Qalyar

I am 95% sure that the numbered SDCC copies of that are the only copies of that, and I don't believe that it has been reprinted anywhere. The Hernandez brothers were quite fond of this sort of thing, and they did quite a few of these little mini- or micro-comics in print runs of 20-50 or so (including at least four "issues" of People I've Known in My Mind). Anyway, nice piece. This sort of offball Hernandez stuff gets harder to find as the years pass. Most of it has been black hole-d into Hernandez fans' collections by now.

But I would be interested if someone with one of these could use a light table or something to determine what is under those stickers. The bar code on the sticker is the same as the production bar code for the direct market printing. If I had to guess, I suspect that they either overprinted or mis-shipped quite a few newsstand covers on this issue. And then either the printer (if the problem was cover quantities) or Diamond (if the problem was mis-shipment) turned them back into direct market copies through the power of stickers. As I recall, there are some Spawn issues that had the same sort of shenanigans occur. Probably lots of others.

Yeah, GI Joe 26 doesn't actually surprise me at all. That's the origin book for Snake Eyes. And since his "key", GI Joe 21, is officially entering crazy-pants prices, it makes a lot of sense that it will lift this closely associated issue. This shouldn't be a dollar-bin raw, and I'd buy it in a dollar bin if I found it there. No clue on Wolverine 35 though. Spanish Civil War/Superhero crossover fans?

Those Marvel Team-Up 131 sales have to be people trying to speculate on the White Rabbit first appearance? I guess? Both of those sales were auction sales, and both had nontrivial bidding wars that chased up the price. But as far as I can tell, they look like legitimate sales not crazy shilling shenanigans (and don't look to have overlapping participants, either). Before those, the previous 9.8 sale looks to have gone for $190 back in June, which is itself a huge jump from the 2016 transactions that were the only earlier data for this book in grade. I'm not sure what has changed to make (some) people care about this one, but I'd guess that there's a market to absorb at least another 2 or 3 copies for over $200, if not necessarily the $700+ mania (but maybe...). It will be interesting to see whether this effect trickles down to 9.4/9.6 slabs, but so far those are still hanging out broadly in the $60-80ish range that a lot of random slabs go for. Still a lot better than the ~$30 (or less) slabs that are signs of absolutely zero interest, though. So there's some possibility...

Sometimes the cheapo stuff is surprisingly hard to find. Admittedly, that's because almost no one cares. But for various reasons, every now and then, someone will want high grade copies of a book (or a run) that isn't considered sexy. There are books that may very well exist out there in the thousands, even as 9.6 or 9.8 raws. But they're cold books, so it's not economically feasible for dealers to index them or make them available. They exist in longboxes on shop floors or in back rooms, but aren't readily for sale. Even fewer get graded, so someone who wants their cold books slabbed but doesn't want to play the high-grade lottery dance might find chasing the handful of existing slabs more appealing than it should be. Plus, frankly, I don't think there are as many high-grade copies of "cheap" books as many people would expect. Especially when you're talking about books that tend to end up in discount bins, there may be a lot of physical copies out there, but life in the bargain box isn't conducive to maintaining grade. The assumption is that no one cares about the condition of those books, and, largely, that's accurate. I've had more than one dealer refuse to answer an inquiry about a book's condition on the grounds that "condition doesn't matter" for cheap comics. That said, if I ever drop $500 for any of the dollar store drek that I sometimes collect, shoot me. Meanwhile, at least some of these prices are probably people (both sellers and, sadly, buyers) who think that anything in a 9.8 slab is mystically transformed into gold...

Specifically, pages 12 and 16 are switched in the first printing. EDIT: There are also two printings of #1 because the first sold out. I think they are distinguishable only by the indicia but it's been awhile.

I'm not convinced these exist as individual physical issues. Even the distribution offer text isn't real clear on that point. "[O]nce all five digital issues have been earned a physical copy will be sent..." Arguably, that doesn't mean a physical copy of each, but a physical copy of all five: that is to say, the TPB. Now... I can't rule out the possibility that there were a (presumably very tiny) number of physical copies of individual issues. There can't be very many. The offer would have required someone charge $5,600 on the short-lived Dynamics ePlate, while configured to support this offer as their purchase reward. Nevertheless, it might be worth reaching out to Dark Horse to see whether they'd be willing to confirm the existence or non-existence of these issues. I'm currently batting about .500 getting publishers to respond to inquiries of this nature, but it never hurts to try.

No. Or, at least, not in the traditional sense that distinguished between newsstand and direct market distribution. To wit, newsstand comics were returnable. And there's simply no way that any of the comic publishers would or could tolerate the risks that entails at this point. On the other hand, if the question is "should comic publishers try to encourage more varied venues to stock and sell their product" then sure. But we don't need more rando chase covers for that.

Why wouldn't it? It is a post-manufacturing defect caused by mishandling of the book.

