Tony S

I don't know what I could say that seems worthy after the first few posts.....

I don't see any moisture damage as well. Most collectors will be put off more by the tape and color touch than whatever you are seeing that suggests moisture damage. Like Paul's comments above, I believe what you are seeing is a result of the tape on the spine. The tape is plastic. the rest of the book is paper. Some puckering can occur. I would suggest leaving it as is. If you want to try to improve, then your #2 is the best option. Restoration removal by CCS requires screening (screening is optional for pressing) . So send it in - pay for screening - and then CCS will tell you if restoration removal and/or pressing is likely to be beneficial. (not guaranteed - but likely) Once you have their expert, in hand opinion you can make a better decision.

Yes, CCS does clean book and press books. The book that I believe you are talking about is not all foil, especially not the back cover. It's a glossy black and those are near the very worst about picking up finger prints and smudges. As far as cleaning all that can be done is some light buffing because anything more aggressive like erasers just removes gloss and ink and that defect is as bad or worse than fingerprints and smudges.

The OP got what they asked for - more descriptive grading notes of the actual defect(s). That is not a lack of transparency by CGC. That is CGC giving exactly what was asked for. As for the original "poorly pressed" grading notes - that sounds like a training issue for CGC for one or more graders. BOSS to GRADER: "Yes, the books were poorly pressed. But be more specific with your description of defect(s) and let those noted defects speak for themselves as far as the quality of the pressing."

Yes....Proof again that grading notes matter far less than people want them to matter. The color breaking finger bends are easily the defect most affecting the final grade - and they are not even mentioned. Even with the finger bends 6.5 seems a bit harsh. But just a bit. An 8'ish range grade seems out of the question.

$200 is probably a fair enough price as it is 1/2 of what a 4.0 would cost. Keep in mind that in the future the book will always be worth less than a copy with no restoration and will likely be harder to sell. Personally, I think you'd be better off with a lower grade unrestored copy for a bit more $$. Mycomicshop has a CGC 3.0 for about $300. it would almost certainly be - over the long term - a better purchase financially.

It will get restored as others have said. To elaborate, the standard CGC employs - entirely at their discretion - has to do with if the glue was applied to do something...idk... meaningful. Very small amounts of glue had been applied to the covers of some golden age books to keep very tiny splits or tears from getting worse. CGC sometimes gives these a blue label with notation of "small amount of dried glue on cover". With your book, the glue was used to attach / reinforce the cover. Very much a restoration/conservation attempt. Nor does it appear to be what most would call a small amount of glue.

You need to post up a picture to get an informed answer. But generally speaking, stains cannot be removed with methods that will not count as conservation/restoration if the book is sent to CGC. Non-restorative cleaning removes dirt and pencil marks from the surface of paper (say the cover). Stains penetrate into the paper - usually visible from both sides of the paper - and require solvents of some type to remove. The use of solvents risks a restored or conserved designation from CGC.

Two come to mind. Great thread! Thanks to the OP!! The Deathhawk 2 is CGC graded 9.8 too, but I don't have a picture of it

It might be a mistake to think of it as hopeless. It's also a mistake to give much in the way of false hope. It is far, FAR easier to get judgements than it is to COLLECT on judgements. It costs money to look for assets. It costs money to go back to court repeatedly to try to get payments. Let's say the person gets a job and you go to court for a garnishment. They pay a few months and quit that job. Rinse and repeat, over and over. And if they move to another state from where the judgement is at....... I was personally involved in getting small claims judgements where I worked. Direct point of contact with our attorneys. We just quit bothering after a few years because we spent more money than we collected. There were a couple - I mean two out of a couple of hundred - judgements where years later money was collected. In both cases the person with the judgement against them got married and the new couple went to get a mortgage to buy a house. The bank said no because of the outstanding judgement. So they came in and paid. By all accounts, Mike owes a LOT of money. Just one person here said $65,000. Money collected is going to be a very long shot proposition. Some say false hope is better than no hope, but it's not something I have ever thought to be true. Those joining in an effort at collecting $$ via civil action would be wise to find an attorney that will work for JUST a percent of what is collected. Otherwise the truth is people will just compound their losses with attorney fees. Here is something else I'll share. Sorry to be a Johnny Raincloud. I also worked with the local prosecutors office and some people got charged with felonies. The criminal justice system doesn't have a lot of enthusiasm for incarcerating people with a lot of health problems. Least not here. They don't want to pay their medical bills. So if Mike really does have a bunch of health issues that reduces the chance of meaningful jail time. Still is worth nagging at authorities about criminal charges. Even if a conviction leads to probation, compensation to the victims will no doubt be ordered. Now you have a judgement for free. Which might be all it's worth, but still.....

