Is This Comic Really a CGC 9.9? 

Thank you for showing the color break and specifically how this book is NOT 9.9. CGC decided to award a 9.9 to someone who will sell this book for the maximum amount of money to improve "CGC'S credibility" . I thought 9.9's were going to be comics taken directly from the printer to a CGC grader. We are supposed to believe the Auction House Seller happend to have a near perfect copy of this comic and never submitted until now? What was he waiting for? Maybe inside information from his friends at CGC that we are now going to be giving out 9.9's like candy. So I can now take my 9.8's and resubmit them because they are coming back at 9.9? DO NOT TRUST CGC.

These grading companies and auction houses are like politicians. They know they're lying to your face and you know they're lying to your face. But they just keep doing it anyways.

Another way to think about this: ignore the number grade for the moment. CGC is saying THIS copy is the BEST of the 12,150 they've ever seen and it's not close. I don't see how anyone can look at these flaws and honestly say that. Single best copy you've ever seen out of 12,150 should be clear-cut; a precedent-setting book should have a bulletproof case and this one simply doesn't.

It would be funny if they mixed up the 9.8 and 9.9 in encapsulation

They knew exactly who’s books they were grading…hence the grades lol

That entire submission was laughably lenient with rigged gift grades. So now we know the VIP level of the customers has a bigger influence on the grades than the actual condition of the books.

I’m calling SHENANIGANS!!!

If you read the disclaimer in the CGC guide to grading comics it states that the grading standards have changed and will continue to change and now we have multiple 9.9's and 10's showing up that are suspect. It just makes sense to me. That ASM 129 has 2 chips out, a corner crunch and multiple spine ticks and it got a 9.6 that's probably more egregious than the GSX 1.

I always appreciate how genuine you are. There are so many comic book youtubers that have become shills for CGC, especially lately.

Until they start guaranteeing the grades, no grade is ever really the grade. It’s a one time opinion.

CGC is manufacturing artificial and unwarranted scarcity to try and boost their signal in the market.

I wouldn't give that GSX a 9.9. Beside the staple ridge that appears to break color, the wrap isn't perfect. Plus the top right corner is slightly rounded as you point out. Not a 9.9 imo.

The QES sticker is the icing on the cake lol

NO GRADERS NOTES??????!!!!!!!!!! That’s not suspicious at all. 🤔

Wow, on that GSXM 1 the reds aren't nearly bright/deep enough for my taste, the cover/spine isn't perfectly centered, plus the staple color rub. NO WAY is this a 9.9!!

I've said the same thing about grader's notes for a long time. There are far too many CGC sycophants that have been conditioned by CGC that notes aren't important for that to change, even in the face of the recent scandals.

CGC 9.9's are looking like a case of the Emperor's New Clothes

I'd love to get STEVE BOROCKS take on this whole 9.9 thing.

Your video was fantastic in showing the zoom in of flaws. Yeah, that's some bad color loss due to staple.

Of course I figure with this submission they figured theyd do Vincent a favor cause that is Vincent's book

A major problem I have with the CGC census is they don’t profile the page quality of a book, White Pages, Off-White to White Pages etc.

Man, too many questionable defects for this to be a 9.9. Imho, it has to be definitive. Also, for a book of this value you'd have to assume it was graded by one or more of their top graders, maybe even Matt Nelson himself. 🤔 Feel bad for the person who buys the grade on this one.

Ryan, at this point you have a LOT of experience grading, and your analysis is probably as valid as anyone's. as I' suggested a year ago, you can now look at people's collections and charge them to assess their books, pre-grade them, and give your honest advice. DO have a disclaimer.

All valid points. Going to carefully watch how CGC navigates in the future with this…

funny this account got great grades on all his books this just shows me that cgc plays favorites 100%

Honestly 2 years ago this thing wouldn’t even get a 9.8 In fact with that corner and that massive color rub, it would bring it down to an easy 9.4 9.6 I think with a possible 3-4/10 chance of a 9.8 if u submitted it 10 times.

