427Impaler

Just looking at some of the slab pics, notable that the top looks like a clean staple pop but the bottom is a disaster with a bunch of extra spine damage

My comment regarding an insinuation was directed to the other boardie. I appreciate you linking my lignin thread. ill try to dig up the pics and post them in a good chronological way. Obviously I don’t have the graded pics but we know where they are. taking care of some stuff so will search gather them in the morning cheers

I suggest you be careful here, sounds like you are insinuating I do something that would be considered unethical. I do work for a few boardies and the reason people use me is good results. I have several customers on the East coast that ship to me regularly. My main focus is conservation and extending the life of comics. The only time I ever use a solvent is during tape removal and even then the final adhesive removal is done with a staedler.

That’s true, I do know CGC is really good at spotting cover cleaned: I did a solvent bath test with results, I think it is in the resto section. Water bath also is easy to spot

I still have an ongoing family issue so will only be able to pop in from time to time. The pics are the ones the customer has been using, I sent them to him the second I heard the “covers detached” issue. The low grade book that came back cover cleaned would have been something the book went through prior to me, it also had tape removal prior to me. Yes, I am in Canada. I do work for many other people and some board members in the US and Canada. Just to pre-empt the question: I DO NOT do solvent bath, I just don’t believe it is good for the book. Even books that I do conservation on I don’t solvent bath them even if it is allowed by CGC in the conserved category. I do aqueous de-acidification on books being submitted for Conservation grade. I also don’t trim books or do restoration. Feel free to have a look at my IG page for the kinds of work that I do: @excelsior.conservation

Evening gentlemen, I dry cleaned and pressed the two books in question. i would have posted sooner but family matters prevented it. The customer informed me of the detached covers although I hadn’t seen pics of the damage until now. I always take pics of books arriving and departing to prevent issues and cover liability and of course did that with these big books. Two other people here saw the books get packed and shipped. I have to admit I was very surprised when I saw just how much damage was done to the books, more that just a simple popped staple. The books were shipped to the customer who forwarded them to CGC. The higher grade book was very nice and needed very little cleaning and pressing, the lower grade one had tape removal at some point in its past and was attached at staples but they did have stress as can be seen. I have worked with many fragile books, most much more delicate than these two. I am confident my pressing did not contribute to the issue. Anyone here who has bought from me knows I pack like the book is going into a war zone so I’m confident it travelled well. Hard to figure out how these books got so mangled. I really hope CGC has some photo/video coverage to help decide when the damage happened. Hard to imagine that kind of damage in shipping but I guess anything is possible. Hopefully this helps clear some questions. Just a really sad thing to happen to a couple of AF15’s

That’s a hefty shipping bill to Canada no matter how you slice it. I know from conversations with other local collectors here in Vancouver it definitely cuts down the amount of slabbing they will do. It is certainly more expensive USA-Canada than the other way around. Using postal service at fastest rate a comparable box costs about $60cdn heading to Florida from Vancouver. There is generally no brokerage or taxes involved in books going to or coming from CGC it correctly described

Oh just wipe it down with Wonderbread and tape it back together. Good as new!

Book disassembly is not for the faint of heart, particularly on GA books with fragile spines and any improperly pressed book that has the staples sunk. Blown out staple holes are pretty common in those circumstances. I’m a big fan of conservation for books that can benefit from it. Done properly it can extend the life of a collectible considerably. As far as how well Conserved books do financially that remains to be seen, not a ton of sales data, and the CGC label is still fairly new. Interesting fact is if you have a book with a married wrap after being conserved it gets the new Conserved label with notation of the marriage. Recently sold my Conserved AF15 2.5, I would consider the conservation Moderate and the book had a married CF, ended up selling at approximately 70% of current blue label GPA.

Not intent in defending him. I just see a young guy who from my convos seems to have his heart in the right place. He should have noted resto, and didn’t. He came in swinging and got the Medicine. At this point we either bury the body or find a “different” option. I guess the Dad in me comes out in these situations and I’m always looking for a hard lesson learned. Of course the hole digging would have to end😆

For the win.

