Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #1 ,opinions on Grade prior to pucrchase Raw Book 1 1

[aabruzzese]

I got disappointed on a recent purchase of PPSM #1 as the listing did not show a micro tear on the front cover and it was listed as high grade Raw Book/  

I would like to avoid a repeat, what would you guys reasonably. expect from this book?

Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 1976 (First Issue) Marvel Comics VF+ | eBay 

 

[awildhome]

Hello . . . I am fairly new to grading (wish I was fairly 'newer' overall), so please take with a grain of salt. 

Soft corners, FLC color-breaking crease, hard to tell - but is that a small hole front top edge between the 's' and 'g' in Comics Group? Vertical lines/streaking FTC, FC UPC Box - is that a small stain around the '12'? BCUR looks like dirt or stain.

7.5 to 8.0

Thanks,

Art

[SuperSt4r]

8.5

[Point Five]

If you are after a certain grade, seems like you're better off buying a copy already slabbed rather than buying raw and submitting yourself. This is a common 70s book, and slabbed copies are pretty cheap.

 

[scburdet]

On 6/24/2023 at 8:51 PM, Point Five said:

buying a copy already slabbed

I've come around this this way of thinking for anything that's available in high CGC grade for $100-200 or less. It's way to easy to spend more on a raw book & grading and still end up with a disappointing number b/c of a defect you didn't notice.

[Point Five]

On 6/24/2023 at 10:23 PM, scburdet said:

I've come around this this way of thinking for anything that's available in high CGC grade for $100-200 or less. It's way to easy to spend more on a raw book & grading and still end up with a disappointing number b/c of a defect you didn't notice.

Even if (hypothetically) you're submitting a raw PPSSM #1 and you're confident that it's vetted thoroughly, I still don't get it. Per GPA, CGC 9.4 blue copies are averaging $106 in the last three months. Even if you have a 9.4 raw that you paid $30 for... to jump through all the hoops of a CGC submission and get back a slabbed book a month or two later... to squeeze out like $20-25 by not buying it slabbed in the first place? It doesn't make sense to me, unless you just enjoy submitting books or you're submitting literal piles of them. Your time is genuinely worth more than that.

 

[Point Five]

Here's a random CGC 9.2 copy for a hundred bucks,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204304172598?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818142055%26meid%3D40a2b47a578a41d4bd8cf3f711530d3d%26pid%3D101113%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D204304172258%26itm%3D204304172598%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2349624%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebV9BertRefreshRanker&_trksid=p2349624.c101113.m2109

To the OP: this copy is better **in every way** than the raw copies you've been noodling around with. It's already slabbed! The corners are sharper! The spine is sharper! The pages are verified White! The guy on the back has a bigger smile!

It's a buyers' market for this book and you've got tons of options. If you want to end up with a slab, definitely buy slabbed.

 

[scburdet]

On 6/25/2023 at 12:42 AM, Point Five said:

raw PPSSM #1

the exception might be "rare" books that aren't that expensive, but where the graded supply is limited or non-existent. I was in the middle of a similar search when Point Five posted. Here's a 9.4  for $130 with a BO option, and most sellers are going to take something off if you ask.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/354789217926

9.6s listed around $200-250. As long as you're not insistent on a 9.8, buying graded isn't too painful to get something you want. Especially since a lot of online sellers overgrade or simply don't know what they're doing. Even with buyer protection, you might waste a lot of time buying & returning books that look good in a listing and don't quite hold up in hand. MCS even has a couple of reasonably priced CBCS graded copies in the mid-NM range.

[bighairjer]

A micro tear may not preclude a book from being “high grade” depending on other defects and your opinion of what that means.  But like others have said, for this book, just go graded and you’ll have a better chance of not being dissapointed.

[aabruzzese]

On 6/24/2023 at 9:10 PM, scburdet said:

the exception might be "rare" books that aren't that expensive, but where the graded supply is limited or non-existent. I was in the middle of a similar search when Point Five posted. Here's a 9.4  for $130 with a BO option, and most sellers are going to take something off if you ask.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/354789217926

9.6s listed around $200-250. As long as you're not insistent on a 9.8, buying graded isn't too painful to get something you want. Especially since a lot of online sellers overgrade or simply don't know what they're doing. Even with buyer protection, you might waste a lot of time buying & returning books that look good in a listing and don't quite hold up in hand. MCS even has a couple of reasonably priced CBCS graded copies in the mid-NM range.

