Grade for this Flash 96 from 1948? 1 1

[Karl M]

I bought this book several years ago from Sid Friedfertig, long-time hobbyist and major contributor to the Superman Dailies books put out by IDW.  Sid said the book came from DC editor Jack Schiff's estate, which he was helping settle.  The book is hard to find, so I was happy to get it, and as a long-time DC fan, I loved the Schiff connection.

After a year or two, I cracked it out from its 3.0 CGC slab.  I reached 3 or 4 pages in and turned those pages, and to my horror the cover and 3 pages fell cleanly off.  At that point I stopped, except to check the center of the book where the binding still seemed intact.

Anyways, I'm guessing no more pages will go anywhere unless they're fully turned, and maybe another 5 or 6 pages will come loose with any handling.  Other than that, the book looks pretty nice.

So, was this perhaps a 4.0 that CGC downgraded to 3.0 because some pages were starting to loosen, and after I made the mistake of cracking it - I'm guessing it's now a 1.5?

[scburdet]

Full spine split is automatically down to 1.8. I'd guess 1.0/1.5

[grendelbo]

Looks like a 3.0 was a generous grade.

At some point, maybe when the book was in the slab, the spine fully split and more pages detached.

Probably a 1.5 now. 

[Karl M]

Thanks for the grader's notes - never saw those (I actually didn't realize they were public).  The book looked so pretty in the slab I thought the grade might have been on the harsh side, but with spine splits top, middle and bottom and the cover detached at the top, it was indeed generous.  Looks like a full split was inevitable.  Oh well, lose some, lose some.

[zzutak]

1.5 FR/GD with BRITTLE Pages sounds right to me as well. 

[JollyComics]

QC!!!!

[1950's war comics]

it;s a poor comic

[Karl M]

On 8/27/2023 at 6:34 PM, 1950's war comics said:

it;s a poor comic

Maybe, but I'm comfortable calling it Fair or 1.5.  The book spine hasn't completely split; just the front cover and the first few pages have come loose (al least so far).  It's probably technically brittle, but the pages in the last 2/3 of the book are actually pretty supple.  Not saying I'd do it, but I bet a long strip of tape along the spine or a couple of added staples would keep it whole and make it look GVG, and I've seen plenty of books like that which sell raw for 1.5-2.0 prices (Terry's Comics has always had a slew of them, some of which I've bought).

A few years ago, I had dozens of cheap 1950s comics with split covers or split spines that I sent to mycomicshop, and they graded them as Poor and offered to buy them at their Poor prices.  I had them returned to me, stapled the spines, sent them back, and they were then graded as Fair.  Which I always thought was kinda goofy, but I guess a "functional" comic book is worth more even if it's only an amateur alteration that's making it so.