I can't tell on this thread where people are being serious and where it is just goofing around. But your comment is serious so -- a serious response. It also needs to be safe to REMOVE a book from the holder. CGC does this all the time for both regrading and for your signature series events. There needs to be a small gap somewhere to start the removal of the outer holder. I recently needed to remove a newly slabbed book from the holder for pressing and I found no such gap. I had to break off a corner with pliers. Sealing the outer holder tight is great, but the label swapping scam that recently was exposed happened because the gap in the seal of the outer holder is at the top - where the label is at. And the label is not sealed inside the inner holder. It basically sits in a well at the top of the outer holder. So leave a small gap at the bottom of the outer holder and seal the label in with the inner holder. No label swaps possible. Besides --- archivally speaking there seems to be a consensus that the books need to be able to "breath" a little bit. Unless you can make the holder completely air tight - pumping out the atmospheric air and filling it with an inert gas.

One word: 1099-K. eBay will be sending you one. The dealer will not.

He offered to do the same thing on my Avengers 1. He was going to add material back to the edge, then color touch it to match and trim to the correct size. I choose not to do this for two reasons. The cost - and I thought it possible that doing so might take the book to moderate rather than slight restored I was under the impression at the time that it was going to be done by leaf casting, but perhaps he was going to do the dry grafting instead.

In 2012 he worked on an Avengers 1 for me. An slight amateur restored (trimmed) 8.0 to slight professional 9.2. The work was reasonably priced and reasonably fast (four months) for restoration. He even made the helpful suggestion of getting Stan Lee's signature and arranged the facilitator. There was a time when Mike had a skill set and business that people were glad to pay for and he was doing good work. It's sad how it worked out for him and for everyone else that used him the past several years.

As Stormflora said - if you have the books in your possession and they are your books just ignore any and all threats of legal action. Dangerous Waters is in Florida. You said you live in Canada. He's bluffing - the legal costs would be many multiples of the value of the books. It's hard to get court judgments when two different jurisdictions are involved and both are in the same state. Two countries? LOL. Die of old age before anything happens. Besides that - if the books were submitted under the owner or stores account THEY FILLED OUT THE RETURN ADDRESS. You don't need to worry about actions by CGC. CGC sent the books where they were told after they were paid. They have done their part. As an aside - Dangerous Waters does not have a Dealer Account with CGC. At least not according to the CGC Dealer look up. Nor do they list on their website that you can send books to CGC through them. With shipping $250 is in the general ball park - a little high - for five moderns. Retail would be $25 a book ($125) a five dollar invoice fee and $80 return shipping. That's $210 - plus whatever he charged to ship the books to CGC. So you certainly were not saving any money going through the store's account.

Many with dealer accounts have books shipped directly back to the client

Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284226451331?itmmeta=01HQCN20SE9M6AYS4BR9P98SMR&hash=item422d377783:g:jS8AAOSw4qBgVhaI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4AZh5b5nOIiD93ANP7%2BZDB%2FSuJ0Kbg3NU0j%2Fyre%2B5nEkZVfqj1JX%2BXoF0d4rSnUdRnSNV4BGJ3rFpef4INGO2tgGJd0qgttUOvsQKPTgWkaTWleGWk9y4%2BUGW1QO9yDalLG7ZqaomYDUSfSzJYlYDzY38PoCCa3yJFUxW1srqogyyi3Yv1ioOpZbIKyIx58dmB8Q2RZaauPBnJbGgk9WEMYsGJ09BgivraFpkdpXf3k5MgXQMYNTgFjkCkJJf9bwUNiq3pyvTdtNVi1ki63FdrRz3PeT%2FMrjn6TuJwJTs0n7|tkp%3ABk9SR-qMiJW7Yw

