mosconi

A previous topic about "waves" got me to thinking about a Silver Age comic I own that has very slight waves/bends along the "top left edge of the back cover".  And that is the only part of the book that has these waves/bends. Front cover and the rest of the comic looks fine.  Does anyone know if a bad press job could cause only a very small portion of the back cover edge to look like this.  If so, why would only that top part of the book be affected and not the rest of the comic edge?  Could humidity instead be the culprit or possibly slab pressure is causing the comic to ripple slightly?  Or maybe just caused by mishandling of the comic    Appreciate any feedback on this, and if you feel this is the result of a bad press job:

Sunday bump for you GL and Neal Adams fans

Up for sale are two gorgeous Neal Adams books from his famed Green Lantern run!  GL #80 CGC 9.4  $265.00 with a classic bondage cover. This issue has bright colors and fresh newsstand White pages! Beautifully centered/wrapped with fantastic eye appeal. And GL #81 CGC 9.4  $315.00 from the highly respected Oakland Pedigree, which was discovered by Vincent Zurzolo and initially sold at the 1998 Big Apple Comic Con.  This book also displays amazing colors, gloss, centering, and newsstand fresh White pages!  Beautiful books to add to your collection!

1. No Probation or Hall of Shame buyers.

2. Payment via PayPal.

3. U.S. sales only.

4. $14.00 Priority Mail shipping.

5. All sales final for CGC books.

GL #80 CGC 9.4 White Pages   $265.00

GL #81 CGC 9.4 White Pages "Oakland"  $315.00

37 minutes ago, AJCohen said:

Gorgeous 

Absolutely stunning copy and all-time classic cover!

Sold via PM

One of my CGC Spidey books needs to find a good home.  ASM #157 CGC 8.0 "30 Cent Price Variant" with an appearance by Doc Ock.  This issue has bright, vibrant colors and fresh newsstand White pages! The comic has never been pressed to my knowledge and has beautiful eye appeal!  Just a great book to add to your collection!

1. No Probation or Hall of Shame buyers.

2. Payment via PayPal.

3. U.S. sales only.

4. $14.00 Priority Mail shipping.

5. All sales final for CGC books.

ASM #157 CGC 8.0 "30 Cent Price Variant" White Pages   $125.00

Another one of my key Spidey books needs to find a good home.  ASM #252 CGC 9.6 with the 1st appearance of Spidey's black costume/symbiote which later becomes Venom. And with the Venom movie scheduled for future release, can't see this book doing anything but climbing in value.  This issue has blazing, vibrant color inks and fresh White pages! Beautifully centered and wrapped. The comic has never been pressed to my knowledge and has all the eye appeal of a 9.8 copy!  Just a gorgeous book to add to your collection!

1. No Probation or Hall of Shame buyers.

2. Payment via PayPal.

3. U.S. sales only.

4. $14.00 Priority Mail shipping.

5. All sales final for CGC books.

ASM #252 CGC 9.6 White Pages   $155.00

According to the previous owner, it has never been pressed. 

1 hour ago, Drbearsec said:

This is a favorite spider cover of mine.  GLWTS

Thanks! I've always greatly admired this Romita Jr./Sr. cover as well

Need to let go of one of my prized books. ASM #238 CGC 9.6 with the 1st appearance of the Hobgoblin. This issue has blazing, vibrant color inks and fresh White pages! Also beautifully centered with amazing eye appeal. Not sure what's holding this from a 9.8 but I can't detect a single flaw on the comic.  Just a gorgeous book to add to your collection!

1. No Probation or Hall of Shame buyers.

2. Payment via PayPal.

3. U.S. sales only.

4. $14.00 Priority Mail shipping.

5. All sales final for CGC books.

ASM #238 CGC 9.6 White Pages   $265.00

Back cover glare caused by my scanner

On ‎6‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 2:23 PM, Zacreth said:

I'm surprised the grades quoted. The top right front corner would benefit from a press but if you can look pass the blue marking the book is very remarkably in great condition. There's a bit by the top staple but nothing else.

This book looks to be structurally in beautiful condition.  Just the very light top staple wear.  The corner's look fine, but the distributor ink bleed can mistakenly make the bottom right corner look rounded.  Without the distributor spray, I would say a very solid 9.2 or 9.4.  But the spray is so overwhelming and such an eyesore, the grade has to suffer dramatically.  I can't see giving this any higher than an 8.0 based on the reduced eye appeal.  Would be interested to see how CGC grades this book

Beautiful books!   

1 hour ago, lpsunburst said:

Berk Collection Auction Wins

Please post your wins in this thread to share with your fellow jealous boardies! I hope to have a few of my own to post when we hit my part of the alphabet.

