MatterEaterLad

These books are absolutely MIND-BLOWING, let me get that out there first. I'm glad they're entering the marketplace. But I don't completely buy the backstory. I'm sure there's some truth there, but in the same way that all of these books have been worked on to increase hammer prices, I suspect the marketing of this collection has had some work done as well. No photos of the brothers. No last names. No indication of where they were purchased or how they were stored so that a book in an attic for 70 years can have no foxing and appear unread. Anonymous consigners. These will generate big money and some lottery winners want to remain anonymous, I get that. But not celebrating the brothers and their service by identifying them seems odd.

I wish I knew the whole story, but trade secrets and all. It was a purple Bat1 with the top edge trimmed. They leaf cast a new edge that matched so well it came back as untrimmed.

I don't think so. I don't think they have to be since they have such a strong reputation and internet presence.

Did you see the Batman 1 that Hero Restoration worked on? They subbed it and it came back untrimmed. When I asked them about it they made it sound like their work is undetectable.

Was your book graded recently? Seems like CGC is a bit soft on grading at the moment. Or maybe inconsistent is a better word, because of the current avalanche of subs.

Hire someone you trust to drive them? Family member, close friend, someone dressed like the Taskmaster?

*puts on tinfoil hat* Remember a few years ago there was an unscrupulous grading agency that was giving inflated grades to collectibles and then selling them through a 3rd party? PGX? No, that was the co-owner of Heritage. Okay, PGX probably did it too, but the co-owner of Heritage created a coin grading agency that was actually shut down by the FTC because he was overgrading his own collectibles and selling them at auction. He's also co-owner of CGC. That glaring conflict-of-interest and track record of fraud is why I'm always leery of stuff like this on auction at Heritage. *removes tinfoil hat*

Bought a beautiful copy of FF49. Great price and packed by a pro. Great communication as well. Thank you!

Like with anything, the dealer's reputation matters. With Bob Storms I'd buy the books sight unseen but with Worldwide I really have to examine the scans. I lurked on claim sales forever and messaged back and forth with a few before I pulled the trigger. The cool thing is that it's live and you can ask questions, have them bring the book to the camera, etc. I've bought from online live auctions, like Mound City, and received overgraded books, missing coupons, missing pages, and such -- so that risk is everywhere. I just bought a graded X94 from @Dreamtoreal1 and it shipped right away, tracking sent, well packed, and the comic is a keeper.

@Mr.Fantastic I'm hoping that CGC will broaden their grading notation when it comes to restoration. It would help buyers, sellers, and graders. My guess is that they won't because they can't. The restoration is too good and only getting better. If they allowed documentation (notes, photos, even video) from the restorationist, that might help and lift professionally restored books up out of the purple ghetto.

The "cover reinforced" is sometimes interpreted (fairly or unfairly) as "pieces added," which would get you a purple label. Just depends on the grader, whether his favorite football team lost, the phase of the moon, and the whims of the drunken dart-throwing monkey who determines such things.

There's a ton of action on the IG claim sales these days, so much so that Comic Connect now does one on FB every Sunday, which honestly, is not as good as the better IG dealers.

@Shrevvy I subscribe to both and found both too clunky to track value. I use the CLZ app on my phone, which is fed by GoCollect values, which the app updates once a day. It's not perfect but it lets you input books as raw, slabbed, CGC, the other grading companies, etc.

I know he has other sales but this listing looks and feels like a scam.

How much is the ASM15?

Press was low on black ink.

I don't think so. When I deslabbed the book to window bag it I searched for the CT, with a black light and a 60x magnifier, and I couldn't find anything. I wasn't shocked that it came back blue, more disappointed that it came back purple the first time.

Yellow with no resto. It magically disappeared.

My biggest continuing disappointment has all been related to restoration check. Sent in a book with a CGC label that said it was trimmed on the top. Came back trimmed on the bottom instead. This tells me that someone checking for restoration doesn't know what they're doing and we're the ones dealing with their ineptitude. Some people are fine with these vagaries but I'm not. I'm not paying for someone to guess. If they can't definitively call it resto then leave it off the label. I sent in a book that had been professionally restored. I had a corner repaired with leaf casting (like 1/4") and it came back trimmed. I argued that trimming excess leaf casting back to the original dimensions isn't trimming. I even put the before and after scans on top of each other using layers in Photoshop showing that the book is the exact same dimension--right down to the pixel. Customer service could't explain it and didn't speak to the grader. Two other restored books that I'd submitted that year had changes on the label. I politely expressed my concerns to customer service and they politely told me there's nothing they can do and that graders make mistakes. Then I sent a purple book in for a signing and voila, it came back blue. Felt like an NBA ref making up for a bad call.

Whoa I think what Hero is doing is that they leaf cast a new edge, match the color, and then re-trim back to the original specs. But they're able to get the paper to match so it's virtually undetectable. Which is cool and also scary.

They're able to get it removed from purple books. I don't think their stated goal is blue, but when I asked about how they do it they said that when you know what you're doing and you do it well, you can sub a book and trimming won't even come up, even if it's actually been trimmed.

Hero Restoration is now touting their ability to untrim books.

Thanks Domo. I knew about the Ewert fiasco, but wasn't aware of how it was actually was discovered. We're these the books that Doug Schmell was involved with?