Oh, probably somewhere in the F-VF+ arena.

The cover on X-Men 88 is not only unique, but it is a beaut! and
I’ll show you that in a moment.

The Search For A High Grade X-Men 88 Begins

Anyways, I put in a saved search on ebay to notify me by e-mail
if it finds any items matching X-Men 88. Lo and behold, a couple
of days later, I received an e-mail with a few listing of that very
comic.

I found one in a high grade that I was interested in. Matter of fact
I was going to just purchase it but I looked at the scans a couple
of more times and hesitated, because I saw something on the
comic that looked like a dirt spot (on the back cover).

Of All The Hairbrained Ideas, I Lept Before I Looked

So, ended up e-mailing the seller but before I ever received his
response I went ahead and purchased the comic (my mother
always told me patience was a virtue).

About a day later, I received a response and to my dismay, the
seller told me that the issue I was asking about was not a
dirt spot but a 1/16th inch tear!

My heart sunk…

Why? Because that would prevent this book from grading out in
the high 9’s if I were to CGC it (which I was planning to do).

Well, I thought, hey, I already purchased it and he had already
shipped it out so let’s wait and see how it looks when it gets
here.

About a few days later I received the comic in the mail and
exictedly opened the package to check out my find. Once out
of the protective sleeve, I looked it over and found out that
this was still a very nice comic and I decided to keep it.

The first thing I did with this comic is prep it. Yes, I walk the
talk when it comes to prepping comic books by prepping some
of my own.

Here is picture of the front cover of X-Men 88 after I preppped it:

Look at the white border on the spine (that’s what you want when
you pick up a comic book) and the color on this book. It’s a beauty
I say! Off White to White pages, with only a couple slight creases on
the spine.

Here is a picture of the back cover after I prepped it:

Wow! I couldn’t believe how clean this comic was on the back as I
didn’t have to remove any dirt or marks.

Can you tell me where the slight tear is on the back cover?

The point of this article is to show you that when are looking
to purchase comic books, be patient, and make sure you know
if there are any major defects (like tears, water damage, oil
stains, etc.) that will cause the grade to significantly drop if
you were to grade the comic through CGC or PGX.

Of course, if you really like the comic then go ahead and buy
it and enjoy it – like I did with this one!

One other thing, the main reason I wanted to find this book
in a high-grade is because they are hard to find in those
grades.

It just happens that if it weren’t for that tear, this would be
( in my opinion) one of the highest graded issues, and
frankly I’m going to say that it is.

For now though, I’m going to keep it nicely protected and
enjoy it in my own personal collection.

Have fun out there finding those gems for your own collection
and don’t forget to stop by and tell us what some of those
are by leaving a comment below.

Patrick

The comic in questions is a Giant Sized X-Men #1. Sent to me
by a customer who wanted some comic books cleaned and
pressed.

Here is an image of the back cover before prepping:

Take a close look at the spine. It has many creases, indents and
wrinkles (the shaded areas) and to many collectors, this book
would not be considered a viable book to grade.

Let’s see what a little prepping can do for this awesome collector
item. Here is the comic after prepping:

You can clearly see a significant difference in how prepping has
greatly improved the cover and spine. Do take notice that there
is still some minor wrinkling by the form graphic of the back cover.

This does happen, especially with heavy wrinkling and indentation
but does come out sometimes with a second pass. Definitely a
senses-shattering example of how prepping improves the grade
of your book.

This customer will definitely be satisfied!

If this were your comic book, would you be satisfied with the results?

Leave your comments on your thoughts on this topic.

Patrick Whitson

1. Tomb Raider : Scarface’s Treasure PGX 9.9 – Here is a high-grade beauty that you can add to your comic book collection.
2. The Avengers 66 “The Great Betrayal” – A classic Avengers cover, 1968.
3. Spiderwoman 1 First Print – A rare find for your collection. 1978

======================================================

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. We had some great weather here in Michigan – in the 80’s all three days!

Ok, so it was one measly sale. But that one sale will now go towards helping out a serviceman who actually needs it and Myself, Dave and the one who purchased can feel good about that. We will have many other challenges down the road as we grow, to help out others in need.

Next, I am working on another product review for you all – and this one is an awesome one! I kid you not, you will love this once you see it – so add my site to your rss feeder and keep an eye out for that review.

Want a hint on what it is?

Glad you asked… it will cover how you can turn your comics into cash by taking advantage of the comic book movie rage.

Finally, I’ve been making changes to the site (some visible, some not) that I hope will benefit you and others looking for information on comic book collecting. Coming up I will be doing some articles on Prepping Comic Books. Many of you may not know what prepping is or what it’s purpose is, but I will dig into it here on this site.

Comic Tip –> Prepping can increase the grade and value of your comic book instantly! <–

That’s all for now, have a great week.

P.S. I won’t be updating the site that much over the next week as my son is back home from school and I will be spending some time with him, but don’t worry, I’ll be putting some good information together for you. Thanks for being a loyal viewer of my site. God bless.

Patrick
The Comic Collector

++INVESTMENT TIP++

For you comic book investors: Just a couple more months and the movie will be out. This would be a good time to purchase Iron Man #1 as well as some of the earlier issues. Usually the movie will bump the price of the book(s) before the movie begins (like now) and a couple of months as the movie spreads throughout the nation, then levels off after that.

Ok, now that I have given you a nice tip there, here is the Iron Man Movie material for you to drool – I mean look at:

How many of you, after buying a graded book or grading a book, cracked open the case it was enclosed in?

I’ll need to put a poll plugin (if anyone knows of a good Wordpress one, leave a comment for the link) so I could track the percentages. Anyway, please leave a comment if you have or are thinking of doing this with any of your comic books.

I digress…

Well, today I cracked open three cases for a customer of mine. I have never done this before so I initially asked my good friend Reynold Jay of Back Issue Comics how to open a case. Here is how you do it:

1. Wash your hands really good. You don’t want dirt or any marks on the comic.
2. Get a screwdriver. A thin longer one works great.
3. Take your encased book and pry open each corner. An easy way to get the screwdriver in is take one of the sides, go to the middle of it and pull up on the top and pull down on the bottom. This will cause a gap, once you see the opening insert the screwdriver.
4. Move the screwdrive along the edge around to each corner causing the corner to pop or break.
5. Once all corners are loose, take the plastic insert that holds the comic book out of the case.
6. Take out the grade label and set it aside.
7. To get the comic book out, you will need to cut across the bottom of the book (due to this insert being air-tight). Once the edge is cut, you can “carefully” slip the comic book out.

Whew! I know that was a lot to write and just in-case you didn’t get it, I found a neat little video to show you how it’s done.

Now, what is more enjoyable for me besides collecting comic books?

Are you ready for it? Ok, it’s Prepping Comic Books! I specialize in bringing those comic book duds to a luster (per se) so they get a higher grade if you were to send them in to get graded by CGC or PGX.

I will explain in another post what this entails and how you can get your comic books prepped BEFORE you send them in for grading. Please leave your comments on your thoughts concerning CGC cases and high-grade comic books.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Patrick