Qalyar

For a $30k book, I would probably ship it USPS Registered Mail, although I'd sure bite my nails while it was in transit.

Much above that, though, and the other logistics companies do have specialty high-value services. I'm only personally familiar with the UPS options, but I know FedEx has corresponding equivalents. For UPS, it's a semi-separate department called Express Critical that you have to contact directly. Secure transport moves packages by bonded private courier and (usually) the UPS private airline and will probably run you in the $750-1000 range depending on distance involved. If that's not good enough, they offer a Hand Carry service that does exactly what it sounds like. A courier takes the package and physically holds it all the way to the destination. That's not financially feasible for a $30k book (it'll run you a few thousand), but if I ever have to move a $300k book, it's sure something I'd consider.

In any case, with this shipment, it'll probably turn up and get moving, but you should definitely start an inquiry with USPS; that often encourages them to deal with the backlog. Although right now, well... they're clearly doing what they can given the, ahem, circumstances.

I'm not universally anti-pressing, but nothing I've owned since it became trendy would have both: 1) realistically benefitted from pressing and 2) been economically worth even the relatively token cost to do so.

Yeah, I think that's indirect water damage. Like it was against something (cardboard seems likely) that got wet, and wicked up a little of the water and stain. 2.5 seems likely because that stain is just so big (also, top staple). Front is beautiful, though. That indent under the X would press out but I might not bother, it won't change the grade.

Regardless, this'll be a beautiful slab that presents WAY above grade from the front.

These days, I collect more short series / limiteds than ongoing titles. Still own the full run of JMS on Amazing Spider-Man: 30 (470) - 508, 515 - 543 (hey, look, I like JMS and it started so well!). Also have Babylon 5 and his first two Joe's Comics books (Rising Stars, Midnight Nation), not that anyone here likely cares. 

Otherwise, um, Black Hole (the Kitchen Sink/Fantagraphics one). Logan's Run. The Sandman (too many reader copies, sadly; I should fix that someday). 

Probably some other stuff if I got the remaining boxes all in order, and more where I'm just a book or three short.

Maybe, maybe a 6.5. The back cover is awful. There's wear along the entire bottom edge, a whole constellation of spine stress and damage at upper left. The front looks better in the scan but I suspect the scan is hiding spine stress. It can't hide the crease at lower right and... whatever is going on at top left. If there's actually missing paper associated with that defect, we're back down to the 6.0 range. I can't decide if there's some discoloration at the left margin of the UPC, while we're at it.

If you paid more than about $8-9 for this book in this grade, you overpaid.

I love the unique challenges of collecting stuff that isn't the hot market books, but this misgrade isn't really excusable. Willing to name and shame the seller here?

I'm willing to worry about whether I've failed to properly grade my books. I'm willing to worry about whether the shipper I opt for will lose my books or crush them in a conveyor belt or just delay them for weeks because 2020 has to be awful for everything.

But I honestly don't spend anytime considering whether the employees of the professional grading service I use might mangle my books before assigning them numbers.

30 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

that was it!

I used the zero casting cost Kobolds from legends, Orinthopters from Antiquities and some other zero casting cost stuff.

the deck name "Fruity Pebbles" sounds goofy.

As I recall, my preferred creature spread was Ornithopter (in a pinch, a flying blocker) / Shield Sphere (best defensive choice of the 0-costers) / Phyrexian Walker (best of the rest).

Anyway, it got that name because one of the early pro players, and it's escaping my brain right now who it was, said that anyone who actually tried to play that combo in competitive play would have to be fruity pebbles. Obviously, that took as the deck name.

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

it was a red enchantment, I can't remember the name of it but you sacrificed a creature and it did 1 damage to a player. All I needed to make the combination work was that enchantment, Enduring Renewal and 1 creature out. I remember having 4x Enlightened Tutors in the deck to find the enchantments.

Goblin Bombardment.

That deck had a brief run on the tournament scene under the name "Fruity Pebbles". I narrowly missed winning a couple big events with it.

Either 1.8 or 2.0 depending largely on how much CGC hates that big horizontal tear. Regardless, that's one heck of a book and presents way above it's weight class.

All the major logistics options, including USPS, are slacking on signature confirmation right now. My UPS driver and USPS courier generally ask for my name in lieu of a signature, but I had a USPS registered mail package just dropped at the door without any effort at contacting me (while I watched, actually...).

Kaboom Comics in Plano, Texas. Plucky little comic store that held out for years against better-funded competition. I bought comics there, I played CCGs there, I made a lot of friends there. Even effectively managed the store for awhile, until its co-owners moved on to other things (can't blame them, really, the more active of the two got the education job he'd been after for years, and I will never dig on people with the wherewithal to teach!).