Usually this arrangement is with someone you are good friends with and/or that you already have a business relationship with. Just to assist with clarity, what you are looking for is someone here in the USA that you could use as a "ship to" address for your purchases from various sellers. eBay most common, but it could be most any seller. Then once the person has a decent size box of books for you, they ship your purchases to you in Switzerland. So the idea about mycomicshop is never going to work. No way they agree to receive and hold your purchases from eBay or Facebook or Mile High Comics until you have a box full. They MIGHT hold books you purchased from them until you can fill a box. Might. The reason it has to be a good friend or someone you already have a business relationship with is because it can easily be a fair amount of effort and time by the person serving as your USA receiving address. You will also find that some sellers - and it should be nearly all sellers - will not ship to an address other than what is associated with your payment information. Because sellers - the people you are buying comics from - can end up getting ripped off when shipping books to an address not associated with the credit card or PayPal account. One final note. One big box is pretty much always cheaper than multiple little boxes to ship. But here in the USA, there are NO inexpensive international shipping services. Just none. And there are limits on how much insurance can be purchased on international shipments.

If high grade - and it looks to be - the book will get a green label qualified grade. So if the book is otherwise 9.8, the numeric grade would be 9.8. But with a green label that says "Qualified" . You can find CGC graded examples of this and similar books (say FCD Umbrella Academy) for sale on eBay. No, it cannot be cleaned off.

The book you speak of is full of bad advise. It is not highly regarded except by those that have little knowledge and are unwilling to take the time to learn. The answer to your question is simple. It's not safe to do much in the way of cleaning on comics with erasers anywhere except the white areas. But if you clean up the white areas it makes the rest of the book pop. Myke's book literally defines the old adage of "those that can, do. Those that can't teach."

Why who knows. But the Unlimited as you note is just poorly explained. It is $100 minimum on unlimited - minus any discount the submitter qualifies for. My best guess on why is competition. That place in Texas has made a big deal of grading high value books at a much lower price than CGC. That CGC is responding suggests that they noticed.

The new unlimited has to be a mistake. The price should - and no doubt will be - 4% FMV minus 20 percent. That's 3.2%. $100 minimum charge becomes $80 minimum charge. There is no way CGC is lowering the minimum price of Unlimited to $55. That price is less than High value/

My question too. I'll be inquiring tomorrow. If dealer accounts are not adjusted (improved) I expect a lot of dealer accounts will become Elite memberships instead. Which will happen quickly - as renewals are next month. Is the ability to submit to NCG and PMG new? I don't remember that being included before. CCS cannot seem to make up its mind on the cost of pressing moderns. $15 forever. $10 for a few months of 2023. Back to $15 the end of 2023. And now $12. Time settle down guys Update. I mocked up several submission. Dealer discount looks to be 25%. And the discount on pressing is new. Used to only be on grading.

If your customers or you are most concerned about damage or getting lost, Registered Mail is the Gold Standard. It also is the slowest. Sometimes lots slower. Ten business days not uncommon. But lose or damage is nearly unheard of. And insurance costs much less once the package is registered. But I'm pretty sure you know all of this. And probably have private shipping insurance. I cannot say about the US Postal Service. But I worked for a State Agency where deadlines and accuracy of benefits given were the most important. I was middle management. And at least where I worked, the big bosses had a view on timeliness just the opposite what you express (and is most fair/reasonable) Their attitude was that once it was late, it was late. That counted against our benchmarks. But it didn't matter how late. One day late, three weeks late. All the same on the stats. So the focus was getting as many done on time as possible. Once a case went late, it became a much lower priority. . Again, I have no idea if there is a similar view at the USPS and other delivery services. And I disagree - now and back then - with that view. But that view was the prevalent view at the top. Because for them it's not about the individual case/person and maybe package. It is about meeting the benchmark. Stats. Once late, no reason to hurry.

I have no good answer LOL. NASA has billions and every once in a while a rocket blows up. Ford sold 4.2 million cars in 2022 - and a some were lemons. USPS doesn't meet it's stated delivery time - in my experience - more than seems reasonable. Maybe it didn't get scanned properly. Maybe too many people called in sick so it just sits a day. But USPS gives the sender the postage costs back if you ask on the Express service. Which I will do if they are late. But that doesn't happen often with me, because I strongly encourage customers to just do regular priority mail with some extra insurance and a signature. The difference in delivery time is often only a day and sometimes - like this situation - no difference at all.