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lighthouse

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Posts posted by lighthouse

  1. Even on walkthrough it routinely takes a couple business days between when the package is signed for / delivered and when the invoice first shows up in the system.

    As others have noted, it will show first as “CCS in process”. There will be no intermediate updates between that entry and when it is done at CCS, at which time it will switch to “scheduled for grading” at CGC.

    CCS estimated TAT is very different from CGC even at the higher tiers because they have no way of knowing what work will need to be done, how many pressing cycles a book will take, etc. In the last few months I’ve had an Express CCS be done in less than a week and others that took over a month. It’s (thankfully) not a one-size-fits-all process where every book gets exactly 17 minutes of cleaning and exactly 14 hours in the press and moves on. So some books just do take longer than others.

  2. I’ve had five different libraries approach me about what to do with donated comics. None of them from WWII, but occasionally as far back as mid-60s.

    In most cases, when I get the call, I ask them what their discount is on graphic novels from their distributor. It’s usually terrible. Like 20% off retail.

    We've been able to work out several trade deals involving me buying hardcovers at my much larger discount, of titles that will actually circulate for them (when it comes down to it, the goal of every library is to get LOTS of stuff checked out over and over and over… they hate being museums, they want books to circulate). I give them exactly the books they’d prefer to have for their patrons. I get comics they can’t properly store and can’t circulate.

    One of my exes spent a few years working for a major museum. It was staggering hearing how much quality material sat in boxes in storage never on display. Donors thought they were doing the right thing giving material to the museum. And mostly they were just passing along a storage problem to someone else. Hundreds of boxes of treasures buried in a basement.

  3. On 4/28/2022 at 9:03 AM, Stefan_W said:

    I would guess there are two main reasons. First off, pre-1975 books have to be checked more closely for restorations and such and take a bit more time to grade than moderns. I mean, if the decision on the majority of books is where in the 9-range it falls the grading can go super fast. The second is the newer graders who are hired on would likely start at the modern tier and then work up to the older books once they build up experience. So new hiring will impact on the modern tiers first. Following along those lines, I would put the most experienced graders on the WK and Express tier books first since the stakes are highest there. 

    I don't know any of that for sure, but it makes the most sense to me. 

    It’s probably also MUCH easier to hire graders for Modern. Folks who have the capacity to consistently grade pre-1975 books can leverage that into dealing comics themselves at a substantially higher income than what CGC would pay. The opportunity cost for that person is much higher in taking the CGC job.

    I can teach an employee to grade post-1990 comics in a matter of a couple weeks and have them be “decent” at it within a month. Because the flaws are always the same. It’s spine stresses, corner creases, cover bends, and fingerprints. Same flaws over and over, easy reference comparisons. How many, how severe, what combination, here’s the grade.

    Take that same employee and start trying to teach them early bronze grading and it’s a parade of flaws they never once had to deal with before. Sub creases, drink rings, distribution spray, “extra art”, spine roll, missing corner pieces, loose staples, loose centerfolds, coupons cut out, foxing, tanning, missing gloss, cover soiling, the list goes on. All flaws that my employee didn’t see even once in grading four long boxes of Spawn comics.

  4. Now that the cutoff is here, looks like there will be 18 Truckee Meadows in the June Signature auction at Heritage. Fifteen silver age and three golden age.

    Most will be Saturday and Sunday books. But I would guess 3-5 in the Thursday session.

    Grades for the Silver:

    9.6 x3

    9.4 x3

    9.2 x3

    9.0 x3

    8.5

    8.0

    5.0

    All with white pages. Eight DC and seven Marvel 

    The three golden age are 8.0, 6.5, and 6.0.

  5. On 4/24/2022 at 4:56 PM, Sal said:

    This is the kind of collection wherein it would really have been nice for CGC to offer up a custom label.  It's a shame the provenance of these OO books is going to get essentially wiped out by dispersal in the market, like the Jon Berk/Mound City/Slobodian/Cleveland etc runs.  A custom label wouldn't of course guarantee anything after sales but it's a shame the hobby's two options are Pedigree and bupkiss.

    Hell, even a sticker would have been cool. I for one will never resub my old slab Pac Coast books with the stickers.  It's history-within-history for me.  Annnnnyway...

    Fwiw I will be doing COAs for every book I sell from the collection, both raw and slabbed. Heritage won’t be selling any of the raw books, and every listing they do from the collection is searchable as Truckee Meadows on their website forever.

    The only five books “sold” so far are the first five from the April Signature. No other books have yet sold (though many are in Heritage’s pipeline). I’ve taken offers on a few, both raw and slabbed. But no other books have been transacted yet.

  6. On 4/22/2022 at 2:25 PM, Pantodude said:

    I have a couple (nowhere near 9.0!), and below is the better centered one of those two.  At the time, I grabbed it b/c it was a unicorn pence, not appreciating the centering until much later.  Sometimes I'm a bit oblivious like that.   

    2112348918_Screenshot(637).png.0087411d687473ecd9222def95549fd3.png

    Art above the IND

    Art below Reed’s foot

    Art left of THE

    Art right of the price circle

    That’s some sweet centering. And nice and straight too. Clean Featuring box down the right edge.

    Definitely a nice copy!

  7. Because of the grade options I completely agree. It’s the 3.

    If your budget was larger and you were choosing between a 9.4 copy of 50 and whatever grade of 3 matches up to that price? I’d say the 50.

    And if your budget was much lower and it was a 1.0 copy of 3 versus a mid grade 50? I’d again say the 50.

    But 8.5 isn’t a premium enough grade to chase a 50. And 5.5 is a pretty sweet spot grade for the 3 because it’s such a light colored book, there are flaws that bring it down to 5.5 that don’t minimize the arms length eye appeal. So the choice here is easily the 3.