The signature on the first thing is Les Denis, who also worked on that Revelations title (and signed both of those at upper left). Golden Realm Unlimited put out a half-dozen books, most of which have variant covers and limited editions and collectors' versions and such. But it was never much of a publisher (one of the people involved later described it as basically self-publication for the people involved). I don't think there's any market for anything they produced, except possibly a very niche audience for the three issues of Tall Tails they put out (which later went through another tiny indie publisher, Vision Comics, then merged with Radio Comix's Furrlough). The bottom line is that this stuff is a relic of its era, and arguably interesting for that, but as far as monetary value? Sadly, no.

Yeah, I would check with IGComicStore. They ought to know if all their store variants were produced this way. I will caution that even if this ends up being something unusual, that doesn't necessarily make it something valuable...

I do think there might be something odd going on with this one. The exterior cover is definitely the IGComicStore trade dress variant (that is indeed what the "trade" refers to; there's also a virgin version). But the sketch cover behind it does look like the Frankies Comics exclusive sketch cover. So, if I'm reading (and seeing) this right, the 3rd page is that monochrome version of the sketch cover, and the 4th page is the unusual material. Does the comic continue normally afterward? I don't know if this is normal, and don't have a reference copy of this available.

I'm not... entirely sure what you're asking here. I suspect, if I'm interpreting what you wrote correctly, that this is some sort of production proof and not an error in the conventional sense. Photos would be immensely helpful.

Probably not my favorite bad movie, but I just rewatched Thirteen Ghosts and enjoyed it quite a bit more than it's 16% Rotten Tomatoes score would suggest.

So, I basically have two separate collections with very, very little overlap. One side is like this. It consists only of widely-collected books. It has a lot of turnover, and no sacred cows. I add to it when I get the opportunity to pick up sweetheart deals. I subtract from it when I get a chance to cash in, or when I want more liquid assets, or when I just want to throw some money at personal amusement because it's freaking 2020 and sometimes you just have to. I'm ... I don't want to say I'm happy with these books. More than anything, I don't really care about these books. My interaction with them is transactional. That's why I'm sad when quite a few contributors here prioritize their collecting goals solely on the monetary value of the books they own. Cash money is good stuff. But... that's not what collecting means to me, I suppose. The other side is my permanent collection. They're titles that personally interest me, for whatever reason, and I almost exclusively collect them in full runs of slabbed high-grade copies (or, at least, that's the goal...). The overwhelming majority of those books are low-interest. That almost always means hunting down high-grade copies of books that no one else wants, and paying for the slabbing myself. The chase is part of the fun. My permanent collection is the opposite of an investment. A substantial fraction of those slabs are probably worth break-even on the slabbing and shipping fees (although in full disclosure there are a few in the several-hundred-dollar range and maybe one or two that would push 1000; I'm not a high roller in this hobby). But it doesn't matter. They're not for sale, now or likely ever. Barring the missing issues, I'm almost always happy with the things I put in my permanent collection. I'll admit, there are a couple pieces that annoy me because I dropped the ball on pre-submission grade assessment (and I'm about to eat one more of those, because I somehow managed to swap my 9.8 contender with my undercopy before packing up my most recent lot...). But as a whole? Yes, I'm quite happy with what I collect.

Tiers are shipped back separately. Don't mix tiers if you don't have to. Also, no matter what their shipping pricing chart suggests, the return boxes hold a maximum of 25 slabs. Therefore, the most cost-effective grading is to submit exact multiples of 25 books. Send 26, and you're going to pay for one box of 25... and one box of one book. Otherwise, there are no volume discounts. Presumably, if you had a truly impressive number of books to slab simultaneously, you could contact CGC directly and see if they'd cut you something special. But I wouldn't even bother making that call for anything short of, say, 1000 slabs (and/or a newly discovered pedigree-candidate collection).

That said, I can't imagine that you'll have much luck finding a high-grade Batman 171 cover that isn't, you know, attached to a high-grade Batman 171 book. I hate devolving this hobby to just financial concerns, but... fiddling with this probably isn't a good investment either. This book exists in volume, despite its top-line price. Below 8.0 (and especially below 7.0), valuations here drop pretty starkly. Let's say that you manage to marry a fantastic cover and earn an 8.0 purple label here (anything above that, not realistic... even assuming that finding an 8.0 cover is realistic, which it isn't). While purple values are best examined on a per-book basis, a hat-pull number might be to suggest you're looking at a book worth 3 blue grades lower. And that means you're looking at prices down in the trenches, where the relative glut of mid-grade copies of this issue keeps values low. Furthermore, frankly, I think the price hit for a married cover book here might be worse than a "normal" purple label. Married covers are, to the extent that they're tolerated by collectors in general, mostly a creature of the Golden Age (in part because quite a few people saved covers specifically, so there are way, way more bookless covers than later eras). Marketability for a married SA book? Ehhh....

I would check with a reliable page listing (or an owner of a confirmed intact copy of whatever issue this is) to get a full page count to see if you're missing an advertising page or the like. If not, and this book's pagination is complete, well, GA production was never a hotbed of consistency.

This. A tiny fragment of paper that might have originally read "File Space" does not establish provenance for this book as a legitimate file copy. Maybe, maybe, if what had been stapled to the cover was still complete, we'd be able to say more. But as it stands, you have a book with quite a few significant defects, plus an added staple holding on a bit of debris. I know that's probably not what you want to hear, but I just don't see any way this book would warrant special dispensation based on what we see.

