CGC Grades Back! Disaster!

[@angoli4511]

True story...During the late 1980's I was in college attending the University of Hawaii. Mcfarlane was just becoming famous (not yet an icon) and came to Jelly's in Hawaii to sign comics. Of course, being a fan...I attended the event and brought some of my Mcfarlane comics to get signed. When it was my turn to meet Mcfarlane, I told him that in my eyes he had done the impossible and dethroned Neal Adams as the best comic book artist in the industry. Mcfarlane laughed and unexpectedly offered to sell to me the original cover art to Incredible Hulk #344 for $300. I remember telling Mcfarlane that, "I wish I had $300. I'm just a poor college student and I don't have an extra $300 in my budget." Mcfarlane smiled nicely and wished me the best in my studies at college. Hmmmm...I think it's fair to say that the Hulk #344 original cover art has a value today of somewhere in the high five to six figures. Yes, that $300 would have been a pretty good investment...LOL.

[@swpdisciple]

Wow! In fairness $300 in the late 80s is probably more like $1200 today. Still, that would be a nice piece to hang up in the man cave or help fund retirement! I’ve seen some sell at auction and the prices can be astounding.

[@spinetickspressing]

Holy shit Bro, you can't take a loss like that...

[@swpdisciple]

Well, it’s already sold now, but what was the alternative? I’m thinking I’ll buy some stock and hold for a couple years.

[@tylerjham]

Pull the insert out of that ASM 129 and regrade it for a blue 8.5

[@sp123]

yeah collectibles are too volatile. A lot of people dont want to hold a comic past a couple months

[@swpdisciple]

Yeah outside of the blue chips, there can be wild swings. I’m thinking about consolidating my collection to a couple mega keys and calling it a day.

[@Max-zv8hm]

glad I’ve spent 150 dollars total on comics in my whole life. that’s a huge loss on a comic

[@swpdisciple]

Yes, it is.

[@jarredsmith9187]

You should crack AMS#129 and send it to CBCS and try to get that blue label. I keep all my comics raw unless it's a big book but I still say grading comics is a complete scam.

[@swpdisciple]

Too late now as I already sold it. Grading can be problematic but I do like the idea of adjudicating a grade and there’s no surprise once it’s slabbed (in theory).

[@jarredsmith9187]

@@swpdisciple you could have gotten a lot more money for it in a blue label

[@swpdisciple]

@@jarredsmith9187 yes, over $2k

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

How is it a scam?

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

How is grading comics a scam?

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Hi SW. Cool books. Sorry you didn't get the grades you were seeking.

[@swpdisciple]

Hi Keston! Love your channel. I’ve been sending books in for like 4 years now and I think I’m batting .500 which is good in baseball but not so great with getting books graded lol.

[@joeymia]

If the mark jewelers was “married” couldn’t you just crack the slab open, tear it out and resubmit it? Did you press and clean your own comics?

[@swpdisciple]

I have a friend press and clean for me as I don’t trust myself with books over a certain value. I thought about cracking it and re-submitting but it gets expensive with books prior to 1975 of a certain value. The best thing is to either crack/keep the book or sell it, realize the loss and hopefully reinvest and get your money back over time. Like I said, the money was spent 2 years so, it’s not fun but a good lesson. Other than a car, it’s been awhile since I’ve lost $2750 in one fell swoop.

[@joeymia]

Yeah that’s quite the hit. I saw the post on Elite and everyone including myself was confused about the green label. When you sell with them do they suggest the price? I feel bad just you could have possibly got a lot more if people knew the story. Whoever bought that can just crack it, tear out the mark jewelers and get nearly 1k in profit.

[@swpdisciple]

@@joeymia yes, elite suggests the price. I initially suggested like $1600 or so and they brought up a prior comp that was along the lines of what it sold for given its qualification. I mean, it sold in less than 2 hours so that suggests it was prob a bit low…and I saw the gentleman in the comments. He said he was gonna crack it and keep it.

[@joeymia]

@@swpdisciple that’s wild they would guide you that poorly. No way that book should have been treated like every other green label. $1600-$1800 with the backstory/explanation should have been what they should have suggested. Back out of the sale if you still can.

[@joeymia]

@@swpdisciple delete this video and tell them “I dropped the book, my dog ate it and can’t ship it” lol

[@BrianLCS]

Wow. So CGC is saying the Mark Jewelry's insert wasn't original for the ASM 129? Damn.

[@swpdisciple]

Yeah pretty crappy especially considering the original slab was from 2004 so someone wouldn’t have married it to add value back then. I probably could have cracked it and resubmitted again or to CBCS or something but there’s the time and hassle element and the cost each time. The market it down so assuming it held at an 8.5 Blue label, it would only be right at $2100 or so. So this eventually comes down to, how much did I want to fight for $850 minus any costs associated with a regrade. The drop from 9.2 to 8.5 hurt as well.

