Hoarding Harlan

[MatterEaterLad]

Anecdotally I feel that the grades I received from cgc on about 15 books submitted in mid December were very fair and matched my estimated grades exactly.

 

 

I received 280 slabs in the last month. By FAR more comics that I've ever subbed (usually it's just 2-3 books). The striking thing about having a large pool to look at is that I can find a 7.0 and dig around and compare it to four other 7.0s. It's really disheartening to see the range of books that can fall under a grade. I know there could be all kinds of stuff going on in the interior, but without cracking a bunch open I'll never know.

 

And if you don't already have doubts about CGCs thoroughness, of the 298 slabs, 11 came back with label errors. Eleven!

 

That's one screw up out of every 27 books.

[The-Collector]

Anecdotally I feel that the grades I received from cgc on about 15 books submitted in mid December were very fair and matched my estimated grades exactly.

 

 

I received 280 slabs in the last month. By FAR more comics that I've ever subbed (usually it's just 2-3 books). The striking thing about having a large pool to look at is that I can find a 7.0 and dig around and compare it to four other 7.0s. It's really disheartening to see the range of books that can fall under a grade. I know there could be all kinds of stuff going on in the interior, but without cracking a bunch open I'll never know.

 

And if you don't already have doubts about CGCs thoroughness, of the 280 slabs, 14 came back with label errors. FOURTEEN!

 

That's one screw up out of every 20 books.

 

Every grade has to have a spectrum. And if you dont check the interiors then your argument isnt fair.

 

The purpose of my comment was to show that they aren't totally unpredictable as I was 15 for 15 in my estimations. So their grading is predictable and shows some level of uniformity.

[MatterEaterLad]

Not totally unpredictable by any means. You can vector in on where you think they'll end up as far as grades. But if you think their grading is consistent, you're definitely in the minority. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many people resubbing and receiving different grades.

 

 

[Robert Doggett]

Anecdotally I feel that the grades I received from cgc on about 15 books submitted in mid December were very fair and matched my estimated grades exactly.

 

 

I received 280 slabs in the last month. By FAR more comics that I've ever subbed (usually it's just 2-3 books). The striking thing about having a large pool to look at is that I can find a 7.0 and dig around and compare it to four other 7.0s. It's really disheartening to see the range of books that can fall under a grade. I know there could be all kinds of stuff going on in the interior, but without cracking a bunch open I'll never know.

 

And if you don't already have doubts about CGCs thoroughness, of the 280 slabs, 14 came back with label errors. FOURTEEN!

 

That's one screw up out of every 20 books.

 

Every grade has to have a spectrum. And if you dont check the interiors then your argument isnt fair.

 

The purpose of my comment was to show that they aren't totally unpredictable as I was 15 for 15 in my estimations. So their grading is predictable and shows some level of uniformity.

 

I agree with BH that you are in the minority. I saw your X-Men 40 that got the 9.4. Like one poster said, "It must have cleaned up very nicely!". If I submitted that book, I would have been ecstatic with a 9.0! But would have probably gotten an 8.5 with that exact same book. I somehow feel they aren't completely honest about their anonymity.

 

 

[stroszek]

Very cool to hear about your purchase of the Ellison collection. He's one of my favorite writers and a personal hero as well. Any chance you got a mid-grade FF Annual 3 in the collection? If so, there's a chance it was mine. I sent him several books a while back so he could auction them off for his KICK Piracy campaign. That book was the only one that didn't sell, and I heard through an intermediary that HE wanted to send it back to me. I said it was OK, he could keep it. The next day I got a phone call out of the blue from HE himself making darn sure I was OK with him keeping the book and then thanking me for my contribution. During the conversation he introduced me to the word "sedulous." That was more than worth it. It may well have been sold later as part of the KICK fundraising, I have no idea.

[MatterEaterLad]

 

Did it look like this?

 

He has certain well-deserved reputation, but one-on-one, he's a very magnanimous guy. Very generous with his time.

 

I'm off to look up "sedulous..."

[MatterEaterLad]

In other news, I'll soon be embarking on the great CGC Bust-a-Slab Experiment of 2013.

 

I've ordered a hand-held UV light, white archival gloves, and a decent loupe.

 

As soon as the stuff arrives I'm going to be busting out a few books.

 

Some of the books got hammered but have amazing eye-appeal, so I gotta look inside and see what's going on.

 

And with some of the restored books I gotta see the color touch myself, the seam repairs, the added paper. (Just curious). My degree was in art/design and I worked for years as an art director so I'm comfortable around printing presses and looking at the choke/spread of offset printing. Just curious about the finer details of restoration and detection.

