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To press or not to press? Pressing info please.
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114 posts in this topic

1 minute ago, explosive&kitkat said:

Ive been very active since posting this thread and have read/watched anything that has been sent my way as well as reading and browsing other pages ive found associated with the topic... Not exactly sure how else I would be expected to learn.. If you have any advice on research techniques that I should be doing other then reading browsing and chatting with experienced members please be helpful and let me know. 

Don't get bent, its just the boards.  People will respect you more if you do your own research.  It is kind of irritating but that is the way it is.  I could tell you what to do with your books and Speedcakes could tell you the complete opposite, who is right?  This is not an easy answer.  You need to decide what is right for YOU.

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2 minutes ago, explosive&kitkat said:

Im realizing since coming here to research that the pressing process is not only a very complicated thing to get right but also there are really no right answers to my questions. Thank you and every one else here for helping me to take a step back before just jumping right into this aspect of comic grading. Im going to have one book maybe two pressed only and not anything super important to my collection with ccs, then im going to look into another option and do the same thing with one or two other like books so I have a few books for reference that way I can see/hold some completed books in hand and just take in the results. 

Im also going to take a ton of high res photos before and after for reference. I will post results after im done. Figure it will be some good info for people to look at in the future.

Welcome to the boards.

Before submitting for pressing check the books carefully.  Count pages, look for restoration - especially black felt pen color touch that bleeds through to the inside of covers , check for rips or small missing pieces inside and check for stains throughout the book and the back cover.  These are all issues that are easy to miss that can strongly affect the value and grade of books you submit.

Also put a few in the grading forum.  You'll get good feedback on your books and you can compare your grading to the grading of experienced boardies who've submitted tons of books to CGC.

Unless you're grading for sentimental reasons I'd also suggest you set a value for books you're gonna submit.  There's not much point submitting a book that'll be worth $40 after grading that costs you $40 to press and grade.  In general I won't send a book to get graded unless I feel it's worth at least $150  graded.

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2 hours ago, JWKyle said:

To the OP take your time. Learn a process that works for you. Don't just send in 50 books for pressing and grading them come back and tell us how CGC can't grade. Send it 5-10 books for pressing and grading learn for yourself what can be improved and take notes. Estimate what your grade would be and what you think the page quality is and so fourth. Write it all down in a note book because by the time you get the books back your going to forget what you thought and if you have it in writing you can compare your notes to theirs.  

Great advice, I actually am doing exactly that great minds think alike :) Im trying to slow down a bit also but I am a very go go go type of person, its a strength and downfall haha. Good idea on the notes though I didn't think about that. Grading is something I really have struggled with starting out, its a very complicated process to get right ill say that. Ive gotten hand and foot better since I started though and im constantly comparing my grades to other more experienced grades and then asking questions about the differences between them. I really love Mycomicshop because of a few things but the help on learning to grade has been crucial.

So when I buy books a lot of times ill buy a big lot locally or in auction just for one or two books and then send the rest to them to get the books I wanted as cheap as possible. The first few times I sent stuff to them I remember my heart dropping so hard when I seen the grades come back. I started collecting by picking a series (justice league series 1) so ide buy everything justice league and keep the best copies for my self that I needed and send in the rest. I sent in maybe 30 books I thought were VF-NM thinking I really scored on some books come to find out they were all low grade due to soiling and indentation needless to say I learned about soiling fingerprints and using proper light and magnification as well as gloves always gloves that day and have benefited from it since.

Sorry went on a rant haha. Thank you for your help.

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39 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Lots of questions that would require a lot if typing.  What I will say is not every book needs to be pressed but if you are uneducated then every book you submit should be pressed.  What this will mean is you will have to be selective on which books you get graded (ie keys only).  If a book is only $150 in 9.4 or better then it may not make sense to spend $60 to get a book graded / pressed until you know a bit more.  I'd send any book valued at over $500 in for a press since your gains will probably out-way the cost and learn from there.  You may be looking at it from a collectors stand point but why waste money grading low cost books unless you feel confident in what it will come back at.

Very well said and thank you.

Sorry for all the questions right out the gate was a little to over zealous when I posted.

I have gotten a slew of info here in the past 24hrs though, goal achieved and I feel a lot better informed on what exactly I should be focusing on for research with my time moving forward thanks to all of you here so thank you all for your time.

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32 minutes ago, Karl Liebl said:

I would not send in books just for the heck of it!  If you dont have high dollar books send a couple sentimental books in, maybe with a little damage that you would like to see repaired??

The books im going to send are decent just not top end stuff and all of them are personal collection items I want to show off so they are going to see a lot of wall time over the years in stead of proper storage (in a closed off dark room).

I have a low grade wonder woman 105 im going to send and a captain marvel adventures 145 that I have in the spare me a grade section that will goto ccs.

Thanks for the response

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12 minutes ago, explosive&kitkat said:
3 hours ago, speedcake said:

Seems more of a “tell me” process than a “learning process” thread hm

Ive been very active since posting this thread and have read/watched anything that has been sent my way as well as reading and browsing other pages ive found associated with the topic... Not exactly sure how else I would be expected to learn.. If you have any advice on research techniques that I should be doing other then reading browsing and chatting with experienced members please be helpful and let me know. 

You've come to a comic book chat board hosted by the most successful grading and pressing company in the world to ask experienced collectors questions about grading and pressing.  Seems like a logical decision and I don't see any reason for resistance.

In general, look at each book and give them an initial grade.  Then pick out any damage that can improved or eliminated - bends, dings that you can spot by holding the comic at an angle near a bright light, creases that don't break color or that do break color but can be improved, spine rolls, dirt on the covers, etc - then grade the books again and consider changes from pressing and cleaning.  It won't be exact and you'll be wrong on some but you should be in the right ball park.

