Set Description:
Since my youth when the early issues were still being published I strived to fill-in the whole run and dreamed of collecting the "mintest" and best preserved copies of this, my all-time favorite title. I'd buy copy after duplicate copy, upgrading every chance I'd get while accumulating examples from most of the major pedigrees. Later, after CGC came on the scene, I'd acquire 9.8 White after 9.8 White, scrutinize them side-by-side, and keep the one that had no markings and perfect centering and no visible flaws, along with snowy-white cover whites, and then repeat the process, regardless of how many 9.8's I'd compared. I didn't want distracting signatures defacing the immaculate front covers, I wanted my copies to look dead mint under close inspection, and only wanted ones with white pages and no dates or other detractors. Eventually, I'd obsessively amassed dozens of rare CGC Mint 9.9 and Gem Mint 10.0 copies, and even most of the 9.8's look like they should have been graded Mint, while my 9.6 copies have eye-appeal consistent with 9.8, and dozens of copies hail from noted pedigree collections.
I just finally joined the CGC Registry in 2019 and was surprised to see that they assign almost the same points to an easily obtained signed 9.8 comic as they do to a one-of-one Mint 9.9. And they give the exact same points to a poorly-aligned copy with a date stamp and Off-White pages as they do to a pedigree copy with impeccable centering and pure white paper... Thus, even a near-unimprovable set with dozens of very rare or unique 9.9's and all white pages would rank below a set with zero Mint copies but with some common autographed comics; -I hope that is corrected someday, to more accurately reflect the true market conditions for elusive mint copies and white-paged pedigree books.
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