Ways to detect restoration: Color touch

[COI]

In another thread about the OS grading guide, Fantastic-Four made a very good point:

 

"Restoration detection will continue to be the most glaringly important absent skill amongst collectors; "

 

I've been eargerly anticipating the guide, and while it sounds like it's going to be a good read, I was hoping the topic of spotting restoration would be covered in depth, but from the sounds of it this won't happen.

 

" buying CGC comics is still the only way to protect yourself. "

 

I really don't believe it should continue to be this way. Buying CGC graded books is great, but what about the large number of raw books in the VF to VF/NM range that may remain ungraded? There is a huge market for these "lower" high grades, as well as many people who would still like the traditional buying of nice un-graded books at guide or less.

 

If no publications or classes are offered to provide any insight to how to detect restoration, it is important that we strive to develop ways of doing this ourselves.

 

Speaking for Silver Age books, it would appear that the 2 most common forms of restoration prefromed are trimming and color touch. Personally, I believe that most trimming, even in very minor cases, can be spotted by eye, especially with silver age marvels. Early Marvels typically have very prominent overflash of the front and back covers. Damage caused to this overflash would be the reason for trimming.

 

But what really gets me is color touch. I recently found out that a couple of my raw books were indeed restored by this method. I would estimate my total loss to be in the $1000 area. The areas were so small, I could not see them, even with a black light. Could technology be used?

 

If you were to scan in a book, and magnify the surface of the cover enough that you could see individual color pixels, would it then be possible to spot out inconsistencies in the areas where color touch was preformed? I realize this may require some high powered equipment, but it's an idea to get the ball rolling.

 

Anyone have any input or ideas on some unique ways of detecting various methods of restoration?

 

Or maybe learning about restoration techniques (referring to proffesional methods, not using a felt pen!) can provide insight into detection and possibly removal methods that may be available.

 

Any insights would be great.

[murph0]

I would like to see restoration experts offer "restoration detection" services for like 10 dollars to spend say.. 10-20 min on the book making it about 90 percent certain the book is unrestored..then issuing like a certificate saying as such. That would probably help raw books sales..the problem would be someone getting it, and then restoring it after getting the certificate

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

Personally, I believe that most trimming, even in very minor cases, can be spotted by eye, especially with silver age marvels. Early Marvels typically have very prominent overflash of the front and back covers. Damage caused to this overflash would be the reason for trimming.

I disagree about trimming being spotted given the criteria you just listed. There are thousands of Silver Age copies that totally lack overflash yet are untrimmed. Overflash deficiency is a warning sign, but I don't believe it's EVER an absolute indicator of a trim. And looking for overflash doesn't help at all on most DC comics or any comic after around 1967. PovertyRow's guidelines for detecting a trim paired with Susan Cicconi's from the 1992 and 2002 Grading Guides are the state of my own art in detecting a trim, but I still don't think that's enough. And I strongly suspect CGC misses some types of trims, especially those done to factory-trimmed comics that have well-preserved white pages.

 

I recently had some restoration removed from a comic that CGC described as having "a very small amount of color touch." I found one of the hits on my own, but there were actually 3 in total, which surprised me. I found one that was about 1/16" square inches, but I missed two that were 1/32" spine stress coverups. Just like yourself, I don't have a good feel at all for how to find tiny CTs under regular or black light.