Randall Dowling

Agreed! Your copy should remain free, Robot Man! It’s gorgeous!

You’ve chosen well, sir!

When it comes to expressiveness of line work and the art of narrative storytelling, there are only 2 or 3 true masters in the history of comic art. Alex Toth was one of them. I personally can’t get enough of his lyrical drawing and highly recommend it to any who are new to it.

I’ve always liked this set! A little while back, I got blown out trying for that Vampirella button. Super cool item and, apparently, much sought after!

Exactly. It took me 12 years to find a high grade copy for my collection. During that time, I probably saw 3 or 4 go by that were priced higher than I was willing to pay for a 9.2-9.4. In the end, I just ponied up and paid the price. Really glad I did now. I just remember thinking $60 was way too much for Eerie 25, Steranko or no. Now, I’d buy every nm copy I could find at that price.

Agree 100%.

Taking everything you say as sincere, allow me to clarify my concern about what you're posting. I understand legitimate conservationists and restoration experts studying various methods of paper recomposition. However, there is an increasingly slippery slope that may be summed up as "If you can't easily detect it, it's not restoration". You stated "I don’t do restoration at all, only de-acidification, mending, and low temperature pressing.", all of which by very definition are restorative processes, and thus restoration. The fact that CGC doesn't consider it so, doesn't mean it isn't. It only means they won't consider these processes while grading a book. As sad as this decision was, sadder still is the avalanche of amateur tinkerers, actively working on books and getting them slabbed where prospective buyers can't do their own evaluation to detect the various methods employed. This is at the heart of the CPR game which is expanding now into chemical cleaning and beyond. As someone who just likes comics that have not been tampered with at all, I find an increasingly smaller and smaller pool of books to buy from. As to "Contempt prior to investigation", it's a fair criticism. I've just seen way too much of this and there are always those very proud of their ability to perform these alterations without detection. That is the source of my contempt. If you're intentions are pure, then accept my apologies. However, if you disagree with what I've written here, then I'm sorry, you are engaged in a deceptive practice and deserve the condemnation. It's wrong to present and sell something as new, when it isn't. May I make a suggestion? If I were going to post a new process of altering the condition of older books which is unequivocally restoration (which what you've shown definitely is), I would be clear to state that this is restoration and should be considered so. There aren't any serious experts on restoration of any kind, in any field, that think you can engage in such practices without stating very directly that the item in question has been restored. To do otherwise, is to operate without integrity and practice deception on unsuspecting collectors who just love the genre and are willing to part with their hard earned money for high grade books. Unfortunately, it is almost certain that at least a few less scrupulous people have read this thread and want to figure out if they can do the same, get books certified with a blue label and then sell for substantial profits to anyone who doesn't know better. If your motivations are not financial but rather academic to explore new methods of conservation and restoration, then the prospect of this should concern you most of all.

If you can’t detect it, it’s not restoration, right... right??

Having collected comics for the last 40+ years, this is an incredibly depressing thread. I’ve watched chumps with their crayons and markers and single hair paint brushes and spray gloss and all the rest ply their deceptions on unsuspecting collectors in order to make a little more money. Just another in a very long line of attempts at restoration that can’t be detected. I wonder, is phase 2 submitting books to CGC to see if they catch it? And if they don’t, would you ever tell people that you’ve bleached the book when you sell it? My guess is no, you won’t. And that’s the whole idea. By all means, protest and tell me I’m wrong. This is like somebody posting a thread on how they’ve figured a new method of micro trimming that CGC can’t detect.

Wow... https://www.ebay.com/itm/EERIE-25-HI-GRADE-9-2-CLASSIC-STERANKO-COVER-GEM/333379517615?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1431.l2649

Those don’t look like magazine boxes. What kind of game are you playing here? If you think posting a cryptic message with a photograph of a big stash of comic boxes is going to get people excited... then you were right! I’m having fantasies of newsstand fresh, glossy, white paged Curtis, Skywald, and Warren mags. 🤤. I feel like Floyd the barber listening to a story from Andy Griffith...

These are good questions. Below are the answers: Question #1- I wouldn’t trust any seller advertising that their encapsulated books are “unpressed” unless I know them personally. There would have to be visibly obvious defects that would be addressed by pressing present for me to even consider (i.e., spine roll, non color breaking bends, etc.). The implication of stating so is that maybe if you buy the book, crack it out, get it pressed, it’ll grade even higher when resubmitted. A pretty transparent and dubious sales tactic. Question #2- No, CGC does not note on the label when books have been pressed. Doing so would ruin the game of crack out, press, resubmit (often referred to as CPR). My recommendation is if you’re going to collect comics, stay away from all of these games and focus on raw books that you can read and enjoy. Speculators that only collect slabbed books are mainly concerned with the monetary aspects and not the best part of comics, which is what’s inside. They’re missing out, big time. Read the stories and collect the ones you really like. Forget about making money for the first few years. You’ll be very glad you did.

Did you submit yourself for grading? If so, was it pressed prior to submission?

Those stamps could represent any number of things. Every newsstand had it's own methods of tracking sales. One example is they would write or stamp each book with the number of copies that they had ordered. At the end of the month, if there were copies left, they could count those and compare to the number ordered. At which point they could adjust the next order accordingly. Each vendor had their own system and they varied greatly. Date stamps were often applied so that a vendor could tell how long something had been out. Today, these are usually discounted as historical markings and for many, don't have an impact on grade. To others, they like the markings if they're distinctive enough to identify a pedigree collection but otherwise, no. And still others want no markings at all. It's really personal preference at this point.

Yeah, unfortunately, it looks like he’s either ignorant or trying to pull one over on people. Reminds me a little bit of Theo Holstein’s tactics. The really tough part is that he doesn’t know how to grade... I was going to make a joke about the seller just being ahead of their time but then I looked at the scans.