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Grading Question About Odor In A Book

Started by waahehe94,

38 posts in this topic

waahehe94

waahehe94

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Recently looked at a copy of New Mutants 98 at a comic shop in Tennessee. The shop owner has been saying that it's such a high grade copy that he's going to send it off for grading if someone doesn't buy it soon. This gained my interest so I decided to check it out and maybe make an offer on it, but after examining it I have some questions that I'm hoping that some more experienced graders can help me with?

 

Inside the display case, from a 3 foot distance in low light the cover does look immaculate, but on closer inspection it seems to have some issues that raise concern for the amount of money that he's asking for it. The spine has some small stress marks on it causing color breaks on it. There's not a lot of evidence of spine stress or color breaks, but they are there and noticeable when you have the book laying on a counter in front of you. The cover also isn't bright and glossy, but it isn't dull either. The colors don't really pop out at you, they're just there.

 

The biggest concern I have is the stench that comes from the book when you open it up. The odor that comes from the book will literlly make you take a step back if you are not expecting it. The only way that I can describe it is the book smells like it was left in a car that was on a week long roadtrip full of chain smokers whose cars A/C wasn't working in the middle of July and they didn't want to roll down the windows. The pages of the book are kind of a yellow to off yellow with maybe of a hint of being white at one time 25 years ago.

 

My last concern is that the bottom corners of the pages don't seem to have been cut properly from the printers. Each corner of every page is cut with a small box on them that hangs out bellow the cover.

 

I know it's nearly impossible to assign a grade without having the book in front of you, but I would appreciate any ideas on the amount of points these flaws would take away from an overall grade

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

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Books that smell, have mold or bug / rat chews have no place in my collection. I cannot stand the stench of cigarette smoke and once it is in a book it never seems to leave.

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waahehe94

waahehe94

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Thank's for the replies, I was really curious as to how odor effects the grading of a book. Being that this isn't a difficult book to find in high grade at the moment I think I'll pass on it.

 

The owner of this comic shop has slipped a few things by me in the past on books that I've bought from him and haven't inspected closely, which is why I don't deal with him that much anymore. I was honestly expecting to find maybe a minor deffect on the interior like off white pages or maybe a fold on one of the pages, but the odor coming from this book really caught me by surprise.

 

Back in the mid 80's I bought a collection of Pulp books from 1928-1951 and none of those books, being as old as they were at the time, had any type of foul odor so it really surprised me when a comic this new had a stench strong enough from the interior pages to make me take a step back upon opening it...lol

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

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If you can't stand the smell, why would you pay money for something you can't stand?

 

That's the point. I don't.

 

I opened up a book at a dealer's booth and both the dealer and myself could smell what could only be described as "house fire" as soon as the flap was lifted. That book did not come home with me. I have also bought a few things in lots or minor books that when I received them I have thrown them out or returned them.

 

 

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kav

kav

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I have de smelled many a book by opening page by page in front of a fan, 10 min per page. The stronger the odor that means the looser the odor molecules are bound to the book and typically the easier to blow off with a fan.

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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

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Does CGC take the grade down for a stinky book? Once it's sealed in the envelope, you're not going to smell it anyway...

 

They do.

 

I haven't tried it, but I seem to remember a previous thread with suggestions on how to deodorize a book. One was to seal the book in a plastic box with cat litter.

 

I suppose if you got a substantial discount on a stinky book and you were willing to go to the trouble to destink it, it might be worth considering ....

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

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Does CGC take the grade down for a stinky book? Once it's sealed in the envelope, you're not going to smell it anyway...

 

They do.

 

I haven't tried it, but I seem to remember a previous thread with suggestions on how to deodorize a book. One was to seal the book in a plastic box with cat litter.

 

I suppose if you got a substantial discount on a stinky book and you were willing to go to the trouble to destink it, it might be worth considering ....

 

This has merit. At the end of the day it's still paper. Putting it in a sealable rubbermaid container with an open box of baking soda or cat litter might do the trick and absorb some of the moisture and smell.

 

Honestly though, at what point / dollar amount is it simply not worth the trouble? It varies from person to person but if it is a common low value book then just toss it.

 

Higher value books are worth experimenting on.

 

 

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kav

kav

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I don't think a passive method like putting in a box with cat litter would be very effective-the odor molecules are departing the book passively, and are not affected by what is around them. The litter is not magnetically drawing off the odor molecules.

Blowing however is another story. Also running your hands across the page.

The molecules need to be dislodged.

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kav

kav

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Right but absorption isnt the issue-the molecules need to be dislodged. Once they leave the book t doesnt matter if they waft away or get absorbed-they have left the book on their own impetus. This is not affected by what is around them.

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RCheli

RCheli

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You can get rid of some of the smell.

 

Get a plastic bin with a top. Put some cat litter -- the one with the least amount of dust possible -- at the bottom, maybe 1". Place the book -- open -- on a raised rack of some sort. Maybe a cooling rack. The comic should not touch the litter. Put the lid back on the bin, and let it sit for a day. You can turn the pages every 8 hours or so if you'd like.

 

 

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