Qalyar

I don't think both count. SotI references a singular book that was already released (or "got out" in Wertham's phrasing). That means Magic Dollar. Saves the Day was coming soon as of the Porter article.

CGC would generally decline to grade any comic that's so fragile as to render page checks unsafe.

Printing defect. Specifically, poor color registration. That shouldn't affect the numerical grade, unlike, say, that LR corner. Opinions probably vary as to whether this hurts its overall appeal.

And yet, stamps are an established collectible hobby where pieces of value have retained that value over a considerable period of time. Sure, there aren't (usually) boom/bust cycles like with modern spec covers. But that's probably for the best. Philately is a "healthy" hobby market in part because there is active trade not just in the four, five, six figure items ... but in five, ten, and twenty dollar pieces that aren't likely to turn around and suddenly be worth half that much by this time next year.

Honestly, there are two paths for the future of comic collecting, and each one has a different paper collectible as the benchmark. It is literally impossible to know which one the world will follow. Organized comic collecting isn't fad-level new, like Beanie Babies or what-have-you. It's established enough that it won't die out completely, but it's still new enough that trends are hard to predict. And the publisher shenanigans don't help with that. Comic collecting could play out like philately. "Key" issues and high-grade copies of mid-demand items shoot up out of reach of normal collectors, but a robust trade in somewhat lesser books keeps the hobby relatively strong. In its favor, comic books, like stamps, have an endless array of "sub-collection" options. You can chase variants (either the new shiny ones, or old-school things like the Marvel price variants, Canadians, etc.). You can collect by title run, by character, by cover artist, by writer, by genre... That's good for the health of the hobby. On the other hand, philately is organized. There are standard catalogues (Scott, mostly, but for some purposes Gibbons or Yvert or specialist publications) that have been established for decades, are viewed and comprehensive and authoritative. Does anyone thing Overstreet is a comprehensive guide to collectible comics, even from the big houses? It is not. So the other option is that comics end up like 20th century books. A handful of the highest prestige works remain really expensive, but everything else, sooner or later, craters. Sure, first-printing, first-state copies of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot are worth tens of thousands or more. But even most King first editions are readily available for fractions of cover price. Step away from the big name authors, and most books published in the last 100 years are essentially worthless. Now, comics are an easier collection to maintain than books in terms of volume and weight for storage, and that's always been a mark against modern book collecting. Also, even mediocre comics are often printed in much smaller numbers than major books, and are less likely to be conserved in high-grade condition by their nature. That's good... but there is some reason to believe that people do collect comics like they do books. Poor catalogue standards, a focus on cover and cover quality over interiors, and the evil flipside of the "sub-collection" thing: people buy a niche and often nothing else. Currently, comics are sort of hewing a middle road, but that's probably not sustainable, and 25 years ought to be enough market and social distance that it'll shake out. One way or the other.

These last two books both look like abrasion damage, to be honest. Basically what I'd expect if the book shifted slightly while under pressure (or the machine shifted slightly against the book). That certainly doesn't excuse the damage, but I suspect that's what caused it. These don't really look like overheat/scorch injuries.

I don't have a good solution to bulk shipping... well, most things cheaply. But media mail is a terrible idea for comics for at least two reasons. First, most comics don't qualify. Media mail material cannot have more than incidental advertising, and definitely cannot have advertising for non-media-mail-eligible products. The vast majority of comic books have miscellaneous ad pages, which mean they're prohibited from going media mail. You can try, but if they detect the problem, they will charge your consignee postage due equal to the difference between what you paid and what you should have paid. This is usually a lot, and your consignee will be unhappy with you. And probably refuse delivery. Second, postal inspectors may examine media mail at will, in order to ensure compliance. They can and will open packages and remove individual books from packaging. Yes, that means they may opt to pull comics out of bags, tear open polybagged comics, and so forth. If you suspect that this process is likely to damage comic books, you are correct. There is no clause in the media mail regulations for shipping collectibles or condition-sensitive material either; if they damage your books -- especially if they were non-compliant in the first place -- that's your problem, not theirs. Yes, sometimes you can get lucky. That doesn't make it a good idea.

That character is even weirder in his comic strip appearances, where his face was regularly drawn so that he looked to be about 12 years old.

Protect against catastrophic damage by reducing the likelihood of it happening. Keep comics at least 3 feet above ground level, ideally, to limit the chances of damage from most flood situations. There's no way to protect property, realistically, from major river flooding or recent Michigan-style dam breeches, but in general, you'll have time to evacuate in advance of those conditions (or tropical storm systems, if you're on the Gulf or Atlantic coast). There is no realistic way to prevent the destruction of paper collectibles in case of fire on premises. Fireproof safes are not compatible with the archival storage of comics and aren't likely to prevent heat damage anyway. Prevent fire damage by taking smart actions to limit the risk of fire. Ensure your home's electrical system is to code. Replace cedar shake roofing and encourage your neighbors to do likewise. Don't smoke. Use things like space heaters with caution. Ultimately, the odds of your collection being destroyed by flood or fire, or by tornado or other natural disasters, are very low. If you're still concerned, that's what collectibles insurance is for.

