scburdet

9.4 candidate

ceiling at 9.4 with color breaking ticks. Pressing does not fix any sort of color loss, only flattens out indentions & bends

there looks to be ink loss below the price box. 9.0. I believe it's much harder to get good pressing results with the card covers like this one. Also, it has the metallic finish, which I believe also limits what conditions it can be subjected to. I believe my dealer just sent my Venom LP1 as-is b/c the pressing would not do anything.

9.0 or better. You'd need a lot more detailed photos to figure out how high on the scale it would be

note this forum requests a limit of 3 books/day

By CGC standard this is a NG b/c they don't have cases that hold anything over magazine size. I'd say 9.0/9.2 just to account for the tanning

the cost of pressing (if you aren't doing it yourself) would almost certainly exceed the FMV

There's some kind of brown stuff on the back cover. Not sure what it is, I have at least one older book with it. I don't think it's foxing, but it doesn't matter much what it is. This would kill the grade. No better than 6.0.

The best thing to do is go to ebay, gocollect or similar and look at recent sales. The cheapest for just grading is $25 (i.e. shipping, C&P, etc. might add cost). After that the math is pretty easy. I'm not sure if square bound books have gripper holes, but that might be the source of the tear, which wouldn't hurt as much. You might eek out a 9.0/9.2 with cleaning if that's a gripper hole. More like an 8.0 if not. Best case scenario is $50 FMV graded. https://gocollect.com/app/comic/what-if-15

This has recently moved to my "I think CGC is especially hard on this book" list. Mine came back 8.0 & this one looks like the spine ticks break color (I don't see breaks on mine), so 7.5/8.0. If I'm wrong about CGC being hard, 8.0/8.5

6.0/6.5 if it was pressed

7.5/8.0 It looks pretty good except for the spine corners.

8.0. I think the stress lines are too long & numerous to get into NM

I think the color touch was on the label. My dealer says they have a reported up to a 2% failure rate. I assume this is a mixture of mislabeling, losing books, etc. The problem it seems to me is that problems in favor of the client, no one requests a fix. If the actual grading is questionable, there's no good process to appeal something that isn't completely obvious. Definitely not this book, but 4-5 out of the couple hundred I've gotten back are head scratchers.

Very close to the last one. Maybe a hair better. 8.0/8.5. The shadow with set the ceiling.

4.0/4.5 as-is. A good candidate for a boost with some TLC&P

Some kind of spine roll, a little ink loss on the TRFC, back bottom edge has a shadow, top edge seems like some light tanning. Overall quite sharp looking. I can see this at an 8.0 or better if a press can square it up a bit and remove the roll.

From my ongoing debate over whether a book like this is hard to find b/c there aren't many out there, or b/c people think there's insufficient demand to try & sell them There are low grade copies, but this was the best I found. Notable for being Roy Thomas's first* professional work, but oddly no sig series on the census. One obvious defect is the creasing around the N of SON & the paper is tanning, most noticeably on the inside of the front cover. All the copies of this book I've seen appear to have these offset staples. *Clearly RT's first work in comics was in his Alter Ego fanzines or some other pre-professional creative endeavor. Professionally, it looks like Modeling with Millie 44 is either tied with or was published earlier. MwM44 does not have creator credits listed and reportedly released before the cover date. SoV50 has signed credits & a cover date, but no records of a release date. You'd think history from 50-60 years ago would be easier to study than those of ancient cultures, but here we are. CGC labels say SoV is the first published RT story & MwM is RT's first work for Marvel

I did not have it as a 5.5 either. It did press nicely & has great color all things considered. I think it was graded by an equally big Creature from the Black Lagoon fan. Or it got an early Dell bump.

3.0/3.5 I lowered my grade b/c I missed the big tear on the back the first time. Pressing won't do much if anything b/c the creases all break color. You could make things worse if it's delicate. Some of the grime could be cleaned off, but there's also what looks like staining, which is there to stay. I'd be a little concerned about damaging the book further with cleaning as well. For the right price, I can see this as a good way to fill a whole in a run. I'm guessing you wouldn't add much value no matter how much someone worked on it.

While my recently returned copy was in Sarasota, this copy came up for auction. Since copy 1 had some kid's name written on it, I hedged a bit and put in a soft bid on this one thinking someone would come over the top. No one did. In addition to no writing on the cover, there are things to like about this copy compared to the old one, but the page color might not be one of them. I see two defects that may not be visible or easy to see in photos. There's a short readers crease in the white area on the back spine. There's also what looks to be a vein or very light printers crease diagonally in the green left/above "CR"EATURE. I don't see color break, but it does have some texture. Same grade as last time? Higher? Lower? Curious what people think. Reference:

The area around the top staple looks a little suspect. The back spine looks bendy in spots. Maybe pressed it would be around 9.0. I'd keep looking if the goal is to get a guaranteed 9.2 or better

4.5

4.0/4.5, leaning lowert

4.5