Poekaymon

Been told reslabbing doesn't mean regrading unless the slab is damaged.

Correct.

Just seemed more fun than anything else. It's both comforting and sad to know that there aren't that many people interested in doing it. More sad, I guess.

Legit question here as I only just started, and I cut out the middle man and only buy CGC 9.8s. (For reading I get the omnibuses and whatnot.) But the notion of hitting the streets and scouring for 9.8-quality raws is interesting. As a practical matter, it's hard to imagine, however, how that can possibly work considering how many people are no doubt trying to do the same. So your local store opens up and a line of people just bumrush stacks and start tearing them apart looking for the 9.8+s while manhandling the 9.4-s? Seems kind of lawless. Unless there really aren't that many serious collectors going to these stores, but I'm not sure who else would be keeping those stores in business. Seems like casuals, like me, would just hit the omnibuses or w/e on Amazon or the like.

Should have said, they were CGC 9.8's. Hence why I felt they were really comparable.

Hard to believe "auction fever" could take hold for this sort of thing. I would expect comic collectors to be more... logical. So shilling seems more likely to me. This might be conspiracy theorist, but could it be advanced shilling like part of some sort of artificial pricing scheme? Like someone (494 BIN man) has a few they want to unload so they bid up the auction one? Is this actually a thing? Kind of calls into question what I take is the general practice of using ending auction prices as values. Seems highly likely that some or all of them are inflated for either of the reasons, or both, that you mentioned.

I realize this may be a "why is the sky blue" or "what lurks in the hearts of men" type question, but I am genuinely wondering if I am missing something here. I've been told by older collectors to avoid these high ratio variant covers, but I just can't help myself. We can save a debate on whether this is wise for later. (Actually, if you have a strong opinion I still wouldn't mind hearing it.) In any case, tonight I found myself bidding on a Return of Wolverine #2 1:1000. I don't know the policy on posting ebay links here, so for now I won't. (But you can certainly find them easy enough, the 610 version just ended a few minutes ago and the 494 BIN is still up.) Anyway, I bid on it a bit and in the last hour it went up precipitously. I bowed out at around $500 and it kept climbing and went on to close at $610. The thing is: before, during, and after the auction, there was an identical copy up, from a very reputable looking seller, with a $494 buy it now. No less than 5 different bidders bid higher than that on this auction version, including 3 different people bidding $600. And now that that auction has concluded, the $494 buy it now version is still up. W-T-F? What am I missing? Actually perplexed.

Will steer clear of fluorescents then.

Thread doesn't really make clear, to me, that it's talking about the slabs. But I see one response talking about how hard the post April 2016 slabs are to open, so that works for me. Thanks,

Sorry if I am being obtuse. I understand that an extra thick or skinny book will receive a different thickness case. What I am trying to figure out is when the latest "generation" (to use your term) of case began. My feeling is that if this comic which was slabbed in 2014 with the super thin, flimsy case is resubmitted, it will come back with a thicker case, not because the comic itself is thicker, but simply because the new generation is thicker. (Otherwise I have no reason to send it in.) The main thing I don't like about the older case (if, in fact, they no longer use it) is that you can bend it and open the sides. I just want to confirm when the "closed sides' generation began.

Thanks, that's a nice resource for the label. I was a bit more concerned about the slab though and when they switched to the thicker one. Would it have been the same time as the most recent label change, in April 2016?

Does anyone know exactly when CGC switched to the new slabs? I have picked up roughly 20 CGC slabs since I started, and they all had the newer, thicker slab. Then I received one yesterday and when I unpacked it, it had a really flimsy slab that I could wedge open in the middle with my fingernails, and the label was falling off. I thought for sure it was some kind of fake. Then I went on the CGC lookup and it said number not found. I was completely convinced at that point that I got cheated. Turns out, the CGC lookup was just down yesterday, and when I finally did get the number to go through, I saw that it was a 2014 grade. I went through my others with the thicker slab, and every single one of them was 2017 or later. So seems to me sometime between 2014 and 2017 they changed to the much nicer (in my opinion) slab and label. I'd like to know when that was so I can avoid anything before that date, or at least figure that I'll have to send it back in. Thanks! And just as a history lesson, I'm curious about other iterations of the slab/label if any historians know. I read that in the first couple of years there was a completely different label. Any other changes over the years? Thanks!

