PovertyRow

I've only done this once. I had bought a coverless copy of Marvel #34 at a flea market for $5. A couple of months later, add one my my regular comic book stores, the owner told me he found an interesting box he forgot he had with "parts". Sure enough, one of the parts was the cover to Marvel Mystery #34. He gave it to me and I ended up with a complete book. Was fun to do.

Cover Only Trim You need magnification and good lighting at different angles to detect a cover edge trim. You want to examine the color of the exposed edge and compare it to that of the other edges. You want to examine the cut itself, determine the angle of the cut and if there are angle fluctuations (here I am talking about the edge of the comic itself - so I am talking minute fluctuations over a paper-thin edge. NOT the wangle at which the entire cover was cut.) Check for signs of the type of cutter used: guillotine, paper cutter, razor and straightedge. A guillotine cutter gives the best edge of the three, very straight and true. If the edge is getting worn - well - you know about Marvel Chipping. A regular paper cutter may show dimpling or waviness along the cut, especially if the paper was not held down really hard and flat and the blade was not tightly pressed into the edge. A razor/straighedge can make for very irregular angles on the edge itself due to the razot being held in the hand and the angle of the hand changing. However, a razor in a holder, like a matte cutter, can make for very clean and even cuts. Examine the ink at the very edge and see how the dots are broken. Are they cleanly sliced or is there a bif or pulling or scraping? Then compare to the other edges. If all the edges look the same check for signs of the cover being removed, concentrating on the staples and the staple holes and impressions.

Now she is hooked on silver and bronze W.W. and the "hilarious" advertisments found in the Gold and Silver age comics. And that means that we now share the hobby of comic collecting. A Superstory! Just great!

boards with calcium carbonate in them, which makes them last longer without becoming acidic. But does that mean they never become acidic? I don't think there is a firm answer to this question. The environment is going to have an impact on the longevity of the backing board's buffer. If it has absorbed a lot of acid then I would ASSUME its life will be lessened. BUT your question suggests a very interesting experiment folks with calcium carbonate buffered backing boards can perform. Buy a PH Test Pen. They are very inexpensive. Just a few dollars. Most art supply stores that sell Lineco products should have one. You draw a line with it on the paper you want to test. The color of the line indicates if it is acidic or still alkaline. I think it would be fascinating for folks here to try this pen out on their older buffered backing boards and report the results. What do you think?

Do you know whether shortwave is at all useful to detect some types of restoration? I don't know. I have always avoided shortwave due to the potential dangers. As far as magnification, I have a few different ground glass mahnifiers and loupes that range from 3x to 30x. I have considered a stereoscope and have used them in other circumstances (I once photographed a slide set for Harvard's Museum of Invertebrate Paleontology and got to play with some mighty nice stereoscopes. But I think for the purpose of detecting a good quality loupe is as fine.

What kind of black light do you use? Its an 18" 15 watt longwave single tube fixture.

Basically Dry Cleaning is using an eraser type material to remove things like light soiling, pencil etc. The best way to accomplish dry cleaning is to pick up a template at an art supply store. This template is a thin piece of aluminum with various shapes cut into it. Long thin rectangles, cirlces, etc. Costs a buck or two. Then get a white eraser like a Mars white plastic or similar. You can slice these to very fine thicknesses for use. (see below) First off you do not wnat to use an eraser to just earse an entire cover. You WILl remove ink. The template with the shapes cut out are ideal for cleaning up the white etxt on a cover. Simply align a properly proportioned cut-out from your aluminum template on top of the white lettering. Slice off a price or eraser to fit. Erase. Make sure the edge of the template does not go over an inked area. You may have to slide it along the lettering to get it all. And this can be a very laborious process. Also, you ca get a "cleaning pad" - which contains basically very finely granulated white eraser substance in a small "pillow" shaped pad about 3 x 5 inches. You raise the pad above the cover and gently squeeze some of the granules onto the cover. Then very gently move the pad in a circular motion, often stopping and lifting to see if ink is being lifted. these techniques can remove general dirt from the white areas. The cover is definetly "picked up" because the whites "pop" more than they did, creating added contrast. You can usually tell this from a slight "smoothing" of the paper. If you are not sure what that means buy a very low grade book from the same poeriod and preferably publisher and erase as above. You will soon get a feel for what it looks like.