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17 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Welcome to the boards.

Before submitting for pressing check the books carefully.  Count pages, look for restoration - especially black felt pen color touch that bleeds through to the inside of covers , check for rips or small missing pieces inside and check for stains throughout the book and the back cover.  These are all issues that are easy to miss that can strongly affect the value and grade of books you submit.

Also put a few in the grading forum.  You'll get good feedback on your books and you can compare your grading to the grading of experienced boardies who've submitted tons of books to CGC.

Unless you're grading for sentimental reasons I'd also suggest you set a value for books you're gonna submit.  There's not much point submitting a book that'll be worth $40 after grading that costs you $40 to press and grade.  In general I won't send a book to get graded unless I feel it's worth at least $150  graded.

Great advice thank you. I have 3 books in the grading section and honestly that section is hands down the best resource ive found to date what a great way for new people to learn from other experienced members really awesome. Aside from the occasional special circumstance modern im trying to stick to around $250 for just grading and around 350 for press grade unless its a golden age book that can grade close to the highest grade on census.

Thank you for your time

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18 minutes ago, explosive&kitkat said:

Great advice thank you. I have 3 books in the grading section and honestly that section is hands down the best resource ive found to date what a great way for new people to learn from other experienced members really awesome. Aside from the occasional special circumstance modern im trying to stick to around $250 for just grading and around 350 for press grade unless its a golden age book that can grade close to the highest grade on census.

Thank you for your time

Welcome to the boards!

One of the best pieces of advice I got years ago was that the Search function of this site leaves a lot to the imagination. 

If you use Google search, add in this string to your query and it will provide much more satisfaction in your learning quest:

site:cgccomics.com your search terms go here

Apologize if you are already hip to this.

Good luck on your journey!

-bc

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22 minutes ago, bc said:

Welcome to the boards!

One of the best pieces of advice I got years ago was that the Search function of this site leaves a lot to the imagination. 

If you use Google search, add in this string to your query and it will provide much more satisfaction in your learning quest:

site:cgccomics.com your search terms go here

Apologize if you are already hip to this.

Good luck on your journey!

-bc

I prefer rehashing the same topics over, and overand over again...

:devil:

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Quote

If you use Google search, add in this string to your query and it will provide much more satisfaction in your learning quest:

site:cgccomics.com your search terms go here

I never knew that - thanks fort posting that.

As far as what I've learned about submitting - not only get an idea of defects, press/clean potential, poss value - I also want to try and then bunch submissions by tier level.   That will minimize your return shipping, especially if you submitting a dozen plus books.  I read a post here somewhere about the max # books CGC sends back in 1 shipment so you'd want to stay under than to number if you had a large batch.

How much/lttle profit you take into consideration when deciding to slab is up to you.  There's no wrong answer

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50 minutes ago, bc said:

Welcome to the boards!

One of the best pieces of advice I got years ago was that the Search function of this site leaves a lot to the imagination. 

If you use Google search, add in this string to your query and it will provide much more satisfaction in your learning quest:

site:cgccomics.com your search terms go here

Apologize if you are already hip to this.

Good luck on your journey!

-bc

I really wish someone had told me that 10 years ago, sheesh.

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1 hour ago, thehumantorch said:

Welcome to the boards.

Before submitting for pressing check the books carefully.  Count pages, look for restoration - especially black felt pen color touch that bleeds through to the inside of covers , check for rips or small missing pieces inside and check for stains throughout the book and the back cover.  These are all issues that are easy to miss that can strongly affect the value and grade of books you submit.

Also put a few in the grading forum.  You'll get good feedback on your books and you can compare your grading to the grading of experienced boardies who've submitted tons of books to CGC.

Unless you're grading for sentimental reasons I'd also suggest you set a value for books you're gonna submit.  There's not much point submitting a book that'll be worth $40 after grading that costs you $40 to press and grade.  In general I won't send a book to get graded unless I feel it's worth at least $150  graded.

What kills me is that I had 2 lower grade ASM 14's graded without being pressed.  Now, since those books have experienced a significant bump from when I had them graded, I am seriously considering getting them regraded with a press and will be hopefully sending them to someone he is not overloaded. 

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3 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

What kills me is that I had 2 lower grade ASM 14's graded without being pressed.  Now, since those books have experienced a significant bump from when I had them graded, I am seriously considering getting them regraded with a press and will be hopefully sending them to someone he is not overloaded. 

This is exactly the type of "hand wringing" I have been talking about...  I would say if you are going to spend the money to encapsulate an expensive book, why not press it first and remove the doubt?  Now Buzz needs to crack the slabs and re submit, seems wasteful.  I wonder how many artifacts in the Smithsonian have been preserved vs untouched.  I don't see any problem with giving an old piece of newsprint a little help, some people do.

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11 minutes ago, Karl Liebl said:

This is exactly the type of "hand wringing" I have been talking about...  I would say if you are going to spend the money to encapsulate an expensive book, why not press it first and remove the doubt?  Now Buzz needs to crack the slabs and re submit, seems wasteful.  I wonder how many artifacts in the Smithsonian have been preserved vs untouched.  I don't see any problem with giving an old piece of newsprint a little help, some people do.

It's really only happened with these books and a few books I still have in my possession from before I knew about pressing.  The ASM 14's both came back at a 3.5.  When I bought them and from what I paid the price difference was not much different between a 3.5 to a 5.0 let alone a 3.5 to a 4.0.  However they may take a trip to Florida for a couple of months. 

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23 hours ago, explosive&kitkat said:

5. personal experiences with pressing?

I pressed spine rolls out of a couple books using an iron, and although everyone here thought I was dumb, it did work! (I also ruined one books as well, nothing of value tho)

I wouldn't actually recommend it, just something fun I tried.

Edited by HuddyBee
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