Now that CGC grades and categorizes levels of restoration, how do people feel about it? 0

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

I gather that the history of comic book sales is filled with people misrepresenting restored comic books as unaltered originals and that is why it is frowned upon, but now CGC specifically addresses this.

I was considering picking up a more valuable ungraded golden age issue and it's complete, but in what I would say is 1.0 condition.

I'd probably have it professionally restored partly because the appearance is poor and partly because if I'm gonna pay a couple thousand for a 60+ year old comic book I'd want to preserve it. Remove dirt, debris, foreign substances, repair any loose areas etc. Not something hamfisted, but a company that does an actual restoration.

I'm not sure what people think of this at this point, but I feel like for very old rare books it's not a bad thing to do.

 

 

 

[aardvark88]

I recommend conservation and de-acidification of your golden age comic depending on what types of flaws, tape, rusty staple, mold or spine roll it has. So is Cgc expanding from resto: pro vs amateur, A 1 to 5, B 1 to 5 and C 1 to 5 levels? They still have to fundamentally fix their blue hero logos (e.g. ASM) on conserved or purple labels.

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

31 minutes ago, Will78 said:

"Now that CGC grades and categorizes levels of restoration..."

Are you talking about the Conserved label? 

I guess I made it sound like there is some new thing. Sorry to confuse people, but I was really just referring to the Restored label in general detailing what has been done to books and identifying that it has happened and whether it's professional or not. I guess there is the Conserved label as well for things that are minimal like staple replacement. I'm not sure how people view that vs Restored.

[James J Johnson]

58 minutes ago, RhialtoTheMarvellous said:

I gather that the history of comic book sales is filled with people misrepresenting restored comic books as unaltered originals and that is why it is frowned upon, but now CGC specifically addresses this.

I was considering picking up a more valuable ungraded golden age issue and it's complete, but in what I would say is 1.0 condition.

I'd probably have it professionally restored partly because the appearance is poor and partly because if I'm gonna pay a couple thousand for a 60+ year old comic book I'd want to preserve it. Remove dirt, debris, foreign substances, repair any loose areas etc. Not something hamfisted, but a company that does an actual restoration.

I'm not sure what people think of this at this point, but I feel like for very old rare books it's not a bad thing to do.

 

 

 

 

A belated WTTB!!  

Is the Bunny's name Rhialto? 

 

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

1 minute ago, James J Johnson said:

 

A belated WTTB!!  

Is the Bunny's name Rhialto? 

 

It's Bunsen actually. He is an ex-bun at this point unfortunately. Lived till 13, but he lives on in our memories.

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

6 minutes ago, Will78 said:

That makes sense. The Restored label has been around for 20 years so I was like wha?

My question does seem kind of stupid in that context. I guess I was just trying to see where people are at on it at this point. Are people still slabbing rare books for a .5 blue label rather than restore them?

[James J Johnson]

2 minutes ago, RhialtoTheMarvellous said:

It's Bunsen actually. He is an ex-bun at this point unfortunately. Lived till 13, but he lives on in our memories.

     Sorry to hear he's gone. But the upside is that you had him for 13 years! A friend had lionheads. Messy. And the wild growing of the teeth, not just the front ones but the molars too made dental work necessary. But not only are their jaws very fragile but they have a hard time tolerating anesthesia., I don't think any of them made it much past 6. 

And on a similar note, buying Fair/Good 1.0 to 2.0 range restored books and having a seasoned professional work them up into apparent higher grades will probably cost the same as buying them already in the higher grade than spending for the book and the work (which could wind up costing more than the book itself) combined. I'd look for books in the 3.0 to 5.0 range. My guess is the cost will be about the same as for a 2.0 + many hours of intricately involved resto by a professional operating at the high end of the per hour pay scale. 

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

1 minute ago, James J Johnson said:

     Sorry to hear he's gone. But the upside is that you had him for 13 years! A friend had lionheads. Messy. And the wild growing of the teeth, not just the front ones but the molars too made dental work necessary. But not only are their jaws very fragile but they have a hard time tolerating anesthesia., I don't think any of them made it much past 6. 

