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Is Today's Pressing Trend Giving People a False Sense of Grading Standards?
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43 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, god503 said:

Pressing is just a tool.   And when used the right way the benefits out weigh the costs.   Why knock an optional service?  For many people its worth it.   For example, I took a gamble on 2 books this year that I assumed never got pressed because I took the assumption that many people weren't pressing until cgc combined with ccs.  These  books were slabbed years ago xmen 101 9.6 and gsxm 1 9.4.   Saw some things on them that I knew pressing would remove.  So sent them in for claremont sig and got them pressed.   NOW?  XMEN 101 is a 9.8 and GSXM 1 is a 9.6 both with sigs.

Not bad for a 40 dollar investment....

Other books that were already 9.8 I had them pressed regardless just to protect from a down grade from handling by CGC staff.  

Again just a tool...  

Your examples are a perfect example of when to use pressing.  You spent an extra $40, which was less than 1% of the roughly $5,000 you spent on the books.  Of course an extra service for 1% more cost is probably worth it.

Compare that to all the people selling $50 books that "could benefit from a press" (which implies "before they are re-graded - or CGC graded for the first time").  People are saying "spend $50 on this book, then spend another $50 on pressing and CGC grading" and implying that the result will somehow be leaps and bounds above the $100 invested. 

+100% additional cost beyond the cost of the book needs a lot more justification than "could benefit from" vague suggestions.

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27 minutes ago, Oaian said:
1 hour ago, god503 said:

I took the assumption that many people weren't pressing until cgc combined with ccs

That assumption is incorrect. CGC had their own pressing company called PCS in 2005.

Not only that but there were also skads of pressers out there before CCS and CGC joined hands. It's not like pressing sprang into life at that point.

I'm constantly amazed by the ignorance of noobs

Edited by Drunken Android
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To answer the question posed by the OP yes I believe pressing is giving many new and even some experienced collectors a false grading standard as many tend to lean to the if there a slight bend it can be pressed out but forget about the very low chance that something can go wrong in the press to much pressure heat etc that can cause issues. So many books are looked at their potential to be higher grades because of this false understanding that bends etc or certain defects can be removed with a press instead of understanding it MAY be removed it’s not 100% all the time. Even I fall victim to this notion at times and then have to pull back my excitement and put in a serious face and take a moment to really think about the current grade and understand that it might not hit that potential press grade... 

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28 minutes ago, Oaian said:

Yeah, Matt Nelson was probably pressing before there even was a CGC. He definitely was one of the early ones that knew CGC wouldn't PLOD a book because of pressing.

Chris Freisen was the in-house presser at CGC.  Was seen as a serious conflict of interest originally being that he was their resto expert at the time. 

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1 hour ago, Drunken Android said:

Not only that but there were also skads of pressers out there before CCS and CGC joined hands. It's not like pressing sprang into life at that point.

I'm constantly amazed by the ignorance of noobs

when i submitted my first books about 7 years ago, I had no idea about pressing, nor was it an option during the submitting process that i can recall.  So let me rephrase that they where not as integrated then as they are now. Honestly, I did not know pressing was an option until I submitted books for McFarlane during the private signing last year.  So i will say that it was not main stream then as it is now?

Edited by god503
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Agree largely with what's been said. Here in the UK, there seems to be a growing number of people submitting books to CGC, and the message often being given is to press everything by default, which as stated above does not make financial sense if using a 3rd party to press/clean. In my opinion, the smart play would be to develop an understanding of when a press would benefit (i.e. pressable defects), or when a book is fine to submit without pressing - and combine this knowledge with investment in developing your own pressing skills and equipment. By having the tools and knowhow on how to press yourself, without the need to invoke a 3rd party, would pay dividends in the long run.

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Well personally, I'm not taking any chances and plan on pressing ALL of my books! Comic_Pressing.JPG

I might have to dial in the steam setting in order to perfect the process, but if anyone in Canada wants a more economic service than is being offered by the pros, then just let me know!  And don't worry, I EXCLUSIVELY use distilled water, don't want to cut too many corners ;)

Edited by StreetPreacher
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1 hour ago, StreetPreacher said:

Well personally, I'm not taking any chances and plan on pressing ALL of my books! Comic_Pressing.JPG

I might have to dial in the steam setting in order to perfect the process, but if anyone in Canada wants a more economic service than is being offered by the pros, then just let me know!  And don't worry, I EXCLUSIVELY use distilled water, don't want to cut too many corners ;)

Press that newsstand Spawn into a 10.0^^

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2 hours ago, StreetPreacher said:

Well personally, I'm not taking any chances and plan on pressing ALL of my books! Comic_Pressing.JPG

I might have to dial in the steam setting in order to perfect the process, but if anyone in Canada wants a more economic service than is being offered by the pros, then just let me know!  And don't worry, I EXCLUSIVELY use distilled water, don't want to cut too many corners ;)

You have to have the right temperature or you'll cause TANNING! Please tell me you have the right temperature!

