Undoing restoration in order to get a blue label? 0

[Getoutandstayout]

I recently got back into comic collecting two years ago and was totally ignorant of the label coloring guide. I bought a 3.0 FF #48 online that was a purple label - d'oh! I only paid about $200 for it. I think there was a little color touch-up. Anyway, is there a way to undo this in order to get a blue label from CGC? If not, I may sell it and take the money I get and put down on a blue label 3.0 (what, $800 now?)

[Bomber-Bob]

1 hour ago, Getoutandstayout said:

I recently got back into comic collecting two years ago and was totally ignorant of the label coloring guide. I bought a 3.0 FF #48 online that was a purple label - d'oh! I only paid about $200 for it. I think there was a little color touch-up. Anyway, is there a way to undo this in order to get a blue label from CGC? If not, I may sell it and take the money I get and put down on a blue label 3.0 (what, $800 now?)

It depends on the amount of CT and the location. Keep in mind, in most cases they have to literally scrape it off, often leaving an unsightly situation. I would suggest sending it to CCS for a review and they can advise. 

[Getoutandstayout]

Yeah - my concern is that if it has to be scraped off, the 3.0 would turn into a 2.0 or something (although I've been 2.0s with parts of their cover torn off). I really don't want a highly desirable comic in my collection below a 3.0.

Would I be better off keeping this purple label as-is, or selling it and spending an additional $500 to get the same grade as a blue label? Not that I have $500 lying around. Then factor in the cost of the un-restoration work + regrading by CGC again. Is a purple label really like the mark of the beast for a comic?

Edited November 13, 2018 by Getoutandstayout

[Artboy99]

Post a pic of the book. In my experience the phrase "small amount of color touch" can be misleading. I have seen a CGC book that had that description that had color touch on over 25% of the cover and to remove all of that would leave an unsightly mess / ugly book.

[revat]

Of course we haven't seen pictures, but if the amount and location is paramount, as mentioned.  Fortunately the grade is pretty low already.  But there might even be some occasions where after removing resto the label goes blue (yay), keeps the grade (yay), but becomes unsightly to the point where the actual value is still lower.

[pemart1966]

Given the low grade and how much you paid for it it's not worth it cost wise to get any work done on the book imo.  If it bothers you, sell this one and get an unrestored copy...

[oldrover]

20 hours ago, Getoutandstayout said:

Yeah - my concern is that if it has to be scraped off, the 3.0 would turn into a 2.0 or something (although I've been 2.0s with parts of their cover torn off). I really don't want a highly desirable comic in my collection below a 3.0.

Would I be better off keeping this purple label as-is, or selling it and spending an additional $500 to get the same grade as a blue label? Not that I have $500 lying around. Then factor in the cost of the un-restoration work + regrading by CGC again. Is a purple label really like the mark of the beast for a comic?

It's not a plus, but it's less of a drag in my experience for lower graded copies like yours. We had a guy in here who got what he THOUGHT was an unrestored FF1 CGC'd, it came back purple at 4.0 IIRC. He had the restoration removed, and despite the cover looking like someone had taken a sharp edge to it... which they had... it came back a 3.5 unrestored. THAT was worth the extra money. Yours... probably not. And depending on where the color touch is and how much there is, CCS may decline to remove it. That's happened to me on a few books. FYI. If it were me, I'd hang onto it until I was ready to upgrade. 

And when you sell, IMHO you'll still make money on your book... somebody recently spent $360 on a 3.0 (R) FF48. So, win win!

[TC33]

It all depends on whether the color touch is designated as amateur or professional.  If pro and an A or B quality, it can be taken off easy by CCS as pro materials are more easily reverseable and do not bleed though.  If amateur, then its a marker job that bleeds through and you have to scrape out the entire area (all the paper involved) of bleed through, something you would never ever consider on a nice mid grade or better copy, but at a 3.0 its not impossible to think the grade won't be affected to bad to scrape a little paper off, maybe 1/2 grade +/- (if and only if the color touch is truly minor). If its done in more than a couple places, (small dots) then just forget it and leave it as is if its done with marker/ "C" level resto work!

P.S.  I don't mind slight resto books too bad since they go for so much less money typically if you want to get rid of it and look for a nicer/unrestored copy.

Edited November 16, 2018 by TC33