There are a couple at Epcot Center, too. Most famously Mickey and Goofy Explore The Universe of Energy at Epcot Center. At the time, Exxon sponsored Epcot, and this promotional comic is straight-up the Disney characters shilling for the fossil fuel industry. And lamenting the fact that gas prices might be as high as $1.27 if we don't support Exxon! It didn't age well, is what I'm saying.

Comic books entirely aside, if you've got a working process to remove lignin non-destructively from mechanical pulp paper, you're going to have a lot of pretty interested conservation professionals. Have you tested this process on newsprint? Should be readily available in volume, and ought to make the artificial aging tests pretty conclusive. And, frankly, might be easier to use for destructive testing in lieu of finding beater bunny books to bisect.

Fantastic changes, and I strongly approve of anything that discourages people from just camping on collectibles, priced at large multiples of FMV. I've had one such seller (not via MCS) tell me that he even tries to get other holders of the same items to do the same because "if everyone prices everything at 10x the last sale, then anyone who wants it has to pay it". Besides failing economics forever, that's also just rude. These changes help MCS as a business, and combat that. Win. Win.

It's easy to imagine that a production flaw was involved in that defect. An insufficiently sharp blade may have left some extra material at the corner, which was at some subsequent point torn away, leaving it in its current state. But what I suspect you're really asking is "Is this going to be a defect that will count against the book's grade?", and I think that the answer is quite likely to be yes.

Not a printing error. Damaged by long-term exposure to heat and/or sunlight. In addition to the outline boxes F For Fake pointed out, take a look at the "Join Now!" and "Sales Leadership Club" text on BC UL, where traces of the red color remain. The interior page quality is also a big clue that this is heat-damaged (but the browning effect is visible at BC MR also). Sorry to burst hopes that this might be worth a few dollars to the error community. Nothing here but worthless, damaged paper.

I suspect that the graders evaluated that crease on the back cover, and likely the one at FC Right as well, to be printing creases -- defects in the paper used to print the comic, or that arise during the printing process itself -- rather than handling creases. Manufacturing defects are either not penalized, or are penalized less steeply than damage from handling at all but the very highest grades. There are more than a few 9.8s with printing creases, and some comics are more prone to them than others. On the other hand, the FC UL of this comic is an actual defect, and is almost certainly what got it lowered to a 9.6.

Okay, that is fair. CGC does permit you to request that the unwitnessed signature be treated purely as a defect to receive a blue label at a lower grade. However, you must specifically request this with the submission; they won't do that randomly.

CGC will regrade, and actually offers a discounted program to convert slabs from the other services. The book will get a green label, not a gold one, as the signature was not witnessed as part of the CGC Signature Series program. It may or may not receive the same grade it has currently; it will be evaluated as if it were a newly submitted book (unlike CGC-to-CGC reholder submissions). PGX has, in general, considerably looser grading requirements, so be aware that more than a few books that go PGX-to-CGC have dropped in grade. If this book is old enough that the potential for restoration is a concern, PGX is famously bad at overlooking it, so that's something else to be aware of. That said, anything I'd want slabbed is better off in a CGC holder than a PGX one, even with a lower number at the top. CGC isn't flawless, but PGX has earned the ;poor reputation they have.

I know there were also non-bound copies of that poster that, presumably, were ordered under their own product code. But ASM365 is absolutely how most people are familiar with it.

Additionally, there's reason to believe that not all "Limited to X" releases have been, well, entirely honest. Even when the publishers mean well, the printing industry often prints more copies than requested in case of spoilage. In principle, the unused extras for limited runs are supposed to be destroyed. Usually that happens. Sometimes it doesn't. Never take print quantities as gospel.

And I believe that's confirmation of one of the previously unrecorded Homart Malls!

