Grade is in, signed by Chris Claremont: X-Men 96 (1975) 2 2

[scburdet]

Mostly happy with this one. Missed the Claremont signing cut last year though.

Spoiler

A good eye test if you look closely at the BLBC

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by scburdet

[grendelbo]

Looks nice. 9.2 thereabouts.

Thanks for posting.

[scburdet]

On 1/2/2023 at 11:06 PM, grendelbo said:

9.2 thereabouts

despite the barely visible (but definitely there) crease on the back cover?

Edited January 3, 2023 by scburdet

[Snowdon]

9.2-9.4

[LowGradeBronze]

Are there 2 tiny nicks on that edge next to where it says "cut out, fold, staple"? Low 9s is my guess. 9.2 or 9.4 (look at me venturing into the 9s!)

[scburdet]

On 1/2/2023 at 11:06 PM, grendelbo said:

9.2 thereabouts

with the barely visible crease on the back cover? IDK how pressing would fix this completely

@LowGradeBronze the tiniest of nicks 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by scburdet

[grendelbo]

On 1/3/2023 at 12:52 PM, scburdet said:

with the barely visible crease on the back cover? IDK how pressing would fix this completely

@LowGradeBronze the tiniest of nicks 

 

  Hide contents

 

Yeah, that's more of an 8.0/8.5. I doubt that crease could be pressed all the way out so max cap of 9.0.

[LowGradeBronze]

Likewise 8.5 from me. I missed the crease first time & forgot to check the hidden contents! Still a very nice copy! Rather have the 'issues' on the back!

[scburdet]

On 1/3/2023 at 4:12 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Rather have the 'issues' on the back

+1 even more than inside, like a missing MVS. I just found one of these I never noticed before 

[scburdet]

Struggled quite a bit deciding which Claremonts made sense at the price point (which I think went up since last year?). Ultimately, most of the ones I considered weren't valuable and/or high grade enough to make sense, especially given the large number of his sig books out there. This one goes b/c it looks great from the front (almost as good as a 9.6 #129 I got back recently), but the back has the issues, so the sig will distract from whatever number appears on the top left of the case.

[Mars76]

8.5

[travizb]

9.0/9.2, probably 9.2

[scburdet]

I'll post the results soon, if anyone who missed out wants to take a stab.

[Nilo2]

I'm going to go with 9.0. That back cover crease looks non color breaking and a really good presser might be able to get it out. Moot point now, I guess, but still a really nice book. Thanks for posting!

[scburdet]

So, there's always one to kick you in the 'nads. This book met my standards for sending an older key to a signature series event. I'm not interested in "desecrating" a significant older book that might grade out at, or over, 9.4 (a big reason I didn't send CC my X-Men 129 or 109). My only goal is not to "lose" money on the transaction, so this grinds my gears. The two Grade Notes are a full length printer crease on the back cover & a corner crease on the back cover. I didn't really ID the printer crease as that before, but it's there. It's no worse than a polybag crease I have on a 9.2, so I'm pretty sure that wasn't a significant factor in determining the grade. As some people indicated, the corner crease doesn't break color; however, it would if it was not on a white background so I viewed it like a color breaking crease more or less. Based on my reading of the CGC guide, such a crease would bring a book down to the 7.0/7.5 range on the front cover, but being on the back it should grade at least a grade higher. I was expecting an 8.0 based on the overall eye appeal, so pretty disappointed (also why this is 4/4 on my updating the 'grade is in' updates 🙄).

Edited June 6, 2023 by scburdet

[Nilo2]

7.0!??? That’s nuts!!

[Mars76]

7.0 is a bit harsh.

[Snowdon]

Thought the back crease could have been pressed out, this is at least an 8.0.... 

[Artboy99]

I think 7.0 is correct. That is a pretty big crease on the back, I also see some dirt that could have been cleaned first.

 

[JollyComics]

That would be gone to 6.5 but 7.0 is a sweet grade.