James J Johnson

Well, cosplay is all fun and games, until push comes to shove, tempers flare, then someone pulls out a giant tenderizing mallet and somebody's wiener gets schnitzeled.

I beg to differ with you, Kav! If she's a part of the "Me too" movement, that big hammer may come in very handy for making Wienerschnitzel pancakes! .

OK. I see it now, I stand corrected. I thought they had abandoned that business strategy altogether. Wasn't aware that older habits persist!

Recently? By recent, I mean in the past 2 years or so? I try to avoid clicking on message board links. I once downloaded some nasty malware from a runner's forum that way.

You can't even put those two words in the same sentence when referring to Bob, "Bob" and "Neg...…. "Neg...…."Neg...……. See. I gave it try and it's impossible!

Exceptions to every rule, right? What I meant (not fake news) is that for the most part (since a lot of their listings feature books that were once slabbed, and I was referring to mostly those that were slabbed at one time) their unrestored books are indeed unrestored (only because they have already been through a reliable resto check). Also, they've been at this for a long, long time, what? At least 10 years under one name or another? At one time, their unrestored listings could take one turn or another. Lots of restored books with no mention of the work. Then, over a period of about a year or so, that business model changed and less books were being sent out as unrestored that had the work after all. So, we'd have to differentiate between their past and present business models to really be accurate, which did slightly change. So, to be clear, there's a few different scenarios. The old business model was to touch things up and not disclose it. That changed a bit to still buying low grade slabs and raw books and either leaving them alone, God forbid, right?, and listing them a super-high grade unrestored, almost perfect, and they remain unrestored. Or, if that looks like total s*** anyway, giving them the 3 edge trim and glue/color touched amateur job, and listing them as almost perfect and mentioning the work. From my understanding, the old non-disclosure resto model was stopped in favor of the latter two models.

An enhanced negative image of the crease confirms your analysis, Joey. Though very faint, the color is indeed broken.

Wasn't pressing considered restoration at that time because it was typically done in conjunction with cleaning? And that cleaning and pressing was performed after disassembling the book, for either one process, the other, or both? My understanding is that disassembly pressing is considered resto and non-disassembly resto isn't. Am I mistaken?

Why doesn't he contact them and tell them what happened? They may make good, or at least give him a credit towards something else. I would try. He's already out. There's nothing more to lose by asking.

Good at it? Some of the books are so trimmed that I've seen them with a full inch or more sliced off the right and bottom edges. The amount they can slice off of the top is only limited by how close the title and the comic code are to the top edge, but sometimes that doesn't even stop them, cutting the top down to and beyond the top of each. Many of the books they list as unrestored are formerly graded books, cracked out, and grades in the 3.0 to 6.0 range are then listed as "almost perfect". In many cases, when they restored these former low-grades, cobbling them together with glue and ink markers, the spines have been solidified with glue (which is why they're so badly indented in spots), and swathed in horribly matched amateur ink that bleeds through and discolors the surrounding areas. It's like putting masking tape over a bullet wound. A lot of the books are retreads. Relisting of books that sold and returned. That said, I've never heard of them turning down a return request, and of course, their unrestored books are indeed unrestored. Not because they're any more capable of reliably detecting all forms of restoration unless it's blatantly obvious, as they are of doing the restoration (childish attempts at best) but because a reliable, professional restoration check was already done by CGC and it's a low grade slab crack out.

His name sounds like he should be one of Fender Tremolo's crew!

You're funny too. I just can't imagine that you would have the necessities to realize just how much so, in what way, and to what extent!

Heritage raw grading =

Fie! You utter a mountain of jest! You've conducted IQ tests on insects? Or are you referring to first hand, personal experience?