Requested Set: Midnight Nation (Complete) I don't personally have CGC numbers for many of these yet, but most of them are in the census and so should be available. Anything in italics you can skip for now, as they either haven't been slabbed or there are problems with the existing slabbing; I'll be updating this set later this year with certification numbers for the rest, once available. In full disclosure, not all certification numbers listed are copies that I own. Midnight Nation #1/2 [Known certification #0014036007] Midnight Nation #1/2 Blue Foil Edition Midnight Nation #1/2 Wizard Special Edition [Note: Listed in most other databases as "Gold Foil Edition", but not in the CGC Census] Midnight Nation #1 Cover A [See below] Midnight Nation #1 Cover B [See below] Midnight Nation #1 2nd printing [No copies in census] Midnight Nation #1 Dynamic Forces Blue Foil Edition [Known certification #0352975016] Midnight Nation #1 Dynamic Forces Edition Midnight Nation #1 Dynamic Forces European Edition Midnight Nation #1 Dynamic Forces Gold Foil Edition [Known certification #0016214004] Midnight Nation #2 Midnight Nation #2 Exclusive Edition [AKA Purple Foil Edition; no copies in census] Midnight Nation #3 Midnight Nation #4 [Known certification #0906020005] Midnight Nation #5 Midnight Nation #6 Midnight Nation #7 Midnight Nation #8 Midnight Nation #9 Midnight Nation #10 Midnight Nation #11 Midnight Nation #12 Top Cow Classics in Black & White: Midnight Nation #1 [Known certification #1026268005] Top Cow Classics in Black & White: Midnight Nation #1 Convention Edition Regarding #1, there are 29 currently slabbed copies, all with the notation "Two different covers exist, both by Gary Frank". Following this Ask CGC request, it was clarified that future submissions will be broken out between the A and B covers so that they can be listed separately. I am aware of the certification number for two copies of #1 (both Signature Series: 1026268002 and 2504603004). Both happen to be Cover A. I have no idea if there are slabs of Cover B. I have no idea how to handle to current situation as far as creating this registry entry. If you want to just not include #1 for now, that's fine with me; the registry can be updated later once slabbed copies with the correct designation exist. Set created on 11/11/20. Please make a slot request in the applicable thread once the variants are broken out. Thank you

Absolutely agreed there. It is more than a bit ironic that bronze age books in grade are sometimes more readily available than more recent stuff. I've got a run of ~2001 books that are just a nightmare to find HG copies of, despite being readily available as raws. Meanwhile, because I'm a huge believer in collecting variants (not necessarily in the recent chase-cover sense...), I have to ask: have you considered chasing down the oddities from that ToD run? There are a couple of 35 cent price variants, several (all? -- I'm not sure) pence variants, and a handful of issues with Mark Jeweler inserts! To be fair, that sort of nonsense is why I have to be ... very ... careful ... about which runs I dedicate myself to hunting down.

Man, that's a pretty run of Dracula there. Out of curiosity, how did you find high grade copies of some of the low-value issues late in this run? Buying duplicates and curating carefully for CGC submission ("low-value" for ToD is still non-trivial, so perhaps not), or hunting for especially nice copies in person, or...?

Midnight Nation 1-12, Spanish edition published by Planeta De Agostini. Condition isn't everything I'd hope and dream of, especially on #1. Being shipped internationally without bags or boards probably didn't help. But frankly, I'm happy to have them.

50 issues of the main Alf series Most, perhaps all, exist as both direct market and newsstand printings. A UK edition for at least issues 1-12 exists. The UK #1 has a totally different cover than the US version. 3 Alf Annuals All three exist as direct market and newsstands. 2 Alf Holiday Specials Both of these also exist as both direct market and newsstand The Super-Sized Alf Spring Special Yep. Direct market and newsstand. Marvel Comics Presents Alf. This is a single issue mini-comic (Chuck describes it as an "Ashcan" for absolutely no good reason) that was apparently a promotional give-away. If you include them as comics, there are also two square-bound, digest-sized issues of Alf Comics Magazine. Chuck seems to have a newsstand version of at least #2 here, presented without a photo. I really have no idea if these have DM/newsstand variants A really comprehensive collection of Marvel Alf content would thus be 125 books (assuming there are DM/newsstand versions of all 50 of the main series), plus potentially 2-4 more to cover Alf Comics Magazine if you are so inclined. Or 69 (+2 Alf Comics Magazine) if you're only interested in comics that CGC would slab as registry-distinct (ignoring the DM/newsstand split, but including the 12 Marvel UK issues). GoCollect somehow has enough market data to claim a ~$90 FMV for 9.8 CGC copies of a couple issues in the 30s, but #48 is unquestionably the key book in this collection, with a price driven up by interest in the ludicrous cover art. I would not be surprised to see CGC 9.8 copies (of which there are actually a handful) pull $300-400. Maybe more. I shudder to think. Doubly difficult would be the 48 newsstand if you're going for the full variant set. Of course, everything after #37 was released after the show's cancellation, and I suspect that all of those are pretty elusive as newsstand editions. Of course, very little of this has been graded by CGC at all (Alf 1-5, 11, 13, 15, 18, 29-30, 36-38, 44-45, 48, 50 [no UK editions]; Annual 1; Alf Comics Magazine 1). I do not in good conscience recommend this to anyone, but there it is. Good luck, Alf lovers.