I got the dreaded call from CGC today...

[Ze-man]

Not sure if it's been asked in this thread yet, but was it in an open topped mylar or was it bagged/boarded with the flap taped down? Books in mylar have been known to shift out during shipping.

 

Especially with top edge overhang like that.

 

And totally unrelated but what strikes me as odd is the difference in scans. I assume CGC's is a more accurate representation of the book?

[comixcroz]

Not sure if it's been asked in this thread yet, but was it in an open topped mylar or was it bagged/boarded with the flap taped down? Books in mylar have been known to shift out during shipping.

 

Especially with top edge overhang like that.

 

And totally unrelated but what strikes me as odd is the difference in scans. I assume CGC's is a more accurate representation of the book?

 

yeah - I would say it is more accurate of its current state. They may have upped the brightness a bit so I could see the damage better.

[toro]

Here's an update:

 

As promised I heard from CGC right away this morning. CGC sent me the scans of the books this morning. I am going to post the FF65. I called in to discuss. They haven't finalized the grades yet - they promised that would get done today. The damage isn't terrible on these - but on this book it looks to extend from the top left to the top right. I can now see the chipping comment he was talking about. There is a small "chip" or piece missing from the top Upper Left Corner Back Cover.

Front:

 

Back Scan:

 

The big question for me was: How did they know I didn't send the books in with those defects? Especially if the bag and board exhibited no sign of damage nor the box?

 

This question you asked in your first post is what has me the most confused about the whole situation. Why did they call you about the books when I've seen tons of books that look way worse then that FF one does get graded. Somewhere, somehow someone dropped the ball or should I say, dropped the books on this order.

[mschmidt]

I find it interesting about them not grading books that could be a possible counterfeit. From one of my pms the person also questons how they will grade a cerebus but wont do the eerie #1 when from what he said that the overstreet guide specifies how to tell the difference and supposivly not that hard to do. I am not 100% sure if this is correct since I don't know much about these books.

 

However when you look at the other collecting hobbies for example stamps and coins they check for counterfeits. You would think cgc would be checking for counterfeits when they are doing restoration checks and such. I sat there thinking how easy it would be to counterfeit a modern book thats worth something, submittng it and then selling it. If they are not checking for counterfeits and they slabbed it then no one would know unless they opened the slab and somehow compared it. With the media equipment today in small labs you could easily get away with this. It makes me wonder about that aspect of graded books on moderns. In the end I thought that was the whole point of grading a book which was having a teams opinion on the grade, restoration check and you would hope checking to make sure its the real thing. You could also add to preserve the book but I have had many discussions with different people and that is a personal opinion of the individuals. I myself have been questioning that aspect when you hear that after the 7 year mark and such which is even stated by CGC you need to change the holder but if you don't the book can actually degrade faster in the slabs and that many feel that grading a book is for selling and if not to sell a mylar with a fullback will just do as well and you can always buy archival paper on the side in which I know a person that even does that for his books. Also, after buying a CGC 9.8 with SCS (shaken comic syndrome for people that dont know that acroynym) in which the book is definitely not a 9.8 anymore. Has anyone seen SCS happen to books in a mylar and fullback packaged properly?

 

a) There are specific books CGC won't grade because those books are basically photocopies or printed in such a low-grade manner that anyone with a scanner, Photoshop and a decent printer can duplicate them very accurately - Gobbledygook #1 and Eerie #1 spring to mind here. If I was CGC, I wouldn't touch those books with a 10-foot pole either.

 

b) The Cerebus counterfeits are "real" comic books, printed on real comic book stock, but there are several tells that make it very easy to identify them - which is why CGC will happily grade those.

 

c) You don't need to change the CGC holder after 7 years. CGC says that the microchamber paper they use might become inert after 7 years, but even if if that is true, all you're left with is (another) piece of paper in your slab. It will not harm the book in any way.. The sealed inner bag inside a CGC slab is made from inert plastic - which doesn't off-gas and will last just as long as an E Gerber mylar (100+ years).

 

d) SCS only applies to books in slabs. If a book is not in a slab, it can't suffer from SCS.

[divad]

Front:

 

Back Scan:

 

Well, it clears up one thing . . .

[Monstro]

They don't even look like the same book. At all.

 

 

[Monstro]

I take that back. They kind of look the same.

[Sal]

Front:

 

Well, it clears up one thing . . .

 

This is Blue's original scan, lightened up to the same level as the CGC scan;

 

[nik]

Same book, different scanners.

[Bosco685]

Same book, different scanners.

I was going to say the same thing.

 

If you look at some of the stress lines on the spine, the books match perfectly. It just takes a few scans back and forth to catch it.

 

Why did someone say "chipping" as defects? I don't even see anything resembling chipping. Just pretty decent hits to corners now.

