I bought this copy of Fantastic Four #2 and as you can see the cover is absolutely destroyed. In fact whoever owned this book must have coated the front and back cover in Gun Oil a long time ago, at least it smells like gun oil.
So the front and back cover are super crispy like a potato chip, if you bend it at all it will shatter. I actually shattered the 2" section at the top near the spine to the left of the 10 cent logo before I even took the pictures. Basically the front and back cover are super brittle.
The first and last internal page are kinda messed up as they have what looks like mold.
The rest of the pages are in pretty good condition, and once you get to the middle of the book the pages look great, at least to my totally untrained eye.
So my questions are,
1. should I get it restored, or attempt to get it restored or no matter what will it get a .5 and that would be pointless? Not just the cover but the rest of the book as the rest of it looks ok.
2. Has anyone seen this type of treatment to a cover before (soaking in oil), if so can It be reversed? Because I know the cover is trashed but it could be pressed and look nicer, not good, but nicer than it's current look of being in a blender.
3. Also what is graded, like if all the pages inside are OK will it get a 1 instead of a .5, or because of the state of the cover and how it is not square but kind of bent will that just send it to .5 no matter what. Basically I don't know what all is graded.
Thanks for any help and answers,
Nick