silverseeker

6.5 for me as well, but I could see it possibly getting a 7.0...nice book!

4.0 for me as well...

I totally agree, and have seen graders notes before that state something like "Front cover detached from top staple".

Count me in...thanks!

5.0 for me as well...

3.5 for me as well...presents very nicely for the grade!

It's crazy to see multiple nice copies of some of these books...I've been to cons where it's hard to find one copy, let alone three!

Looks like a cool store, @lighthouse! I'll have to check it out the next time I'm in that area...I haven't been to Reno in at least 10 years, and I've never been to Sparks.

I never noticed that before and now I can't unsee it... Looks like only his right leg got the "leg day" memo when he went to the gym...

I'm actually curious about this as well... @lighthouse, I'm assuming your store is located somewhere in the Bay Area since you're in San Francisco?

I'd think a $10 check would be pretty low-risk...crazy how such a small part of the transaction had such a big impact.

@Tbone911t, who did that commission? It looks fantastic!

I'm with you there, and am generally in the market for books in 6.0 or higher. Another thing that's held me back is being a picky collector, and I still remember passing on a nice raw Strange Tales #110 in 7.0ish that had a small water stain on the back cover and a CGC 8.5 Tales to Astonish #44 that had more pre-Marvel chipping than I liked...asking price on those books was around $700 and $850 respectively, and this was a few years before both books caught fire as a result of the MCU phenomenon...

This is definitely the way to go, and I wish I had this approach back when I got into collecting in 2000... I went for quantity over quality because I wasn't ready to drop big $$$ on books, but if I had the stones to focus on the big keys first I'd be very well off...looking at GPA, you could have gotten AF #15, ASM #1, FF #1 and X-Men #1 in CGC 6.0 for around $12,500 total back in 2002.

I was initially thinking this exact same thing, but you could probably purchase a higher-grade raw copy for what you'd make by selling a slabbed 3.5 copy, giving you more bang for the buck?

I just checked the graders notes and they also called out a full-length scratch, but I don't remember there being a scratch on the book unless it was in conjunction with the bend: bend full left of front coverscratch full left of front cover I've since sold the book (I got it slabbed to sell and did not have it pressed), so I unfortunately can't take another look at it to see the defects called out in the graders notes. I did check it out pretty thoroughly before sending it in, but obviously made a hugely incorrect assumption about how the bend along the cover would be treated during grading... @Motor City Rob, since your book has a gatefold the bend may be ignored during grading...should you decide to submit it I'd love to see the final grade!

Here's a photo of the cover of my Batman #612, along with a close up of part of the bend...the white line visible in the photos is light reflecting off of the bend (there's no paper loss):

It was Batman #612 for sure…maybe it picked up the fold when someone was looking through it, but that might have been pretty unlikely…when I used to buy new books I’d try to pull the best copy from the middle of the stack to avoid copies people may have thumbed through.

I totally agree, but it did have a subtle fold parallel to the spine which I thought was weird…I sold the book, but will find the photo I took of it, hoping it shows the defect.

That was the only callout, if I remember correctly...I'll check the graders notes later and report back.

That is so cool...thanks for sharing! I love the fact that the curator brings out the artwork for you to view on a desk, as opposed to viewing it behind glass or some other barrier...seems like a more personal experience.

Great report, as usual...thanks for sharing! Seeing your photos makes me realize how much I'm looking forward to getting back to shows where I can check out books in person...

I think I might be able to (sadly) help with this question... I submitted a Batman #612 that had a production fold similar to the one you show...I bought it off the rack after meticulously selecting the best copy, and thought it was a slam-dunk 9.6/9.8...I assumed the fold was a production defect. It came back graded 8.5.

@Sweet Lou 14, this statement really resonated with me and I totally agree...in fact, my friend (who collects original art) and I have this discussion every once in a while when discussing our collections and escalating prices. The current situation is the "cost of doing business" if you want to remain somewhat active in this crazy market, and you just need to pick your spots...personally, I've been buying a lot more DCs than Marvels over the last year, but that's because most of the Marvels I still need are books that have blown up the most in price.

Always loved the reds on that cover...nice book!