Find someone else to correct sir, he said he apologized for not noting the restoration in the description. Why don’t you ask him if he would do it differently in the future? I’m guessing yes.

28 minutes ago, dylanthekid said: You have the made the fairest post of anyone else on this entire thread such forth I will put my official statement in response to you I apologize for not noting the non additive resto in the description. Frankly, it would have made ZERO difference as nobody even reads the picture anyway as per this entire discussion. This is just a big hassle for me, and I still affirm I did nothing wrong other than not put my response in one giant post. FACTS: I have hid almost everything else that I have posted for the purpose of creating a CLEAR narrative. There were actually 4 comics, not 2. Shame on any insufficiently_thoughtful_person who believed what another insufficiently_thoughtful_person wrote on the boards as fact. I have reached out to all buyers of all 4 comics informing them of the recall. I am attempting & putting forth best efforts to obtain these books at this current time & have already obtained 2 so far.

*wades in protecting vulnerable body parts Wow, I was busy working and missed most of the bloodletting. Not here to argue the initial issue, Dylan has said he should have listed the book faults and he has contacted buyers to rectify the situation. Perhaps leading with that statement may have prevented the attack/counterattack and my inbox exploding. Maybe we can all take a breath and step back a bit? I’m pretty sure if a similar situation presents itself Dylan would take a different route. This probably means nothing to others but although I have never met Dylan I have bought from him and had some lengthy conversations. I was impressed with his knowledge of all genre of comics, more shocking when I discovered he was 20. We have also spoke at length about customer service and repeat sales and building a business. He was very dedicated to improving customer service and reducing return rates. Before launching on me I understand this current issue stands in opposition to all those statements, but I just have to reflect on some of the things I did when I was younger, lots of them “not great” but important learning curves. Can anyone else relate to that? Just my 2 cents

Honestly I have not read through this entire thread but this is not an issue limited to the books being discussed, in my last four submissions I have had no less than four books in the wrong holder, two were mine and two were a customers book. None of these were “special labels” either. One restored book in a blue label with restoration notes, two conserved books in restored labels, and one conserved book with grader notes which incorrectly list restoration. this is all a non issue if these books are correctly labelled. I have bought books off Dylan as have some other collector friends and none of us have had any negative issues.

Thanks for the update, don’t know if having six covers with only one hitting 9.9 has added value? Anyway, that’s all we had for comparison. The book has gone very hot since that sale also, can’t quantify 9.9 increase but I can say 9.8 value has increased by approximately 50% since then (4227 9.8’s on census). 💐

Here is a 9.9 MINT copy of Amazing Spiderman #361. Just back from CGC! It's one of only three 9.9's on the census. Da Rulez: Paypal or cleared cheque No returns on CGC graded books Price includes shipping to USA or Canada First "Take it" in thread trumps ongoing PM negotiations Trades are an option as part of the negotiations, again first "take it" in thread wins I have many large sales here on the Boards, lots of references available, Also on Ebay as 427impaler and the IG as Excelsior Conservation. Full disclosure, I am selling this book for a buddy of mine, I will handle the entire transaction, shipping Etc. PRICE: $10,000 shipped Last recorded sale for a 9.9 was 2017 for $8,600 Some comments from the owner: I would actually prefer to trade this beauty for some higher-grade keys or semi-keys in a part-trade / part cash deal. Some of the books I'm looking for are: Pre-Hero Atlas and Marvels Amazing Spiderman before #102, 300 and Annual #1 Conan the Barbarian #1 Fantastic Four #13, 25, 48, 49 and Annual #1, 2 Giant Size X-Men #1 Incredible Hulk #181 Iron Man #1 Journey into Mystery #85-100 Marvel Premiere #1 Marvel Spotlight #5 Silver Surfer #1, 3, 4 Tales of Suspense #41-45 X-Men #12, 100 Early DC Showcase House of Secrets #92 Albedo #2 Bone #1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 These books are just off the top of my head. There are dozens of other books that I would interested in trading for. Thanks

