Just brought down from the attic

[hindmost]

Please allow me to introduce myself...

 

After 12 years of having my books in the rafters, I did a check on eBay

and here... and was amazed. I went through 25 long boxes over Christmas and

pulled out 3 boxes worth of goodies from the 70's and 80's. I am in the

process of getting many of my books graded, and will be selling many of

these as well as ungraded books over on eBay (and here, if that works).

For example, just today I sent off 10 copies of Wolverine #1... watch for

the number of 10's in the Census to jump significantly in a month or so.

 

I'm not kidding.

 

It takes a while to ramp up; had to buy a new scanner (%^&*%&% XP) and

am finding somewhere to host 1M images, so potential buyers can check out

detailed scans. But I wanted to get my toes wet and have just joined

the Collector's Society and ordered an Overstreet guide (even though I'll

have to get another one in a couple months... Oh well; books this old aren't

going to change THIS much). I have about 70 pre-#100 Daredevils as

well; most above #20 in pretty good shape. When the guide gets here I'll be

more specific. Lots of Hulks (including a nice #181... also off for grading

soon)and X-Men as well.

 

Any thoughts for an old-time collector who has been out of it for a

dozen years would be appreciated. Many of the KEY keys are gone; I tried to

sell my collection in the pre-eBay days and wasn't terribly successful. But

I sold many of the keys, and there are some more left.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

[Rickdogg]

Cool...i'm in Garden Grove too. What do you got from the bronze age?

[Smitty]

Down from the attic in Cal. There goes your "whites pages" and you have been cherry-picked too. Good luck on those wolverine #1's.

[Bugaboo-migration]

There was a stick of butter up there with them which helped to preserve the page quality.

[PovertyRow]

Any thoughts for an old-time collector who has been out of it for a

 

Well, as another asturt one mentioned on another thread...make notes of the grades befiore you send them in. Then see how you and CGC compare. The NM/M grades are far pickier than they were in your day!

 

Also, yeah. Page quality. Southern CA is not ideal due to those summers. You may find white pages are no longer white.

[ninanina]

Are you still grading like you did 12 years ago? If you are, those 10's might be 8.0's. A lots happened to grading in the last few years and you may be in for some culture shock. Well, you did ask for advice.

 

Must be a great feeling looking at all those comics again after being out of it for 12 years. Hope to hear from you after the grades come in and I hope you do as well as you think you might.

 

Welcome

[blowout]

"For example, just today I sent off 10 copies of Wolverine #1... watch for

the number of 10's in the Census to jump significantly in a month or so.

 

I'm not kidding."

 

Like others have said in this thread, grading standards have tightened up a lot since your 12 years out of the hobby. Especially in the last three years with the advent of CGC. How can you be so sure you have a bunch of 10.0's?

Even those of us who have been collecting and grading CGC books for the last three years would struggle to pick out a 10.0. Someone who hasn't looked at a comic book for 12 years..........I don't think so.

You probably do have some nice comic books, but I would not be so quick to assume you have perfect ones.

[BachelorOfComix]

Yep, buddy's in for a rude awakening when he gets his Wolvies back:

 

2: 9.8

3: 9.6

4: 9.4

1: 9.2

 

That's my 2 cents.

 

Cheers,

 

Bachelor of Comics

[BachelorOfComix]

---------

[Guest]

10.0s are much harder to achieve than you think my friend. 1 in probably 50,000 books MIGHT grade a 10. I personally have looked over several thousand raw books this year and I havent even seen a potential 9.9, let alone a 10.0. I hope youre right but its going to be a lot tougher than you think! Id shoot for 9.8s. Thats pretty much the gold standard now and anything above is a gift from the gods...(or CGC for that matter).

[hindmost]

Are you still grading like you did 12 years ago? If you are, those 10's might be 8.0's. A lots happened to grading in the last few years and you may be in for some culture shock. Well, you did ask for advice.

 

Absolutely! And I DO appreciate good, hearfelt advice (as opposed to those who just wish to make snippy comments).

 

As far as the books, well, I can only say what I see. The 10 I sent in were of course on the upper scale of what I have, as I have 62 copies left to choose from. All I can say is I looked at them with a microscope, and there are absolutely NO flaws; not even a microscopic crack along the edge. Square corners and pages as white as the day I bought them. I've been doing a lot of research before I posted here or sent them in.

