Giant Size X-Men #1 Just Graded 9.9. It Begins..... 8 8

[shadroch]

On 4/9/2024 at 8:44 AM, Hepcat said:

I dunno. But somehow my heart just doesn't bleed for label collectors.

Collecting labels takes up less space than collecting slabbed comics.

[Hepcat]

On 4/10/2024 at 12:05 AM, TomO1357 said:

If they're suddenly changing the grading standard and giving out more 9.9's, which they appear to be doing, it will make them more money from re-submissions but devalue all existing 9.8's.

What does it matter to those with the 9.8's if there are more 9.9's out there all of a sudden? They still have their comic (or comics) which they bought because they loved and wanted the comic, right? .... Uh ..., right?

Edited May 29 by Hepcat

[Happyfarm]

On 5/17/2024 at 5:36 PM, Hepcat said:

What does it matter to those with the 9.8's if there are more 9.9's out there all of a sudden? They still have their comic (or comics) which they bought because they loved and wanted the comic, right? .... Uh, ... right?

Oh, how I wish you were right.

[wombat]

Could just be I'm noticing them more, but I have seen a lot of people posting 9.9s on Facebook. 

 

[DC#]

As kind Boardies pointed me toward http://cgcdata.com/cgc/ recently - thought I would look to see if there were any trends happening with 9.9s/10s.     I only looked at pre-2000 books because the crystal clear reality in looking at the numbers is almost all of the new 9.9s and 10s are in Modern Books.    I would bet the vast majority are 2015 and newer.   

I would say there is no strong evidence of change yet - going back into 2022 or earlier would be helpful just to confirm but no time right now.     Yes, the 1980's and 1990's books seem to be trending ahead of prior year - but it doesn't seem like any difference is statistically significant.   Even doubling the number of Mint/Gem Mint books in 2024 it still likely represents less 1% of all books submitted from that era in the year.    Though I appreciate that might not be much comfort if you paid $10k for a Secret Wars #8 9.9 only to see two more 9.9s and one 10.0 hit at some point.   

My belief remains that the pre-screen option is really geared for the bulk Modern submissions.  And the existence of that pre-screen shouldn't automatically trigger a boom in pre-2000s books.   

By the way - many of these new 9.9s are just random books.   Marvel Fanfare #3, Secret Wars II #5,  Longshot #5, Fantastic Four #337, Spider-man #19.....books that might otherwise be found in the $1 bins.   

 

[Stefan_W]

On 5/21/2024 at 11:10 AM, DC# said:

As kind Boardies pointed me toward http://cgcdata.com/cgc/ recently - thought I would look to see if there were any trends happening with 9.9s/10s.     I only looked at pre-2000 books because the crystal clear reality in looking at the numbers is almost all of the new 9.9s and 10s are in Modern Books.    I would bet the vast majority are 2015 and newer.   

I would say there is no strong evidence of change yet - going back into 2022 or earlier would be helpful just to confirm but no time right now.     Yes, the 1980's and 1990's books seem to be trending ahead of prior year - but it doesn't seem like any difference is statistically significant.   Even doubling the number of Mint/Gem Mint books in 2024 it still likely represents less 1% of all books submitted from that era in the year.    Though I appreciate that might not be much comfort if you paid $10k for a Secret Wars #8 9.9 only to see two more 9.9s and one 10.0 hit at some point.   

My belief remains that the pre-screen option is really geared for the bulk Modern submissions.  And the existence of that pre-screen shouldn't automatically trigger a boom in pre-2000s books.   

By the way - many of these new 9.9s are just random books.   Marvel Fanfare #3, Secret Wars II #5,  Longshot #5, Fantastic Four #337, Spider-man #19.....books that might otherwise be found in the $1 bins.   

 

My last stats course was too long ago for me to remember all of the details well enough to do the analysis, but this looks like the type of problem that involves rare events (Poisson distribution), so I believe a Poisson regression or something along those lines could be used to generate a meaningful analysis of the bump in 9.9s and 10s from year to year. It would be an interesting exercise at the end of 2024 when we have the final numbers. 

[wombat]

Does this seem legit for a 9.9? Someone posted as a recent submission of 25 Wolverine #1 that got 3 9.9s and a 10.  