You get a 9.9 when your Mister Pink. Buyer beware on this one.

Truthfully, I don't see how either one of the GSX's got even a 9.8 with the color loss on those staples.

I definitely have my reservations about this book. Cgc doesn't follow overstreet grading guidelines. Vincent came up with the 25 point grading scale used by cgc. I always disagreed with his grading when buying from him or metropolis back in the day

Thank you so much for going into detail here! Eye-opening for sure!

I like the centering better on the 9.8 as well.

I feel like the white on staple could be light reflection, not necessarily color loss, but thats just my take not having the book in hand myself

They're definitely going to be revising what qualifies for these high grades. I always felt like there weren't enough 9.9's or even 10. They were being too strict I think, So they had to loosen up the standards to get more of them.

In my opinion, the only possible way to get an issue at 9.9 or 10 is if you carefully remove the finished issue right off the printing press and encapsulate it then and there. By the time it reaches the sellers rack after being removed from the printing press pile, boxed, shipped, removed from the box, put on the rack, sold and then brought home and then boxed again and shipped to be graded, or even if you hand delivered it to CGC, it's degraded to 9.8. Now I'm never sending anything to them.

You could line up every issue in existence from the Giant-Size Series which ran 1974-1975, You would not find one issue from any title at 9.9 or higher and few 9.8 reason being these books were cut awkwardly, pages are not straight, sometimes the first few pages miss the staples, they used heavier staples, glued spines, staples leave marks on the covers, spine stress/split, these books are thicker, and I like your point about the CGC cases and the thickness of the book, just my thoughts , thank you , great video

Money grab. Be cautious collectors.

Good detective work! That top right corner was probably disturbed from the mylar encapsulation, but the 9.8 looks a lot better! 😅 Those staple tines can be pushed down further into the book, I watched someone do it once and it looked great.

First glance, the cover isn’t all that white as you’d expect from such a high grade. That cover should be BRILLIANT WHITE.

CGC knows how to extort and blackmail the public into giving them more $...

Im quiet new to the Comic book collector community( 3-4 years) but what i have noticed quiet quickly is its mostly up to the graders itself what you get( some are more strict some are loose or maybe it has to do with the current mood) and this is something that is not acceptable at all. I have seen books graded 9.2 or 9.0 and looked better then a 9.8. Therefore most of the times it doesnt make sense to buy a 9.8 book for 500$ , i buy rather than a 9.6 or 9.4 for 150 or 200$. If CGC gets in the future more consistent and reliable then i can start to think about it.

We always think that grader’s notes should point out a book’s flaws as it relates to the grade given. But in this case, shouldn’t there be grader’s notes as to why this book is considered pristine and flawless?

Great analysis. I have a GSX CGC 9.4 and there is almost zero color rub in that area at the staple. My copy of course also has other issues with it to warrant the 9.4, but I find it interesting that a supposed 9.9 has such noticeable staple color rub while my 9.4 has almost nothing.

I published my own book and had my readers/show around copy graded and hit a 9.9 - nearly fell over in disbelief!!

I agree about the color loss of the staples but was wondering whether or not that could have happened in the case? don't know how tight that inner sleeve is

Have you ever seen a square-bound book without a printing or binding defect? It would be a unicorn. The staple rub is iffy even for a 9.6, There should be no color loss in a 9.6.

I think the staple abrasions were only a little worse on the 9.8 because of the greater area. But the staple wear on the 99 does look whiter. The 9.8 also had a flaw on Thunderbird’s leg. But, yeah, neither should be 9.9 for me!

In understand your and our concern regarding this 9.9 Giant X-Men. What concerns me even more would be "Is the owner of this book going to be bidding on his own book"?????? Which I would find more than dishonorable and downright low. They say a disgruntled employee was whistleblowing about the owner bidding on his own books. I dont care if he is disgrunted or not. I am only concerned if the self bidding is true!???!!! An investigation should taking place.

If every single book has color loss @ the staple that's probably how it came from the printer. I don't see how that's a defect.

