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Please grade this Spook #30!
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14 posts in this topic

Front looks great, but cover wrap is 70% split at spine, detached at bottom staple. Chip missing LRC back cover. Pages are not brittle, though BC edges look a bit weak for sure. Go ahead and hammer!  :makepoint:

spook30.thumb.jpg.88d5c3f7046a5788d24b24e0ef7616df.jpg

spook30back.thumb.jpg.dd28e1814a28006dce3a408f806bade3.jpg

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2 hours ago, steveinthecity said:

I’m thinking primarily due to the spine split it earns 1.5 or 1.8. Does look a lot nicer, though.

Might actually get up to 3.0 range if less than 50% of the spine is split because the cover is sound, the colors bright and no severe cover defect obscuring the art elements.. The chips out of the spine and the splitting that can definitely be seen as splits in the image, plus the sudden dark ridge of shadow around the edges indicate to me that the foremost condition killer here is aging, which in this case looks like it's either brittle in spots or well on its way to becoming brittle. If I'm right, and I only have the image to go by, reading this wil be a challenge and for preservation, slabbing is probably the best choice, low grade it will yield aside. 

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8 hours ago, Point Five said:

Front looks great, but cover wrap is 70% split at spine, detached at bottom staple. Chip missing LRC back cover. Pages are not brittle, though BC edges look a bit weak for sure. Go ahead and hammer!  :makepoint:

I would slab it. It's a beautiful cover but be aware that the right edge looks to be the type that may lose those tiny pieces at the edge during well encapsulation, no matter how carefully CGC gives special attention to try to prevent that from occurring. I know members sometimes post pics of the edges broken off and stuck in the weld of the well, and say, "look how careless CGC was, etc., etc", but things like that usually happen if a book is subjject to losing shreds off the edges during the handling and encapsulating; breaking off even with careful handling, and this looks like one that may happen with. I'd slab it anyway though and if a piece detached here and there during that process, it's mainly the fault of the book. 

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6 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

it's a least a 2.0 possibly a 2.5 but boy would it look great slabbed if it didn't fall apart on the way to Sarasota........

That's the 3 stage challenge. Surviving the shipping, then the grading/resto check, and finally, coming through the slabbing as intact as possible. If it gets there in one piece, my money's on CGC keeping it in one piece through the rest of the stages. They're as good as anyone with handling books like this and as I've seen, seemingly, even further along the aging process. 

Edited by James J Johnson
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Upon some further reflection after a coffee and a few more minutes to ponder, I can see the book grading in the 2.0 range. I believe 1.5 may be a tad harsh as the cover is still attached. The greater than 50% spine split makes achieving a 3.0 difficult with the other defects imo. Lovely cover. 

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