Based on my personal experiences only:

• MyComicShop (Lone Star Comics) is almost always at least accurate, and sometimes undergraded. Like everyone, they have misses sometimes, but they've been by far the most reliable.
• Metropolis overgrades habitually, and often in ways that are very disappointing.
• NewKadia is sort of a crapshoot. A lot of their stuff is fairly well described, but when they're wrong, they're really wrong (What? You can't have a 1/4" spine split on an NM+ book?).
• Mile High has a lot of variation in their grading. In my experience, they average to accurate, but that's not really an endorsement, especially with their approach to pricing.
• I don't appear to have ever bought anything from Midtown.

1 minute ago, valiantman said:

Until you have a better answer, I'd say the Justice League Europe #31 is signed by Gerard Jones.

Here's a known example of his full signature - maybe yours is just "Jones":

Yep, I think that's it. He used a really awful pen, but I think you can see where his first name would be, over by Flash. And there's no one else remotely associated with this book that seems plausible.

So, yeah. Gerard Jones it seems to be. Ick.

Actually, that Simpson book is signed by Chris Yambar. He... doesn't sign sketches the same way he autographs books. Here's an example (at top left):

As for Justice League Europe... wow. A scribbly signature done with a black pen (that's starting to run low on ink, even) against black cover elements? That said, it is 100% not John Beatty (who signs in block letters). And while Darick Robertson has a signature scribble, it looks very different from what I can see of this. I have no idea how Gerard Jones signed (but ew anyway...). This one's likely to remain a mystery, I suspect.

45 minutes ago, god503 said:

what is it?....  if its this ill sell it to u... 

Oh, man, that is so close except for being completely different.

It's this:

I would stalk my current grail except that I'm not sure where any of the copies are right now for me to stalk.

I wouldn't count print comics out quite yet.

There's an art element to comic books (otherwise no one would ever have cared about variant covers), and you can't display a digital file. Also, there's a lot of the comic industry from a sales standpoint that all-digital doesn't duplicate well. There's no really good way to have a secondary market for digital files without opening up other problems (like ease of piracy), and the publishers know the secondary market matters. You can't realistically do things like limited editions or retailer incentive variants in an all-digital industry either.

Also, people are gradually starting to realize digital only isn't always a good thing. Video games made the flaws obvious first; when a publisher stops supporting an online-required game, that game ceases to be. And there has been at least one proprietary e-reader format that was discontinued, taking libraries with it. Digital is convenient, but there is a virtue to actually owning "stuff".

Yes, there are going to be digital-only titles. Just like there are ebook-only novels. And yes, there may be fewer monthlies overall, but the format isn't dead because DC is having problems. Not anymore than it died in the Marvel Implosion or with the collapse of the black and white indie era. Or, reaching back, with the end of Charlton or Gold Key or so forth.

For the collectors side, I do expect some price stagnation. We've had a good run up on a lot of keys; that probably won't continue unabated. COVID doesn't help that. I mean, I'm not predicting a 90s indies collapse, where $100-200 books go right to the dollar box. But don't expect the next 10 years of price changes for Hulk 181 or AF15 and so forth to look like the last 10 years... The VERY top books -- Action 1, Tec 27, etc -- are now firmly the purview of the super-rich, so their future is harder to predict. Ultra luxury goods don't track general trends well.

The main distribution point for that Acclaim Reader was the 1997 Chicago Comicon, where they were freebie give-aways at the Acclaim booth. Which is why they have the signature page back cover, not unlike many other convention give-aways. Of course, the 1997 Chicago Comicon had all of like 5k attendees, which is a big part of why these are hard to find. I'm sure Acclaim found other ways to hand out the copies left behind after the event, but still...

That slabbed copy is particularly nice not just for the 9.6 but for the white pages designation; these were printed on some terrible newsprint paper and many of them are the worse for it.

20 hours ago, Larryw7 said:

Context doesn't make it any better. The entire story in that issue is built on not-even-Bizarro-world logic. On the other hand, the Batman ad for Hostess fruit pies is fantastic.

2 hours ago, bc said:

Stamps were a really popular collectible for a long time too.

Values are fairly flat, but that's not entirely bad for collecting (as opposed to investing). Admittedly, stamp shows are dying the same death as stamp stores in years past, but internet dealers make stock available to a wider array of collectors, and organized collecting groups like the APA are engaged in outreach that's slowly seeing a rise in philatelists who aren't middle-aged or older white men.

Stamp collecting has been "dying" for 50 years. It's changing, but it's not going anywhere as a hobby.

1 minute ago, Zonker said:

Just occured to me-  hasn't it been confirmed that the contract between DC and the William Marston estate requires DC to regularly publish a Wonder Woman comic book to maintain its rights to the character?  So if AT&T discontinues WW, the rights revert back to the estate?  I guess a case could be made that digital distribution of a WW comic would still count, but would likely invite a court challenge.  Potentially messy for AT&T, right?  

