Pressing: An anathema to the industry? What is it and why is it such a controversial issue?

Before you start bombarding me with hate mail, allow me to spew forth my venomous opinions and distaste for pressing, for I harken pressing to a growing taint and malignancy in the comic book collecting community which needs to be pacified!

Perhaps I'm going to the extremes and I don't want my tirade to be misconstrued as a "witch hunt", but I do think there should be greater transparency and disclosure in the comic book collecting community and an adherence to a code of conduct and protocol. I believe all owners of pressed comics should do the ethical thing and reveal to the collecting community at large the comics which have been pressed.

What is pressing and why do it? The very goal of pressing is to improve the current condition of a comic book... to flatten and smooth out whatever spine rolls, bends, folds, creases, wrinkles, and other similar defects that affect the pages and covers of a comic book, in order to restore the appearance, condition, or grade of said comic book. The desired effect is a restoration to a Mint or Near Mint state. So any comic which, as a direct result of Pressing, achieves a superior or modified grade (in other words physically altered from its pre-pressed state), has been through a restoration process... pure and simple.

Better yet... here's an explanation I pulled out from the Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide Third Edition (2006): "Pressing can be a complicated procedure that includes fully disassembling a comic book, performing work on one or more of its constituent parts, and then reassembling it. Pressing can also be something that is done to a comic book as a whole. In each case, there are a variety of measures which can be taken and they produce a variety of results, some positive and some negative. Even stacking and storing comic books a certain way can produce some of the effects of pressing."

That definition was later changed to a new one... "Pressing: A term used to describe a variety of processes or procedures, professional and amateur, under which an issue is pressed to eliminate wrinkles, bends, dimples, and/or other perceived defects and thus improve its appearance. Some types of pressing involve disassembling the book and performing other work on it prior to its pressing and reassembly. Some methods are generally easily discerned by professionals and amateurs. Other types of pressing, however, can pose difficulty for even experienced professionals to detect. In all cases, readers are cautioned that unintended damage can occur in some instances. Related defects will diminish an issue's grade correspondingly rather than improve it."

Ask any collector why they choose to press. What's the motivation? Is it for vanity's sake? Or is it something else entirely? The answer comes down to dollars and cents. Collectors who choose to press, do so in order to alter the appearance, condition, or grade of a comic, which in turn will directly influence its fair market value... in other words... the better the grade or the comic... the more its worth! It's a fairly simple principal... Who doesn't get it? Of course that's the answer. It would be absurd to think of any other reason. I mean why else would you spend time and money on it? We all know how many more dollars a vintage comic can fetch when it goes from an 8.5 to a 9.2 or even 9.6 or 9.8.

Also cited from the Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide Third Edition (2006): "Writing on the broader topic of restoration, archivist Tracey Heft of Eclipse Paper Conservation noted, 'No less an authority as the International Institute of Conservation (IIC) has defined restoration as 'any attempt to return an object to its original form and purpose, in the attempt to recreate an earlier known state or condition.'"

By that definition alone, pressing falls under the domain of Restoration. And for all you Pro-Pressers out there I ask you... If Pressing isn't Restoration... then what is it? Cosmetology? So what's the big deal if pressing is considered restoration? Why are pressing exponents so afraid of the Restoration Label? That too comes down to money. Why? Well, anything labeled "Restored" has a perceived "taint" on it which negatively affects its fair market value. Or as the OOCBGGTE puts it, "Restoration -- the word carries with it a lot of baggage, particularly in today's comic book market."

So what? What's wrong with wanting a better grade through pressing means? What's the big deal? Here's a scenario: Imagine if two CGC copies of a particular vintage comic come up for sale at the same exact time, and both are of the same grade, lets say 9.6, and both are on sale for the same exact price, but you find out through CGC registration's grader notes that one of the comics went from a 9.0 to a 9.6... Would you ask why? Why the big jump? How did it go from 9.0 to 9.6? And if you investigate further and discover the original grader notes through the CGC database reveals a number of defects which when first graded suddenly mysteriously disappeared upon second grading. What conclusions would you draw? If restoration is not detected on the grader notes, than any Sherlock will come to the elementary conclusion pressing was involved (pressing is a challenge to detect and the logical conclusion would dictate as such). Then ask... "Now that I know this info will it effect my decision to purchase said comic? Will I choose one over the other because of this? And knowing a comic has been pressed will it have an impact on its retail value?" The answer would be yes!

Mind you, pressing is not Conservation nor is it Preservation... it is Restoration. I myself am a "Condition Purist" and if I am on the market to purchase a vintage comic book of high grade I would want to know if pressing was involved in achieving its grade just as much as I would want to know if any other restorative techniques were involved.

So is pressing fair? Is it fair to all those collectors and their comics who got a legitimate high grade... 9.2, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8... etc... and who didn't resort to pressing or any other restoration techniques? The answer is yes if there's disclosure, and no if there's not. I personally appreciate those collectors who are honest and reveal whether their comics have been pressed or not. I also appreciate the collectors and archivists who manage to preserve and conserve their collections and achieve high grade. Such legitimate high grades are a testament to their hard work and efforts, and allowing non-disclosed pressed comics into a pool of "clean" comics is not only diluting the purity of this comic pool but it is also a slap to the face of any collector and archivist who doesn't rely on restorative means.

Here's another scenario: Imagine if you were to take a high grade pedigreed comic, let's say a 9.4 or 9.6 and decide to have it pressed just to get it up one or two or potentially three decimal points... can you imagine the ripple effects on the market if such pedigrees were altered? Is it ethical to even do such a thing?

But let's face it... collecting vintage comics books is a business and many of the community members will not be open and honest about their pressed comics when it's time to sell. So with that in mind, the CGC must actively create a new label system that will account for changes in the gr

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