[joeypost]

Looks like a classic impact dent from the book either falling or being banged around during shipment. Book could have been dropped after it was taken out of the box.

 

My question to you is do all the books have the same damage? How were they prepared for shipping (were they all taped together in between cardboard, etc) or were they just placed into the box?

 

 

I did the classic sandwich. Half of the books were together and taped(with packing tape after being bagged together) to the outer pieces of cardboard. So I did 2 separate sandwiches and then I packing taped the 2 together. I did this to prevent them from moving around at all. No, only 3 out of 10 were damaged. 2 of them were packaged directly in the middle of the sandwich because they were most important to me. Nick Fury 4 exhibits only a little damage to the opposite corner but has a spine split (I dont recall where in the sandwich i packaged Nick Fury 4)

 

if all the book showed the same damage I could see how it happened during shipping but you say some, not all show the impact to the top corner.

 

Once the books leave your hands anything is possible. They get banged up in-transit. They get dropped while at CGC, etc. The fact they called you means they were alerted to something. Thats between you and CGC from this point on.

 

Not sure if this was done or not but I double or triple board every book I send in. While it will not prevent a disaster, it does help with the normal wear a book could receive while being handled.

[comixcroz]

Same book, different scanners.

I was going to say the same thing.

 

If you look at some of the stress lines on the spine, the books match perfectly. It just takes a few scans back and forth to catch it.

 

Why did someone say "chipping" as defects? I don't even see anything resembling chipping. Just pretty decent hits to corners now.

look at the back scan closely - ULBC - there is a tiny "chip" or piece missing

[comixcroz]

Looks like a classic impact dent from the book either falling or being banged around during shipment. Book could have been dropped after it was taken out of the box.

 

My question to you is do all the books have the same damage? How were they prepared for shipping (were they all taped together in between cardboard, etc) or were they just placed into the box?

 

 

I did the classic sandwich. Half of the books were together and taped(with packing tape after being bagged together) to the outer pieces of cardboard. So I did 2 separate sandwiches and then I packing taped the 2 together. I did this to prevent them from moving around at all. No, only 3 out of 10 were damaged. 2 of them were packaged directly in the middle of the sandwich because they were most important to me. Nick Fury 4 exhibits only a little damage to the opposite corner but has a spine split (I dont recall where in the sandwich i packaged Nick Fury 4)

 

if all the book showed the same damage I could see how it happened during shipping but you say some, not all show the impact to the top corner.

 

Once the books leave your hands anything is possible. They get banged up in-transit. They get dropped while at CGC, etc. The fact they called you means they were alerted to something. Thats between you and CGC from this point on.

 

Not sure if this was done or not but I double or triple board every book I send in. While it will not prevent a disaster, it does help with the normal wear a book could receive while being handled.

according to the website - they are supposed to remove the books from the bags and boards they were sent in and put them in notated mylars. Now that I know they dont do this I guess I'll start triple boarding them. All of the books I've sent it were aleast double boarded - a few had more than that.

[DiceX]

This reminds me of something that happened with me and a signature witness recently. I sent a couple of books for a signing, after no word from the witness for almost a month, I get this PM:

 

"Your other book, along with 4 of my books and one other persons book are on their way back to me from (artist name withheld). His wife pulled him out before he could sign the last 6 and I convinced him to take them with him to sign and ship them back to me, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten signed."

 

Okay, so he let the artist take the books without anyone's knowledge, fine, I can live with that, he could have said something a bit sooner though.

 

A day or so later I get this PM:

 

"Yeah, got them yesterday. (artist name withheld) took them out of the bags and i am trying to discern which 2 were mine and which one was yours. Do you have a pic?"

 

Okay, luckily I did have a scan, and a super large Heritage one to boot. I wonder what book I might have recieved if I didn't have a scan, especially when I found out later the witness had water stained books. How could someone confuse them?

 

In the end, I got my book, however it had a corner ding that was not present when it was submitted, thus lowering the grade from what it should have recieved. Did the corner ding happen at CGC? While in the possession of the witness? Or did it happen when the witness loaned my book to the artist?

 

 

 

 

Because this whole issue got lost in the bottom of this thread, and I want to know the details.

I've been wanting to get into SS books, and I won't until this issue gets handled.

 

 

[divad]

Same book, different scanners.

 

Wasn't my point.

[sckao]

Same book, different scanners.

 

Wasn't my point.

 

Different scanners and different settings... but I think your point is really meant for ANOTHER MASSIVE thread of its own...

[nik]

Same book, different scanners.

 

Wasn't my point.

 

I was responding to Monstros original post

[Boozad]

but I think your point is really meant for ANOTHER MASSIVE thread of its own...

 

[nik]

Better brush up on your quoting techniques

[Boozad]

Better brush up on your quoting techniques