And on a similar note, buying Fair/Good 1.0 to 2.0 range restored books and having a seasoned professional work them up into apparent higher grades will probably cost the same as buying them already in the higher grade than spending for the book and the work (which could wind up costing more than the book itself) combined. I'd look for books in the 3.0 to 5.0 range. My guess is the cost will be about the same as for a 2.0 + many hours of intricately involved resto by a professional operating at the high end of the per hour pay scale. 

I might be grading it too harshly, but at the same time someone spray painted the spine area on the cover with black paint to "repair" it at some point so I don't know that I'm that far off.

[James J Johnson]

Just now, RhialtoTheMarvellous said:

I might be grading it too harshly, but at the same time someone spray painted the spine area on the cover with black paint to "repair" it at some point so I don't know that I'm that far off.

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

Other than that and some more conventional issues like tape and wear it doesn't look too bad though. I guess it all depends on what the guy wants for it and then what a restoration place says they can do with it.

Looking at online sales data it's a $10000 book or around there at 8.5.

[James J Johnson]

2 minutes ago, Will78 said:

A book like that sounds like a lost cause. No way to restore that.

Oh Pa-shaw! Sure there is. Where there's a Will78, there's always a way! How about Mr. Bean's approach to paint removal and re-touching? I wonder if Mr. Bean restored comics? 

 

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

5 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

Oh Pa-shaw! Sure there is. Where there's a Will78, there's always a way! How about Mr. Bean's approach to paint removal and re-touching? I wonder if Mr. Bean restored comics? 

 

Get the thinner!

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

It's this.

[James J Johnson]

Just now, Will78 said:

Whatever artistic genius restored that really knocked it out of the park! 

[D84]

16 hours ago, RhialtoTheMarvellous said:

It's this.

How's that 1.0? This is my copy that CGC gave a 2.0.

Of course CGC missed the married centerfold (I just put it in the book, didn't match, no clue how they missed something so obvious) so I cracked the book out.

Edited August 6, 2020 by D84
Fixing alignment

[Toz]

10 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

Oh Pa-shaw! Sure there is. Where there's a Will78, there's always a way! How about Mr. Bean's approach to paint removal and re-touching? I wonder if Mr. Bean restored comics? 

 

Classic

[comicginger1789]

Suppose I pay $1000 for a book that is around a 1.0-1.5 grade wise. I know that I can dump money into it and get it to 6.5-7.0.

What I would do is see what a regular 7.0 copy of the issue I bought sells for. Then I take that and cut it in half. This is what my restored copy is worth. If the money I dump in exceeds this value, I wouldn’t bother unless the book was for me and unlikely to ever be resold.

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

2 hours ago, comicginger1789 said:

Suppose I pay $1000 for a book that is around a 1.0-1.5 grade wise. I know that I can dump money into it and get it to 6.5-7.0.

What I would do is see what a regular 7.0 copy of the issue I bought sells for. Then I take that and cut it in half. This is what my restored copy is worth. If the money I dump in exceeds this value, I wouldn’t bother unless the book was for me and unlikely to ever be resold.

It's a good point. Although I feel like there is some merit in conserving / restoring these books just to keep them alive.

39 minutes ago, Will78 said:

He said the entire spine is spray-painted black.

Right. If you look close you can see the mask line where they put something over it before they spray painted the spine.

I'm talking with a restoration service and they say they do have a way to fix the paint issue. Now, whether that is cost effective is up in the air though.

[D84]

1 hour ago, Will78 said:

He said the entire spine is spray-painted black.

Ah. I missed that part and was looking at the picture on my phone. 

Well, then I'd wouldn't pay more than $350-$400 for that copy.  That spray paint will have definitely bled through to the interior cover and possibly the pages, making restoration a lot more complicated.

Edited August 6, 2020 by D84

[RhialtoTheMarvellous]

1 hour ago, D84 said:

Ah. I missed that part and was looking at the picture on my phone. 

Well, then I'd wouldn't pay more than $350-$400 for that copy.  That spray paint will have definitely bled through to the interior cover and possibly the pages, making restoration a lot more complicated.

Either he overpaid for it, it's in much better condition than I think or he doesn't want to sell, because he wants $3500 for the book. I'll have to go take a look at it in person, but no matter how you slice it that's too much.