My new to me FF 36 just came in the mail….. 4 4

[SalmonAssassin]

Welp, I took a gamble on eBay and bought a NM Fantastic Four 36. It came trimmed. The book itself looks amazing though. Should I still submit to CGC or get a refund? I paid 1k for the book. 
 

Thank you for any and all advice/help. 

[grendelbo]

Refund if you have your suspicions. Steep price even for high grade. You may pay CGC quite a fee for them to give the book a Purple label and it drop in value. 

[rexinnih]

Unless the auction mentioned it is trimmed, return it. 

[Aman619]

On 1/9/2024 at 8:46 PM, SalmonAssassin said:

Welp, I took a gamble on eBay and bought a NM Fantastic Four 36. It came trimmed. The book itself looks amazing though. Should I still submit to CGC or get a refund? I paid 1k for the book. 
 

Thank you for any and all advice/help. 

are you sure?  I looked at a quick search of other copies and you're not missing anything more than a misaligned original trim... 

[Lightning55]

Yeah, I'm looking at both copies, and Marvel on the left is about the same distance from the spine on each one. On the 9.0 copy, Johnny's head is closer to the edge than on your copy. If one would be suspected of being trimmed, I would pick the 9.0 copy for that reason.

[october]

You can't tell trimming by measuring it. SA comics were all over the place production wise.

[ThothAmon]

I thought this guy was trimmed for years before I sent it in. 

 

[Hulksdaddy1]

Not sure about FF #36, but ASM #9 notoriously looks like it's been trimmed, but hasn't.

[pemart1966]

Your copy shows more image on the right of the photo than does the encapsulated example.  It seems to show about the same at the bottom but maybe a tad less at the top.

 Which side(s) are you thinking were trimmed?

Edited January 10 by pemart1966

[gunsmokin]

looks like the exact same copy sold by the same seller in November for a heck of a lot more...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/375066327886?hash=item5753b1fb4e:g:fAwAAOSwOzllWbAj&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0NfFn19oeIDQcuRJlnSFmIV02FCmtSAh1tFYj63L%2F9sKAVngi2k86OIbuD5CHpFPl1XAuJMV1tZI3P5lxfpGGJbuDCrHCk8CWtK8FAGJKYwkH9KT1he%2F3pIvPolbTX8Dc8RCQ6BH6uLxgb9Md7LFqjE3vuAiRB4Gu3FeZ%2BfuWnEfswS8oifNCDdtjXwLHvm1rCP7ZR1iWVEU5vN1DsiamWsbgumHtdt%2Ba9iKuYP9sL9hJlVx9219HDWa3son2lHAy1MkUXt6i3Bsa%2FRioSa3KYk%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7CS2dCeYw

Edited January 10 by gunsmokin

[jimjum12]

It doesn't look trimmed to me, but a 9.4 may be a bit ambitious. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Edited January 10 by jimjum12

[Aman619]

On 1/10/2024 at 3:27 PM, gunsmokin said:

looks like the exact same copy sold by the same seller in November for a heck of a lot more...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/375066327886?hash=item5753b1fb4e:g:fAwAAOSwOzllWbAj&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0NfFn19oeIDQcuRJlnSFmIV02FCmtSAh1tFYj63L%2F9sKAVngi2k86OIbuD5CHpFPl1XAuJMV1tZI3P5lxfpGGJbuDCrHCk8CWtK8FAGJKYwkH9KT1he%2F3pIvPolbTX8Dc8RCQ6BH6uLxgb9Md7LFqjE3vuAiRB4Gu3FeZ%2BfuWnEfswS8oifNCDdtjXwLHvm1rCP7ZR1iWVEU5vN1DsiamWsbgumHtdt%2Ba9iKuYP9sL9hJlVx9219HDWa3son2lHAy1MkUXt6i3Bsa%2FRioSa3KYk%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7CS2dCeYw

doesn't look like a match... note distance from right edge of the green blurb banner.  much wider on the copy supposedly trimmed.  and points of the burst below get cropped too

[gunsmokin]

On 1/10/2024 at 4:11 PM, Aman619 said:

doesn't look like a match... note distance from right edge of the green blurb banner.  much wider on the copy supposedly trimmed.  and points of the burst below get cropped too

[Buzzetta]

I don't think it was trimmed either IMO.

[Dick Pontoon]

Was this sold by PCB Comics and Sports? That's the only recent raw NM sale I see ($997). Gunsmokin' linked to the $2300 raw copy they sold in November, which is identical to their recent $997 sale. Maybe the original buyer flaked but I'd be leery of any ebay seller with a high grade book of this calibre that wasn't slabbed. Why would they leave so much money on the table? The last 9.4 went for over $4500 and last 9.6 over $20k.

[KCOComics]

On 1/11/2024 at 9:32 AM, Pontoon said:

Was this sold by PCB Comics and Sports? That's the only recent raw NM sale I see ($997). Gunsmokin' linked to the $2300 raw copy they sold in November, which is identical to their recent $997 sale. Maybe the original buyer flaked but I'd be leery of any ebay seller with a high grade book of this calibre that wasn't slabbed. Why would they leave so much money on the table? The last 9.4 went for over $4500 and last 9.6 over $20k.

This is a fair word of caution. 

[frozentundraguy]

A couple of years ago I bought a copy of Tales to Astonish #16 in its raw state. I sent it in to be graded and it came back qualified as the top edge was trimmed. I pulled up a graded copy and placed my scan of TTA #16 when raw next to it, sizing up the pics to be identical in size. I'm finding it hard to spot the trim.

 

[Lightning55]

On 1/13/2024 at 6:57 PM, frozentundraguy said:

A couple of years ago I bought a copy of Tales to Astonish #16 in its raw state. I sent it in to be graded and it came back qualified as the top edge was trimmed. I pulled up a graded copy and placed my scan of TTA #16 when raw next to it, sizing up the pics to be identical in size. I'm finding it hard to spot the trim.

 

Yours is possibly not trimmed either. That determination was made at the time of grading, an "opinion". It's an important opinion, but not the end all be all. On a different day, you might not get the same determination. 

If you could find a few blue label very similar examples, you might be able to send that evidence in to get yours released from purple label prison.