Grade is in: Solson Christmas Special 1 3 3

[scburdet]

Bought this from a new source. Casually following online listings for quite a while, most copies look like 🐕💩 and/or are priced way above FMV. Not perfect, but nice. Looking to see how our collective grading compares to the seller's.

Edited January 27 by scburdet

[marvelmaniac]

Slight edge and corner wear with slight creasing at the lower left corner, slight blunting to the lower right corner, slight spine stress with a few spine ticks, only 1 breaks color, slightly discolored staples.

IMO...VF+ 8.5

 

9.0 VERY FINE/NEAR MINT (VF/NM):  Back to Top
Nearly perfect with outstanding eye appeal. A limited number of bindery/printing defects are allowed. Cover is almost flat with almost imperceptible wear. Inks are bright with slightly diminished reflectivity. An 1/8" bend is allowed if color is not broken. Corners are cut square and sharp with ever-so-slight blunting permitted but no creases. Several lightly penciled, stamped or inked arrival dates are acceptable. Very minor foxing. Spine is tight and flat. Staples may show some discoloration. Only the slightest staple tears are allowed. A very minor accumulation of stress lines may be present if they are nearly imperceptible. Paper is off-white to cream and supple. Very minor interior tears may be present.

8.5 VERY FINE+ (VF+):  Back to Top
Fits the criteria for Very Fine but with an additional virtue or small accumulation of virtues that improves the book's appearance by a perceptible amount.

8.0 VERY FINE (VF):  Back to Top
An excellent copy with outstanding eye appeal. A limited accumulation of minor bindery/printing defects is allowed. Cover is relatively flat with minimal surface wear beginning to show, possibly including some minute wear at corners. Inks are generally bright with moderate to high reflectivity. An unnoticeable 1/4" crease is acceptable if color is not broken. Stamped or inked arrival dates may be present. Minor foxing. Spine is almost completely flat with a possible minor color break. Staples may show some discoloration. Very slight staple tears and a few almost insignificant stress lines may be present. Paper is cream to tan and supple. Centerfold is mostly secure. Minor interior tears at the margin may be present.

[Cerebus3000]

I see two colour breaking ticks with another one possibly hiding in the glare…but for a cover with that much black it looks pretty nice. I’d say 9.0.

[Mars76]

9.2-9.4

[scburdet]

On 4/5/2023 at 2:28 PM, marvelmaniac said:

slightly discolored staples

Sharp eyes there. I did check this, as well as images of other copies in online sales. It's hard for me to see the staples in a lot of them, but it appears to me that this book was bound with copper (or similar) staples. The definitely look clean & consistent up close.

[marvelmaniac]

On 4/5/2023 at 11:53 PM, scburdet said:

Sharp eyes there. I did check this, as well as images of other copies in online sales. It's hard for me to see the staples in a lot of them, but it appears to me that this book was bound with copper (or similar) staples. The definitely look clean & consistent up close.

That would explain it, to my old eyes they looked dark, so...

[grendelbo]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:42 PM, Mars76 said:

9.2-9.4

Yup. 9.2/9.4

Thanks for posting.

[scburdet]

I left this one with my shop in the fall. The lines for Lee's signature at the two cons they went to were apparently prohibitive, so they sent it to the in-house signing.

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by scburdet

[scburdet]

I can't say for certain that this is mine, but this popped up on CGC's IG stories during the Lee signing & it's signed exactly where we asked him to do it, so we'll see in 4-6 weeks (maybe longer as it seems like when the shop submits there can be a delay due to them sending in a lot more books at the same time). I'm dreaming of a sword-filled X-Mas....

[CGC Mike]

On 12/2/2023 at 9:02 AM, Amazeron said:

What’s the yellow case around the book? I see people with them all the time at cons. 

It's called a window bag, which is used to help control where you would like the artist to sign a book and protect it from damage.

[grendel013]

A family friend of mine was selling off a collection that he showed me. I didn't have the funds or the desire to purchase myself at the time but I was going to try to help him. Within the 60 some long boxes I found almost an entire box of these. There were other Solson boxes too like How to Draw TMNT and TMNT Teach Karate. I told him that these were "rare" but would flood the market if he sold them all at once. He ended up selling cheap because he was moving. Not sure where they ended up but I'm in NJ. So just be wise that there may be 100 9.8s and anther 50 9.6s of Samurai Santa entering the market. 

[scburdet]

On 12/2/2023 at 9:51 AM, grendel013 said:

100 9.8s

There are a decent number of graded copies on the census already FWIW. About 100 Universal & an equal number of Signatures. I assume almost all, if not all, of the signatures are from JL.

[scburdet]

So, the one from the CGC social post wasn't mine. I was actually surprised at the number of copies of this submitted to the signing. Seemed like between 8-12 more copies showed up in the SS since the signing. People were pretty spot on here.

[Cerebus3000]

Congrats! Nice book which I do indeed envy. I have checked back a few times on this to see if the grade was posted. I was thinking for the ticks I identified I gave an overly harsh grade.

Looks like you have some case scratches to try and buff out 

Edited January 27 by Cerebus3000