427Impaler

I have a question, does anyone know if CGC has some sort of imaging protocol for arriving books? I would really like to see the condition of the box on arrival.

Wow way too many questions and guesswork to address everything. Here is how the books got here, were handled, and shipped: Dylan contacted me through IG where I post lots of my results, I prefer to do conservation work but also like doing tough clean/press jobs as well. This is the kind of work I post there, both clean/press jobs without any work that would negate a blue label: before after before after all posted with permission of the owner (not Dylan). the AF 15 books came to me after lengthy discussion regarding my ability to handle them correctly. About the books: low grade AF15: Book had tape removal and possibly other cleaning/pressing PRIOR to coming to me: book required light cleaning (dry cleaning, no treatments or chemicals) and pressing. Top staple was attached but had paper loss toward front cover, managed to slip partial small piece under staple as shown high grade AF 15: Very nice book with some pebbling and grit embedment from being pressed some time in the past. Dry cleaned cover and light press. Staples were slightly sunk and the bottom staple had off-spine placement so great care was taken in handling. No chemical treatments or any kind were done on this book. Books were in Mylars, double back boards, individually cardboard sandwiched, bubble wrapped, placed in a box: that box was then bubble wrapped, and then placed inside another large box. Shipping was 2 day priority; arrived in 3 days. No communication of damage and that was the last I heard About being graded with detached covers. I almost always take pictures of the books finished and about to be shipped and so glad that I did. These are the high grade book: arrival, still in bag and board these were taken on day of departure Low grade arrival on departure:

I’m a very logical person also and the wording indicated insinuation. As opposed to simply asking “why did he use you”. Anyway no hard feelings, it’s a very charged up topic. I’m just glad I took pictures! Have a great night

Just looking at some of the slab pics, notable that the top looks like a clean staple pop but the bottom is a disaster with a bunch of extra spine damage

My comment regarding an insinuation was directed to the other boardie. I appreciate you linking my lignin thread. ill try to dig up the pics and post them in a good chronological way. Obviously I don’t have the graded pics but we know where they are. taking care of some stuff so will search gather them in the morning cheers

I suggest you be careful here, sounds like you are insinuating I do something that would be considered unethical. I do work for a few boardies and the reason people use me is good results. I have several customers on the East coast that ship to me regularly. My main focus is conservation and extending the life of comics. The only time I ever use a solvent is during tape removal and even then the final adhesive removal is done with a staedler.

That’s true, I do know CGC is really good at spotting cover cleaned: I did a solvent bath test with results, I think it is in the resto section. Water bath also is easy to spot

I still have an ongoing family issue so will only be able to pop in from time to time. The pics are the ones the customer has been using, I sent them to him the second I heard the “covers detached” issue. The low grade book that came back cover cleaned would have been something the book went through prior to me, it also had tape removal prior to me. Yes, I am in Canada. I do work for many other people and some board members in the US and Canada. Just to pre-empt the question: I DO NOT do solvent bath, I just don’t believe it is good for the book. Even books that I do conservation on I don’t solvent bath them even if it is allowed by CGC in the conserved category. I do aqueous de-acidification on books being submitted for Conservation grade. I also don’t trim books or do restoration. Feel free to have a look at my IG page for the kinds of work that I do: @excelsior.conservation

Evening gentlemen, I dry cleaned and pressed the two books in question. i would have posted sooner but family matters prevented it. The customer informed me of the detached covers although I hadn’t seen pics of the damage until now. I always take pics of books arriving and departing to prevent issues and cover liability and of course did that with these big books. Two other people here saw the books get packed and shipped. I have to admit I was very surprised when I saw just how much damage was done to the books, more that just a simple popped staple. The books were shipped to the customer who forwarded them to CGC. The higher grade book was very nice and needed very little cleaning and pressing, the lower grade one had tape removal at some point in its past and was attached at staples but they did have stress as can be seen. I have worked with many fragile books, most much more delicate than these two. I am confident my pressing did not contribute to the issue. Anyone here who has bought from me knows I pack like the book is going into a war zone so I’m confident it travelled well. Hard to figure out how these books got so mangled. I really hope CGC has some photo/video coverage to help decide when the damage happened. Hard to imagine that kind of damage in shipping but I guess anything is possible. Hopefully this helps clear some questions. Just a really sad thing to happen to a couple of AF15’s

That’s a hefty shipping bill to Canada no matter how you slice it. I know from conversations with other local collectors here in Vancouver it definitely cuts down the amount of slabbing they will do. It is certainly more expensive USA-Canada than the other way around. Using postal service at fastest rate a comparable box costs about $60cdn heading to Florida from Vancouver. There is generally no brokerage or taxes involved in books going to or coming from CGC it correctly described

Oh just wipe it down with Wonderbread and tape it back together. Good as new!

Book disassembly is not for the faint of heart, particularly on GA books with fragile spines and any improperly pressed book that has the staples sunk. Blown out staple holes are pretty common in those circumstances. I’m a big fan of conservation for books that can benefit from it. Done properly it can extend the life of a collectible considerably. As far as how well Conserved books do financially that remains to be seen, not a ton of sales data, and the CGC label is still fairly new. Interesting fact is if you have a book with a married wrap after being conserved it gets the new Conserved label with notation of the marriage. Recently sold my Conserved AF15 2.5, I would consider the conservation Moderate and the book had a married CF, ended up selling at approximately 70% of current blue label GPA.

Not intent in defending him. I just see a young guy who from my convos seems to have his heart in the right place. He should have noted resto, and didn’t. He came in swinging and got the Medicine. At this point we either bury the body or find a “different” option. I guess the Dad in me comes out in these situations and I’m always looking for a hard lesson learned. Of course the hole digging would have to end😆

For the win.

Find someone else to correct sir, he said he apologized for not noting the restoration in the description. Why don’t you ask him if he would do it differently in the future? I’m guessing yes.