Qalyar

This one is an inherent problem in the way CGC labels these sorts of books, because they make the "Label Text" field do way too much heavy lifting with "REPRINT"; ideally, books such as this should be more clearly identified in via their title and publication date. That's only a real problem when you have a book that needs something else in the "Label Text" field -- here, signature series information. This isn't a grader or QA failure per se, it's more of a problem with the software that drives label printing. Which isn't to say it's not a problem... None of which, however, remotely excuses the UF4 reprints. I thought, well, maybe they're just mislabeled because the stupid specialty labels screw up things on the regular. But, no. Label lookup shows these as real UF4s. This is 100% a failure of the grading team. Do I suspect the submitter submitted them as UF4 and not the reprint? Of course. But that shouldn't matter. CGC has not been doing super well, especially lately, at checking books -- perhaps especially moderns -- for variant printings. I suspect there's sort of a culture of "well, all these moderns are just what they appear to be". Maybe look up who did the cover art if they have to assign a CGC-official name to a new variant. But otherwise, I feel like they're taking moderns at face value. Unfortunately, sometimes, the books are trying to fool you, and very few try to trick you quite as hard as this one. Still, that's literally the CGC graders' job. It's also CGC QA's job, but... well...

Stains hammer grades, and CGC has been increasingly strict about them. From the standpoint of a purely technical grade, stain intensity matters some, and the total area of the stain matters a lot. Big stains end dreams. Penetration is a big factor, too; a surface stain is bad, but a stain that penetrates to the interior cover or subsequent pages is much worse. Also, since many stains began their life as liquids, it's important to evaluate the book for whether the stained area also demonstrates signs of moisture damage. From an aesthetics standpoint, location and visibility matter a lot too, even if those aren't reflected in the number at the top of a slab.

Shipping and logistics, easily. The problem CGC is having isn't necessarily that they aren't paying their employees enough to care. The honest truth is that you can't pay people to care. The problem is that there is -- apparently -- no internal auditing system that identifies errors and damages and attributes them to the responsible parties. There is almost certainly no encouragement for proactive reporting of problems (because accidents and errors happen in 100% of systems that involve humans, and... well, 100% of ones that don't, too). And, critically, whatever they're doing for a QA process is laughable.

There is unquestionably a 1997 version of this book. It was a pack-in with The Ultimate Batman Collection, a shrinkwrapped, slipcased, fat stack of three VHS tapes that included Batman, Batman Returns, and Batman Forever (but not Batman & Robin, despite what a naive reading of the advertising sticker might suggest). This box set absolutely released in 1997. That... doesn't mean that there's not a 2000 something that also included this book, or some version of it. Knowing how weird these DC promos are, I certainly can't confirm a negative. But the 1997 date for the 1997 version is legit.

It's been tough RL week over here, so I'm happy to have this back from CGC to go in my collection of video game tie-in and pack-in books that no one else probably cares about. EverQuest: Accounting is a little mini-comic that was a pack-in with the 2002 EverQuest Gold Edition collector's tin. The gaming community at the time (and still, to be honest) considered the important pack-ins to be the cloth maps and maybe the ugly pewter figurine. Pretty much no one cared about this tiny, flimsy mini-comic with mediocre writing and art. So while you'll see plenty of opened tins resold online, most of them are missing this comic. Also, packaging inside the tin was worse than a random eBay shipper, so it's tough to find one of these that has intact corners, to say the least. Still, this one isn't all that rare; assuming even a 10% survival rate still means there's a few thousand of these floating around, although very few of them ever seem to make it to the comic book secondary market. This was written by Devin Grayson around the same time she was doing a lot of Nightwing stuff, and has art by Lan Medina well before his work on Fables. It's not the best work for either of them, but it's interesting to see relatively familiar names attached to such a throw-away pack-in title.

It's a really obscure reprint / variant, although there's never been any documentation about where it came from. I lean toward the theory that they were pre-printed as pack-ins for a toy that was never released, and that some number of copies eventually made their way into the secondary market unnoticed, probably because they don't look like anything interesting. The alternative credible theory is that it was some sort of direct give-away, like part of a media kit for the toy line or ... something like that. Maybe some of both. In any case, they're vanishingly rare books.

As far as I can tell, they're all correct. The pic of Mother's Oats 1 is just blurry enough that I can be 100% certain between 4th print and 5th print. That's a pretty easy distinction if the book is in hand though. The pirate in the Rip Off logo has a dagger clenched in his teeth. If the handle is on the right side, 4th print. If the handle is on the left side, 5th print. The only really tough printings to distinguish are 1st and 2nd.

Lords of Misrule was easy to miss. There's a ton of forgettable Dark Horse miniseries to be fair. That Presley series was put out by Revolutionary, the publisher better known for Rock N Roll comics. Their stuff was mostly not distributed through normal comic book distribution channels. They sold largely through music shops and Hot Topic-ish venues. So, they're comparatively unknown to us, but -- some of them, anyway -- have maintained interest via the memorabilia collecting communities. And yeah, everything is Modern, haha!

