jimbo_7071

I haven't dealt with any pressers. I've found "before" pictures of many pressed books (mainly by searching the the Heritage archives). I remember a Captain America Comics #70 that retained its (8.0?) grade after pressing despite having a big chunk out of the edge of the back cover. I can only assume that the book contacted the platen (as you called it) because the release paper was out of position.

BBM means boldface by me, but I forgot to embolden the pertinent text. Back in the 80s I paid Susan Ciccone to repair a tear on a book—different attitudes about restoration prevailed back then—and I believe she cleaned and pressed the cover afterward, if I remember what she told me correctly. I've never requested that a book be pressed. I don't have books pressed and wouldn't knowingly buy a pressed book unless it was a rare issue and I doubted my ability to find an unpressed copy. I suspect that damage occurs every time a book is pressed, even if that damage isn't immediately apparent. There are an awful lot of GA and SA books out there that appear to have a slight amount of cover shrinkage. It is normal for the pages to protrude from the cover in a V formation, but I never used to see books where a measurable portion of the first wrap was visible beyond the cover; now I see that routinely. The Cole Schave thread provided plenty of examples. I also see many, many more books with rusted staples now than I ever used to see. The passage of time could account for part of that, but I suspect that the humidity to which books are exposed during pressing acts as a catalyst for rust, which may appear months or years down the road. It certainly seems like the explosion of rusty staples correlates well with the CPR craze.

BBM I find that people who find that "most people who think 'pressing is restoration and ought to be disclosed' are people unfamiliar with what pressing actually is or does" are biased in favor of pressing. If you don't want to call it restoration, maybe you'd be more comfortable calling it damage. I'd be good with that. I don't agree with your comments in no. 3. Many books with obvious signs of "bad" pressing have gotten a free pass since Classics Inc. was acquired by CGC. Willfully and systematically ignoring damage caused by a process from which CGC profits would constitute fraud, in my opinion, meaningless disclaimers notwithstanding.

Red-headed abductee to red-headed abductee.

I hope somebody buys a million dollar slabbed book one day, finds out it was pressed, and sues CGC for fraud for not disclosing restoration. I don't think that all this crud about pressing not being restoration would fly with a jury of non-collectors. They'd see right through that confidence game.

Neither price makes much sense except in the light of movie hype. Maybe bidders were probably speculating that CMA books would take off, but that hasn't happened. I think the reason is that the comedic tone of the film hasn't allowed the film to create the same kind of fan base that some of the other superhero movies have. I sort of wish they hadn't made the movie a comedy; I guess they decided that the Big Red Cheese was too hokey for a straight super hero movie.

I recently picked up a mid-grade copy of #5 for $40; I'd expect to get a mid-grade copy of almost any issue for around the same price. I can't see that low-grade copy being worth more than a few dollars as a reading copy.

Very tall, evil blonde bombshell to innocent-looking blonde bombshell assisting a bald, evil midget.

My post speaks for itself; interpret as you wish.

1) Cover shrinkage. If you look many pressed books, you'll see a thin line of newsprint peeking out past the edge of the cover. It's normal to see a little bit at the very top of the cover (probably from the cutting process), but if you can see white all along the edge of the cover, it's a dead giveaway that the book has been pressed. It is more noticeable when a presser is aggressive with temperature and humidity in order to reduce cycle time. 2) There will frequently be extra stress lines around the staples. This become apparent when you look at before and after pictures of the book. 3) In the case of GA books, it's not unusual for pressing to blow out (split) the spine. 4) Books have lost pieces around the edge or at the corners due to pressing. I'm not sure why this happens. Maybe bits of paper stick to the pressing machine because the paper that's placed between the press and the comic isn't seated properly, and the edge of the cover is actually contacting the press itself? These are only a few of the ways in which pressing can damage books.

Pressing does quite a bit of damage to books, so if you don't care whether you damage books by pressing, then why would you care about the negligible effect of pressing books with microchamber paper in? It would be like a murderer worrying about chipping his victim's fingernail polish during the process of committing the murder.

Anatomical oddity (no nipples) to Anatomical oddity (fused thighs).

That strikes me as a CYA answer. Nevertheless, even if that's true, there have been many 9.6s 9.8s with cream-to-off-white pages from day 1. I have also seen plenty of 9.6 Harvey File Copies with light-tan-to-off-white pages. I don't know whether I've seen a 9.8 with tan pages aside from the X-Men 214. So at best, it may be that light-tan-to-off-white isn't permitted in 9.8. I'll have to keep digging to see whether that's actually the case. Harvey File Copies and Savannah copies will probably be a good place to look. Unless pages are tan or brittle, CGC does not factor page quality into the grade, period. They should, which is probably why the rumor that they do keeps popping up.

I don't think that the page quality standards that you're talking about ever existed. Even in CGC's early days, I saw many 9.6s and 9.8s with cream-to-off-white pages . And then there was this example:

Those are both pretty cool Spirit sections. I picked up my first one on eBay tonight. I like the ones where the first page is a full splash.

Fox Phantom Lady to Ajax Phantom Lady.

Cap 1 is way too common to be a top 5 book. If realized prices have put it there, it won't stay. Tec 31 should have no problem pummeling it into submission. The same goes for Action 7, goofy as that one is.

Singing stoolie to singing lasso.

I decided to boycott the auction because HA had hired Mark Wilson, but I was tempted by both of those. Congratulations on two great pick-ups!

Yeah, but their asking prices on ebay were asinine. Those copies probably won't even be the highest-graded copies if the Mile High copies are ever slabbed.

L. B. Cole to L. B. Cole

Even for a GA collector like me, it's hard not to be a fan of AF15. I have no idea how many raw copies are still out in the wild, though, so I don't know whether prices will stay where they are. Original owner GA collections are still turning up from time to time, so how many original owner SA collections have to still be out there?

Our posts had nothing to do with you. I believe that Robot Man was saying that the German collector with whom Barry Sandoval intends to meet could be Wilhelm Ute. That wouldn't surprise me because if they'd hire someone like Mark Wilson, why wouldn't they do business with someone like Wilhelm Ute, too?

Crime-Smashing Expose to how police smash The Perfect Crime.