Thanks for the posts, everyone. I found a really good post on here about packing, so I shouldn't have even asked that question. In response to two people: I can't seem to get a good pic of the scuffing, but I'll just reholder it as suggested by others here. I thought they might regrade, but if they won't, then I'm golden. Thanks! Back to the lighting though (sorry!), I'm still a bit confused as we seem to have disagreement even within this thread. (Consistent with the other posts I found.) I understand that florescent and sunlight will fade comics, as in that example above. I presume they had heavy, all-day florescents and windows as well. I consider it beyond debate that such an environment will fade books. What if you take that same collection, however, and put it in a room with minimal LED lighting, which is only on a few hours a day, in a room with absolutely no windows? That's more of the question I am trying to answer.

New collector and first time poster. I did do some searching on these topics. I'm sure most or all of this is repeats for you veterans anyway. If it's any consolation, I am active on other forums where people post the same stuff every day and I (usually) help, so karma, and such, right? 1. I've read just about every post there is to read on the whole "displaying your comics vs. scanning the front and hanging that instead" debate. I sort of wish I had read those posts first because I recently picked up a bunch of variant virgin covers with the intention of displaying them on the wall. I figured that since I hang art I could do the same with comic books using UV glass. But according to many posters, art isn't on paper, which is a big difference, so now everyone has me paranoid. I understand that sunlight is bad. And UV light is bad. And some have gone so far as to say that any light whatsoever is bad. I'm just not clear on how bad is bad--I mean are we talking a few percent degradation over 100 years kind of bad or highly noticeable within a decade bad? I can live with the former.) Either way, I was planning on wall-mounting them in a home theater room with total light control. (Zero sunlight, direct or indirect, and whatever lighting I want.) So I figured I'd do LED lights with minimal/or no UV and/or use some UV blocking material as well. (Subquestion: Is there any point adding UV blocking material to the frames if you're already using only LEDs in a no-sunlight room? Seems like no, but I've been wrong before.) Anyway, say that I am mostly displaying early moderns in such a room, with no sunlight whatsoever, and LED lighting on 4-6 hours a day. Any guesses on whether that still going to do noticeable harm in the next, uh, 20 years? 2. I've mostly been buying from Ebay and I think it's been okay. (I only do CGC 9.8s.) I heard that more "serious" types like the auctions at Comiclink. But when I looked for stuff on that site, almost everything up on there already had bids exceeding BINs currently up on Ebay, and with time left on the Comiclink auctions. Is that normal? Talking at least a 10-20% markup even with 3 days left on the stuff I was interested in. The Ebay copies look fine to me, and so do the sellers, but maybe I'm missing something. I can't figure out why someone would pay, for example, $650 or more for something with multiple copies up right now on Ebay with $550 BINs. 3. One CGC 9.8 I bought recently has pretty noticeable scuffing on the slab. And as I wanted to display them, I'm completely willing to pay for a new slab. It (early modern) was graded roughly a year ago. How concerned do I need to be about getting downgraded as part of the reslab? As far as I can tell, it doesn't seem to have sustained any internal damage, but what do I know. Is there anything I can do to protect myself? Like can I ask them to cancel the order if they think they are going to downgrade it after cracking it open or is that not possible? Would really hate to drop down from 9.8 just because I wanted to make the slab look nicer. I understand it's always a risk, but, again, are we talking 1 in 100 or 1 in 10 type risk? 4. Relatedly, I have a single CBCS 9.8 modern. Only because I'm OCD I'm tempted to send it in to get a CGS label. Am I at substantial risk of a downgrade? (I understand these questions aren't really knowable, just soliciting opinions.) I can live with a small chance, but I'm not clear on the consistency between the companies. 5. I have a few raw moderns that I was going to send in as well. Is there any reason _not_ to request pressing screening? I really don't think it will help, but I'm happy to pay a little extra to give them the best chance of 9.8. (Or is pressing more for lower grades anyway?) 6. What's the best way to send raws? I've only ordered slabbed comics, but it seems to me almost any way I pack it myself runs substantial risk of damage in transport. Are there blank slabs or something that one can get just for this purpose? Thanks a lot. Edit: Guess this should have been in the newbie forum. Please move if so.