sborock

I would trade two or three for some magic beans. I would trade you for non-magic beans

"I would not trade for any amount of money the unlikely and wonderful relationships I've built up over the years in my pursuing the hobby, whenever and wherever and however." Love this quote!

Most restoration can be detected reliably by people who have studied restoration. Reliably does not mean 100% as there is a human factor involved. I can sometimes tell if a book is restored from 4 feet away. Sometimes I need a loop to confirm what I think might have been done to a book. Once in awhile I miss something. If you are looking for perfection, then, yes, move along. The only place it exists is Fantasy Land. Many collectors learn from reading the boards, so there is always something to see here......

Just picked up this Wrightson HOM 204 splash at ECCC this past weekend

That's what I miss most about you being at CGC, when you were there every shipment of CGC slabs at my door contained a handwritten note telling me to have a great day & a sandwich with the crust cut off, just how you knew I liked it. Those crusts we not cut off, I chewed them off And, BTW, I can't understand why you love those gerbil meat & head cheese with ranch dressing sandwiches so much

There are books that are definitive 9.6 and 9.8. The problem is that there is no 9.7 grade. I have seen thousands of books that "in my mind" I call a 9.7 and decide if I should give it a 9.6 or 9.8 depending on certain factors, one factor being "Will this book look like a 9.6 or a 9.8 in a holder". You also can't have a 9.1, 9.3, 9.5 or 9.7 grade in the scale, as it would make it even more difficult to be a consistent grader. PQ can change depending on the lighting. I had more trouble with PQ at onsite grading than I did sitting at my grading desk in an office.

Bingo! This is the ONLY reason I can see for CGC to exist. When it becomes: might be a 6.0 might be a 7.0, might be trimmed, might not that's where I fail to see the purpose. The purpose of certification was to make it safer to buy and sell books. So, let's be clear here: I did not say "make it perfect", I said make it "safer", which it has. No one can question this if you were collecting high end books in the 70's, 80's, or 90's. (Unless you are in the anti-pressing group, but let's not start a pressing thread and take away from my points.) I just read through all of this thread. Some of what I am going to write here, with some edits, was written in another thread a while back (shrunken covers) because it is faster for me to cut, paste and edit than having to write this "rant" from scratch. First off, It's scary to me that collectors will now think that any book that looks/is miscut in a holder is now trimmed. I am in amazement at some of the things I have read on these boards. I can tell when a book is trimmed most of the time. (A perfect micro trimming is almost impossible to detect without before and after scans, I don't care what anyone says, it's a 50/50 guess. I (we) will have to live with that, if we want to keep buying books from most dealers and collectors, certified or not). BTW....I also made sure I wrote "most of the time", because no one catches these things 100% of the time. No one. Yes, this thread is about a bad mistake that happened. And guess what, if you are doing any job that involves going through many items, something will be missed (It also seems that the mistake seems to be in the process of being resolved. Very important!). For all we know, that book might have got through when it was me, Haspel, and Friesen grading the book early on. We caught so much restoration back then and, yes, a few books might have slipped through with good trimming. Hell, the micro trimmed books got past us and would have gotten past every dealer and collector I know. All that said, I really believe that the hobby is much better off now, with certification and these boards, then it was before. But, because when I was younger, I got screwed over a bunch of times, it made me study "collectible" comics to the point that I make very, very few mistakes these days. Sometimes, as John Hiatt would say, "That's how you learn, you just get burned". Which sucks, but it either makes you leave the hobby or gets you off your butt and learn, Every veteran hobbyist on these boards, has been burned. Everyday I write my daughter a note that I put in her lunch bag, and on it I always write a quote before I write "Have a great day! I Love you!". One of those quotes I write quite often is "We learn and grow by our own mistakes." It just stinks when those mistakes in life cost us money or the enjoyment of something we love. I just want to enjoy our hobby. End of Peace, -Steve

+1

Peter Gross: Dazzler

Here's one I got at the VA Comic Con a couple of years ago. Always love Budd Root's stuff! Love the BB tat!

Very cool!

Thanks Here's another: Spider-Man's Tangled Web #13 by Sean Phillips

Another of my favorites: Civil War: Front Line #5 by John Watson

Lots of great stuff in this thread! It has inspired me to post a bit of my collection here. Alas, most pieces I have bought in the last few years are not framed due to space limitation in my home. (....and the cost of raising a teen ) Starman #7 by Tony Harris

I should have probably made my earlier post a little clearer. I do biz with Brian and Sparkle City all the time with no problems. Brian and I are friends. It's only Greg that I will never deal with, not Sparkle City.