Is there a way to check what the Berk books sold for on the website?

6 hours ago, Aliens said:

I agree completely I hate it when Stan sigh a right on the face on the cover it's horrifying, I just saw a beautiful 7.0 copy of Amazing fantastic 15 with Stan lee's signature in a bold silver marker on Spideys face!!!! Are you serious

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 4:36 PM, namisgr said:

It remains unsettled whether the bad pressing jobs illustrated by many examples from the Cole Schave collection are the result of the cover paper shrinking or the interior pages expanding.  While the former seems more plausible to me, I've heard that an experienced collector who presses books believes that interior paper expansion may be a possible cause.  Regardless of the mechanics behind this type of bad pressing, the shame is that the practice is so often rewarded by an increase in numerical grade, despite the books looking far worse after having been over-exuberantly pressed.  If I were a cynical man, I might venture that the pressing-related defects introduced by the in-house pressing service get treated more generously during the grading process than those introduced by an outside pressing service.  The generosity shown to the many bad press jobs done to Cole Schave's former books is not inconsistent with this view, nor were the grades given to the White Mountain books with runny pen arrival dates.

 

Other signs of probable pressing include changes around the staples.  In some cases, the staple holes in the cover become fuzzy or, worse yet, slightly torn, from the cover paper slightly pulling away from the staples during the application of pressure.  In other cases, a 'maverick' staple that is slightly indented before a press can become markedly indented after.

Same book in both scans.  Before being pressed:

 

After:

Great example namisgr

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 6:38 PM, Bomber-Bob said:

On the topic of smeared inks, Before and After pressing, Winnipeg copies of GL 7, guess the grades........

 

Ouch, that's really an unfortunate eye sore   My guess would be 9.0 to a 9.4 after the runny/smeared pressing

Well in the early 80's, anything Byrne was suppose to be a can't miss, speculative title .  FF #232, Alpha Flight #1, Hulk #314, Superman Man of Steel #1, etc.  Remember the craze with Simonson's Thor, bought multiple copies every month of these issues. 

Wow, beautiful issue!!  My favorite Bronze Age cover

6 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Speaking of inks, another telltale sign of an overzealous press is the smearing of writing on older comics, date arrivals, date stamps, etc. I hate that look.

I recall White Mountains's were notorious for runny arrival dates after some pressings

3 hours ago, joeypost said:

Absolutely. I have seen books that were actually burned by the presser using too much heat.

 

Other things to look for are as follows:

Loss of gloss

Crushed spine

Rippling

Cockling

Foreign objects imbedded into the covers (small pieces of dirt, residue from dry cleaning, etc)

Burnt smell

Overly hydrated books will feel limp

Flaring of pages

Popped staples

...Just to name a few.

Great info Joey  Here's another example shown on these boards several years back.  Can't remember if this result was determined to be from shrinkage, spine realignment or something else?

Before:

After:

1 hour ago, B2D327 said:

ink transfer from pages to the interior of the front and back covers, smell of cooked pulp, stiff pages can be telltale signs of pressing but not in all cases

Interesting, would poorly pressed books have a distinct smell from a non-pressed copy?

4 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Same book. Before and after a spine realignment, with a press. Note the exaggerated fanning on the right. IMO, a telltale sign and I stay away from books that look like this.

10 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Oh no, questions like this, regarding pressing, can be very controversial and many get upset. I will answer with MY OPINIONS but be prepared for some backlash. First off, a properly pressed book should offer no clues that it was pressed. This is the reason CGC decided they would not regard pressing as restoration because they could not always tell. The characteristic you described, the right edge pages not lining up, can be from pressing but not always. IMO, it depends on the severity of the fanning and other characteristics of the book to determine if it's from pressing. I hate the look and simply avoid books like this. Other signs of a poorly pressed book are extremely flat spines, a natural spine should be a little plump with a rounded look. Take a look at the spine of a book fresh off the stands. I can offer more information but I don't feel like reacting to the forthcoming comments.

 

Bob makes some great observations   A properly pressed book is extremely difficult, if not near impossible to detect from a scan.  It's the less than perfectly pressed books (over-aggressive presser's) that display certain characteristics that a discerning eye can usually detect.  It's my own personal preference, but I've always liked Silver Age books with ever so slightly rounded corners.  When I see corners that are severely fanned out and have an overly starched, pancaked appearance, you're usually looking at a pressed copy. 

22 hours ago, comicquant said:

This came in today!

 

Beautiful looking book JP!  Really like the signature placement as well