Should I Be Happy With This Press? 1 1

[DanDixon]

I had my first experience with pressing and I was hoping the group could give me an opinion about this pressing.  Here's a picture of the Uncanny X-Men 266 I received in my family's small mailbox in 1990.  The book had some obvious bends. 

Here are what those bends look like now after pressing and grading.  They are obviously better than before but still noticeably present. 

I know pressing can't fix color breaks, but I thought they would be able to get rid of the bends on a modern cover.  Should I be satisfied with this? 

 

[faster friends]

Depends on the presser.

[comicquant]

There’s no excuse for not getting those out.  Those are very simple defects to remove.  If it was an experienced presser they didn’t take their time.  If it was an inexperienced presser they didn’t do a few things properly.  

[Lightning55]

Pressing is more art than science, and sometimes the results are unpredictable.  I have seen some defects come out that you would never have thought would come out, and conversely some that seemed minor, remained.  It can depend on who is pressing, what their standards are, what their procedures are, the condition and age of the comic, etc.  There are quite a few variables.  If I saw that come out of a press with the crease still there, I would have to re-evaluate the result.  Sometimes you have to re-press it.  If it doesn't go away on try #2, it probably is there to stay. 

Another problem is reversion.  Maybe the light crease didn't show right away, looked gone.  Then it can reappear.  That is reversion.  Some pressers will hold their work an extra day or two to check for that before releasing the order. 

You should contact your presser and discuss it.  Maybe they can help you out, maybe not.  If not, and you think another presser could do better, it would be wise to go down that road rather than submit it and get a grade that you not happy with, or one that devalues your comic's potential.  It's another cost added, another waiting period, but that might seem small on the back end.  And you have to look at the overall comic as far as how that defect will affect things.  If you have a comic that is a 7.0, and the stubborn defect, if corrected, may not bring it higher than a 7.0 due to other faults, you might be wasting your efforts.

When I first starting to get comics pressed, before I did it on my own, I sent out almost identical groups of comics to 5 different reputable pressers.  I put in comics that had specific flaws, and I diagrammed each comic for the presser, showing what I thought the defects were.  They were free to see things I missed, of course.  I got generally good results, but you could tell that there were some differences in their work, some give and take.  I was looking for attention to detail, turn around time, communications, and of course quality of work.  The last presser I sent to, which was a week later than the other 4, was the first to come back.  Some pressers got out small details, some didn't.  Some came back with notes on the work completed, most didn't.  Some took before and after photos.  You have to find a presser you are comfortable with, and work with them.  It won't always be perfect, but as long as you are happy with the work in general, that might be the best you can do.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

22 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

Pressing is more art than science

@RockMyAmadeus

[goodrockrich]

What did they do press it between two encyclopedia? 

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 4/10/2020 at 2:28 PM, goodrockrich said:

What did they do press it between two encyclopedia? 

No.

Under 2 stacks of encyclopedias...

[1950's war comics]

looks like a bad press job 

[vheflin]

[DanDixon]

FYI, this was CCS and this wasn't the worst out of the 6 books I sent them.

[thehumantorch]

@joeypost

[Lightning55]

1 hour ago, DanDixon said:

FYI, this was CCS and this wasn't the worst out of the 6 books I sent them.

Were you offline for like 6 months????  You are posting as if you picked right up where you left off on April 17, like no time passed in between.  I thought the title looked familiar in my notifications, but was from long ago.

[joeypost]

19 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

@joeypost

These “v” shaped spine creases are very tough to eliminate. The problem with some of them is they come back a little once a book has had the cover opened, like when the pages are counted. Not sure if CCS presses a book multiple times, But I see other issues that could have been removed entirely If the book was hit again. 

[The Lions Den]