I tottally agree that at this point since PPSM run is not a high premium series it may well make sense to just buy the first Keys already graded. I just cannot find a good Canadian source for PPSM back issues and avoid the hassle of the exchange rates and high shipping costs associated to purchase from a US seller.  I understand that Ebay also charges fees on top of that so it is not a good venue for low end books in small batches of one's or two's at a time.  

Herei s a supposed 9.6 from Ebay for 120$ US, he asked me if I would prefer he gets it graded first, I asked him how much he would charge me after it gets graded and if it does come back as a 9.6 

x

x

I am really thinking for the first 10 books i will simply buy them already graded.  I really regret not having purchased all the series back when I was a teen, life has a way of keeping you busy and pulling you away from Hobbies.  If I had bought and stashed the 35C variants of PPSM#7 thru #11 it would be an amazing collection. 

 

[Nschenks]

On 6/25/2023 at 10:36 AM, aabruzzese said:

I tottally agree that at this point since PPSM run is not a high premium series it may well make sense to just buy the first Keys already graded. I just cannot find a good Canadian source for PPSM back issues and avoid the hassle of the exchange rates and high shipping costs associated to purchase from a US seller.  I understand that Ebay also charges fees on top of that so it is not a good venue for low end books in small batches of one's or two's at a time.  

Herei s a supposed 9.6 from Ebay for 120$ US, he asked me if I would prefer he gets it graded first, I asked him how much he would charge me after it gets graded and if it does come back as a 9.6 

x

x

I am really thinking for the first 10 books i will simply buy them already graded.  I really regret not having purchased all the series back when I was a teen, life has a way of keeping you busy and pulling you away from Hobbies.  If I had bought and stashed the 35C variants of PPSM#7 thru #11 it would be an amazing collection. 

 

What exactly are you looking for? Because I’ll second what everyone else has said in that unless you’re hunting for a 9.8, it’s better off to just buy it already graded for this book. Higher grade raw copies are probably going to run more than anything but a 9.6 or a 9.8, and even then as others have mentioned you can only glean so much from photos (as a rule of thumb, 100% ignore any grade a seller lists unless you have experience with that seller and know they are fair).

Certain books from this era or later it makes more sense to hunt for raw (particularly, as others have said, if it’s a rare book or a key that has value in grades well below 9.8). Scburdet makes a great point that if a book you want in high grade can be gotten already slabbed for under $200, just buy it slabbed, unless you realllly like the hunt. The disparity in prices between 9.4/9.6 and 9.8 for 70’s and later books means great deals can be found for slabbed books under 9.8. If you want 9.8…you’ll either have to pony up or be very, very patient waiting for a raw copy (and be ready to be disappointed). You can be successful hunting 9.8 raws for books like this, but it’s not a very forgiving or time-effective enterprise, in my experience, especially if you’re looking for a specific book (and the older/rarer the book, the harder this is).

Hope this helps! I learned the hard way about buying raws off eBay. If you’re dead set on it, be patient, ask questions (request more pictures if needed), ignore listed grades (and in many cases they can be seen as a red flag), vet the seller (read feedback and check condition of other books they are selling, for example), and if you have doubts or the risk is high, just wait for a better deal!

(ps sorry for the big block of text lol)

[aabruzzese]

I will purchase the first copies already graded, people will alwaystry to give the highest impression when trying to sell something, personal grading may be a thing but the proof is in the encapsulated and graded version.

  

Besides, is it really worth grading the PPSM series as a whole? 

 

[scburdet]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:27 AM, aabruzzese said:

is it really worth grading the PPSM series as a whole

Depends on your goals. It's always "worth it" if the graded books give you personal satisfaction as a collector. We all like books, series, etc. that may not be as widely appreciated by other collectors (PPSSM 38 is one of mine). If you're talking about PPSSM issues that you could collect & readily unload if you decided to liquidate the collection, then I'd expect issues 1, 9, 27, 28, 64, 90, 98, 99, 101, 189 & maybe a handful of others fall into that category. Gocollect.com has a (sometimes) useful tool where if you search a series there's a toggle button that will show key issues only. Definitely imperfect both in missing some issues and showing some that aren't that collectable, but a decent place to start. Again, if you're not talking about high value books, grading comes down to a personal preference.