Paul Kosnik

Looks like it's in pretty good shape. Are their pressable defects? Pressing works fine on this sort of paper, not that much different from comic book paper in terms of how it's pressed.

Looks to me like possibly water damage. From the shard to the edge looks blurred rather than smudged. Could be from a water droplet. What do the grader's notes have to say about this defect?

Agree with @zzutak these are probably not from factory, and thought it was worth elaborating that the way we know is the staples don't all match, you have two distinct pairs. Although stapling errors/extra staples can occur at the factory, the staples will tend to all match. At any rate, it was very nicely done and a nice comic book!

I don't know the answer to "do they prescreen before opening". I'm curious if anyone else knows? Seems unlikely, but if they offered that it might be worth it. Otherwise i would not crack it. CBCS 9.9 and highest graded--take the win!

For what it's worth, i second @Sauce Dog here--please don't put tape on the book--it really does destroy paper over time but a proper conservation will actually be an investment as it will conserve the paper and give you a grade bump that will make it a wise investment. Also seconding the endorsement of Phill over at Phantom Restoration.

Cool comic book! For what it's worth, i don't think this is water damage. If it was, you'd likely have color bleed and/or mold present, and tide lines in the paper, none of which you seem to have. I think the waves are created by the tape on the entirety of the spine. Paper moves, expands and contracts. Tape doesn't, or at least not as much as paper does. If the spine is fixed in place and the rest of the page expands, then these waves develop. Can happen even if the tape was applied perfectly, and chances are it wasn't. So i think the tape needs to be removed if you want the waves gone. Best option if you want to invest in this book is send it to a pro that does restoration removal, have them remove the tape and color touch, and conserve the book. If you aren't up for that investment, sell and use the proceeds toward a better book. Good luck and let us know what route you go!

Missing interior pages is automatically a Universal 0.5 unless more than half of the pages are missing, then it's a NG (No Grade). That said, if the grade would otherwise be a 4.0 or better, then CGC will assign a Qualified (Green Label) grade, assign the grade the book would receive had the interior page not been missing, and note the missing pages on the label. Unless you prefer the Universal Label 0.5, in which case you can request the Universal Label even if the comic would otherwise grade at 4.0 or higher, and get the blue label. Hope this helps!

Wow what a frustrating turn of events, but i'm really happy to hear in the end you got your book, signed, pressed, and it was free. I'm sure you'd rather have your time and frustration back than the free service, but at least you got your book back, and signed! After reading all of the drama, i for one want to see the final result!

Congratulations on an awesome book! For the record, completely split spine starts at 1.8. That is the highest grade you can achieve with a split spine, if the book is in otherwise OK shape and complete. This one has quite a few defects so i think you are looking at 1.5 or perhaps 1.0, but i don't think it's lower than that as long as the back cover is complete. While i agree with @joeypost that restoration is unlikely to increase the value, there is another alternative that is likely to increase the value, and that is going the conservation route. If properly conserved with archival material and techniques, the spine split and little edge tears can be repaired, preserving the book and making it readable and handleable. The grade will be elevated to at least a 2.0 and possibly higher in my opinion, and the discount of a conserved comic to a universal is not nearly as severe as the discount placed on a restored comic.

Objectively it's better, yes, but this presser left a lot on the table. The spine roll should be fixed, and the creasing can be improved further. That said, i would not do all of the work this book needs for $15. It takes a lot of time, care, and experience to do this properly, so i think you got what you paid for.

I don't have an opinion on your original question--but wonder if you got it graded because i'd love to know the answer? Also i think it looks stunning regardless--the fading in this instance creates a very pleasing color gradient that compliments the cover in an odd way. I'd be happy to have this in my collection!

The answer ought to be: when the small amount of glue was not used to attempt to fix a defect, then the small amount of glue is just a defect, not an actual restoration attempt, and should not be labeled as restoration. Just like doodling on a comic book or an incidental pen mark is not color touch and is graded as a defect rather than restoration.

Unless all of the copies of this book have this flaw (which they don't), this seems fair/correct to me. CGC is trying to give a prospective buyer confidence in the item. As there are copies of this book that are just as nice without the red ink, this one should not be graded as if the red ink were not there. Also for what it's worth, if the ink is not known for all examples, then it's impossible to say the ink didn't happen later, after production, or during poor storage when this comic was stacked against another with a red ink cover that transferred or some other event. Given these two issues, i think they did the correct thing here.

Wow that's a stunner! I'd love to have an oddity like that in my collection and would definitely pay the high end of the fair market value range for one without a staple, which is to say i would pay more than for a copy with both staples, but only by a bit.

Your best bet is to check one of the large facebook groups for comic book cleaning and pressing. Post what you are looking for there and you are likely to find someone close to you.