Axelrod

It seems so hard these days to have anything truly breakout for any extended period of time. I'm sitting here reading how this new show "Echos" has now moved into the #1 spot of Netflix shows, and how they are waiting on Netflix to let them know if they'll get a second season. So many viewing options. I guess Netflix has ways of telling if something is financially worth it? But how many people really "subscribe" just for one show these days?

We grade hundreds of thousands of comics every year. The vast majority of those are completely fair, legitimate grades. So if we give out a few gift grades to some of our good friends at Black Flag, or Heritage, or other prominent members of the collecting community, that's just good business, and ya'll can just chill about it.

Don't you ungrateful whining losers understand that CGC, singlehandedly, revolutionized the comic book collecting industry?

They are not feeling pressure anymore, I don't think. They first line of my made up statement from them is: "We have heard all the complaining about our recent grading of the Black Flag Crain Acetate editions, and we would like to take this opportunity to say: Give me a f****** break "

I'm tempted, after that clever fake apology post, to make my own - fake -"this is what CGC really thinks and would really like to say to you" post. But I kind of like it here and don't especially want to get banned.

So, I'm hesitant to "recommend" this app but I have the iCollect comic comic book app and it is almost very good. Sounds like you may be like me and just looking for something to catalogue your books and not necessarily track values in real time. All I wanted was something where I could enter my books and have a nice reference I could look at for what I had. The iCollect app does that pretty well. And it's not a subscription service that charges you every month. The app is free but you will almost certainly want to pony up for the "pro" version which I think lets you input more books and also edit the data fields. That appears to be $10.00 now. I think the app is supposed to let you bar scan books to enter them, but I never tried that function, I always just entered manually. Which is searching for a title and then adding it to your collection. They have a pretty large database and I was almost always able to find my books. In the event you can't find a book, you can create an entry yourself and do an internet search to find pictures of the front/back covers. And it's this last thing that is the single biggest issue. Because the database is full of images that have been uploaded by other people, and apparently there are a ton of people who think it's hilarious to hide pornographic images on the backside of the comic books. So, you go to add a book, you find a nice clean entry/image of it in the database and add it. You won't know if someone has hidden a pornographic image on the back unless you specifically "flip" the image to see the backside. I didn't realize this for a while, and then had to spend a significant amount of time going back through the images I had uploaded and editing out all the porn (this is another reason you have to get the "pro" version.) Once you know to be aware of that, though, it's actually pretty decent. For me, it's much better than a subscription service.

Sorry, I didn't mean "you" personally. It was more a rhetorical "you." Because you seemed to be expressing confusion about why someone who "saw something they previously hadn't realized" concerning a company they had been doing business with might choose to stop doing business with that company.

I mean, you're answering your own question. You see something and now you don't want to do business with that company any more. The fact your personal denial of business has no effect on the company's bottom line isn't really the point. People are vegetarian for ethical reasons despite knowing that their individual decision not to buy a hamburger has no impact at all on McDonalds. Some people just don't want to deal with shady people/companies - even if the people/companies aren't even shady/unethical 100% of the time (I mean, that would be something if they were). CGC isn't fudging all the grades they give out. Just the ones for the "prominent members of the collecting community," I imagine. Like, I won't ever buy from a Heritage Auction because the owner is a crook. He could care less.

Yeah, some of my very small potatoes These were in consideration for being sent in someday, but, currently I don't see that happening* *Though, if they get Mr. Simonson to do another signing, I might crack and submit to that one. I am weak.

This is the seller who made up his own pedigree, right? Which, I would have laughed at, but then I realized who is currently establishing what is and isn't a pedigree right now and then I did not laugh.

I mean, the way you know - aside from the statistical impossibility - is that they have continued to remain radio silent on this issue. They're making statements on why the books got Blue Labels, but that would never be their primary concern if they were being honest. Because whether the books get classified as "Blue" or "Green" or "Chartreuse" could be chalked up to an error in judgment, in regards to an unusual submission. Perhaps influenced by their close relationship with the artist. But with the grading, it's their integrity being questioned. Which is the entire foundation of their business model. If these were honest grades - somehow - they would be saying that. Over and over. They would be trying to show us. Explain how this could happen. They would be acknowledging the statistical improbability, but - if it was truly fair - they would want us to be reassured it was all on the up and up. But they can't. Because it isn't. And they know it. And hence, the silence.

Unless you are a "prominent member of the collecting community," I'll bet.