That was 8 minutes in vm&p. Same old cover cut into two pieces. If i hadn’t tried with a control piece i probably would not have noticed the difference without a comparison: Naptha will pull out the fixing (also called the “clay”) and that is detected at cgc as per Matt Nelson. The paper was also a couple thousands of an inch thinner, which is not a big deal on a DC GA book but an early SA Marvel may be noticeable. I know people who still use Naptha to clean books, usually for spot cleaning. I use it for most magic tape adhesive usually as a poltice. I guess the big issue is if used heavily could result in a PLOD. Give that test a try on a beater and see if you get the same results. Almost imperceptible on cover compared to the text. Hey no offence taken, i have read your posts with interest for years and appreciate your understanding of the resto/conservation technology

Definitely many applications for this process. It was interesting how many people in the conservation field were uninterested in it at first, i think there was a lot of skepticism. I’ve had lots of help with a conservator in England who had trying to do the same thing a few years ago unsuccessfuly, he is very excited with the results: Next step is to refine the process to remove all lignin and then reintroduce ph buffers in its place to really reduce aging (ISO 9706 standards)

Tape removal can be very tricky and requires lots of experience to be done successfully. It also can be done without saturating the paper but is very tedious. Also here is another sign that a book has been washed (speckled ink loss)

That is a very good question. I have had two books i mechanically cleaned for a customer come back “cover cleaned”, one labelled restored and one conserved. I was alarmed as it was a simple art eraser clean and of course the customers were surprised also. Matt Nelson was super helpful in his explanation and help in spotting it. It seems naptha cleaning had been done at some time in both books past, and apparently both books had tape removal in their past. Naptha is very helpful in tape removal but many people also use it as a book “cleaner”. It doesnt appear to damage the book until you look closely, here is an experiment i did afterward by washing a piece of a cover in naptha. Notice the ink spread: naptha removes the “fixative” which holds the ink in place and also gives the paper some strength. So detection would be looking for poor ink set and paper that feels “limp” Reglossing can be tough to detect but telltale signs are excess gloss on paper edges (easy to see with a loupe) or overflow onto the interior of the cover. Another way is looking at the cover on an angle into the light, there should be different levels of reflectivity on the different inks, if they all look the same it may indicate reglossing. Hard to get a pic of reflectivity but in this one the white and red are clearly different reflectivity

Here are the pics of the results, the piece tested was the very first artifact we used the process on. Both pieces received one drop of acidified phloroglucinol, the untreated piece reacted immediately with a deep crimson hue, while the treated piece reacted very slowly and produced a much fainter staining. Pic: So we are very happy this result. A significant amount of lignin is being extracted with no damage to the artifact. I totally understand the mindset of not altering collectibles, however at some point all books will need a treatment like this to extend their lives. Silver Age Marvel books were made of some of the worst possible paper and will really need sone help at sone point. Marvel chipping is a sign of how age sensitive they are. The added cosmetic benefit is really secondary to prevention of acid hydrolysis:

Yes, as a matter of fact we have been doing tons of testing and verification. Just concluded a test for determination of lignin post treatment, using acidified phloroglucinol as a reagent. Testing involved splitting a page and treating one half, followed with both being tested using the reagent. Untreated section immediately turned crimson which is positive for lignin content while the reagent did not change color on the treated peice. Although it was expected, we were all very pleased with the result, and at this point are upgrading the lab while doing a limited amount of client work.

I check off the “warranty, repair, return” description and have not had a problem in the last 10 years

Haven’t had the chance until now to post an update. Lignin is confirmed as substance removed from paper by this process so that is very exciting. Third party Industrial testing is next. I neglected to post the aging test of a pressed book. Interesting results, I expected to see the presets book show accelerated signs of aging but after a full cycle of testing both halves of the book scored the same on the fold test. Unexpected result you can see in the pic, the book almost returned to the unpressed state after the aging test! Paper has memory! Before (top of book unpressed) After back of book before