Can't speak to whether this is accurate or not, but plenty of creators who do have this sort of contract will tell you that's it is trivially easy for corporate rightsholders to weasel their way to meeting obligations. DC is not losing WW.

25 minutes ago, steveinthecity said:

We know several are from the same submission if that’s what you’re asking.

That was my attempt to be subtle while asking "Are these all Dylan books?"

Some of this was unavoidable. DC Universe was a dead property walking due to the merger. DC Direct was ... not well-positioned, and DC has already been outsourcing some of its fig production. And it's entirely possible that their new corporate overlords felt that there were simply too many layers of "local" editorial oversight and management. But that doesn't mean this is a good thing either.

I don't think DC is going to go to zero on floppy comics, at least not real soon, if for no other reasons than the media would run with it as "DC Comics cancels Batman and Superman!" (even if that's not technically accurate) and no one wants to see that. But I do think there's going to be a reckoning. I suspect that main titles for their core characters -- stuff like Action Comics, Batman, Detective Comics, Justice League,  and Wonder Woman -- aren't going anywhere. I imagine that some of the broadly adjacent titles will go digital-only, and there will be a push to move the spinoff mini- and maxi-series (stuff like The Batman's Grave and Wonder Woman: Dead Earth) to direct-to-graphic-novel in future. Things like Plunge will also be more likely to appear as a complete graphic novel than as serialized comics (but they're not going to tell Joe Hill to pound sand). Other titles that aren't directly part of the main DC brand, stuff like Amethyst, Far Sector, The Last God... I think are in real danger.

6 minutes ago, steveinthecity said:

We’ve seen this in books graded as recently as 7/10/20.

That makes it rather less likely that this has been corrected, sadly. Do we know if the July-graded books have the same, um, source?

Regardless, the more I think about what should be done to correct this problem, the more I think the solution has to be more than just preventative. I suggested that there be a note added to the certification record. But honestly, I'm not sure that's adequate. If I was elected god-king and got to choose the outcome here... I think I would "amend" the certification record for the affected books to state that the certification was revoked, but that any current holder of said books could contact CGC for a shipping label that would allow them to send the book in for a reholder (correcting the label and restoring the certification entry) at CGC's cost.

We all know that the person (or persons, because there might be more than one) who intentionally created these won't do that. But it would at least provide SOME benefit to collectors who get stuck with these down the road, and offer a little bit of warning in the meantime (not that I expect most people look up CGC certifications before buying slabs, but there's only so much possible right now). Of course, I think the chances of any such remedy happening are very, very small.

17 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

Is this a quality control issue or a conscious decision to give a grade as if the piece and glue weren’t there?  In line with how they’ve always treated green or blue label. 

QC issue, of sorts. If you look up all these books by their slab number, they're all graded as restored (that is, purple label) books. But for whatever reason (hint: cost), CGC decided not to print purple-label versions of their "premium" character labels. What was supposed to happen was that if someone submitted a restored book for a character label, they would get a slab back with a normal purple label and be refunded the extra cost of the character label. What has actually happened in quite a few cases is that they've gotten slabs back with blue character labels that include text describing the restoration (like a purple label would). But too many people just buy the labels on books, and these labels are blue. CGC has said this has been corrected, but I'm also dubious of that claim. In particular, the book in this thread is more recently graded than many of the others we've seen. Is it possible that they've actually stopped this since 06/24? Well, I sure hope so...

The problem has been made worse by at least one person (and, gee, who could that be?) exploiting the issue, almost certainly intentionally, to produce blue-label restored books. That he has been able to do so with some consistency suggests this is (or at least was) a more significant issue than the occasional QC failure. I have no idea what I would want CGC to do at this point (other than, you know, not making there be more of these). Certainly, no one is going to pay to reholder their blue labels into purple labels. Especially not bad actors profiting from this. At the very least, I'd like to see some sort of explicit note added to their certification entry.

I've never had a good opinion of the character labels, but I never imagined this would be the problem with them.

Probably of interest to relatively few here, but... nevertheless. Also, ugh, I'm a terrible photographer.

Charles Burns's Black Hole, #1-4 (the Kitchen Sink issues; the rest of the title is with Fantagraphics), first printings. Yeah, combo breaker on #3 there. But these have been harder to find in grade than would be expected. The thick cardstock covers with gloss printing are prone to all manner of surface scuffs and color breaks. Also, probably the majority of copies across the board have bindery chip issues because the printer used evidently didn't sharpen their blades enough to deal with the thickness of the cover. Many, many copies have had time, handling, and general quality turn those chips into more serious defects. In a lot of ways, these suffer from the same problems as the much better known (and rather a lot more valuable) Spider-Man 1 Platinum.