It's like they were almost acknowledging that they possibly might have made a poor decision with the whole "For us, this was an unprecedented item to grade," thing, but then they just doubled down on the dumb. I think they are silently hoping that their ambiguous criteria of only "established" artists working on their "own" original covers and only if they are submitted to CGC for "inspection" ahead of time, will mean that there won't be a lot of these types of submissions in the future. Luck with that. Actually, I wonder about the whole "must be submitted for inspection prior to any grading" thing. Isn't that, like, every book? Aren't they all submitted for inspection prior to grading? Is this their way of indirectly addressing the abnormally high grades? Well, see, we "inspected" these books ahead of time, and then, see, we told Black Flag what the grades would be if they went ahead and wanted to officially submit the books. And then, Black Flag told us they just wanted all the real high grade ones to be graded....

You are going to get radio silence on this one. Maybe, I mean maybe, they will go back to their very first response: "We stand by our grades." But that will be all. They can never admit pay-for-grades. Never. Or even, we-give-"prominent-collectors-in-the-community"-special-treatment....

There are 29 different versions of that book listed on that census. Twenty-nine. This book was published in 2022? How can that many variants exist? Did everyone and their dog "special order" up their own exclusive versions from Marvel? I am just so confused.

This just makes me glad I got out before variant covers became a thing. Because, knowing myself, the completionist in me would have felt compelled to try and get all the different variants of books I collected. And I would have either (1) gone broke, or (2) gone insane at what's happening today (and for a long time now, I know)

I don't really even understand the comparison to "Bad Idea" in that, my understanding is that was clearly a joke product. I get people were concerned by the fact that Bad Idea got to dictate what grades went on the "joke" invisible books, but, really, it's not at all comparable I don't think.

Well the outcome will be that CGC will stand by the integrity of their grading and maintain that each and every one of those book was fairly and accurately graded and passed multiple quality control tests, and...it's just an interesting coincidence that the number of high grades came out in the manner that they did, and...every grader has their own individual standards which might vary from grader to grader, and...you can't prove that they did anything shady and... Actually, CGC is going to say precisely nothing about this part of the story.

So, maybe this is way past the point of being relevant, but I was confused what, exactly Blag Flag's version of this comic was. It's not the reprint. And it's not the "regular" facsimile edition, but it is some kind of special "store exclusive" facsimile edition, that Black Flag was able to commission, which has slightly different artwork and has Black Flag's store logo on the back? And this was produced by Marvel. And any store can get their own "exclusive" variants as long as they are ordering at least 3000 copies? Or is it maybe just certain stores/businesses that have a relationship with Marvel? So, they had their own exclusive variant already, but, they didn't sell out of the original 3000 they ordered. And so, someone had the idea to juice up the remaining stock (or at least 750 copies of it) with this acetone cover and make an "even-more-exclusive" exclusive out of it? And people went nuts over this?

The only (small) concession I can make to CGC here is that, given the absolutely ridiculous amount of "variant" covers that are being produced these days - I mean, I am just dumbfounded by the number of these things - perhaps they just assumed one more "variant" wasn't going to be a big deal. Of course missing a few rather important distinctions. (edit: and, yeah, with suspiciously high grades on top)

Remember that Evil Overlord list, where one of the rules was have a 5 year old child advisor, and when you explain your plan to the 5 year old child advisor, if they spot any flaws in it, then don't do it? I would like to offer my services, free of charge, to CGC as their unofficial 5 year old advisor. And I'm not even 5, so, bonus!

I mean, Black Flag wouldn't even be in the wrong here, assuming they had an assurance from CGC (which, let's be real, is the only way they make this book. You don't do something like that just hoping it's going to get a Blue Label). You're saying essentially "well, CGC can do whatever they want and Black Flag is too small to do anything about it. And if Black Flag tries to complain, well, CGC can just crush them like a bug." Which, eh. Doesn't seem likely to me.

Legal angle that may not have been brought up yet, for all the people saying why can't CGC just own up to a mistake and unlist these, and maybe refund Black Flag the grading fees, etc. There is approximately a 0% chance that Black Flag commissioned this variant without getting an assurance from CGC ahead of time that it would get a Blue Label. I'm not suggesting grade-buying or specific guarantees of any particular grades like some are also speculating, just, Blue Labels. Were CGC to back out now and say, "sorry, actually we won't count these as Blue Labels anymore even though we told you we would," they would then be liable to Black Flag. They'd have to pony up, not just the cost Black Flag paid for the commissioning and the grading, but for Black Flagg's lost profits too (and, as we have seen, these things are selling). CGC is not going to go that much in the hole on this. They just won't.

Heh, so, I would have needed 7 in R3 to tie for the top and an 8 would have tied for 3rd. My R3 - 13! congrats to everyone!

Best round ever. 3 bullseyes. 3 points. Curses you R3!