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On 8/16/2020 at 9:38 AM, William-James88 said:

We've all seen posts of someone not in the know find some "old" comics in an attic and think the comics are in amazing shape since they aren't falling apart. The books turn out to be midgrade and not worth as much as was hoped for. 

While I haven't been on the boards that long, I see this same type of discussion but when speaking of pressing, where people will ignore some defects due to a book looking good after a press. Pressing will make the book look much better than before and it will fall flat, but any colour breaking crease will still be there and a 7.0 with that kind of crease will still be a 7.0 regardless, no matter how good the book may look after a press. And yet we have seen posts where people will object such a low grade based on the book looking otherwise "perfect". It seems pressing gives a false sense of grading standards since the resulting book will fall flat like a mint book and yet is far from a mint book. The remaining marks of a book having been worn don't speak as much as an evident bend but it will be graded the same. 

I just wanted to write this to see if I was the only one thinking that or noticing this, and I am wondering if this is more frequent now than before.

Cheers!

I don't think so. The improvement that pressing offers is typically a very subtle change. Subtle enough that you'd either have had to see the book in person beforehand to notice it, and once slabbed, only if you knew what to look for as far as what exactly was mitigated by pressing. And if this is not the case, where you have beforehand knowledge and a pre-press visual clue to identify specific revision, alot of the improvement tht pressing offers, for the right candidate, will not stand out once slabbed. These are tactile, surface changes. Flattening this and that. A press won't revise color-breaking creases or such defects that alter a grade in a tangibly meaningful way. 

I don't think it's changing the way a hobbyist has set in his mind how to gauge different grades. Just offers another way to look at a book, either as a good pressing candidate or not, by virtue of the defect and it being subject to revision by pressing or not.

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On 8/18/2020 at 5:08 PM, Drunken Android said:

Not only that but there were also skads of pressers out there before CCS and CGC joined hands. It's not like pressing sprang into life at that point.

I'm constantly amazed by the ignorance of noobs

It's another pressing thread.  What do you expect?

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"Optimistic grading" is nothing new, it has always been around. What pressing introduced was a never ending deluge of sellers pricing books at what they MIGHT be once they are pressed. If you're so sure it'll press up to a 9.4 or whatever, then why don't you have it pressed yourself? Otherwise, price it as an 8.5 or whatever it is at that time. I'm not going to pay for what a book MIGHT press up to.

That being said, I have bought many books that were priced correctly for their grade, with the idea in my mind that they could improve with a press. That makes sense, and has usually worked out for me, as I have a good idea of what will or will not "press out". But I'm not paying NM prices for VF books, and I'm also not expecting that a 1.5 is ever going to be anything other than a 1.5. I believe it was @joeypost who said, it's a press, not a time machine.

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17 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

What pressing introduced was a never ending deluge of sellers pricing books at what they MIGHT be once they are pressed. If you're so sure it'll press up to a 9.4 or whatever, then why don't you have it pressed yourself? Otherwise, price it as an 8.5 or whatever it is at that time. I'm not going to pay for what a book MIGHT press up to.

I've literally laughed out loud while reading a few ebay descriptions that suggest the book for sale is a "great candidate for pressing"...  Although when you view  pictures, the book is riddled with colour breaking cover folds and spine ticks that no amount of pressing could ever remedy!

However, I've also seen some books selling cheaply due to NON colour breaking cover folds, or minor rippling caused by water damage, which seem they could be easily fixed by pressing, and flipped for a profit?

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1 minute ago, StreetPreacher said:

I've literally laughed out loud while reading a few ebay descriptions that suggest the book for sale is a "great candidate for pressing"...  Although when you view  pictures, the book is riddled with colour breaking cover folds and spine ticks that no amount of pressing could ever remedy!

However, I've also seen some books selling cheaply due to NON colour breaking cover folds, or minor rippling caused by water damage, which seem they could be easily fixed by pressing, and flipped for a profit?

The water rippling is tricky. Pressing would remove the ripples but CGC will still be just as rough on the fact that there is water damage. So you're basically pressing a 4.0 to get a nicer looking 4.0.

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6 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

The water rippling is tricky. Pressing would remove the ripples but CGC will still be just as rough on the fact that there is water damage. So you're basically pressing a 4.0 to get a nicer looking 4.0.

Right, removing ripples won't remove any potential staining that went along with it, and CGC HATES STAINS, apparently. They're really harsh on them. It all really depends on the amount and nature of the water damage, I'd think.

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