That Lords of Misrule is the collected edition, republishing all six issues originally published by Dark Horse. It's a half-decent horror book that could have been so much better with tighter scripting and a little better artwork. I don't see the 7 issue Elvis Presley Experience very often. I'm not sure I've ever seen a complete set, or maybe #7 at all. At some point, someone cared about this book, though, because there are two printings of #1 (distinguished only by the indicia as far as I remember). I honestly have no idea if there's a market for this sort of book these days. And the last one is the Grendel ashcan. Neat little book, and almost certainly the "best" of the three, as Grendel still has a following. These aren't super scarce but there aren't tons available either. Looks like a pretty solid copy there, as well.

Agreed. Nothing compares to having the book in hand for evaluation, but those don't immediately look like replaced staples from these photos. As for the physical damage to the front cover, it's not too unusual to see surface scrapes and the like that don't necessarily look as bad from the inside front cover. Also, honestly, I can't imagine that anyone attempting restoration on a book would go to the trouble of sealing front cover tears but not retouch color (especially against a fairly uniform background). I certainly can't rule out shenanigans in this book's past, but I think it's pretty likely just what it appears to be.

Factory-unstapled books get a Qualified label with the notation "Manufactured without staples".

7.5-8.0. I'd call page quality CR/OW, but you might get OW here. This book presents pretty nicely, and the cover inks are bright, but it's not a 9.0+ copy. UR corner is pretty badly rounded. LR corner looks ... funny, especially in that first picture. I can't decide if there's some corner blunting, or a bend that won't sit flat, or if it's just lighting. Spine stress, including a good bunch of color-breaking ticks (see first image below). Some sort of dirt / staining at BC LR (see second image) And what looks like it might be some chipping along the BC bottom edge (also see second image). Now that I look, there may be some chipping on the FC top edge also, above the A in Aquaman.

Apologies for the tiny, terrible image. I do not own this myself. But yes, it exists.

I can sort of see this as defensible for the couple of inserts that came in things like Previews where most collectors are neither able nor interested in keeping a big, chonky, totally-not-comic-sized book. This is complicated by the fact that a few of those inserts (although not, to my knowledge, the Sonic one) actually had some copies distributed on their own, which would make them legitimate separate items. But it's pretty weird that people are looting the books the Sonic insert came in to "create" a Sonic collectible; just ... get those books (of which there are 3 or 4, iirc, not just Tec639).

Nice. Scout Handbook is easy to pick up for cheap if you're looking to finish off the set, although as I mentioned, you may have to put in some effort to chase down a copy of Scout: Interlude. Out of curiosity, do you know which printing of #12 you have?

I definitely think the 25th Anniversary frame books are likely to stand up better than other books in their runs, all else being equal, so it doesn't surprise me to see H12 outperform Heathcliff in general. Although I... don't think I would have expected one to go for that much.

I've got a question regarding the new way ME submissions are handled (where there's no prior authorization required), because I'd like to avoid a surprise billing if this isn't ME-eligible. I have Midnight Nation #1 B cover (#0715162059) which was correctly labeled and graded at the time it was originally submitted (fair disclosure: not my submission, either). This issue shipped as a 50/50 ratio of two covers. Originally -- as with this book -- CGC merely noted that "two covers exist". However, policy has changed since that time. CGC now distinguishes between the A and B covers, with the B cover now considered the "Midnight Nation 1 Variant Cover". Is this book eligible for Mechanical Error correction to change its identification to the -- now -- correct cover type?

I do pretty well, as far as TATs go, anyway, with books that don't need pressed (or, at least, books I don't get pressed). The CCS backlog is stunningly bad, made worse by their poor tracking systems that allow all visibility to orders to vanish loooong before CCS does its job. If that's not an advertisement for trusted third-party pressing -- even if their backlogs aren't much better, time-wise -- then I don't know what is.

Or overlooks every book before it leaves. Similar... yet different.

