Printed name and address on back cover. Does it affect grade?

[Arty]

Early wdc&s subscription copies have a name and address printed directly on back cover. Does it affect grade or is it treated just like any date stamp normally found on GA books?

 

There was a set of early wdc&s books for sale on ebay few months ago. They all had a name and address on BC and seemed to be VERY strictly graded.

 

Here an example of such book:

 

http://apps.heritagecomics.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=750&Lot_No=1202

 

Note that this is not folded vertically like later subscription copies are.

 

Looks better than it's grade?

 

Opinions....?

[Mushroom]

I believe that this would be dealt with the same as a date stamp.

[PovertyRow]

I believe that this would be dealt with the same as a date stamp.

 

I tend to agree. Since this is part of a subscription process, it should be perceived in the same way as an arrival date/notation. I see it as different from an owner writing their name or name/address on the book.

[garthgantu]

Well, it's definitely not the same as the owner writing his/her name on it... and I would submit that it's also different from a date/arrival stamp. Date stamps were added after the fact by newsstand distributors and newsstands. These "sub stamps" were presumably generated either at the printing plant where the books were made, or shortly thereafter - but either way, were essentially part of the "original comic," unlike a date stamp.

 

Admittedly, they're not the most aesthetically pleasing of markings, but I for one don't really deduct grade points for a sub stamp such as the one in this WDC&S example. *Especially if it's on the back cover - later, in the '50s, Dell books often had such stamps on the front cover. At some point they even printed them on separate labels (like the labels you can print out from a Pitney-Bowes machine), and then affixed the labels to the front of back of the book.