Strange Tales 183, for your grading displeasure

[DavidTheDavid]

Some copy/paste from the sister thread to this one:

 

So here's the thing. I bought this from a dealer that I had swore off. I know, I know, I went back for more. Some of the books have been spot on, a nice Hulk Annual #1 even came back one notch higher. But several books have been badly overgraded, like a 9.8 (and I wasn't expecting a 9.8, hoping for a 9.6) that had numerous cover creases and some gunk stuck to the cover. But this comic, and one other I need to work on my Strange Tales run looked nice and I've never had issues with returns.

 

*Spoiler tags below so as to give you a chance to assess grade before having your thoughts possibly 'pre-conditioned' with all my rambling.

 

So this book was advertised at

9.4

 

 

And it looks like that in hand, except for... maybe the bottom left corner and front left corer? Production problems there?

 

Thoughts?

 

big pic front

big pic rear

 

[timfinz]

9.4 IMHO! I want to say 9.6 but I can't when the corners aren't as pristine as I think they should be unless it's a bindery tear and even then I shy away from grading too high.

You have minute bindery tears on the top and bottom corners of the spine side. I can only detect what I believe are two very small, and I mean VERY small spine tics. But the TRHC front cover, TLHC back cover is just not as clean as I think it should be.

[Vision75]

I was thinking 9.6. Nice book. However, I did check an image of another ST 183. In that copy, Strange's right knee is the same color as the rest of the pants. Could that be an issue?

[timfinz]

I was thinking 9.6. Nice book. However, I did check an image of another ST 183. In that copy, Strange's right knee is the same color as the rest of the pants. Could that be an issue?

I think not. CGC 9.8 copy shows same as David's copy!

[DavidTheDavid]

Ya, I looked into that knee thing as well, and it's present in other copies. Just a lighter shade of blue to give some depth and sense of light reflecting off the doctor's pants.

 

And thanks for the feedback!

[rjpb]

With the corner wear and scratch at the bottom of the cover I'd be tempted to call it a 9.2, but wouldn't be surprised if someone called it a 9.4 (including CGC)

 

I see the seller went with 9.4, and for a raw book priced reasonably, it would probably be acceptable to me unless I was buying books I planned to submit and expected to grade out from CGC at at least 9.4

 

 

[paul747]

i say 9.4 is on for this maybe higher with tim's example.

[Still Only 35c]

My first thought was 9.6, presents well.