If you will let me I will re-bid on your DVD, I'll gladly pay up when and if I win Who can't use a Sopranos first season on DVD? I may start using that kind of talk around here more often I removed the block on your name yesterday. If you try and cannot bid let me know and I will make sure it was done correctly. I never said you should be "scared to death" of me - I don't posture or make physical threats here (maybe challenge comic wiz to a comic box bench-off at most ) - the words were "I can understand that you would be SCARED TO DEAL with me" I can't argue there! All I can offer in my defense is your name! Scared to Deal and Darth - I guess the Deal and Darth merged into Death (hey! weirder things have happened.) Apologies there.

I'm now going to read about cleaning. Rats - I forgot about dry cleaning (no, not your clothes!). But it is too late now - after 2:00AM here - so tomorrow. Dry cleaning is most interesting.

how can I continue to say good-bye? For me, I remember some of my favorite issues and seek them out! . I will say it is a heck of a rush when I find that book that made me gasp for breath years ago!

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=gold&Number=44562&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1&vc=1 Here is a link to the place I responded on these boards. If you cannot get there it is under "Gold Comics ... How To Spot Restoration http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=gold&Number=44562&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1&vc=1

What does a tear seal look like? feel like? Is there an obvious way to tell? What about cleaning? Spine unrolling? A tear seal. There are four main techniques used. The first (no particular order) is to use glue( preferably archival glue with a neutral PH but no way to tell except to trust in the restorer). Use a silicon release film (aka dry mount release) - it holds up to dry mounting heat and will factor into the spine roll removal below. It is like thick, stiff saran wrap. Place some of the glue on a surface - a paper plate - whatever. You only need a bit. Take a toothpick. Dip it in the glue. Swirl it around the edge of the paper plate (or whatever you put the glue on). Place a small square of the silicon release film under the area you are going to seal. Then carefully lift a torn edge towards you. With the tip of the toothpick, drag the glue along the very edge of the tear. I mean literally only the edge should have a tiny bead of glue. (lots of practice on pieces of paper to get it right). Then hold the two edges of the tear together. It is ok to let them touch the release film - glue won’t stick to it. After a minute or two the seal is done. This type of seal is easily identified as a slightly greyish line along the edge of the tear. The line is usually a slightly twisty line that follows the angles of the tear. The second - the most acceptable amateur restoration - is to use real archival "tear repair tape" - you can get it in most art supply stores, and just add as small a piece as you can to the tear. Just like using a piece of scotch tape to tape paper together. This is easily detected by a dulling on the side where the paper has been taped and the back side displaying no dulling. (The tape is quite transparent but does not reflect light the same as the plain paper does.) The third is using Japan Paper and methyl-cellulose or wheat/rice paste. The pastes are basically water soluble fine powders that, when mixed with water, act almost like wallpaper paste. Methyl cellulose is almost "powdered paper" that is also water soluble. Thi8s is applied much like the archival tape. But the Japan paper can be a LOT finer (thinner) than the tape. It can be a bit hard to detect but look for a slightly dull "sheen" that reflects light differently than the rest of the surface. The fourth is "heat seal" paper. This is very fine Japan paper that is coated on one side with a heat-meltable adhesive (always neutral ph). A "heat iron" - basically a plastic handle that stays cool with a few inches of very smooth metal rod (tapering almost to a point) that gets hot when you plug it in. You can place the heat-seal paper on the tear and gently glide the heat iron over it to seal it. Again, depending on the quality, it can be hard to detect but look for that slightly dull "sheen" that reflects light differently than the rest of the surface. Cleaning can be VERY difficult to detect. It is usually performed on the cover