[@BrianLCS]

@@swpdisciple sorry, man.

[@swpdisciple]

@@BrianLCS yeah, me too.

[@swpdisciple]

@@richardolney1822 I certainly hope so fam 🙏🏾

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

@@richardolney1822 That's called a scam. I guess if you want to defraud someone do that.

[@johndillon6705]

So someone took the insert from another book and put it in this book to scam someone. If you remove the MJ insert then it’s a blue label. I think.

[@swpdisciple]

That would be weird because the slab was PGX from 9/2004. It wasn’t sold as a mark jewelers. There would be no benefit from that fraudulence.

[@KendallKidd63]

Bummer on the green label, but that 300 issue is nice enough @ a 9.6

[@swpdisciple]

Yeah, I try to look at the glass as half full ☯️

[@WadeNslade]

Asm 129 smh 🤦‍♂️ I would have kept it in the pgx

[@swpdisciple]

@@WadeNslade I thought about it, but for the very reason that caught up with me; it’s almost unsellable in a PGX slab. So, I had to crack it. Elite comics will only sell a CGC or CBCS slab.

[@Papa5murf1]

What do u do as a job? It blows my mind how anyone could spend 4 grand on a comic book....

[@swpdisciple]

I work in finance (the irony). I’m def not rich but earn a decent living. The buy was fine if the book had no unforeseen issues but, it had unforeseen issues.

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

Are you joking? Have you been living in the known universe? People spend thousands and millions of dollars on all kinds of collectibles. Why would comics, one of the most popular past times of Americana, and in the history of this country not sell for thousands?

[@swpdisciple]

@@Comicbookyoutubersrock I agree. They’re legit collectibles and in many cases when you think about how much fine art goes for…undervalued

[@frankygonzales15]

Everybody gets into Comics tryin to make a quick buck U Will Learn 👍

[@swpdisciple]

I’ve been collecting my whole life. This was a buy and hold with a possible sell down the road if it made sense.

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

If you're unhappy with the grades, just need to get better at grading my man. People loooovvveee to put the onus of responsibility on CGC everytime, as I'm sure all the anti CGC trolls commenting on this will. The fact is, they're analyzing the book much closer and in more detail than you or others do. CBCS won't be any different, despite someone's suggestion to send there. You need to take responsibility, be a man, and understand you should know better if a book will get a certain grade. If you get a 9.4 on something you were expecting a 9.8, then that's on you, not CGC for giving it the correct grade.

[@swpdisciple]

The crux of the episode was about the ASM 129. The GiJoe I think is definitely better than a 7.5 as a 7.5 has noticeable areas to look at. Books are re-cracked and given grade bumps all the time. Let’s not pretend that CGC is infallible. I wasn’t even really complaining. It’s just that this drop was disappointing, that’s all. The other books can easily be sold though I don’t know that I want to sell them. The ASM 300 is a keeper though it could have easily gotten a 9.8.

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

@@swpdisciple Maybe, it's tough for me personally to know about the GI Joe or ASM 300 being higher without seeing it in person. Is CGC infallible, absolutely not, I agree. But they also aren't wrong every time, which is what everyone seems to think every time grades come back. UNLESS, they come back higher than expected, then SUDDENLY, CGC was spot on. So at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with people actually analyzing there own books, just bitching when they don't get the grades they want. I've never once seen one of these videos where someone gets a grade lesser than expected, owns up and agrees CGC was right. So it really is just anti CGC scumbaggery.

[@VileCountry]

Not always true bro. CGC have done plenty of damage to customer books. Just because you have a high grade book does not mean it won’t come back with spine ticks that weren’t noticed before. Remember, humans handle these collectibles at CGC so there’s always going to be that human error element without any of our control. I’ve personally seen bad comics get higher than expected grades. Why? Because not all CGC graders are created equal and we can’t assume that all CGC employees follow their own rules! We see this sort of incompetence at our own jobs all the time, CGC is no different, in fact maybe worst??? I’m not even sure what the meaning of “take responsibility and be a Man” has anything to do with subjective grading? I think you need to be a “Man” and understand how the system works! Good Grief!

[@Comicbookyoutubersrock]

@@VileCountry Regular human graders are much worse than CGC human graders. I’ve seen it time and time again, everyone thinks they know more than CGC, like a world full of Donald trumps “I know more than the generals” 😂. Sorry bud, but you can talk it up all you want, but I’ve bought sooo many books from the everyday schmo, like you, like this KZbinr, and 99.9% of time, you’re grading is on par with the level of detail a 3 year old puts into their elementary school art project.

[@johndillon6705]

So someone took the insert from another book and put it in this book to scam someone. If you remove the MJ insert then it’s a blue label. I think.

[@swpdisciple]

Too late for that and I’m not sure that would have worked.