mike devon

Appearance. Grades can be weird - I've been looking at hundreds of graded books and the grading seems quite inconsistent. Plus I just like the eye candy of the front cover. The insides of the old ones are just newsprint and I'm only interested in serious flaws there.

Cheers. How would you grade it..? 4.5 and 5 after a clean and press..? Scrape up to 5.5..?

Yeah - I think mileage would vary. I wouldn't be interested in a married book from the 70s but a very early Silver Age one I might depending on which one it was and whether it was a decent job.

You mean deleted because it was giving people ideas on how to do it..? My worry is buying - I think I can tell when they arrive but maybe I can't ..? That's why I think I might stick to local auctions and raw books coming from original owners etc.

Good stuff. But what a nightmare - how is anyone at home without scientific gear supposed to tell if a book they bought is trimmed..? Do CGC really take a microscope to the books..? I've no idea how they check for this. I'd love to know how a cleanly sliced page done this week looks any different than one hit straight on the edge by a guillotine in 1964. Apart from a microscope to maybe see whether the paper fibres were sliced or hit dead on I can't really see how you'd know - especially if it was on a clean book so the paper edge didn't suddenly look lighter..? Its a bit of a worry really. In some ways books coming out of original owner collections are the safest bet even though they are generally fairly low grade.

My ASM 6. Taking offers on BIN £1250. I haven't messed with the images at all so it looks a bit duller here than it does in the hand. You can see by the white paper underneath the book that the light is quite bad at the moment generally and its hard to get true pics. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274261406130?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 (Dear Admins - I've read the rules and I think I'm OK with this ad..? If not can you please let me know and I'll amend it.)

Yes agree but a 1mm pro colour touch will get a purple 'death' label and halve the value of the book..? Seems out of whack to me..? Unless I'm over-estimtaing the value drop for a 'minor' PLOD..?

Cheers - yeah seems to be coming out around a 5.0 once pressed etc. Do you think pro tidy of the spine with conservators adhesive would improve or spoil it..? Just here and there if there are any tiny loose bits..? Also does small neat name written inside affect it..? I wouldn't think so on this lowish grade..?

Cheers yeah I know what they are but mileage varies..? A PLOD would be given for a 1mm square pro colour touch..? It all seems a bit random to me.

Cheers again. Can you describe a bit what the tells would look like..? I'm buying a few books and online I can't really spot it unless its horrendously badly done. At least if you use Ebay you can return items but its still a giant pain especially when buying transatlantic.

Cheers I hope thats the case. How can you tell from those pics..? I never noticed before I bought it. I wasn't sure but I'm not very experienced at spotting it on photos. In the hand I can easily see it.

Cheers. Looking again I'm wondering if there might be some retouching on the Spidey logo. Could be just wear. I haven't got it yet so can't properly check it. No one on this thread has raised it as retouching so likely just wear. I think if it was retouching they'd have done more to the 'A' of 'Man'..?

5.0 after a press..?

Wow. To be fair there are ways of trimming that not everyone knows about that would make it fairly easy to trim even a ragged edge. I know how to do it but I'm not going to say here - don't want to give anyone ideas (!) Having said that: if you trim a badly frayed edge its really obvious - a sharp edge with a load of creasing just below doesn't look right - you'd have to trim it then scuff up the edge to make it look natural. I'm sure this goes on.

Oh I get you. Interesting although I've seen books with non-story pages missing sell for very high amounts - GLOD..?

Hi sorry if being slow but what does 30% off the .5 mean..?

To me looks trimmed at the top but not right or bottom.

But what % drop would you expect from a complete book..? 30% off..?

Heh - although those labels do sell. Honestly if I wanted a smart ASM50 and it had pro colour touching it wouldn't put me off - if its done well you can't tell unless you use a glass. I'd expect to pay a bit less but not buckets less as I don't mind pro work if the book looks better. Same with toy boxes.

Thanks so far chaps. I thought I was being a bit strict but you mostly seem about .5 lower than me. I guess a press would iron that out. Forgot to mention name written on splash - very small at top outside image area - does that make a difference at this mid/low level of grade..?

Yeah its quite clean huh.

Cheers sir. Do you think clean and press might add 0.5..? (I love the Ditko art - I haven't perused these old ones for ages and its easy to see why it became so popular)

See what you think folks. Just looking for what you think about the exterior. Assume the interior is sound off white. Cheers. (I think maybe F- 5.5)

Oh cool thanks. Still prob only a $90 book so no rush

How about after a press - same..?