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On 5/26/2023 at 9:54 AM, KCOComics said:

There are a couple of known Ebayers who color touch and trim hundreds of colors a year. They usually disclose the restoration, all be it in small writing in the description. 

In the 80s it was a fairly common practice. There were ads taken out in overstreet about beautifying your Comics

It's been a big a part of the hobby for as long as it's been a hobby.  Identifying restoration, in my opinion, is the single greatest thing CGC brought to the market.  

If people are going to spend big money on comic books, they want to know exactly what they are getting! And if you go back to 1995, the pool of buyers who really understood how to identify restoration was very small. But CGC opened that door to everyone.  It really changed the hobby for the better. 

 

Thanks KCOComics for that intel. Really interesting and I had no idea. Agree that the restoration is CGC's biggest contribution or value add to me as a collector. 

On 5/23/2023 at 10:57 AM, Hulksdaddy1 said:

People forget that a lot of people touched up their books back in the day because they wanted them to look nice. For themselves. Nothing nefarious about it.

That said, I've never done it. I've always been an original condition guy.

I'm sure that there were some folks that touched up their own books for their own enjoyment but I don't see that being a lions share of the CT that is out there. Example being that according to the census 21% of IH 1 books have some level of restoration. Similarly early Spidey keys are in the 20% range as well.  That's pretty crazy and makes me think that it was more rampant among pros then I originally expected. 

There must have been a few people or stores that did a ton of ct and whatnot over the years given the qty. Just seems so incredibly greedy and selfish to do it and to think stores were involved blows my mind. They must have thought no one would ever know. Maybe there should be restoration pedigrees! 

While playfully auguring with a fellow collector about whether slabbing is "right" or "wrong" I mentioned that according to the census that often 5% + of key books have restoration and having a 3rd party validate the book is free of restoration is quite valuable. We both agreed that restoration is a bummer, was generally done in a selfish attempt to increase the value of the book, trick an unsuspecting buyer/collector and that it sadly devalues the book for most collectors. We figured that many/most of the books cgc has designated as restored had to include color touch. This amounts to 1000s and 1000s of books! I was pretty shocked at these numbers. Who are the guilty parties? I don't really know the history of this topic but became very curious after buying and returning a book that had CT upon close inspection (MS 5). Thoughts? Stories? BTW - I've never ct'ed anything aside from my graying beard :)

Hey Y'all  - just another collector here to converse with others.  Cheers

Long time listener, first time caller. Here is my addition to the known copies. How many known copies are there?