 

But as was said, the proof will be in the return. That will show whether or not I send in any more, not just copies of the Wolverines, but other things as well.

 

Thanks again for the input.

[ninanina]

Ok, so they're probable better than 8.0's.

 

I've read a lot of people here say when they look for defects and fine none, they then hope it at least comes back 9.4. Anything better is a bonus. As a safety precaution, several of the guys never and I mean never say they own NM (10.0)

no matter how great it looks. You'll probably see what I mean when you get the books back. In either case, good luck. 10's are always nice for the hobby.

[hindmost]

Hey, I just wanted to thank everyone (OK... most everyone ) for the help and feedback. I've been reading a lot (since I can't post at work), and although I still think the Wolverine's (and most everything ELSE I sent them in this shipment) are flawless, I guess I'll leave that up to CGC to decide.

 

I've been doing a hell of a lot of reading since the initial post, and my grading skills could definitely use quite a bit of tweaking. You guys are INSANE on your nitpicking (in a good way, though), and although I won't be getting into this for more than selling a good hunk of my collection, I'll follow the nitpicking a bit myself in order to properly grade the raw books I'll be selling.

 

I was always tough on my grading; guess I'll need to be a bit tougher these days.

 

Thanks again, and start looking for my auctions in a few weeks! .

 

[hindmost]

OK; just got them back. First off... big HUGE thanks to rickdogg for the help in grading... I just got back from his house with a crash course, and now I at least know WHY things got wnat they did, and I know what to look for pre-submission next time.

 

The rest of you were (mostly) right... things sure have changed a lot in the last few years! I wouldn't have submitted aobut 10 of the things I did had I read around here more first.

 

Short list:

Those pesky Wolverine #1's...

3@9.8

5@9.6

1@9.2

1@8.5(!) This is the one I REALLY learned on.

 

Also got a ASM 300@9.6 and a Wolverine vs. Spider-Man @9.6.

 

All with White pages... no off-white involved.

 

Other stuff too; mostly what I'll be learning from. Although they put Wolvering #10 inserts on my Wolverine #2's...

 

Thanks for the input!

[ninanina]

So, what's the difference between the 9.2, the 9.6 and the 9.8? Anything you can tell by looking at them? And why was the 8.5 an 8.5? Curious as to what the defects were that were not on the rest of them. (It's kinda neat having four different grades of the same comic)

[Rickdogg]

I love being able to see multiple copies of the same exact book in varying grades because it makes it a lot easier to compare. I showed him exactly why CGC downgraded for each book and why. The difference between a 9.4 and a 9.8 is usually pretty obvious, but when you get into the 9.6 to 9.8 range it is harder to note the differences.

[hindmost]

9.8: Basically perfect. The only thing he could find was a slight thread of paper hanging from the bottom left corner... like one freaking fiber.

 

9.6: 2 front spine breaks; no color break

 

9.2: 4 spine breaks; no color breaks. Bottom left corner slightly more dinged than 9.8

 

8.5: 4 spine breaks; one *maybe* broke color, but the killer were two (what I think he called) "spider lines"(?) on the bottom left across the spidey symbol.

 

All in all, a worthwhile exercise.

[Arty]

How old those Wolverines are? Modern or Bronze?

Seems to be quite tough grading (compared to GA or silver)

[ninanina]

Rick, what would you think about removing that fibre of paper hanging from the bottom left corner and resubmitting it? Maybe he's got a 10?

[hindmost]

Rick, what would you think about removing that fibre of paper hanging from the bottom left corner and resubmitting it? Maybe he's got a 10?

heh... even though I figure you're (probably) kidding (the "probably" being how adamant I was about there being 10's in the lot... now I know better), I went back and looked at all three of the 9.8's with a magnifying glass. The one I showed ricky was probably more a corner ding than a fiber... even though it was maybe 1/128" noticeable, if that big. Same with one of the others. The third was off-centered slightly... very slightly, and that was the only thing I could find wrong with a pretty huge magnifying glass.

 

Now that I know what to look for, it helps a lot.