Is it now the norm to always press? 0

[Bomber-Bob]

1 hour ago, ttecwaf said:

In the short term if you are selling a book probably worth having it pressed.  The question for those holding onto their books or buying pressed books is what is the long term effect of pressing 10-20 years down the road?  Most companies that press keep "secret" the process under which they are pressing.  Personal books that you are going to keep until you "die" probably should not be pressed.  Just my thought.

Your comment will probably not get acknowledged but I think you are spot on correct. If your book is not pressed, and you have no intention of selling it, then leave it alone. Something else that doesn't get brought up is often the pressed book will revert.  

[Ride the Tiger]

It's not always worth the time or money to press all books. You must know how to be selective. 

[Arak Zantara]

 

On 10/28/2019 at 12:03 PM, the blob said:

I guess I was trying to gauge the thinking on this board, which has a mix of pure "I never sell" collectors, "I flip to pay for my hobby" collectors, dealers, junior dealers, flippers, and junior flippers. And often a hybrid of all of the above.

You forgot about us delusional deniers. I say I am going to sell all the time. 50 years. yet to sell a single book

[joeypost]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 8:28 AM, the blob said:

I have some likely submissions that could be helped, but have some others that do not seem obviously pressable for improvements. But honestly, what do I know? Is it now the norm. For you to press and spend the $15 or whatever if a .2 bump may net another $50-100+ even when you have doubts you can get a bump? Do they press anyway even if they don't see a likely improvement by pressing?

Based on my workload...yes. 

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 10/28/2019 at 5:28 AM, the blob said:

I have some likely submissions that could be helped, but have some others that do not seem obviously pressable for improvements. But honestly, what do I know? Is it now the norm. For you to press and spend the $15 or whatever if a .2 bump may net another $50-100+ even when you have doubts you can get a bump? Do they press anyway even if they don't see a likely improvement by pressing?

The thing with comics is this: virtually every comic has something that can be helped by a press. The other thing with comics is that, even if something can be pressed out, that doesn't mean the grade will change. So, you have to weigh the one against the other, and decide if it's worth it.

[APDallas]

My feeling is that as long as pressing is NOT considered restoration then collectors will want to get a boost in grade where even a slight improvement could mean 100's if not 1000's of dollars.

[Randall Dowling]

Most people miss out on their maximization opportunity by only pressing the book once before encapsulation.  Then they sell it and somebody else cracks it out, presses it again and then resubmits for encapsulation, usually getting a grade bump.  Then they sell it and the process continues.  This is a mistake!

The thing to do is press the book 6 or 7 times from the outset.  Why leave all that grade improvement for other people?  Really max it out from the beginning.  If the guy who's pressing gives you static saying "It won't do any good to press it more than once.", don't listen.  Tell him to go back and keep pressing that book until it's lost some weight!  If he's any good at what he does, he can turn that 4.0 into a 7.5 or a 7.0 into a 9.2-9.4 easy!  And you'll be dancing all the way to the bank feeling good knowing you're smarter than everyone else!    

[Stefan_W]

I always have my books pressed prior to submission. Not doing so leaves cash on the table, and if I am going through the process I want to maximize what I get out of it.

The trickier part for me is that I use a third party to press and sometimes clean, and they send the book in to CGC for me. That means paying for shipping to the third party, paying for the clean and press, paying for shipping to and from CGC, paying for slabbing, and then paying for the finished slabs to come back to me from the third party. This means planning an order of about 16 books to minimize the shipping fees per book. 

I've found over time as the pressing fees have gone up that I am getting priced out of this type of process. I bought my own press and now it is a matter of practicing and getting good at it before doing a submission as a trial run. I may leave a bit on the table because I wont be as good as the guy I was using for pressing, but I still may come out ahead at the end of it from the amount I save by doing it myself. 

[Randall Dowling]

7 hours ago, Stefan_W said:

I always have my books pressed prior to submission. Not doing so leaves cash on the table, and if I am going through the process I want to maximize what I get out of it.

The trickier part for me is that I use a third party to press and sometimes clean, and they send the book in to CGC for me. That means paying for shipping to the third party, paying for the clean and press, paying for shipping to and from CGC, paying for slabbing, and then paying for the finished slabs to come back to me from the third party. This means planning an order of about 16 books to minimize the shipping fees per book. 

