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Trimmed Is Now the New Blue Label
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39 posts in this topic

This is very disturbing to me. Since when does a trimmed book get a CGC Universal Blue grade?  Is this some new ‘benefit’ people get if buying the vanity label (ie the Spidey vanity case here)?

Restoration has a huge impact on value and desirability and to allow avoiding a purple label just for buying the new more expensive case is outrageous. 
 

Thoughts??

65CACABE-5BE8-478A-A1E2-CBF5DE4E2DDD.jpeg

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I hardly think CGC is giving any preference due to a $5 label purchase.  Not a factor.

I don't like the treatment of the grading on this comic for the reason you bring up.  Restoration is usually defined as something added or removed to approve appearance.  Trimming of ANYTHING meets that criteria.  Having supposedly been given a restoration check, this comic should not have passed, given that the label states that they are aware of the restoration.

Trimming is not a condition issue, as a torn page might be.  It is a man made attempt to remove unsightly chipping, probably.  This should be a Purple Label Of Death.

Is this a comic you purchased?  Was the fact that the label said "trimming" disclosed to you?  Did you have photos to review before purchasing?  Or is one you sent in, not knowing it was trimmed, and would have preferred it came back with the PLOD?

Edited by Lightning55
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9 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

Either a mistake or not having cons hurt their business so bad that this is their stimulus plan to get people to reslab some books.

Yes, it's possible they just ran the wrong color label through the process.  I just looked it up, and grade category is showing as "Apparent".  That should be Qualified green label, I believe.  Ooops.

Edited by Lightning55
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34 minutes ago, Cherubim said:

This is very disturbing to me. Since when does a trimmed book get a CGC Universal Blue grade?  Is this some new ‘benefit’ people get if buying the vanity label (ie the Spidey vanity case here)?

Restoration has a huge impact on value and desirability and to allow avoiding a purple label just for buying the new more expensive case is outrageous. 
 

Thoughts??

65CACABE-5BE8-478A-A1E2-CBF5DE4E2DDD.jpeg

Very odd that the top and/or top and bottom of a wrap would be trimmed. That's usually never the case unless it's a married page and whoever assembled it used the same or one of the staple holes on the married pages and then had to square up the resultant overhang of the married pages.

Second, and most important, although CGC has slabbed trimmed books purple, with few exceptions, trimming is not restoration. Nothing is being restored. It is being removed. Trimming isn't restoration any more than amputating a damaged limb is cosmetic surgery. So technically, if CGC decided to stop slabbing trimmed books with conserved labels, they wouldn't be wrong, although it would be contrary to historical convention.

Another thing, the cover is not trimmed, so again, maybe they exercised license to slab it blue and mention the trimmed pages, far less severe as far as trimming goes than trimming the cover.

So although it is a little puzzling, might be deliberate, might be a quality control error, it's clearly mentioned on the label, and the grade probably takes it into consideration.

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5 minutes ago, SteveITC said:

 

 

But a book can be trimmed without ever having been restored! The trimming itself is not the restoration. Any other work present is the restoration. Trimming is the complete opposite swing of the pendulum from restoration.

Edited by James J Johnson
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I have a problem with this, not necessarily the color (though it would have been nice to keep consistent purple / green), but much more with the text "CGC UNIVERSAL GRADE". It is literally NOT a universal grade book, it is a restored or qualified grade book. The label is false advertising.

Edited by Coolio McCool
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If trimming is considered restoration, wouldn't restoration removal (scraping off color touch, for example) also be a form of restoration?  IE restoring to the 'used' condition pre-color touch?  Cutting out pieces of a book is a trim, too, right?

I would just prefer some consistency with the labels - if trim gets a purple label, why are we now seeing some blue labels with trimming noted (even when it's a purple label the trim is noted so is the norm now to get a blue label with just a notation of trimming)?

 

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1 minute ago, Jake The Snake said:

"The Marvel labels are only for Universal and Signature Series books. They are not for Restoration or Qualified books. Those books should have Purple Restoration labels.

Please send them back in and I will have all the labels fixed immediately.

Email: bmcmanus@cgccomics.com"

 

So based on that post, these blue Universal labels with trimming noted that we're seeing slip through are quality control issues and instead should be receiving purple restored labels?

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1 hour ago, Sensei Ryan said:

If trimming is considered restoration, wouldn't restoration removal (scraping off color touch, for example) also be a form of restoration?

If it's done right and you dont tell them how are they going to know? You are bringing book back to its unaltered state. 

Quality control issues happen at cgc all the time. This is most likely the problem. Least it is noted. Majority of people I know dont want restored books. The ones that do are fine with color touch but draw the line with trimmed. I am fine with both if the color touch is good and as long as they didn't trim the book into a mini comic.

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10 minutes ago, Jake The Snake said:

The custom labels only come in Blue.

They also come in yellow from what I've seen...but regardless, this was a QC issue and they should have denied the custom labels for the books that have trimming since they are supposed to receive purple restored, correct?  Base on what you quoted earlier, this is a QC issue that they missed and the custom label slipped through the cracks allowing a blue label.

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1 minute ago, comicginger1789 said:

A CGC error. Should be purple label.

The type of trimming intrigues me though...why trim just those pages?? Hmmm

Honestly, I've never understood trimming as a whole. I mean, I know what it is, but I fail to see what someone's end goal is when trimed comics usually have other defects that would lower the grade were it untrimmed anyway.

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30 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

If it's done right and you dont tell them how are they going to know? You are bringing book back to its unaltered state. 

What 'them' are you referring to, CGC graders or the potential buyers of a comic?  Either way, I would want to know if something were trimmed, scraped, color-touched, etc.  Some of the restoration removal books scream that the 'removal' has occurred and I'd rather have just had a PLOD instead of the now further damaged book in a  higher Universal label (in some cases, that is).

However, I agree with you on the rest of your statements.  I'd prefer not to have a book with resto if at all possible but I don't think the full negative stigma that the PLOD's get is warranted.  A key is a key but the PLODs and GLODs command way less than they should, IMO.  2c

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