RhialtoTheMarvellous

My two copies of the Killing Joke were in the first batch of comics I had slabbed. My Batman Year One set is probably not going to make a 9.8.

People put NM all the time in auctions for books that are no where near it. Always get a good picture. People love posting blurry shots of books on ebay. I've also seen a seller on ebay list something as NM 9.8 in the title and the condition is listed as Fine 6.0 - NM 9.8. Book looked like a 6.0.

Unless it is in high demand you're probably wasting cash. Yeah, if it gets a 9.8 there might be some folks out there wanting to complete a set, but you're shooting for the moon.

More like whatever I begged my Dad and Mom to buy me off the rack. Probably not until 79 or so.

Sorry, about the lack of response. Busy week. I'll be happy to take a look at 24 or 25 if you have either or both. I haven't got particularly great copies of either.

I wish some of my 70s off the stands stuff was worth submitting as I still have all of them, but given I was born in 74 it wasn't gonna happen.

I've got all of them at this point, it's a matter of whether I want to upgrade the quality of some of them to get everything up to a NM+ level. #24 is not a bad copy, but it's not quite there. That sounds about right on the ink, it's too often seen on the book to be anything else. That's cool that you got to buy #1 off the rack. I was two years old when it came out. Younger folks right? I know how you feel though when I look in the copper section and see people enthusing over getting a copy of ASM #300 when I bought mine off the rack. Buying comics off a spinner or at a newstand was always so random, but at the same time as a kid really magical.

I'm thinking 3.5, that spine and the super big creases at both corners are big drops.

The CGC grading seems to get pretty harsh with evident defects. Without the color breaking crease and the cut the book still has a very evident issue at the spine bottom corner that shows front and back. That alone would probably bump you into the 8.5 range. The big color breaking crease and a cut are rough ones that will bump you down to the 7s.

8.5-9.0 It's always hard to see creases that aren't color breaking on dark areas of books. Basically deduct .2 off the score for every one of those if they are there. It's got a touch of bend that you can see at the back that runs evenly up the area next to the spine. You should just be able to do a home press under some heavy books and that will even out. Not too heavy though. It looks like it has the tiniest amount of color breaking spine tick on the front cover.

IMO, not really. This period has bindings that look like that on mint books. It does look like the spine has damage in some areas though. From the back it looks like the spine is heavily abraded from the top down for several inches. There looks to be more edge wear on the spine further down that is less significant. I'd lean towards 5.0 because of that and the other more minor defects. It's got a color breaking crease, corners are all worn or crushed (very minor crushing). It looks like there is some writing in the upper left corner of the cover. If that's just a date stamp that is worn off then it could be okay, but if not that's no good. Looks like there is some amount of bleed through into the cover from the interior pages.

This is where I'm at so far. Complete set. 9.0+ for the majority of them. There are a couple that are probably in the 7s and 8s where I could find a better copy, but in these cases there are issues either with cost or whether I'm grading the right way. #1 I have two of these, one of which is one I bought back in the 80s. It's a little dingy from living in the tropics for a time. The one I'm displaying here is a very nice copy, but it has the typical Marvel chipping on the right side which is a let down. My old one doesn't have this, but has other issues. #3 I've looked at a variety of these. I have three copies right now, one of which is the one on display here. That one is in excellent condition, but it has a printing error at the top where ink has been over sprayed onto it. I've seen a few copies like this. I'm not sure if this gets dinged on grade for that, but I would bet it does. #10 This is the key book since people attribute this as the first appearance of Jane Foster as Thor. I've had this book since the 80s. It could possibly make an 8.0 with a pressing, but it has a tiny bit of chipping at the top and a tiny color breaking crease. People are getting $75-100+ for issues that are worse than mine. #24 I'm just being stingy on this one. I kinda don't want to buy more lots and for individual copies people want $25+ for a mint one.

Thanks you! I have no further questions.

The extras have definitely piled up. I'm at probably 50+ extras and that's after keeping a second copy of each issue as a backup (though in some cases it's because I'm having a hard time telling which one is better quality).

I'm sure this has been asked, but does CCS Pressing have any specific Status information under the Submission Tracking option? I sent a book in for pressing followed by grading so I was just wondering if there will be an indication when it is done pressing and moved to grading?

Rough, sorry to hear that.

Yeah, I just searched around and a 4.5 CGC Universal is going for $2500 and a CGC 4.5 Restored Slight/Mod (C-2) is priced at $550. That second one would be the sort of thing I would look for if I was going to do a pro restoration.

Either he overpaid for it, it's in much better condition than I think or he doesn't want to sell, because he wants $3500 for the book. I'll have to go take a look at it in person, but no matter how you slice it that's too much.

It's a good point. Although I feel like there is some merit in conserving / restoring these books just to keep them alive. Right. If you look close you can see the mask line where they put something over it before they spray painted the spine. I'm talking with a restoration service and they say they do have a way to fix the paint issue. Now, whether that is cost effective is up in the air though.

It's this.

Get the thinner!

Other than that and some more conventional issues like tape and wear it doesn't look too bad though. I guess it all depends on what the guy wants for it and then what a restoration place says they can do with it. Looking at online sales data it's a $10000 book or around there at 8.5.

I might be grading it too harshly, but at the same time someone spray painted the spine area on the cover with black paint to "repair" it at some point so I don't know that I'm that far off.

My question does seem kind of stupid in that context. I guess I was just trying to see where people are at on it at this point. Are people still slabbing rare books for a .5 blue label rather than restore them?

It's Bunsen actually. He is an ex-bun at this point unfortunately. Lived till 13, but he lives on in our memories.