Overspray, or...? 1 1

[Falcon Apoda]

Hey, all.

I have this weird smudge on the back cover of book I'm submitting (see images).

Has anyone out there ever seen anything like this? It's quite black, as though ink. A printing glitch, or...?

Overall, a great looking book except for this one issue.

Thanks.

[Lightning55]

Looks like rogue ink from the printing process.  I've seen it before, but not to that degree.  It would most likely be considered a manufacturing defect.  In lower grades, it can be ignored as such, but it does come into play in VF or higher grades.  That is similar to how an arrival date is treated.  Just my opinion, from limited experience in that area.

[The Lions Den]

It does look like a random ink blot...no biggie. And I hope this doesn't shock anyone too much, but my guess is that it would probably keep it out of the higher grades (9.6 and above)...

[Falcon Apoda]

2 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

Looks like rogue ink from the printing process.  I've seen it before, but not to that degree.  It would most likely be considered a manufacturing defect.  In lower grades, it can be ignored as such, but it does come into play in VF or higher grades.  That is similar to how an arrival date is treated.  Just my opinion, from limited experience in that area.

Thanks for your reply.

The book really is in fine shape (totally smooth cover, no corner blunting, no spine wear, etc.). Pages are white/off-white. Basically, it was purchased, then stored (unread) for 40+ years, taken out only to be photographed. There is, as far as I can see, zero handlng wear. But, then again, I'm not a grader.

Hypothetically, if this book was, in every other aspect, a 9.6-9.9, by how much would a defect such as this lower the grade?

Thanks again.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Falcon Apoda
Change storage description.

[Topnotchman]

I could see it being downgraded to an 8.5, regardless of it being overspray or some type of production ink leakage. 

[Lightning55]

You would probably need an actual CGC grader to answer that.  For some things, like the color of the pages, max grades are set.  Just as an example, according to CGC's Page Quality Scale, comics that have pages that are Light Tan to Off-white cannot exceed a grade of 8.5, no matter how nice the appearance. https://www.cgccomics.com/comic-grading/grading-scale/

I have no idea if other attributes have set limits or not.  We all TRY to ignore defects that are not wear factors, but it gets harder to accept them at high grades.  Certainly it's no collector's fault if an ink blotch exists, a comic is severely mis-wrapped, somewhat miscut, or it has an arrival date on it.  But many buyers would have resistance in some cases.  It's certainly an easy choice to make between 2 equally graded comics at the same price, one with an ignored defect and one with no defect.  Most will pick the latter, I would think.  If such a choice is so obvious, how can they be the same grade, same price?

[Falcon Apoda]

4 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

[...] ...how can they be the same grade, same price?

I've always understood there was a hard distinction between how a book's "grade" is determined and how its "price" is determined. That is to say, a book may still be graded relatively high (in spite of a manufacturing "defect") and yet sell less than others of the same book in the same grade as a result of such discrepancies. That's why, for example, you can compare two of the same books graded 9.0 and find varying alignment, whathaveyou. One may fetch a higher price than the other based on such variations, but such is more a function of market desirability than the book's overall quality, per se. But maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, I'm not trying to argue that my book should be graded high in spite of this defect. It's a big frickin' black blotch. Of course it's gonna amount to a grading deduction. I expect it will be based on some sort of quality cutoff similar to that of the paper color you descibed earlier. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, thanks again for your insight.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Falcon Apoda

[The Lions Den]

6 hours ago, Falcon Apoda said:

Hypothetically, if this book was, in every other aspect, a 9.6-9.9, by how much would a defect such as this lower the grade?

Personally, I'd have no problem giving this book a 9.2 if the rest of the book looked nearly perfect...just my 

[Falcon Apoda]

On 4/8/2020 at 4:26 PM, The Lions Den said:

Personally, I'd have no problem giving this book a 9.2 if the rest of the book looked nearly perfect...just my 

By the way, it came in at 9.6, blotch and all.

[The Lions Den]

14 minutes ago, Falcon Apoda said:

By the way, it came in at 9.6, blotch and all.

That seems rather generous...but you win some, you lose some.  

[Falcon Apoda]

1 hour ago, The Lions Den said:

That seems rather generous...but you win some, you lose some.  

In the same submission, there were other books that I thought were in as good (if not better) condition that came in at 9.4. No ink blotches.

So I guess I suck at grading.

[James J Johnson]

On 4/8/2020 at 8:26 AM, The Lions Den said:

It does look like a random ink blot...no biggie. And I hope this doesn't shock anyone too much, but my guess is that it would probably keep it out of the higher grades (9.6 and above)...

Mickey experienced this ink blot phenomena, though to a much larger degree. Mickey prevailed, so quite possibly the OP will as well: 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by James J Johnson

[The Lions Den]

16 hours ago, Falcon Apoda said:

In the same submission, there were other books that I thought were in as good (if not better) condition that came in at 9.4. No ink blotches.

So I guess I suck at grading.

Well, don't be too tough on yourself. Even the graders at CGC occasionally disagree...