I rather have that 9.8

I have a ton of magazines and square bound books, they are all manufactured the same way with the staples. I was surprised to get 9.4s with the staples coming through. That’s the least amount of color rub I’ve seen with stapled books. I have go against the comments and you on this one. I’m not saying it’s a 9.9 but I wouldn’t “take off points “ for that staple color rub because they all have them.

Wondering if these super high grade books are professionally cleaned ( bleached / light treatment ) and pressed before submission, with the understanding that they won’t get the restored or conserved grade that regular people would get. I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden a 50 year old popular key book just happened to turn up in a 9.9 grade. Seems fishy.

X-Men looks at best a 9.7

So, you are telling me that I am being manipulated. Thank you for your content.

9.9 is the new 9.8. Gotta change the way you think on a 9.9 going forward would be my thought. Like you said, it’s still not a perfect 10. Also, honestly none of this matters cause comic folks will still continue to submit endlessly to CGC vs any other competition (which is zero) and they know this. They can do anything and you will all continue to submit and support them.

CGC has completely lost me. They may make a few extra bucks on these sudden 9.9s, but you have to think they are losing more customers than they are gaining. I’m shocked how poor their decisions have been over the past 6 months. You can tell they are reeling from losing the income boost over covid and trying different ways to make that money back. Doesn’t make it valid however.

Did you see the grader notes on Spider-Man 129 for a 9.6. Looks like with most Comics now they’re starting off at 10 and going down from there.

X-Men 94 at a 9.8 with spine ticks? Come on CGC...

I think they are both 9.8 books. Since CGC started 9.9 pre-screening, will be seeing more 9.9's than in the 20 years of grading have produced. What I take from this is that there must be many 9.8 books that merited a 9.9 grade but because the graders must have been told in the past not to grade too many 9.9's. What this will mean for prices of 9.8's in the future does not bode well for our hobby. I think 9.8 and 9.9 books should have very little price difference but I know that will not be the case. Even if I had the money to buy super expensive books I would just stick to 9.8 graded and save the ridiculous amount difference that they will try to justify for a 9.9. As you have just proved, grading, especially in such close numbers, is subjective. One person's 9.9 is another person's 9.8. A fool and his money are soon separated. Especially a rich fool's.

Another amazing video but I'd like to know how you know that the 06 at the end is part of the same submission? I'll check my last submission of four books and see if I can figure it out.

Thats not color loss by the staple. That is the cover sheen, over a slightly raised staple. On the back cover, that is not a fold. That is a slightly misaligned page.

AND, also...IF you look at nightcrawler s leg (the right one), is that a color fade? Or whatever you would call it...

there is a wolverine #1 10.0 that is off white pages so page color means nothing to cgc

I have hundreds of 9.8s that I will have to get regraded now. Why did CGC do this?

Anyone bidding on that 9.9 should watch this video first

I wonder what kind of grading fees are associated with these 9.9s?

Be pyepared for a prescreen 10.0 when the 9.9 resubmissions dry up.

I’d say we compare this “9.9” vs. another 9.9.

As a test i sent in a brand spanking new copy of Ghost Rider Final Vengeance and it came back a 9.0 how on earth is a 35 year old comic a 9.9 this is ridiculous

CGC is hoping that collectors won’t look so closely at the books they are grading and just focus on the numbers on the case.

image use quality paper stock in their books therefore image should be getting way more 9.9s than marvel books moving forward.

The condition looks a little dubious to me, but it appears that -- based on CGC's recent 9.9/10.0 video -- they are really emphasizing the lack of bindery tears when awarding grades above the 9.8s.

Not a grading hater, but this makes me way more skeptical than before. Seems like this only benefits CGC because of cracking cases and getting resubmissions. Any 9.9 contenders get your books in now!

The GSX 1 was a resubmit; it's logical to think that the other books in the submission were resubmits as well. That Captain Atom may well be the same 9.8 book that's already on the census; it just didn't get the 9.9 like the GSX 1.