I've found over time as the pressing fees have gone up that I am getting priced out of this type of process. I bought my own press and now it is a matter of practicing and getting good at it before doing a submission as a trial run. I may leave a bit on the table because I wont be as good as the guy I was using for pressing, but I still may come out ahead at the end of it from the amount I save by doing it myself. 

 

[Taylor G]

So the takeaway from this is: Stay away from CGC-rated books. 

Besides the speculative inflation of their value, they are probably garbage because of multiple pressings, the original clunker with a fresh coat of paint sold to the next sucker.

[lou_fine]

On 10/28/2019 at 10:29 AM, comicginger1789 said:

And really for $5-10 to potentially get $50-100 or more in value out of a book, what have you got to lose?

Not sure where you guys are getting that it costs only $5 to $10 to have a book pressed.  

I was talking to somebody that submits to CCS on a regular basis and he said that it costs him well over $50 a book and possibly even closer to $100 to have a book pressed, especially if you have to factor in the additional ancillary charges like shipping, packing materials, etc.  If I am not mistaken, if you get your pressing done by the underperforning and overpriced CCS, you are paying virtully the same price for pressing as you do for having the book graded.  I believe he said that his average cost to have a book pressed and graded was over $150 a shot.  

So, maybe you do have something to lose if you don't get a grade bump from the press.  

[comicginger1789]

If you are paying more than $15 for a press you are doing it wrong. I get there are those who are premier pressers but even they don’t charge $50-100!

Yes there can be additional costs with shipping back and forth but there are enough who send in to CGC for you. Depending on the book after grading and pressing and shipping you are likely in it for around $100 total sure but you are so close to that anyways without a press the potential bump is worth the extra $10-20

[Stefan_W]

The amount it costs is related to the value of the book. If you are pressing and submitting books that cost a couple of hundred bucks it is different than having your Amazing Fantasy 15s pressed, cleaned, and submitted. 

[comicnewbie]

One of those annoying newbies here.  Question - I've been looking at comics on ebay and a lot of the comics for sale that have been CGC graded will also state that the comic is "unpressed".  Is this just a way to say it's in even better condition than a similarly graded book that may have been pressed?  And if CGC does press your book before grading, is the fact that it was pressed stated on the slab?

[Randall Dowling]

43 minutes ago, comicnewbie said:

One of those annoying newbies here.  Question - I've been looking at comics on ebay and a lot of the comics for sale that have been CGC graded will also state that the comic is "unpressed".  Is this just a way to say it's in even better condition than a similarly graded book that may have been pressed?  And if CGC does press your book before grading, is the fact that it was pressed stated on the slab?

These are good questions.  Below are the answers:

Question #1- I wouldn’t trust any seller advertising that their encapsulated books are “unpressed” unless I know them personally.  There would have to be visibly obvious defects that would be addressed by pressing present for me to even consider (i.e., spine roll, non color breaking bends, etc.).  The implication of stating so is that maybe if you buy the book, crack it out, get it pressed, it’ll grade even higher when resubmitted.  A pretty transparent and dubious sales tactic.

Question #2- No, CGC does not note on the label when books have been pressed.  Doing so would ruin the game of crack out, press, resubmit (often referred to as CPR).

My recommendation is if you’re going to collect comics, stay away from all of these games and focus on raw books that you can read and enjoy.  Speculators that only collect slabbed books are mainly concerned with the monetary aspects and not the best part of comics, which is what’s inside.  They’re missing out, big time.  Read the stories and collect the ones you really like.  Forget about making money for the first few years.  You’ll be very glad you did.  

[427Impaler]

Pressing is certainly a great way to remove defects and improve the appearance of a comic.  The real problem is not knowing how a book was pressed, because of that you don't know how hot the book got.  Too much heat and acid hydrolysis begins, shortening the cellulose chains and accelerating brittleness.  Pressing can be done just as effectively with safe temperatures and still get the same results and I am pretty sure most of the well known pressers are well aware of that.

 

So I see nothing wrong with asking your presser exactly how hot do his books get when he presses. if they don't know or wont tell, go with your gut.