VintageComics

What exactly are you talking about? Roy; I thought you was the supremo master at reading between the lines? Were you talking about pressing or allowing small dots of CT and glue in a blue holder?

What exactly are you talking about? Are you saying this is universally true? It absolutely isn't. Back in the day you had Good - Fine - Mint and a Mint back in the day could be anything from VF ro high Mint range. 2nd, there was no exact standard. It was always up to interpretation.

That is what people are actually saying between the lines.

The Berk auction was going to be my next reference point.

Borock admitted to overgrading some famous books that come up for discussion on the chat forum. He didn't admit to changing the rules of a small amount of glue or CT in a blue label.

That's still the way I look at it. The stigma attached to restoration seems entirely bizarre to me. It depends on the quality of restoration, but I know what you mean. It's obviously financially driven and things that are financially driven can be bizarre.

I didn't ask. But I will say that even the Overstreet Price Guide has allowed different grading standards to be applied to books depending on which era the book is from, so CGC didn't come up with this idea. It's been around long before CGC was even in business.

He wasn't interested in these books.

Why would somebody touch up a book with glue and CT if not, for the sole reason, of restoring it to a better condition ? This may be some quote Borock and CGC used at the beginning to justify the logic behind allowing it in a Blue Label but I don't see it holding up today. Let's just say the book had a non color breaking crease, holding the book to 9.4. Any improvement with CT/Glue would not be enough to overcome that crease. However, in today's environment, the crease can be pressed out. If so, now the book will improve with the CT/Glue. I am giving you the explanation that has been given to me by several CGC graders (and I have owned several books with these notations, hence my interest). Unless their policy has changed, I would assume there are plenty.

What a stunning book. I know you can't judge a book by a scan (especially from a front scan only) but that book wouldn't look out of place in a 9.2 holder.

A better way of saying it is that the addition of glue or CT does not improve the grade and therefore is not trying to restore it to a better, previous condition. But yes, I agree with you Peter.

Noooooooooo Yup. Sad I missed it too.

The JGF collection has had some strong results but I attribute them to either books looking terrific for the grade or being upgradable. I know a few people were pleasantly surprised at how the books looked in hand from previous JGF auctions.

I would say the largest problem is having too many shows on the same weekend forces dealers to choose between shows.

It varies. I've also seen them looser.

There is a market for PGX books. Some dealers on the West Coast I know still use them to slab 1000's of books. People do buy them. That's how they've managed to stay in business for the last 15 years.

This is the first I remember hearing In the spirit of fairness, Bob...... did any of the books you bought from Brulato/Ewart come back as unrestored ? I ask because it seems the underlying assumption/message is that EVERY book they touched was "worked on"..... which I'm not sure I'm on board with that. Providing a list of Hulk 181's in higher grade that were submitted by Ewart and assuming they all have hidden restoration is unfair IMHO..... maybe it's the choice of that book, I mean, let's face it, IH 181 is fairly easy to find in unrestored high grade.... especially back then. Now if they had submitted 5 copies of HULK # 2 that all received a 9.4, I might raise my eyebrows a bit more. GOD BLESS... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) Edited 1 hour ago by jimjum12 Ewert was an aggressive buyer and on top of that, it's worth noting that high grade bronze was easy to find until recently. 10 yeats ago I could leave a show with literally 100's of high grade candidates including BA keys. I bought stacks of them back in the day. I'm not excusing trimming all I'm trying to do is show that many if not most books would not have been candidates back then.

This is the first I remember hearing about this going that far back.

Well, all I can say is that if you put Jason Ewert and "razor sharp / nary a nick" together with respect to a particular book, I can think of only one thing. I bought that book well before the Ewert news broke. I'm fairly certain that book was untouched. It was just naturally awesome.

Interesting. I've had several 9.9 vintage books slabbed from raw (oldest would be late Bronze) and yes, they are absolutely stunning in hand. I used to own one of the Wolverine #1 CGC 9.9's (Limited mini) as well as maybe #2 or #3 (I don't quite remember) and I did remember wondering if one of the books deserved a 9.9. It didn't have any color breaking wear but it did not seem as crisp and tight at the edges like most minty mint books did. I think there was a bit of a wave to one of the edges. It's possible that the book was overgraded or it's also possible that damage was incurred at some point after it was graded. On a side note, I owned a CGC 9.6 copy that I bought from Jason Ewart back in 2003 or so. Some of the old timers might remember that book. It was the most flawless copy I'd ever seen in my life - razor sharp and nary a nick on the book - but the reason the book got a CGC 9.6 was due to a miswrap (back to front) so that it looked like it had a $0.05 price on the cover (the 2 was on the back) A CGC 9.9 contender if I'd ever seen one, aside from the miswrap.

It's funny, we always talk comics when I see him and he just seems to be this happy go lucky, super positive, I love everyone dude who actually believes most of his slabbed books are undergraded. I guess we learn from trial and error what works and what doesn't.

Ugh. I could have used this last week. Just sold a coverless Tec #35 missing the splash page! Andy, is that the same scanner you've used this whole time? I remember buying my 1st books from you and seeing that grey background.

I've never bought a raw book from him so I can't comment.

Exactly my experience in a different country/region! If you've never heard of the story of John Verzyl purchasing the Mile High // Edger Church Marvel Comics #1, he went with the intention of finding defects on the book to haggle the price down. He ended up paying full asking price because he couldn't find a defect on the book. He figures it will grade a CGC 9.8 if he ever grades it. It's still raw.