Amazing Spider-man #300: Wizard's "Finding the Flaws"

[Rickdogg]

There is a pretty sweet article on page #173 in this month's Wizard that talks about the Spidey #300

 

"FINDING THE FLAWS

Comic books that refuse to stay mint!

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Bigger means better-except for graded comics.

 

Oversized issues deliver more comic goodness, but the extra pages can make them vulnerable to a slew of defects.

 

Take Amazing Spider-man #300, for example. The first apperance of Venom often sports a small roll or bend in the spine--and the amount of black on the cover doesn't help.

 

'Because the cover is primarily black and red, a rolled spine can lead to spine stress lines,' pointed out CGC grader Paul Litch. 'Especially on the back cover, which is completely black. There can be a lot of greasy fingerprints that also detract from the book.'

 

Another common defect for the book is a jagged right edge. 'Due to the bigger size, sometimes the right edge has a jagged cut,' explained Litch. 'It's almost like some of them were cut with a dull blade.'

[swampie-migration]

do the 9.6 ASM 300's have any spine stress at all?

 

 

[Rickdogg]

Yes they do. I have seen one with 13 spine breaks that didn't break color!

[swampie-migration]

Could a 9.6 have stress lines that break the color? (if the line are barely visible)

 

[Rickdogg]

It all depends...you have to look at the whole book and deduct for all of the flaws. It also depends on how bad the spine stress is and how many.

[B-Smooth]

There may be one or two VERY tiny spine stresses that break color in a 9.6 but usually not more than that.