george bailey-migration

Blue label 8.5 with 3/4" x 1/8" piece out of front cover (below Green Lantern's feet) 3/8" edge tear on back cover outer edge (in line with girl's hat) Slightly blunted corner with very minor abrasion (lower spine, best seen from back cover). I guess people will say this one gets the double gift grade of being a Golden Age comic and a high profile comic (mile high). I just say it's a mislabeled 7.0/7.5 book that will probably only be sold with a very low resolution picture!

FFB wrote: I'm not losing my objectivity. I just happen to know what is involved in the kind of pressing of comics that most people care about - the kind that will take a VF book and turn it into a NM book. ----- I do not know whether most people are concerned with high grade books turning into even higher grade books by pressing, or if their concern is with any grade book being pressed with the hope of achieving a higher grade. As your focus is solely on paper you see as being fresh, strong, and flexible enough to withstand a pressing, and localizing the process to a single small bend or NCB while staying away from the spine, then you can leave this discussion with the knowledge that pressing, in your case, will most likely leave no significant damage. I on the other hand have said that removing a spine roll from a comic that could potentially have Off-White or Cream pages concerns me far more. My collection is mostly composed of 1940's comics where NMs are few and far between. I would like to know the ramifications to my collection if someone were to press a mid-grade comic that I end up purchasing. Must I be wary of any FN+ comic advertised as "Lays Flat"? As Ze-man and others have noted the spine is the weak point in the comic and may show a large variance in degradation over its entire length. The paper has been bent in place for many decades and therefore has lost much of its flexibility relative to the center of the book. If splits were to appear in central wraps following the pressing process, how would I know? If Creamy paper that has been folded for over fifty years was flattened will it lose a significant portion of its strength? I'd like to know. In my opinion, any testing must include the use of a fresh piece of paper being folded, then artificially aged while still folded, and finally pressing it so that no fold whatsoever is apparent. Once this is done we can finally age the sample to see what long term damage, if any, has occured.

Ze-man wrote: The problem I have in testing the spines of books is that they can very greatly from top to bottom. So if you are having control groups from one area, and working on others that differ greatly the results might not have anything to do with pressing, but more how worn the book is beforehand for whatever the reason. Testing as similar paper samples as possible from the book is the best way to get a baseline of results and then go from there. Not to mention it depends greatly on who is pressing the book and how they are prepping it when talking about overstressing a spine when pressing it. -------- My main concern with pressing would have to be "fixing" a spine roll. A very presentable VG copy with a heavy spine roll can easily be turned into a FN or better by pressing. The problem here is that you are pressing the paper at an already weakened point. To get a clear picture of what pressing does I believe aged spines must be taken into consideration. Whether you artificially age test strips that have been folded, or use nicer sections of the spine, this must be a mandatory part of the testing.