Aces88

I wonder if there's a disadvantage to sending two of the same books in the same shipment. If each book was seen alone, they might have each warranted a 9.8. But when compared side-by-side, it would be easier to notice a tiny flaw in one of them. Would graders compare side-by side like that, or is that not done?

Good point. Perhaps uploading the photos to a cloud storage service like iCloud or Google Drive could provide a timestamp? At least it would show the photos were taken prior to a certain date.

I assume CGC takes photos of every high-value walkthrough book like this upon arrival, and again after grading/slabbing, just to cover themselves. A respectable presser would do the same thing. And anyone sending in a book of this value should take a slew of their own photos before sending it in the first place. It shouldn't be hard to sort this out. Posting small, fuzzy photos on IG doesn't seem to solve anything.

Thanks @joeypost Good to know!

Thanks! I was leaning against pressing it, so I really appreciate the confirmation. Will definitely grade it though, since I think it has 9.8 potential, And I do like that cover!

I was sending this book out for a press and grading and I realized it has an embossed cover. Is it still a good candidate for a press? I know that pressing isn't going to smash it flat or anything, but I wonder if it might soften the embossing or anything like that. Thanks!

I found this description from another site which indicates that we're all somewhat correct: the over-spray was done by distributors before sending the books to stores, so the store owners would know which distributor to return the book to later, if needed. "It was common that distributors would code bundles of books by spraying the top edges with a colored liquid mist. This was done as a method of identification used by distributors so they would know which books were the ones they distributed (there were multiple distributors). Often books would be returned to distributors, and in the event of a return distributors only accepted books they originally distributed, and not books from other distributors." http://www.comicpressing.com/blog/over-spray

Here's another one with staining on the front cover too. Sad because it's in great shape otherwise. This came out in 1974 so it fits that full-top-edge-ink time frame.

Right, I remember picking up these books at the local shop as soon as they came out, so I'm pretty sure they weren't returns. I'm seeing a pattern where books from the early '70s had the full top edge inked, but books from the late '70s-early '90s just had the small center area linked, like @pug productionsmentioned above. Here's an example from my "A" box. I guess the distributors in my area (SF Bay area) were pretty aggressive with that ink. Alas I was more of a reader than a collector back than, and didn't pay attention to some of those stains!

I think that might have been the case in some places. But I remember buying most of these books fresh off the spinner racks at my local drug store back in the day. Maybe the local distributor used the ink to color code books for distribution or something?

I came across this raw, unbagged copy of Batman 251. It's in pretty good shape considering, though the stain on the back cover is a big concern. It looks like water damage, but only affects the back cover -- the inner pages seem unaffected. Any thoughts on a grade for this book? BTW I really appreciate everyone's help with the grading. Hope to get good at this myself eventually.

I recently uncovered a couple boxes of raw comics. Many of them have a blue or red ink stain on the top front or back of the book. It looks like the ink that some distributors used on the top page edges has bled down over time. I saw an old post (though the images are gone) that said the distributor's ink on the top edges is not considered a defect. But what about this kind of stain? This particular book isn't a key or anything, but some of the other stained ones are. Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I think I'll send this one for grading, and post the results later.

Here's an Avengers 14 that's not in terrible shape, though it could use a pressing I think. The bit of paper at the bottom right corner is from an interior page. Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I'm going through my old collection and deciding which ones are worth sending to CGC for grading. I'm realizing that most of the books look much better in the bag than they do when yu slide them out and see all the flaws. Here's an Avengers 11 that looks decent, but clearly has a few issues. I think there's a touch of water damage in the upper left corner -- it's hard to tell. Let me know what you think. Thanks!