Totally agree. This is not a 9.9. I wonder if there was an inside job on this one as well considering the premium it would fetch..... Honestly, if they are going to give a 9.9 on an expensive book they should have 2 graders looking at it and agreeing on it. We do the same thing in high stakes biopsy samples. We get multiple opinions from different pathologists.

Its frustrating to me that the presentation of the spine, itself, isn’t touched on more when talking about this book. To me, the way you can see the writing on the square spine of the book should automatically disqualify it from 9.9 contention, even moreso than that staple rub or the corner issue. We all know how tough it is to get a perfect, uncrushed, untwisted spine on these squarebounds… IMO that should be the FIRST criteria in screening this for anything above 9.6, let alone 9.8.

They're both in very nice condition, but I imagine the grader probably couldn't decided and flipped a coin. One got 9.8 and the other got 9.9 as a result. Now that the deed has been done, all we can do is wait and see what insane price the 9.9 goes for. Upon the final bid, we'll have to take off our hats and lower our heads to have a moment of silence for the buyer of that book. That's what I feel like at least.

At 10:38 - is that a color-breaking crease on the "Cassette Tape Recorder"?

Waaaaay too many questionable "dinks" in that 9.9 for me

3 spine ticks and still a 9.8 what??? Someone is getting paid

One observation. Everyone seems to be monday morning grading this to standard but didnt cgc video show us they grade compared to other gsx books. Dies it look better than universe of 9.8’s out there. I think every gsx i have ever seen has staple push for example?

A 9.9 is the new 9.8 and shouldn’t be treated as anything but.

No way this is a 9.9. Buyer beware. That flaw on the cover is a huge issue for me.

Do most of them have that staple color loss? Maybe it’s so common it’s acceptable?

Scary color rub and this gets a 9.9?

I think it’s “acceptable” only because the definition of what 9.9 has been changed. Standards lowered. Here is my question: How easy is it for a forger to reproduce 1974 printing technology in 2024? Perhaps this isn’t even an original copy from the spinner racks back in the day?

Cgc money grab! That's a 9.8 or less.

The cover on the 9.9 is miswrapped. I don't like that at all.

CGC graded books has become a scam imo.

My experience is the once a book has 3 spine stress marks or tics it can no grade higher than a 9.0 given no other defects. Please correct me if Im wrong. Its good for mine and everyones general book grading knowledge. A book with 3 spine stress marks can grade a 9.6 to 9.8???????? Never heard of that.

That x-men 94 looks more like a 9.4 or 9.6 wtf. Gift grading ?

Might not be color loss. There is a good deal of light reflecting in that area. It could be that spot of the book is slightly raised.

CGC is smoking crack!!!! There’s NO DAMN WAY this book should have gotten a 9.9! Color rub looks bad and it’s pretty big! All the corners should also be razor sharp! And a 9.9 book should NOT be off centered!!

What a Hater! Let the person enjoy and make their money!

CGC was just saving this book to start the 9.9 prescreen! I have quit buying cgc comics. So blatant its actually pathetic people still buy cgc.😢

lol there is gonna be a lot of scrutiny now I bet.

CGC has lost it's credibility. Lowering their standards for more money. So 9.6s are now 9.8. Resub !

The book is a 9.8 and not a 9.9. Staple push says it all. You dont even have to get to the corners after seening the staple push. So, lol, whats the price difference potential between the 9.8 and 9.9. 20 times the 9.8? What a scam!!!!

Before you call me a troll again, I think your content is very informed and insightful. But we’re talking about issues with CGC again. I am not a CGC hater, I have had only good experiences with them. But they are, at this point, too big. Bottom dollar is their main concern, as they have to report good numbers to investors quarterly. From a collector’s standpoint, the CBCS product is superior. And I do believe that influencers in this community, such as yourself, could assist in promoting a more bespoke service, like CBCS, for the good of the comic collecting community. Wishing you continued success…

CGC is a total joke. They should include the notes of the clown makeup that was worn by the grader. CBCS all the way.

that GSX is not a 9.9 at all not even close