Jesse-Lee

To use myself as an example: Almost all of the books I buy slabbed are books I want to own, not flip, so for my goals I want to get as good-looking a book as possible. So instead of looking solely at grades, I go for look most of the time. I also don't grade chase, but I usually do want to buy in a solid enough grade that if I ever do decide to sell, I'm not losing money (and hopefully I'm making a little bit back over time). I also don't like to pay over FMV, so I hunt a lot for the best book at the best circumstance. So far the only book I've paid above FMV for is ASM 300, and even that book, since I bought it only about 2 weeks ago, is now selling for above what I paid, and the FMV has been adjusted up above what I paid.

Is the price the same on the 9.2 and 9.0? It doesn't look like a huge gap on FMV, but still a couple hundred bucks it looks like - on that book, I'd definitely go the higher grade personally, but that's my . Or if it's for personal and the 8.0 looks great and is a huge amount less, maybe you want to go that route? A lot of it comes down to goals and personal preference.

If the prices are equal, I'd probably go with the 9.2, but I guess it depends on the book. For me personally, age plays a small part too - if a book is from before the early to mid-80s, I feel like I'm not as concerned about OW/W vs W. Probably a silly distinction, but just my preference. It also depends on your goal - if you're looking to buy and sell, you probably want the higher grade - if it's for your personal collection and you're not worried about a "flip," then like @KCOComics said, I'd rather have the better presenting book regardless of grade.

Based on this item, people might want to be careful buying raw copies: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amazing-Spider-Man-300-Awesome-Reproduction-Cover-Marvel-1st-Full-Venom-App/114402165102?hash=item1aa2e6816e:g:87MAAOSw6rxfWqZV

My favorite Neal Adams cover (and I think my favorite all-time cover too) on the Batman 244. I didn't care about the grade, this is one of the cleanest examples of this cover I've seen, looks amazing in-hand... And I got a good deal on the X-Men 141.

Couple more this week:

Thanks for indulging me (and for helping confirm to myself that I’m not nuts). Here’s a full photo of the graded book: Sorry, kind of a long story here: I watched this auction and studied the photos for days. I’d been looking at other copies in a price range I was comfortable with, and I saw this one and couldn’t believe it. I’ve seen 7.5s up to 8.5s - and even a couple of 9.0s - that didn’t look as clean or present as well as this book. Most of the copies I found in those grades either had some kind of color rub, crease or some other defect that impacted the cover art in some way that I didn’t like, or they were severely mis-wrapped (this one is slightly mis-wrapped, but in a way that’s at least acceptable to me, where the white/black line down the spine is basically uniform). The only thing I can note on this book now that I have it in hand is in this photo that I included above: What looks like a shadow cast by the slab edges (on the side and bottom edge of the book) is actually a discoloration of some sort on the actual book. It’s not water damage, it’s way too uniform for that and doesn’t have that “water damage” look. What it looks like is if some papers or other books or something were sitting on this one for a long time in such a way that it made some lined discoloration. Not sure if this kind of discoloration warrants a grade bump down that far? Any insights? At the end of the day, the auction was not misrepresented in any way – it was listed as a 6.5 CGC, and there was no mention of “under-grading” or any other gimmicks to try to get anyone to buy. There were photos of the front and the back (I thought that discoloration was a shadow myself). I was the lone bidder, and I paid 6.5 money for the book – dead-on the current GoCollect FMV for a 6.5 in fact. This is probably my favorite cover of all time (and I love the story too), and I was thrilled to get such a great-looking copy at a huge discount compared to higher graded books that didn’t look as good in my opinion. This book is absolutely gorgeous in-hand, and the colors really pop. I was just really surprised by the grade and I wondered if others were seeing what I saw – that it looks way better than a 6.5. I can’t see myself getting it regraded anytime soon since I don’t plan on selling it, but I guess it would be nice to know if people think it would grade higher even with that discoloration. Maybe if I ever go that route or get curious, I’ll spring for the grader’s notes and see if I can learn more. Thanks again!

I kinda like it myself, it's unique.