since the cover is primarily used to determine grade. There is dry cleaning and wet cleaning. Both require very carefully removing the staples and separating the cover from the book. Wet cleaning entails immersing the cover in a suitable bath. Then placing it between sheets of acid-free blotter paper (you can buy acid-free "sketch books" from most art stores - a tip - you can also get alkaline buffered ones that that neutralize airborne acids - they make excellent buffer sheets when framing paper- things like movie posters or lobby cards). Anyway, after the cover is blotted relatively dry - just damp, it is placed between another sheet of acid free paper on the bottom and a sheet of release film on the top (so the heat from the dry mount press does not cause anything to stick). Use lowish - 200 or so degrees - for maybe 15-30 seconds. The cover will be pressed flat, be dry with no dimensional changes, and ready to re-assemble. Spine roll removal. Not difficult but takes real care. Dismantle the book. Get several sheets of acid free paper and "spritz" them with a plant sprayer or similar thing using distleed water. They should be just damp. Take the interior pages and layer them - damp paper - page - damp paper - page etc. This basically "humidifies" the pages. Then press each page in a dry mount press under low temp with an acid free paper on the bottom and silicon release on the top. This will make the pages flat and remove the spine roll areas. Do this for every page. Take the centerfold. VERY carefully fold it in half (do NOT apply pressure to the center folded edge yet). Align the top, bottom and edges top be sure they are square and then very gently slide along where the fold should be. Repeat for the rest of the pages. Do not make a real impression in the edge. You just want to :"gauge" where the fold should be. The start with the centerfold and add a page. Gently slide along the edge to begin to establish the correct fold. Repeat for the rest of the pages. Then take the "sandwiched" pages and press them - paper below - release above. Next take the cover and do the same thing. Gently align and then make a mild fold along the edge. Then press. Then start adding pages to the cover and finally press the whole book. Last thing is to add back the staples. This can be very difficult to detect depending upon the degree of spine roll. One thing to look for is a slight dulling of the cover. This can be caused from the "hydration" process of placing the cover between slightly dampened sheets of archival paper. This can remove a bit of the gloss. Also, look to the interior pages for a line - not really a "line" but an "area maybe 1/4 - 1/2 inch or so in width - maybe wider for a bad spine roll - but look for a "width" running along the edge of the spine that has a slightly "maneuvered" look. I cannot put it better than that. It is actually an area that reflects light differently because it contains paper that HAS been maneuvered. The bulk of the pages remain intact - it is only the areas that have been rolled then unrolled that display this discrepancy. Feel free to ask for more details. It is a most fascinating topic. (edited a few mins later to add "with distilled water" to the spine roll removal process.)

That's what I reacted to. The reason is simple, and it's personal: I love my comics, I just truly, truly do. And it hurts to sell them. I guess I didn't like being told that I no longer loved them, just because I had to say good-bye to them. See? Just a personal button that was pushed. I doubt you meant that, or intended for your posts to be read that way, but that's how me (and my issues) saw it. I'm sorry, because obviously I've now hit your buttons, and I didn't mean to. God I feel awful! I too have had to sell some of my treasured books for plain old "have to live" reasons. Yes, it DOES hurt to sell them. A lot of my pre-code horror was simple VG but I think you can appreciate that a plain old VG or a G from many years ago - you with the DC (I confess to a weakness for DC silver over Marvel) and me with my horror - tpo have to part with them? Not the nicest feeling.

Oh, and teach me to spot restoration! What does a tear seal look like? feel like? Is there an obvious way to tell? What about cleaning? Spine unrolling? I have so much to learn. Hi Joanna. First - I do thank you for understanding. I will take your questions about restoration to a more suitable board and will post to ya here when it is done.

