I literally just sold my 8.5 yesterday
I know the feelings towards CGC aren’t so positive these days, but I’ve had these books put aside for Steranko to sign for a while and I haven’t been able to make it happen.
I’m thinking of sending these in for the CGC signing he’s doing. He’s up there in age and there may not be too many opportunities left, but $125 (including grading) each for all these books was not my plan. These aren’t even all of the books I put aside but I had to cut down.
My original plan was to get them signed at a show and keep them raw for the PC and/or sell raw when ready. These are mostly lower and mid grade copies except for the FF.
My dilemma now is that the cost of getting these signed and slabs at these grades doesn’t make financial sense in the current market. Of course that can change, but who knows.
What would you do?
I would pass, for $125 each, that just seems like a lot.
I will say years ago Steranko had a booth at Wizard World Philly. He was just sitting there, no one was coming up to him. I walked over, talked to him. Had a really cool conversation with him. I didn’t have anything specific for him to sign, but had been getting creators to sign the Wizard World program. I asked him if he would sign the program next to his picture. He told me he wasn’t signing at that show. This was years ago… well before the cdc signature boom. It was clear as day that this was for me as I was having creators make their signatures out to me. He just wouldn’t do it.
Always left a sour taste in my mouth.
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Wow that’s such crap behavior by him. It surprises me because I’ve always heard good stories from people. Bummer…
Steranko has charged $50 for raw signatures for the past few years, for comparison. If you really have a bunch set aside and want to meet him (he can put on the charm, although I’m puzzled why he didn’t for Anthony), it’d probably be just as cost effective to see if he gets booked at someone’s small-time comic show this year and go visit that town.
If it were me, I’d otherwise pare it down to 2, 3, 4 books for CGC.
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Pick one to sign. I wouldn’t do more. Signed comics should only be for the PC anyway. If they appreciate in value it’s a bonus, but should not chase signatures expecting profits.
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Send in your 2 or 3 absolute favorites (preferably they’re the highest of grades of the 8 potentials)
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Appreciate the advice guys!
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Had the opposite experience with Steranko. He saw my Marine hat and didn’t charge me a dime for my autos.
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Love the guy.
Was browsing auctions and came across this with a few mins left and won it for less than it would cost to slab.
It caught my eye because I remember it being mentioned on here that it’s the 1st Harley who Laughs cover. Not 100% sure that’s accurate but I got it anyway 
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Yikes! This may be a first and kind of disgusting but those are definitely dead bugs inside the slab.
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GAWD damn… Sorry to see this happening to you. The quality control issue at CGC never ceases to end… First for me was creating spine stress while reholdering, second was the famous SWAP ROO, third was the BANANA GATE, now bug infestation for new slaps… yeah while raising prices…
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List it on eBay and send cgc a message about the rare bug error variant for sale on eBay. They will contact you right away and have you send it back at their cost and threaten to ban you if you don’t.
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As I’m liquidating my entire collection, the CGC books have been, and remain, the 1st to go.
I’m concerned that the few remaining hobbyists potential buyers that are not aware of this company’s severe deterioration will continue to learn what a POS company they are.
I can’t risk losing all that money I put in, so it’s time to dump them like an old kitchen sink
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If you could get a mosquito in a Jurassic Park comic slab, that would be kind of funny.
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Been warning people since Blackstone bought them out that they would further deteriorate into a POS company when it’s run by a bunch of greedy as fsck shareholders who don’t give two shits about quality, only $$ in their pockets. Cut corners, lower costs = higher profits… That’s all they care about.
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You did call the downfall quite well.
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I agree.
And the biggest problem remains is that they are essentially a monopoly.
So they can actually get away with poor quality, poor decisions, poor policy, poor procedures.
No company in the world that is in a competetive business environment can get away with what they’ve been getting away with and survive, because there’s someone else there to take that business away if that’s the offering.
Blackstone is a big problem. Greediness and shareholders are a big problem. Not giving an f about quality is a huge problem. But to me, the biggest is and has always been they are a monopoly and can get away with almost anything and barely feel the effect.
I’m getting this feeling based on significant decreases in submissions that they’re starting to feel it now, but they’re still the quasi-monopoly. Someone else has got to step in and start eating at their customer base.
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I think we all did…no one thought the acquisition would make quality higher.
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