I think that bend at UR will press out, as it certainly doesn't seem to be color-breaking. But the LL corner is really going to hurt the grade.

This was published by Alternate Concepts, an indie publisher that released occasional material for about 10 years from the late 80s to late 90s. Most of their products were various collectors' guides or checklists, but they also dabbled in sort of fanzine-style publications and, eventually, their own comics (of which the "best" known is probably Legion of Stupid Heroes). Unfortunately, I don't think this -- or anything from Alternate Concepts, honestly -- has any market value to speak of. Still a neat piece of collecting history, though.

There's no magic formula. There's never a magic formula, not for purple labels, not for green labels, not for yellow labels. Not for newsstands or variant covers. So, sure, if you just need napkin-math spitballing... maybe a "minor color touch" purple label is like a 3 or 4 grade effective deduction in value. That probably holds true for books where both blue and purple labels are fairly common, and in the grade range most likely to be encountered. Stuff gets weird for very high grade (let's say 9.2+) purple labels. And anything under, say, 6.0 in a purple is going to be so hard to move as to be meaningless to consider. Even with those restrictions, I bet that guideline gets a lot of values wrong. Past that, more extensive restoration comes down to whether there is a market for it. Personally, I would pay zero dollars for any but the most exceptional trimmed books. Some people out there care more about appearance than structural integrity, and probably don't view trimming as much worse than color touch or cover reinforcement (although fewer these days than there once were). I'm not even going to get into the nonsense of leaf casting or reglossed covers. Or, for that matter, married books, which I mostly think belong in the same bucket as trimmed copies, but which seem moderately more acceptable to some. Obviously, these sorts of copies do sell. Sometimes at huge discounts from blue label prices... and sometimes at smaller discounts from blue label than I think they deserve, because people buy the book's appearance in lieu of buying the book. Green labels are maybe even harder to predict. If I had to guess, I'd bet the most common green labels are books with unauthenticated signatures. So then you have to decide... are you evaluating this as if it were a blue label where someone scribbled on the cover? Or are you evaluating it as a yellow label book but without the relative security of witnessed authentication? Obviously, a lot of creators passed away before the yellow label system. If the book has convincing provenance, maybe that's worth more than a blue label. On the other hand, unwitnessed Stan Lee's on rando mid-grade books should just about be assumed to be forgeries at this point, and so ought to be worth approximately nada. Outside of signatures, the whole point of green labels is books with something uniquely wrong; by their nature, they are going to be hard to set price trends for. You have to consider why the book is green, and then decide how much that hurts your -- and others' -- consideration of the copy.

Off-square slanted books at top and bottom are frequently factory miscuts. I'm more concerned about the right side of the book, which seems wider at top than at bottom, and is likely where damage has been trimmed away. This book looks pretty, but keep in mind that it has been manipulated in order to appear that way. General acceptance of color touch has waxed and waned over the hobby's decades, and that sort of restoration bothers some people more than others (although it's certainly a huge mark against resale value). On the other hand, I would never knowingly own a trimmed book, and I'm far from alone in that respect. And all that assumes that the disclosed work is all the work. In my mind, Hulk 181 is a particularly bad book to invest into a "restored" (and I struggle to use that word in regard to trimming) copy. It's a high dollar book, but at the same time, it is one that is generally available in some quantities on the market. When or if the time comes to resell this, you have to consider that the universe of people willing to spend significant amounts of money on the issue in general, and not just on a low-grade or reader copy... but not willing to spend the money for an unrestored copy... is a very small target audience. Only you can make your collecting decisions for you. But I would run, not walk, from this.

Basically, printers creases happen when the paper itself is creased prior to printing. Often, this means that there was an alignment problem somewhere in the web-fed press, but sometimes (especially on older books), the crease occurred during the production of the paper rolls themselves. Cheap paper is cheap, after all. As for telling printers creases apart from the results of mishandling... Most printers creases (especially caused by improper web feeds) will be horizontal, or nearly so (although there are occasional weird examples caused by more serious printer problems or defective paper stock). Regardless, printers creases happen before the ink is applied; the book is printed on top of the paper defect, rather than later damage that folds the already-printed paper. With a little practice, especially with the book in hand, that's usually fairly easy to distinguish, especially for larger creases. Sometimes it's a little tricky to distinguish between a small printers crease and a small normal crease from photographs only, especially if mostly un-inked paper is affected. But your images do look pretty archetypal for a printers crease. As for CGC, well... in principle, these are pre-production or in-production defects, not mishandling or wear, and so do not count against the technical grade at any reasonable point value (books with a printers crease cannot receive a 9.9+, but since books in general don't get those, it's somewhat academic). That said, books with particularly ugly printers creases, or a whole constellation of them, do sometimes get marked down. Based on a cursory glance at the images, this book looks to have a blunted corner at UR, a color-breaking spine tick in at UL (in the yellow box), and stress around the top staple; I wouldn't expect the printers crease to alter the final grade.

Especially if you count the reprinted material in TPBs, I've read the content of 100% of the issues I own, although very clearly not 100% of the physical copies that I own. Probably down near 10%, or less.