Well I posted this the first day I got here but I think I did not get how to make it stick. Anyway, advice to a new collector. First and foremost, look at as many comic books as you can and try to relate the "defects" you see to the grading guide. I suggest using Overstreets grading guide for most books. Snag some copies of the Overstreet Grading Guide. Read read read. Read about first appearances, about grades, about the various ages (Platinum, Gold, Atom, Silver, Bronze etc.) Read the market reports. Rad about anything that grabs your interest. Look to book stores or the internet to further search for books that may interest you. Keep in mind the prices and reports you may see are usually out of date due to publishing schedules. But that is ok because it is what we all have to contend with. If there are comic book stores in your area, seek them out. Start chatting with the clerks and, if possible, the owners (sometimes one and the same!). Discuss what has drawn you into comics. If it is for investment don't fudge - just say so. If it is for a certain genre or time period, just say so. You will find a dealer who know you, knows your interests and proclivities, is one of the best things you can find. As you get to know them (at leats in my experience) you may actually get phone calls saying "Hey so and so! I got in some xyz books - I set them aside for you until xxx day" (they will usually say what day that xxx day is) if you are interested. A tip - if you are not interested, call them right back so they can put them up for sale. Probably the best tip? Don't buy for speculation until you really know what is going on. If you see a book you "think:" is uncommon, but have only been looking at books a short time, just assume it is more common than you think. The most common and the most true thing about speculation is that "if you have heard about it, it is probabluy too late!"

I pretty much agree. Negative feedback shouldn't be left if you request a refund and the seller grants it. I have always adehered to that idea. That an ebay auction is not completed until all parties check in and only then should feedback be given. I was kind of trashed for that, too.

Let them do what they want without condemning them. They're not condemning your love of pre-code horror. I am gonna try this one more time, even though I said I would just stop posting on this. A few emails have encouraged me. First off, I have been trashed because I believe that non-invasive restoration (meaning a clean/press or a spine roll removal - as I made VERY clear that such non-invasive (meaning not adding anything to the book)) is different from an invasive restoration (tear seals, leaf form, methyl-cellulose impregnation, inpainting, staple replacement etc). Nothing said by you. Apparantly it is ok to trash folk who believe this. What has happened to the "let them do what they want" concept? Then Darth says he has bid on a DVD auction of mine - a DVD - not even a comic - and he will "haggle" over the price - then says I should be "scared to death" of him? And nothing from you. (and I will say it made my shoulders and stomach torgue to block Darth - I have never done anything remotely like that before but for some reason Darth felt that a dvd auction was fair game because of my opinions. Jesus - that because of my opinions ( or Darth's perceptions of my opinions) someone could just say "I will bid and then haggle."? And you find that acceptable? (I truly wish I could retract that but ebay does not allow it. Best I could do was remove Darth form my banned list.) Next - I have never - EVER - said that anyone selling comics is bad - evil - whatever. Show me ONE POST - just one post - where I said that. If you can I will gladly retract that. But show me. And finally - my clearly stated opinion. If folks care to rebut this I would be very happen to listen.When I read message upon message about the difference of a 9.6 vs a 9.8, or "is this really a 9.8" or "why is this dillweed saying this is a 9.4" - messages whose quantities on this board are literally orders of magnitude above other messages - and seem to get the majority reply - then I ask "why are people focussing so much on that 2/10 grade?" OK - I am done. I appreciate your reply if you are so inclined to give it. And am especially interested in why you would just assume I hate peple who sell and suddenly only someone who buys is a "good guy again". I would really like to know from where you gleaned that. Thanks.

Suddenly I'm one of the good guys again. OK. I give up. I doubt I will ever be able to properly express this so I will not try anymore and will just avoid posting upon that topic. I'm sure most will be relieved!

