COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Superman: The Man of Steel 19 Modern
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Grade:
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9.9
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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4338226017
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Owner:
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Iconic1s
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
“surreal - adjective – Having an oddly dreamlike quality. Resembling a dream: fantastic and incongruous.” Dictionary
This book was graded on 20 October 2023 and became only the fourth book in this entire set to have a 9.9 copy! At the time I added it to this set there were a total of 1244 graded copies, 714 9.8’s, and JUST THIS ONE 9.9! It is, ratio-wise, over twice as rare as the LONE Adventures of Superman 497 9.9 that took me over two years, and an Avengers 4, to obtain! It is insane that this book exists, and I am thrilled to have it in this set!
I already had each of the other three 9.9’s in this set when I added this book!
I came across this book at a time when I was taking a break from graded books… I had been shaken by a couple of scandals that had occurred in late 2023 early 2024… one being the reholder scandal where a scammer switched book’s inner wells, and the other was the revelation through a court filing that a couple of CGC employees had been stealing, grading, and selling customer’s books! I had decided to take a break from collecting graded books for a while, while also stepping back from this topic online… basically burying my head in the sand and seeing if I could love collecting graded books again.
Anyways… I was doing okay at this break and checking eBay and other sites much less often… I even passed on a few books I otherwise would have bought if I wasn’t on break. One evening in February 2024 I was checking my usual searches, such as Superman 9.8. I decided to take a look at the Superman 9.9 search results, which I don’t often do… about eight books down I spotted this monster! At first I was in a bit of disbelief… I thought to myself that this wasn’t possible… this book doesn’t exist… and if it did, I certainly would have heard/known about it, right? I then saw the asking price of $3000.00 and my heart sunk. Still in disbelief, I checked the census and certification number… sure enough there it was in the census, and the certification lookup showed me it was graded on 20 October 2023.
How did this get past me!?
If you can’t tell by now, I am sort of into the Death of Superman storyline and making my collection of these books the best it can possibly be. Regardless of being on a break I felt like this book belonged in my collection and in this set… it should be hanging out with it's fellow 9.9 buddies! So, break or not, and scandals be damned, I couldn’t let it sit there without at least giving it a try. I made an offer which was immediately auto-declined… I made a second offer which was also auto-declined… I then messaged the seller saying:
“Hello, I hope all is well! First, congrats if you submitted this book yourself! I offered XXXX and it was auto-declined. If you ever want to meet me around that price please let me know. Thanks and take care!”
This was close to bedtime, so I figured maybe I’d get a reply tomorrow, or maybe not at all… I had never bought from this seller before and didn’t know how they may receive a message like that. Within about 20 minutes I got a nice reply with an offer, I countered splitting the difference between where we both were, and we had a deal.
I did not pay near the initial asking of $3000.00 but I will say that I still think I paid a decent amount for this book (especially for being on a break). I paid what it was worth to me but unfortunately that is a terrible method of measurement, as I really value books like this… the financial cost is just a temporary thing… the feeling of adding this book to my collection and having ALL FOUR of the current 9.9 books in this set is priceless!
This is my favorite comic book cover art of all time, bar none, making having it in 9.9 all that more special!
You can really feel the struggle between good and evil with the close up image and seeing the strain on Superman's face. This image really drives home that this might not turn out the way we are used to!
I think that is blood on Superman's face but due to the Comics Code Authority it had to be black instead of red. If I am wrong, someone please let me know. If this is correct, it is crazy what is on the covers of books today!
I’m so happy that the seller worked with me on this book, and that it is now a member of this set! Having had to pine over the other 9.9's in this set for so long before obtaining them, it still seems surreal that I so quickly learned about this book, and was almost immediately able to add it to this set... all while on a break from collecting graded books!
The second picture slot looks nice…
Note - I have to say that this book overall, particularly the spine, is super tight BUT TO BE HONEST there is the very smallest of a bindary issue on the upper left corner that (under my loupe) drives me a bit crazy. I have been critical in other places of what seems to be CGC's loosening of standards regarding awarding 9.9, and although this book is super tight everywhere else I am a little irritated by that corner. A second 9.9 of Adventures of Superman 497 showed up in November 2024 that (in my humble opinion) has a couple slightly blunted corners that throw it quite a ways out of the 9.9 range, as well as some non color breaking spine bends that show in the scans (cert 4505097013).
Nevertheless, I can decide to be happy with this book and its grade. I just really hope that CGC isn't adding 9.9's to the census just for the heck of it!
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