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Help me buy ths FF1 ..how would cgc grade this?
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29 posts in this topic

Tough to grade and tough to price--These are all the pics I have. Looks like old restoration , but owner not sure extent of work(dads book). Please help on grade and pricing. Happy Monday and thanks.

ff1 1.jpeg

ff 1 2.jpeg

ff1 3.jpeg

ff1 4.jpeg

ff1 5.jpeg

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That lighting reduces most appraisal to random guesswork. The yellow cast means it's impossible to reliably tell page quality, and it's too dark to have any hope of spotting restoration. The cover inks look nice; is there color touch? Does the wear at FCLR hide a sealed tear? Does the uneven cut of the FC top margin (in particular, the slight "step-down" above the C in Fantastic; it's easier to see from the inside cover) suggest that some chipping or other defects were trimmed or shaved away in the past? No way to know from these pics, and probably no certain way to determine without the book in hand.

If I was pressed (ha!) to give a number, I'd say 5.0 - 5.5, but with a lot of room for variance. If the current owner believes their father had some restoration done on books in his collection, then odds are pretty good this'll be a purple label for something, even if I can't tell you what. For a long period of time, restoration didn't have the stigma it does now, and FF1 would have been a prime target; frankly, I think the odds that ANY random raw FF1 has restoration is better than a coin flip.

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53 minutes ago, Qalyar said:

That lighting reduces most appraisal to random guesswork. The yellow cast means it's impossible to reliably tell page quality, and it's too dark to have any hope of spotting restoration. The cover inks look nice; is there color touch? Does the wear at FCLR hide a sealed tear? Does the uneven cut of the FC top margin (in particular, the slight "step-down" above the C in Fantastic; it's easier to see from the inside cover) suggest that some chipping or other defects were trimmed or shaved away in the past? No way to know from these pics, and probably no certain way to determine without the book in hand.

If I was pressed (ha!) to give a number, I'd say 5.0 - 5.5, but with a lot of room for variance. If the current owner believes their father had some restoration done on books in his collection, then odds are pretty good this'll be a purple label for something, even if I can't tell you what. For a long period of time, restoration didn't have the stigma it does now, and FF1 would have been a prime target; frankly, I think the odds that ANY random raw FF1 has restoration is better than a coin flip.

thanks- to me it looks like the entire spine is sealed and possibly color touched on the black line down the front spine. Trimming is also possible. Have not talked price yet, trying to set a time to see collection. He is 90 minutes away.

 

definitely sorry about the pictures I have, but that's all I have at the moment.

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17 minutes ago, The Lions Den said:

I hate to tell you this, but this book has the wrong back cover for an FF #1. Unfortunately, the number for the Famous Artists coupon on the back should be 5386, not 5742. That will severely impact the grade and of course, the value. It's too bad, because otherwise it's a pretty nice looking copy...  :(

good eye

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1 hour ago, The Lions Den said:

I hate to tell you this, but this book has the wrong back cover for an FF #1. Unfortunately, the number for the Famous Artists coupon on the back should be 5386, not 5742. Coupled with the restoration, that will severely impact the grade and of course, the value. It's too bad, because otherwise it's a pretty nice looking copy...  :(

Wow! Amazing catch.

This is why I always pay attention when you chime in.

 

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To go back to the original question, it's a nice front cover that's restored. You are realistically looking at an incomplete / restored book. 

For comps, I found one sale on ebay: 

Look at this on eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303639348625

 

I would also check the rest of the book to make sure it's accurate, but personally, because I enjoy a good project, I would offer $2000 and hunt for a propper back cover. Then I would work with a pro to put it together properly and hope for a conserved label. 

 

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1 hour ago, The Lions Den said:

I hate to tell you this, but this book has the wrong back cover for an FF #1. Unfortunately, the number for the Famous Artists coupon on the back should be 5386, not 5742. Coupled with the restoration, that will severely impact the grade and of course, the value. It's too bad, because otherwise it's a pretty nice looking copy...  :(

How did you know that?  I'm starting to think you're the smartest comic guy I know.

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2 hours ago, The Lions Den said:

I hate to tell you this, but this book has the wrong back cover for an FF #1. Unfortunately, the number for the Famous Artists coupon on the back should be 5386, not 5742. Coupled with the restoration, that will severely impact the grade and of course, the value. It's too bad, because otherwise it's a pretty nice looking copy...  :(

giphy.gif

 

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According to the Overstreet Grading Guide, a comic with minor amateur repair is a 4.5 grade.

I recently sent a nice copy of ASM #98 to CGC for grading. The grader notes specified the following :

" Restoration includes: small amount of color touch on cover. "

And I got a 4.5

 

 

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10 hours ago, Pangolin said:

According to the Overstreet Grading Guide, a comic with minor amateur repair is a 4.5 grade.

I'd like to see where they say that... and even so, CGC doesn't grade that way. I've had books with minor amateur resto grade at 9.0. 

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44 minutes ago, spreads said:

Haven't we all learned our lessons on not to buy top-tier-raw keys-in-bad-lighting-with-sketchy-backstories?  lol

hm  I'm still hopeful..The first thing he said was this book has old restoration..The other books(about 12 keys and minor keys) looked pretty good but all had the same lighting.  e.g.

ss1.jpeg

ss1 back.jpeg

ss 1 spine.jpeg

ss 1 inside.jpeg

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