It's usually from a press, right? I just got a copy of X-Men 141, and it doesn't look pressed - you can't see the interior through the cover - but I noticed a lot on eBay where you could and I assumed it was from being flattened out (especially since that book is basically a big white circle in the middle of the cover). I'm guessing the books with lighter colors or color areas on the covers would show the print beneath if they were really pressed flat?

Yeah, that's a pretty "splashy" book with lots of full-page colors - it does seem to have a lot of blue tones in it I guess, maybe the OP got one with color bleed in the white areas or something, like a print defect? Or maybe it's just a mistake...

From the Page Quality section of https://www.cgccomics.com/grading/grading-scale/: Pink This page designation is given to a small number of Golden Age comic books that were printed with pink tinted paper, particularly late ‘40s comics published by Fox. Pink is essentially equal to white in this instance. Blue Similar to pink pages, this grade is given in those rare instances when comic books were printed on blue tinted paper. Fox publications also occasionally used blue paper when printing their comic books in the late ‘40s.

Looks like a sniper got it at $3,800 with no time to spare!

Ah, I can see it now, thanks!

It's cool that you got the one signed by "Mouse Bong..." Just messing with you, nice grabs. But whose signature is that for real?

Ok, so I have an already-CGC-graded Batman 244, but I was curious and thought it might be interesting to see how closely you all can guess/match the grade? (If this isn't allowed for some reason I can remove it). I'll post a full photo with grade tomorrow around this same time.

That $5,500 CGC 9.8 W Direct sold for a best offer of $4,900 today... That's nearly double the current FMV of $2,600 on GoCollect.

Hey, your post is finally approved, welcome to the board! Thanks again for the DM. Just to update this thread in case anyone else is interested, I did end up reaching out to him, and I (very politely, but with clear communication on timing) said I was going to file a chargeback. He got back to me within an hour, also with a very polite message which basically said "Please don't do a chargeback, if you want to cancel I'll refund you right away." He said he was sorry, but was really understaffed and swamped. He gave me the option of a refund now or that if I could wait a little longer he'd sent the order. I told him I'd wait for now if he could guarantee he still has the books to fill my order and he said he did, so for now I'm just waiting... It's been about 6 weeks since my initial order (and none of the books were pre-order books) - I'm going to wait a couple/few more weeks and see how it goes. From talking to him, I really did get the sense that he's just really, really understaffed and is having a really hard time keeping up. I didn't get a "shady" vibe, just more of an "overwhelmed" one.

Just look at the recent Batman run - Punchline, Clown Hunter and Ghost Maker all within 11-13 issues. Wolverine 6 has a new first appearance. Venom has had a few. It's pretty crazy...

Wow, just looked that book up and it's really selling! Maybe I should just open mine and get them in bags/boards...

Yeah, thanks - I said Voldy (meaning they who should not be named), but sometimes the shorthand doesn't translate well. If that one sells, it'll be interesting in the long run to see what the difference is between a CGC and non-CGC sale. Also watching to see what happens with that CGC $5,500 - I'm sure it'll be a best offer, but I wonder where? I couldn't afford a 9.8 (even the missed opportunities listed above), but as the new owner of an 8.5, I figure a rising tide lifts all ships, and this is actually really fun to watch and track!

Couple new 9.8's just hit the 'Bay, one for $5,500 OBO and another (voldy) for $3,250 starting bid, no BIN...

I heard ASM 365 newsstands are selling pretty well...

Aw man, I wanted that game so much as a kid!

Found it!! I was right on some things and wrong on some, but the Deathmate thing helped me on the trail of the different colors, thanks! (though I was wrong about the covers): The series is "Exquisite Corpse" from Dark Horse in 1990. It was a 3 part series that could be read in any order. I never read it, but I remember wanting to and then forgetting about it. Here's an ad from the back of Frank Miller's "Give Me Liberty" (which is probably why I thought the colors were more pronounced on the book covers):

That must be it, but it just doesn't feel right in my head - I do remember the color thing though, but those covers just don't look right, I remember this series having solid or mostly solid color covers. But thanks for this, maybe I'm just meshing two or three things in my head!