 

 

[stroszek]

 

Did it look like this?

 

He has certain well-deserved reputation, but one-on-one, he's a very magnanimous guy. Very generous with his time.

 

I'm off to look up "sedulous..."

 

I couldn't swear to it, but it was about in that grade and had wear on the bottom right corner. So maybe! I will pretend it is and be happy to know that I once owned a book that's now in the Harlan Ellison collection.

 

 

[MatterEaterLad]

I couldn't swear to it, but it was about in that grade and had wear on the bottom right corner. So maybe! I will pretend it is and be happy to know that I once owned a book that's now in the Harlan Ellison collection.

 

I need to add a "Stroszek Collection" right above Harlan's name. (thumbs u

[MatterEaterLad]

Okay, I went ahead and busted out Harlan's FF1. No, I didn't use the hammer. (I used a blow-torch and a chainsaw). Yes, I saved the label for when I resub.

 

 

 

And here's the beautifully restored book, sans slabbage.

 

 

 

And here's the culprit for the 4.5, inside on page 24. AND HELP IT I WILL!

 

 

The staining is only on two pages, but I gotta believe this is why the book isn't at least a Purple 6.5.

 

Whoever did the restoration did a decent job of stain removal on the back inside cover, but left the stains on the two interior pages.

 

So I'm sending the book in this week. Probably to CCS to try out the new arrangement with CGC, and then resub. Here are close-ups of the naked book. I'd be happy with a 6.5, thrilled with a 7.0. Here we go, rolling the dice...

 

 

[MatterEaterLad]

Thought I'd try my hand at creating a sig banner for the books. Need to reduce the size...

 

[EggsAckley]

Love to see some of the graded undergrounds when they come in.

[MatterEaterLad]

Will definitely post stuff whenever the CGC fairy leaves me something under my pillow...

 

Ever hear back from Jud?

[EggsAckley]

nope

[MatterEaterLad]

Not a Harlan book, but a cool pick-up this weekend. I love Steranko.

 

 

Also am negotiating to extend the runs of the Harlan books I've already acquired. I won't have these new books slabbed, but they will have certificates of authenticity (COAs) signed by Harlan.

 

Looking at:

 

FF 151-250

ASM 130-229

Avengers 102-200

 

Three more boxes of CGCd Harlan books are on their way. Counting the days...

 

 

[MatterEaterLad]

Still waiting on those three boxes from CGC. This week....hopefully. There's been a lot of discussion about CGC tightening up their grading and from what I've been getting back, I have to agree. Plus there's the normal weird variance, some overgraded, some under, consistency all over the map, but with a slight edge to undergrading.

 

In other news, I just sent three books to CCS (Matt Nelson's company that was recently bought by CGC). The books are:

 

FF #1 PLOD. 4.5 - There are two stains inside the book that I'd like to have removed, then hoping to get a healthy bump in grade on the resub.

 

TOS #39 - 7.5 - Gorgeous book. Not sure if it's been pressed, so I'm sending it in for the pre-screen and an eventual resub. When I bought it the seller and I both agreed it was at least a solid 8.5...a titch higher. *fingers crossed*

 

AF #15 - 1.0 PLOD. The book is roughed up and has a 1.5" chunk out of the bottom front cover. Someone trimmed the back cover, hence the PLOD. I figured if it's already purple, it might as well be a high-grade purple.

 

Off we go...

 

 

[MatterEaterLad]

Bought some new old books. Not Harlan books, but ones I couldn't pass up. I cut off the Cap Marvel Jr on the left, but it's a sharp 9.0. Oh, and the FF on the right is a Twin Cities book. I'm hoping to build a higher end X-Men 1-66 run. 9.4 and up. 3 down, 63 to go.

 

 

 

 

 

[Brandon Shepherd]

Nice X-Men #50, a classic!

[MatterEaterLad]

Three more boxes from CGC arrived today. Another 90 slabs. Here's a bit of what arrived. As many have speculated, the grading seems tighter than normal. I know you can't judge the grade by the cover alone, but when you look at dozens of slabs at once, all graded at the same time and they seem undergraded they can't ALL have interior defects.

 

There was one book that was what you'd call a Gift Grade. A 9.0 that definitely looks like a 7.5, maybe less.

 

 

 

 

 

[MatterEaterLad]

Not Harlan books (but for Harlan books)...I picked up Nicholas Cage's ComicLock frames (5) from the current ComicConnect auction.