas (the book editor and co-creator of GR) signing before the 7/22 deadline. That will be $90 signing/grading, $20 pressing plus shipping, so roughly half the normal grading fee. It will take longer since the signing probably isn't actually until Sept, but still not a year wait. Should only be 6-8 weeks after the signing is done, so my bet would be in time for Christmas if not Thanksgiving.

I might lower my prediction to the lower end of the range (4.0) b/c that missing piece on the spine and the stain. +1 on @grendelbo on grading. My current assumption is that some day (hopefully many years from now) someone will have to assume responsibility for my collection and grading the important books will make that easier. I like the look of a slab and I can't keep up with reading all the new books I have so most of the back issues stay in the boxes anyway. At least these days, it's nice that there are electronic versions of everything out there if you want to virtually thumb through an issue, which isn't as satisfactory an experience from all the senses but you can still enjoy it on some level. I'm working through grading the most important books and MS5 was one of the first ones I sent in for grading

Thanks. I might do it at least for the history/novelty. I balked a little when I found the stain, which I didn't really notice until I was examining the photos. I guess my old eyes need enlarged photos to see this stuff now. I found a rather obvious crease on the back cover of an X-Men 96 (otherwise as sharp a comic from that era as I have) that I missed on visual inspect until I spotted it in the photo and went back and looked again

I don't have any detached staple books currently graded, but a top staple detachment sitting in Sarasota. From the feedback here and additional research, if the book is in high grade you can get a qualified label high grade w/note that the cover is detached. With a low grade book, you can get a universal label where the detachment is lumped in with the accumulation of major/minor defects leading to an overall grade. This book is in the latter category IMO, so a 3.0±0.5 Universal. If you go onto ebay and search "cgc detached" you can see examples of both types of detachment in listings and recent sales. Some books even with >9.0 Q with detachments. Currently, the highest graded is 5.5 Q of a Golden Age book. More than a few Universals from the silver/bronze/copper with <5.0.

I was poking around for Romita Jr. books for the recently announced signing and somehow I came across the creator credit for a 13-year-old JRJR. It seems like it was the name, not the character design, but it does appear to be the first time he "worked" for Marvel. Some obvious condition issues on the top left of the cover and a water stain on the corners. Would it be gimmicky to get a JRJR signature on this book? I can't imagine that someone hasn't thought of this before, but I haven't found an example yet.

4.5--yes

I see ~3 tiny stress marks and perhaps the corners aren't perfect. I am at 9.4±0.2 and I'd be more surprised by a 9.2 than a 9.6. Nice book

Hello again. Not the best copy of this book most notably b/c of the edge wear on the right center (no tears), but pretty attractive copy anyway.

I guess it depends what part of NM you were in, but I will take the Pepsi challenge with you and @BSC249 any day of the week on scarcity. I'm fairly certain I bought every worthwhile back issue at the 2 comic shops in Charleston, WV (the closest city to me) in the late 80s & early 90s. One was a fairly new business w/o much inventory (also a doll shop) and the other was a 2ndary location for a store in Huntington, which was well outside a teenager's authorized driving distance. Both still exist, although the latter is only the main store now. Even though some of these books are not, and were never, the best grade, it meant having access to the stories & art. The low grade Marvel Spotlight 5 I posted a while back came from that 2nd store. Still have it and in some ways has more meaning than the upgrade. Even a book with dings reads pretty well.

Haven't seen many Golden Age books here since I discovered this forum. Always neat to see something new. I'm going to say 4.5±1.0 but I am really uncertain about the standards at CGC for GA books (hence the wide range). The binding/spine looks a little rough but what's the best case scenario for that kind of stapling? Interested to know what other people say.