Tony S

I don't know what I could say that seems worthy after the first few posts.....

I don't see any moisture damage as well. Most collectors will be put off more by the tape and color touch than whatever you are seeing that suggests moisture damage. Like Paul's comments above, I believe what you are seeing is a result of the tape on the spine. The tape is plastic. the rest of the book is paper. Some puckering can occur. I would suggest leaving it as is. If you want to try to improve, then your #2 is the best option. Restoration removal by CCS requires screening (screening is optional for pressing) . So send it in - pay for screening - and then CCS will tell you if restoration removal and/or pressing is likely to be beneficial. (not guaranteed - but likely) Once you have their expert, in hand opinion you can make a better decision.

Yes, CCS does clean book and press books. The book that I believe you are talking about is not all foil, especially not the back cover. It's a glossy black and those are near the very worst about picking up finger prints and smudges. As far as cleaning all that can be done is some light buffing because anything more aggressive like erasers just removes gloss and ink and that defect is as bad or worse than fingerprints and smudges.

The OP got what they asked for - more descriptive grading notes of the actual defect(s). That is not a lack of transparency by CGC. That is CGC giving exactly what was asked for. As for the original "poorly pressed" grading notes - that sounds like a training issue for CGC for one or more graders. BOSS to GRADER: "Yes, the books were poorly pressed. But be more specific with your description of defect(s) and let those noted defects speak for themselves as far as the quality of the pressing."

Yes....Proof again that grading notes matter far less than people want them to matter. The color breaking finger bends are easily the defect most affecting the final grade - and they are not even mentioned. Even with the finger bends 6.5 seems a bit harsh. But just a bit. An 8'ish range grade seems out of the question.

$200 is probably a fair enough price as it is 1/2 of what a 4.0 would cost. Keep in mind that in the future the book will always be worth less than a copy with no restoration and will likely be harder to sell. Personally, I think you'd be better off with a lower grade unrestored copy for a bit more $$. Mycomicshop has a CGC 3.0 for about $300. it would almost certainly be - over the long term - a better purchase financially.

It will get restored as others have said. To elaborate, the standard CGC employs - entirely at their discretion - has to do with if the glue was applied to do something...idk... meaningful. Very small amounts of glue had been applied to the covers of some golden age books to keep very tiny splits or tears from getting worse. CGC sometimes gives these a blue label with notation of "small amount of dried glue on cover". With your book, the glue was used to attach / reinforce the cover. Very much a restoration/conservation attempt. Nor does it appear to be what most would call a small amount of glue.

You need to post up a picture to get an informed answer. But generally speaking, stains cannot be removed with methods that will not count as conservation/restoration if the book is sent to CGC. Non-restorative cleaning removes dirt and pencil marks from the surface of paper (say the cover). Stains penetrate into the paper - usually visible from both sides of the paper - and require solvents of some type to remove. The use of solvents risks a restored or conserved designation from CGC.

Two come to mind. Great thread! Thanks to the OP!! The Deathhawk 2 is CGC graded 9.8 too, but I don't have a picture of it

It might be a mistake to think of it as hopeless. It's also a mistake to give much in the way of false hope. It is far, FAR easier to get judgements than it is to COLLECT on judgements. It costs money to look for assets. It costs money to go back to court repeatedly to try to get payments. Let's say the person gets a job and you go to court for a garnishment. They pay a few months and quit that job. Rinse and repeat, over and over. And if they move to another state from where the judgement is at....... I was personally involved in getting small claims judgements where I worked. Direct point of contact with our attorneys. We just quit bothering after a few years because we spent more money than we collected. There were a couple - I mean two out of a couple of hundred - judgements where years later money was collected. In both cases the person with the judgement against them got married and the new couple went to get a mortgage to buy a house. The bank said no because of the outstanding judgement. So they came in and paid. By all accounts, Mike owes a LOT of money. Just one person here said $65,000. Money collected is going to be a very long shot proposition. Some say false hope is better than no hope, but it's not something I have ever thought to be true. Those joining in an effort at collecting $$ via civil action would be wise to find an attorney that will work for JUST a percent of what is collected. Otherwise the truth is people will just compound their losses with attorney fees. Here is something else I'll share. Sorry to be a Johnny Raincloud. I also worked with the local prosecutors office and some people got charged with felonies. The criminal justice system doesn't have a lot of enthusiasm for incarcerating people with a lot of health problems. Least not here. They don't want to pay their medical bills. So if Mike really does have a bunch of health issues that reduces the chance of meaningful jail time. Still is worth nagging at authorities about criminal charges. Even if a conviction leads to probation, compensation to the victims will no doubt be ordered. Now you have a judgement for free. Which might be all it's worth, but still.....

I can't tell on this thread where people are being serious and where it is just goofing around. But your comment is serious so -- a serious response. It also needs to be safe to REMOVE a book from the holder. CGC does this all the time for both regrading and for your signature series events. There needs to be a small gap somewhere to start the removal of the outer holder. I recently needed to remove a newly slabbed book from the holder for pressing and I found no such gap. I had to break off a corner with pliers. Sealing the outer holder tight is great, but the label swapping scam that recently was exposed happened because the gap in the seal of the outer holder is at the top - where the label is at. And the label is not sealed inside the inner holder. It basically sits in a well at the top of the outer holder. So leave a small gap at the bottom of the outer holder and seal the label in with the inner holder. No label swaps possible. Besides --- archivally speaking there seems to be a consensus that the books need to be able to "breath" a little bit. Unless you can make the holder completely air tight - pumping out the atmospheric air and filling it with an inert gas.

One word: 1099-K. eBay will be sending you one. The dealer will not.

He offered to do the same thing on my Avengers 1. He was going to add material back to the edge, then color touch it to match and trim to the correct size. I choose not to do this for two reasons. The cost - and I thought it possible that doing so might take the book to moderate rather than slight restored I was under the impression at the time that it was going to be done by leaf casting, but perhaps he was going to do the dry grafting instead.

In 2012 he worked on an Avengers 1 for me. An slight amateur restored (trimmed) 8.0 to slight professional 9.2. The work was reasonably priced and reasonably fast (four months) for restoration. He even made the helpful suggestion of getting Stan Lee's signature and arranged the facilitator. There was a time when Mike had a skill set and business that people were glad to pay for and he was doing good work. It's sad how it worked out for him and for everyone else that used him the past several years.

As Stormflora said - if you have the books in your possession and they are your books just ignore any and all threats of legal action. Dangerous Waters is in Florida. You said you live in Canada. He's bluffing - the legal costs would be many multiples of the value of the books. It's hard to get court judgments when two different jurisdictions are involved and both are in the same state. Two countries? LOL. Die of old age before anything happens. Besides that - if the books were submitted under the owner or stores account THEY FILLED OUT THE RETURN ADDRESS. You don't need to worry about actions by CGC. CGC sent the books where they were told after they were paid. They have done their part. As an aside - Dangerous Waters does not have a Dealer Account with CGC. At least not according to the CGC Dealer look up. Nor do they list on their website that you can send books to CGC through them. With shipping $250 is in the general ball park - a little high - for five moderns. Retail would be $25 a book ($125) a five dollar invoice fee and $80 return shipping. That's $210 - plus whatever he charged to ship the books to CGC. So you certainly were not saving any money going through the store's account.