[LordRahl]

On 5/28/2024 at 11:44 AM, wombat said:

Does this seem legit for a 9.9? Someone posted as a recent submission of 25 Wolverine #1 that got 3 9.9s and a 10.  

Nope. That book had to have been damaged during encapsulation. No way they graded it a 9.9 with that chunk out. Their sorry excuse of a QC department didn't catch it, or didn't want to.

[Sigur Ros]

On 5/28/2024 at 4:55 PM, LordRahl said:

No way they graded it a 9.9 with that chunk out.

You'd hope so, but... there are numerous examples of overgrades that include issues that wouldn't happen during encapsulation.

 

[LordRahl]

On 5/28/2024 at 2:57 PM, Sigur Ros said:

You'd hope so, but... there are numerous examples of overgrades that include issues that wouldn't happen during encapsulation.

 

Yes there are but nothing as egregious as this. At any other grade level besides 9.9 and 10 there is a certain amount of interpretation that goes into it and gift grades are debatable. I don't think anyone (including CGC) would defend a 9.9 grade that has a chunk out of a corner, even if production related, which I don't even think this is. There just isn't a big enough margin of error at this grade level. Especially the way that CGC has been hammering high grade copper recently. 100% this happened after grading IMO.

[wombat]

So this is the back of this book that also appears to have some staining. Just to be clear, this is not my book. Posted on Facebook. 

Edited May 28 by wombat

[trademarkcomics]

On 5/21/2024 at 8:10 AM, DC# said:

Marvel Fanfare #3, Secret Wars II #5,  Longshot #5, Fantastic Four #337, Spider-man #19.....books that might otherwise be found in the $1 bins.   

 

Hmmph. I have a set of 1-6 all 9.8. No grades higher until this. I had to look that one up. Now you have me worried.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon here but...

It seems unfair to give a book a higher grade just because of a miswrap.

The white strip of the back cover showing on the front could be the reason you can't see any wear. Longshot 5 was also printed without the usual black border line. 

For all we know if it had been printed with the border line and not miswrapped, this could have been a 9.2-9.4 copy...or less. 

^Note the black line showing on the edge of the back cover. Total miswrap...

Edited May 29 by trademarkcomics

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 5/28/2024 at 11:44 AM, wombat said:

25 Wolverine #1 that got 3 9.9s and a 10.  

[Microchip]

I'm not normally in for joining a pile on, but this book astounded me when I went to the scan.   It's coming up for auction shortly, and it is completely underwhelming 

[Microchip]

On 5/29/2024 at 11:23 AM, trademarkcomics said:

For all we know if it had been printed with the border line and not miswrapped, this could have been a 9.2-9.4 copy...or less. 

Agreed, there's nothing about the book that solidifies it as a 9.9 example.

 

[Microchip]

Now we're talking 

 

 

[Poka]

On 5/29/2024 at 2:44 AM, wombat said:

Does this seem legit for a 9.9? Someone posted as a recent submission of 25 Wolverine #1 that got 3 9.9s and a 10.  

Automatic comics posted a video about that Wolverine submission done by Metropolis comics / comicconnect

[october]

Could someone, somewhere, be pushing policies that sacrifice long-term trust for short-term profits/hype? Nah. Could never happen. Zero precedent for that in corportate America. 

 

[october]

If I was a 9.8 bronze/copper/modern key collector I would be selling everything. Like RIGHT NOW.

[DC#]

On 5/28/2024 at 6:23 PM, trademarkcomics said:

Hmmph. I have a set of 1-6 all 9.8. No grades higher until this. I had to look that one up. Now you have me worried.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon here but...

It seems unfair to give a book a higher grade just because of a miswrap.

The white strip of the back cover showing on the front could be the reason you can't see any wear. Longshot 5 was also printed without the usual black border line. 

For all we know if it had been printed with the border line and not miswrapped, this could have been a 9.2-9.4 copy...or less. 

^Note the black line showing on the edge of the back cover. Total miswrap...

Here is another one that is coming up on a Clink Auction.    Freshly graded on 5/16/24.    I got into a debate earlier in this thread on the topic of miswraps being allowed on books called "Mint" - but I align with you.   It doesn't visually look Mint and it is sort of a cheat on non-white covers to avoid spine color issues. 

https://www.comiclink.com/Auctions/item.asp?id=1785219