I'm not posting this with anger or harshness, just a plea to see the other side. Sellers can love comics. Sellers do love comics. Sellers and buyers need each other in order to love the comics, just as they both need the writers, artists and publishers. We're all in a circle here, for the love the books. Believe it or not, Joanna, I understand and agree 100% with everything in your post. I have never said that selling books is a bad thing, or that sellers do not love comics. Unfortunately, some of the things I have said have been interpreted that way and a comeback like “oh yes, you think selling is evil and only collectors are good” seems to have stuck more than what I actually said. Over the years I have sold about 12 long boxes of mainly pre-code horror, silver and gold. Certainly not a huge quantity but certainly enough to qualify me as a seller as well as a collector. A dealer you get to know, and who gets to know you, is one of the best thing that can happen. As far as writers and artists and editors etc, there wouldn’t even BE books and their minds have collectively contributed to some wonderful myths and legends. Some of their names are as much legend as the legends they created. I still get troubled over some of the marketing aspect of comics, and my seemingly negative reactions tend to stem from that. There seems to be an inordinate amount of attention, in a small area of the commnuity, on a few tenths of a grade. But few seem to be addressing the fact that, even in a cgc case, as the years go by, those white pages, unless stored in a constant environment, are going to become off-white or cream or worse. There is, in one small aspect of comics, a frightening sense of immediacy, where the idea that “this is a 9.8 W” with no thought to how long it will remain a 9.8W. Now this is true of any book one has. A NM stored in mylar in a long box may well end up a VF or less. This has already happened with, for example, some of the Church books. But it just seems that nowadays the fact that “this is a 9.8” has more importance than anything else – again to one small aspect of comics. So tell you what? I will try to be clearer in my posts. I will take pains to not leave myself open to interpretation (at least as much as I can and still write a readable post.) It is the best I can attempt.

Honestly, I would not listen to anything I had to say about restoration, as I've never had one restored book, never bought one, never known anyone to do any, can't recognize shaved books and for the most part deal only in modern books that would not be restored anyway. That is ironic. That very discussion is where I realized that the folks here were tough skinned and I could spout my ideas, others would spout there ideas, we could clash with thick hides and just have fun.

Poverty...just don't get me rambling again... Why do I think such is going to be inevitable?

You don't need their approval... don't let this stress you out. That is very true. You need no one's approval but your own. Dead serious.

This is what ticked me off tonight...care to explain that there was no sarcasm in that quip? I'd be happy to. There WAS no sarcasm. Right now that "market" seems to be on a downslide. I think you will agree that the prophecies of a year or two ago where "any cgc in the 9's is going to break records" (and several "authorities" were making that prophecy) are now defunct. The CGC phenomena has proven what has only been specualated about for some time. I am not sure why there even WAS speculation, since comic collecting as a "hobby" with some force has been going on since the mid-sixties. But what has happened is that the 9.0 and the 9.2 were supplanted by the 9.4 - and now the 9.4 is often not good enough and the 9.6 and above are where the current market is. How long will this last? How long CAN this last? But again I say, if the market goes down then I can buy my books cheaper. But you have told me, Darth, "Everytime, I see you come out with a post, touting your "I ,collector, holier than thou, lowly seller" attitude, it will get you a nice "flying off to hell and back" post." I still want to know where all those posts are that have gotten you so ticked off. Whether you ban me on your auctions or not is your call. You taking that "haggling bit" literally is ridiculous, but I can see where you would be scared to deal with me. I take any remark like that, made with a straight face, seriously. Scared to death to deal with you? Not at all. Just not worth the potential hassles you said you would give. And why would you even say something like that without even an emoticon unless you meant it?

Everytime, I see you come out with a post, touting your "I ,collector,holier than thou, lowly seller" attitude, it will get you a nice "flying off to heel and back" post. In one post I used the word "love" - that is what initially ticked you off into this insanity. Do me a favor - show me all the "holier than thou" posts I have made that are for fact and not in your own head's interpretation. And I did ban you from all of my auctions. I posted as a reason "Has threatened me in public post with bidding on my item then haggling for it." You did. Not sure why you decided to take that direction. It is not a good one.