What makes this an 8.5?

[comicmankev]

[THE_BEYONDER]

The color-breaking stress lines along the spine....and the stress at the staples?

[THE_BEYONDER]

Is that a crease in the BLC?

[THE_BEYONDER]

Sweet book by the way....

[supapimp]

what he said

[comicmankev]

Yep, its a nice book Shame its not mine

 

I thought it was a lovely book, but all I could fault was the BLC?

[ninanina]

I think the only thing keeping this from a 9.0 is the light general wear on the surface of the comic. Mostly in the lower left area. I've seen 9.0's with 2 or 3 tiny stress lines on the spine, but they didn't have that and the color breaking wear in that lower left area.

 

Easy to say becaue of the CGC grade though. I would have been tempted to give this one a 9.0 if you wouldn't have let us had a peek at the label.

[FFB]

I don't think a 9.0 can have a color breaking crease of that size in the BLC. That, coupled with the spine stresses, takes it out of the VF/NM borderline category.

 

Having said that, what I think you have there is an 8.5 with incredible eye appeal and one defect which, if not present, would result in a book that would be on the borderline between VF and NM, especially with those beautiful corners, brilliant cover colors, and clear whites. It's a beautiful copy of that book, and I'd be inclined to pay more for that 8.5 than I would for most 8.5s I've seen.

[r100comics]

Structurally that's a beautiful copy with great centering, however I can see a little tanning in the comics code authority label. If this extends to heavy interior tanning on the inside front and back covers that in itself could take it from 9.4 to 8.5. I have seen CGC come down v.hard on books with this defect, but still award Off-White pages in some cases.

 

 

[sterlingcomics]

In addition, there may be some invisible creasing on the covers we can't see in the scan (whch CGC cases are good at hiding).

 

Still, a very nice book!

[Aces]

I'll call it VF++ 8.8!

 

But seriously it does look like one of those "could go either way" tweeners.

[garthgantu]

In addition, there may be some invisible creasing on the covers we can't see in the scan (whch CGC cases are good at hiding).

 

I think this may be the kicker...and combined with significant stressing around the staples, especially the top staple, this seems like an 8.0/8.5 to me. The staple areas may look worse from the inside, and/or the the book may not be as "tight" overall as a typical SA 8.5 / 9.0.