RhialtoTheMarvellous

Also, whenever I'm reading this guy's name I'm thinking Dielan. Although, this is probably more appropriate.

I think your earlier suggestions are more pertinent than some sort of rating system. If Overstreet gives out certifications or represents that someone is legit then they should own that and have a database that you can search on their site that shows they approve of them and that way they can also remove them if they get complaints. For the buyer it's always buyer beware overall. Do your due diligence as to what you are getting and take nothing for granted. Make sure that you have options to get out of the deal if you don't get what you expected. If those things don't fall into line then don't do the deal.

You've taken us to the original eBay feedback problem. You're placing an aggregate of subjective opinions against one subjective opinion. The problem now becomes, what percentage of the negative feedback is just ignorant people or people that have a grudge against the person doing the rating versus actual real complaints about his rating skill? "9.8 rating, I love this guy, he is a great rater!" "8.5 rating on my previous 9.8, this guy is an insufficiently_thoughtful_person!" There is no added value to having something like this.

I didn't realize this guy was notorious. I bought a small lot of comics from him and they were extremely poor overall with a lot of concealed problems on the backs. I viewed it as my fault (and still do), because there were no pics of the backs of the books on the listing and he made no representation as to condition. I've taken a chance on one or two other auctions like that and came up with some gems, but in this case pretty much every book was in poor condition. I should have known better considering it was a guy that had thousands of sales. The deals I had found were people doing more one off sales of comics on an account where they sold different items.

That's too much for a 7.0 anyway. You can get a 9.4 for $750 on eBay.

Kinda what I figured. I’ve got a few copies, but this is probably the best of them.

Click to zoom in, they are high res scans.

The book overall looks really nice. The upper corner might be helped by a press just for appearance, ie to flatten it out, but with the color breaks it isn't going to really help the value. The date stamp is not really a big deal and a lot of people consider it part of the history of the book. You don't want to remove it as I'm fairly certain that any detection of such a removal would result in a restored grade. The spine looks amazingly good in terms of positioning for a square bound book. You've got all the lettering lined up properly. Yeah, edge wear at the top and bottom, that problem corner and the hole bump it down a bit, but it's still really nice. 6.5-7.0, agree with the other guys.

Says it also has tape on it. You'll likely have to spend on someone professional to remove that and the color touch to avoid the restored grade. You can contact the CCS Pressing service to see what they might be able to do as they offer restoration removal. I'd get an assessment from them. https://www.cgccomics.com/ccs-pressing/ You might get an unrestored grade, but it won't bump the grade up at all.

Definitely no way. Those spine ticks are color breaking and can't be pressed out. I know it looks kinda like they aren't, but they are. When they are less noticeable you will get a grade back indicating "light spine stress lines to cover." Given that and the other issues with the book I would bet that it takes a significant hit if you were to crack and regrade it.

Yeah, I'm thinking I will sell the 9.4 Killing Joke I have. That was another one where I had two copies.

FYI on the bronze age grading thing. Just for instance take a look at this 9.8 What If...? #1 on CC. https://www.comicconnect.com/item/887881 It's a 9.8, but the binding is still kinda messed up. The spine overlaps onto the back, but that's how they all are. That said, this is a really nice example.

Yeah, kinda sad. They traveled all this way with me from the beginning, one of them unread, and there is nothing to do for them. Meh, whatever, they are still nice copies overall. Although I am kinda pissed about that top right corner. Not even sure how that happened. The damned things have been in bags forever. By contrast my X-Men 266 was read at least once and got a 9.8.

FYI, CGC doesn't do cleaning, but they will do pressing. You have to go to a third party for cleaning. As KCOComics indicated there are different techniques for cleaning a book and it's usually very methodical and tedious.

What made you revise the grades down after zooming in? While I don't know for sure, it appears because bronze age and earlier books have more inconsistencies from printing and distribution they tend to be given a bit more leeway for various issues that are common to a large majority of the books. That doesn't mean they will get a 9.8 if they have those, it just means that they might not get dinged quite as hard as a copper age or greater book would get hit for evident issues as the newer books are not known to have those problems as much. For instance square spined books of the 70s all tend to be very inconsistent in how they are bound and whether the cover is centered or skewed. Many of them evince oddities on the spine area due to that square binding, but a lot of times that is just a result of how they were made.

It’s a scan, so, not really, but you’re not really missing anything. You’re seeing what I’m seeing. If you click on the image you’ll get the full size version which you can right click open image in a new tab and then zoom in on and see everything. The sad part is one of these is unread.

Big corner crunch on the back lowers it down a bit and the corner shows damage on the front. The creases in that area could probably press out, but there is nothing to do about the corner itself. It's also got a lot of dirt and what looks like ink transfer from being up against another book. Removing some of that would help the grade. Lots of spine stress lines showing front and back. Pressing it won't really help that. It's probably a 6.5-7. It's not a bad presenting book overall.

These two I bought off the rack back in the day. I rebagged these so I figured I would scan them. I don't think either rises to a 9.8, but I'll be interested to see where people think they both fall. Copy #1 COPY #2

Front Spine ticks in various spots, probably 6-10 of them. Looks like a scratch at the very top of the spine going through the top of the price box, but that could be a hair. Back Bad corner crunch on the spine top with what looks like a small portion of the material removed. Is that what people think is the tear? The line there? It looks to me just like a bad hit that has stood up that section and gotten it more dirty than the other sections. Bottom corner crunch with a small chunk missing. Various spots of dirt up and down the spine and non color breaking creases. Non color breaking crease near the open side. Open side has typical edge crumbling, slight. 6.5

Little bit of spine wear, very slight, along the edge. Probably more noticeable on the dark background and maybe if looking at it edge on. The bottom corner has noticeable wear. There appear to possibly be small specks on the front cover where color is lost. 9.4 if the specks are just artifacts or dust, but probably 9.0+ either way.

It could be improved by a clean and press. Despite the dirt it actually presents very well.

This is my best #1. It has a small corner crunch at the top of the spine and there is chipping along the open side front cover edge that bothers me. Also has some non color breaking creases front and back. The chipping on the bottom back cover is another common thing for books of this era, I don't know if you get dinged on grade for it.

I tend to agree. The squarebound books are making me nutso. That What If...? #1 looks pretty damned good overall though. It has common problems that all of them have, but it's still very clean. Funny you mention the eyes, I got myself some reading glasses when I kept inspecting these things and realizing I wasn't able to see everything clearly. List of squarebound common problems: The staples are slightly off center making the book hard to open all the way. The staples are showing somewhere through the book, either on the front or the back (IE: you can see metal). You can almost always see indents where the staples are located even if they aren't showing through. The spine is rolled one way or another, IE despite being "squarebound" they spine is almost never square. A lot of times the spine itself is solid, but the outer cover is printed or bound off center making the spine labeling appear as if it is rolling over or that it is printed on the front or back of the cover. Covers are almost never consistently centered. You can find multiple different variations. The covers can be skewed up, down, left, right or rotated right or left or combinations thereof. Related to the above, covers sometimes have total misses at the edges where there is no color, usually seems to be cut improperly. Cover edges are often crinkling due to excess overhang. Distributors ink overspray is often present. This is probably one of my best condition books overall and it has several of the above issues to one degree or another.

Whoa, dude. My #1 could use an upgrade if you're inclined and have something mint.