As far as collecting goes, it's a long series -- 24 issues of Scout, two four-issue spinoff mini-series (Swords of Texas and New America), the Scout Handbook, 16 issues of Scout War Shaman, and one special book discussed below -- so finding copies of everything may take a little while, just because demand is pretty low. Doubly so if you're looking for high grade books. If you're a fan, he's continuing the series with a self-published 100-page Scout: Marauder that will be out... well, someday (originally scheduled for 2020, and not here yet). There are a couple of comic-length preview/ashcan sorts of things you can buy from him if so interested, including Scout: Marauder Sketchbook and Scout: Marauder Zero. But if you're really serious about collecting Scout, there are at least three things to hunt down besides the obvious: Scout #12 First and Second Printing. For several issues, Eclipse switched Scout to what I can only assume was the cheapest cheapo paper that their printer, Web World, offered. Cue muddy panels and blurry text. Eventually, Truman pitched a fit to Eclipse, and they had the paper selection changed back to something that could actually hold a crisp line. Or, rather, they were supposed to. Web World screwed up, and Scout #12 was initially printed on the cheap stuff. The following week, they shipped corrected copies to the distributors. They're pretty easy to tell apart if you have a copy in hand, but the two printings are visually indistinguishable from their outer cover. If the paper quality isn't enough to distinguish them, the 2nd printing has added text to the inside front cover apologizing for the situation. In theory, these should be more or less equally available, but I seem to recall seeing more of the (bad) first printings than the second. Regardless, it's way, way easier to get hold of both printings of this book than it is to find the other two Scout rarities... Scout #16 2D. Scout #16 was printed in 3D color. Like all Eclipse 3D books, they also made available copies in standard black and white by mail order at a premium. These were extremely limited runs, generally 50 or 100 copies. Most of the Eclipse "3D in 2D" books are also signed by editor Cat Yronwode on an interior page. Taken collectively, the Eclipse "3D in 2D" books are actually some of the most elusive modern rarities. The best-known of them, the 2D printing of Miracleman 3-D, has all of five copies on the CGC census, and I believe there are currently only one or two additional copies known. This book probably sold fewer copies to begin with and has received approximately zero collector attention, so I don't actually know of ANY confirmed copies at this time. There probably are a few out there, somewhere, perhaps not even recognized for what they are. Good luck! Scout: Interlude. Strap in, this one's weird. In addition to being a comic book writer and artist, Truman had a sort of hobby-level blues-rock band called Timothy Truman and the Dixie Pistols. Somehow, he managed to convinced Eclipse to briefly dabble as a record production company, putting out an LP called Marauders. It was the only* thing that "Eclipse Records" ever did. Truman described the LP as the "soundtrack" for Scout. Take that as you will, but it shipped with a 6-page mini comic called Scout: Interlude, that depicts Scout's traditional Apache wedding ceremony. Truman went above and beyond on the art for it; it's a really beautiful little piece. Copies come up every now and then and seem to sell in the $20-30 range, although if you guessed that "black cover mini-comic distributed as a vinyl record pack-in" tends to have condition issues, then you're not wrong. * Eclipse included a flexi-disk record of Truman's music with Scout #19, but that wasn't an official record release, and was labeled as being from "Eclipse Comics" not "Eclipse Records". So I guess there's that. It wasn't affixed to the book in any way, so this isn't a TATOOZ situation. It does mean that a lot of copies of 19 have weird bends.

There's not really much science behind "signature authentication", even from the professional authenticators. For unwitnessed signed comics, ideally, you have some sort of provenance; you know where and when the book was signed. Unfortunately, most of the signed books out there are just sort of wandering free through the comics market, bereft of their histories. Now, for many signers, most or all of their signatures are legitimate, if for no other reason than because there's little incentive to forge them. But for a few, the market is rife with forgeries. Stan Lee, as a lifelong self-promoter, legitimately signed a lot of books. On the other hand, there are a lot of forged Stan Lees out there, aided by the fact that his signature was not really very consistent over his life. This book? I guess it looks okay? I'm always leery of beat books that get autographs; sure, some of them are original owner books with sentimental value. Others are just because it's cheaper to forge sigs on reader copies than nice books. That's no guarantee that this is legitimate or illegitimate. But then, there really can't be a guarantee. That's why no one should pay significant markups for unwitnessed signatures without provenance.

Primortals actually went to 15 issues, plus a 2-issue prequel, with Tekno. Then it was revived for another 8 issue run with Big Entertainment. They're not great, but you can tell that there could have been a good comic book there. Leonard Nemoy more or less wrote the outline for the story, which was then handed off to... whoever Tekno managed to pay at the time, I guess, for scripting and art. The latter, in particular, is really uneven as a result. Regardless, there are quite a few names attached to this book that have had significant careers. In particular, the first couple books were scripted by Kate Worley, who is unquestionably best known as the creator of Omaha the Cat Dancer. What I didn't know was that this book had newsstand distribution. I feel pretty confident in describing the newsstand run of this title as "rare, but valueless". Cool find from the wild, though!

I don't think this warrants a price difference per se, but I don't see any reason why these wouldn't be separately collectible for someone who was into a specialist collection of Spawn. It's certainly a title that allows for deep dives into weirdness (see also the Spawn newsstand thread). Speaking of which, I'm rather curious if the broken logo appears exclusively on DM copies or if there are also newsstand copies with this error.

This was a pack-in with the Alien vs. Predator: The Unrated Edition Best Buy exclusive DVD. It has the same cover as the 1999 Annual because, other than size, it's essentially a reprint of that book. CGC slabs it as "Alien vs. Predator: Whoever Wins... We Lose #nn" (two on census; one at 9.8, one at 9.2).

Agreed. That's not a magazine holder. If nothing else, you can tell by the amount of whitespace on the label. It probably is one of the "thick" holders, though. Ideally, these are used mostly for annuals, 100 pagers, that sort of thing, that are too chonky to fit in the normal slab safely, but every now and then they seem to bust them out for totally normal books. My Labyrinth: Masquerade got one of these for the normal copy, although both the Cagle variant and the virgin cover got normal slabs. It bugs me less than my old-style slabs with the loose edge label, anyway. The badly off-center slabbing is a separate issue, though.