Recently decided to start up a CGC collection after years away from the comic collecting hobby. I had switched to reading trade paperbacks In the late 90's and kind of just gave collecting "real" comics up when I made this switch. I jumped in head first and decided I was going to complete a high grade run of Uncanny X-Men. I recently bought some nice 9.8's to start my new collection.
The first book I got was a 9.8 copy of Mr. Sinisters 1st appearance, xmen 221. Signed by Claremont and Silvestri! I opened it up out of a very well packed priority mail box. And immediately my eye shoots to a tear on the corner of the book. I could not believe my eyes. Not a great introduction to graded comics. The tear is on the front cover, but every page from front to back is dinged and back cover has a smaller tear. as you can see from my second photo.
Am I wrong to want to send this back? Would this flaw fall under what is acceptable for a 9.8? (I can't believe it is, but I guess I should ask since this is my first graded book). The rest of the book does look flawless.
This was not evident from the photos on ebay, so I decided no biggie I will just send it back for a full refund.
The next day I got a copy of a not so spectacular book, issue 159, no first appearances or anything, just a solid 9.8 in the series I am trying to make a run of. This book I was happy to see no tears at least, but I could not believe far the corners of the cover were from the actual book. Then I got a few more books in the mail, and most seemed to have this "sagging" issue.
Now I am second guessing my decision to start collecting CGC books. I would be unhappy with any of these if I got them in a bag and board, way more so than a simple spine pressure crease. Is this just a flaw in CGC cases? Did all 5 of the highly rated sellers I bought from all store the comics improperly, they all certainly seemed like they were shipped exceedingly carefully? Is this just expected and accepted as standard damage that is done by having a comic in a slab??
Is the only safe way to get a graded comic to buy it in person then store it flat for eternity?
I really want to keep buying graded books, but wow this first week was just negative feeling after negative feeling
