No Staples? 0

[JasonMc]

I bought a nice sharp copy of Alarming Tales #3.  The seller said it was complete etc.  When I went to take it out to inspect it the cover was off.  At first, I was obviously ticked off but upon further inspection I noticed that I couldn't find staples at all and there are no staple holes in the covers at all. I even went as far as placing the cover on a projector to verify there were no holes. I  have a few questions:

1) Has anyone ever seen this?  Been collecting for quite some time and I have never seen this.

2) How does this affect the grade of the book if I were to have it graded? Can or should restoration be done?

3) Western Tales published this. Are they known to have done some books without staples?

I will post more detailed pics when I get home from work

Edited May 15, 2020 by JasonMc

[evilskip]

If there are no staple holes in the centerfold or spine, then it might just be possible. I've never heard of this before. Printed with one staple, yes. No staples, no.

[vheflin]

How would it have held itself together all these years?

Edited May 15, 2020 by vheflin

[gadzukes]

Through my collecting years I've seen at least 100 comics that were missing the top or the bottom staple due to "manufacturing error".  And those are pretty rare.  You gotta figure that sooner or later there might be a time that both staples are missing as a "manufacturing error".

Or, maybe the printer wanted to look at the 1st copy off the press to check it before they started stapling.

What I'm amazed at is how nice it is for no staples.  Maybe it's some kind of file copy?

As far as grading..... I'm sure it'll take a hit.  Look at other graded copies of any comics with "Manufacturing errors" and you'll find your answer.  Or.... maybe ask CGC.

Cool comic!

[gadzukes]

29 minutes ago, vheflin said:

How would it have held itself together all these years?

magnetic fibers in the spine area

[seanfingh]

4 hours ago, gadzukes said:

What I'm amazed at is how nice it is for no staples.  Maybe it's some kind of file copy?

 

The only no staple book I've ever owned was a Jungle Action that I sent in to be signed by Rich Buckler. It was an absolutely beautiful 9.4 copy. I did not notice the lack of staples when I graded/page counted it.  I suspect that it had that "stuck together" sort of static cling that books pressed into longboxes get after a while.  I got a message back from CGC that if it got signed, it was going to go in a green label slab because of the lack of staples (this was long before the Green/Yellow label existed).  So I just had them ship it back to me.

I truly question whether they would slab that book (or the OP's book) these days because the interior of the book, not being attached, might cause the whole thing to be subject to excessive SCS.