We get requests all the time from customers. I think there should be prototype references on many of the comic characters. I believe Hulk has a prototype issue that we do put on the label. Strange Tales #97 does mention Aunt May and Uncle Ben being referenced in a story on our label. That is 3 months prior to Amazing Fantasy #15 coming out. But since it was a story by Steve Ditko and he did the Spider-Man, someone felt that it should be mentioned on the label. There are times where the graders think things should be mentioned. Like we don't mention the 3rd appearance of Robin. Batman fans have asked why not? You would think that should be important having millions of Batman fans out there. I don't have answers. I'm a grader.
Going back to the requests from customers. We see this a lot with magazines, especially sports related. I can't say, possibly weekly or even every other day, we'll get people lobbying to have something put on a label. There are several people who consistently try to get things recognized. Again, we're graders. Giving info is important, but the company doesn't pay us to put info, they pay us to grade. Verifiers will often come to us graders and show us the customer request. So we have to stop doing grading and figure out what is being asked. Sometimes putting info has us doing research. If we're at work, we're not getting things graded. If we're doing it on our own time (like I'm doing here each time I post), I do it without getting paid. So we have to have a balance between how much time and effort we want to put into something and the end reward.
If we're not grading, turnaround times get behind. Then the customer is complaining about that. There are about 20+ comic graders, just a handful doing magazines. We also have a couple doing posters. This is only 1 department. People in receiving don't do anything short of opening boxes and making sure what's in the box is what's on the invoice. The few people verifying are the ones doing research, but again, if they spend too much time (especially having to add new items to our database) then these invoices are not moving on to the grading step, thus delaying the customer from receiving their books back in a timely manner.
I can't tell you how many Dragon magazines we've done with the wrong publisher listed, that I'm having someone fix for us. The program we use at CGC is tedious with changing magazines, comics not so bad. I sat down and spent time in my house going through finding cutoffs where TSR Hobbies (we decided to go with this for the early ones which were both TSR Publishing and TSR Publications), going to TSR Inc. going to Wizards of the Coast going to Paizo. Also, many Dragon issues had little to no info on them as people building them originally would have no knowledge of the hobby. Now all D&D and
RPG related items are going to me first so I can add what I think is more relevant info on the label. Art credits are usually the most important. Major content is also important. I'm now trying to point out any specific additions or
RPG related modules in the key comments. We don't have much room in the way of space on the labels, which I did mention either in this thread or in the CGC one. But I'm doing my best with this.
One thing that someone did request and I thought was important was the first mention of the Majere brothers in published form, Dragon #83. I did not know if this was true and I took a shot and contacted Margaret Weis herself. She got back to me quickly (within a couple of hours) stating it was true. So I did put it on the label. When the next copy came in, I discovered what I put on the label got erased. I have no idea why, but I had to re-add it to the label. I don't think I mentioned the Baba Yaga adventure on the label because I think there wasn't enough room. I would have and if we ever get our program upgrade like the company has been promising, and get more lines for information, I'll probably add that.
So I try and do my best to help out the collectors. I have owned a Worlds Unknown #5 probably for at least 30 years and the thought of a Displacer Beast has never come to mind, or if it had, I have no recollection of thinking about it. If I saw the cover and it did come to me, I probably would have said "cool", but that would have been the extent of it. And I'm a D&D guy, so it would have more importance for a guy like me than the person who just collects Worlds Unknown.
Anyway, I'm home today because I'm not feeling well, so I had some time to write all this. Take care.
Phil
