I purchased a book about a year ago and it arrived with one staple. I thought for sure the person pulled the book and replaced it with another book. The book looks perfect besides the missing staple. Also, there was no staple hole where the staple should have been. It was a manufacturing error. Book was produced this way. Anyway, I called CGC and they confirmed that the missing staple would not degrade the book. I was surprised since I have never seen a 9.8 CGC graded book with a missing staple. So, I guess anything is possible when it comes to grading.