Not sure if that's even possible. Asking prices on Clink for blue 4.0 is around the 7k mark now?
Perhaps the buyer was hoping to remove the slight CT and get it to a blue 3.5 or so?
Copies of this book seem few and far between. Perhaps owners are hoarding these waiting for new DC movies to actually kick Marvel ? IE: Anything better than the last GL movie .
Right now, Marvel is getting movies right. That equals excellent growth for books (Witness ToS 39, AF15, Avengers 1 & 4, JiM 83). And even speculative growth for movies which are in early stages (FF52, ST110 etc).
SC4s will come out of the woodwork once a movie is firmed up and soar if the movie is actually good.
I just want an affordable (yeah right, I know) copy.
With a $5K sale on a PLOD 4.0, it wouldn't surprise me if people start asking for a lot more than $7K for a blue 4.0... Based on other PLOD sales versus Blue labels, the pricing gap is typically larger than 29% - even for SA.
The buyer of this book may have the restoration removed and discover it doesn't even drop a grade point as a 4.0 allows for a lot more flaws then say a 7.0 copy would - so starting with a copy that's already lower grade, with only minor color-touch on the cover, could be a good gamble that it could get into a blue of a similar (or same) grade.
I can't even see why they bothered to color-touch the book and yet leave a ton of color-breaking creases untouched. This book might be a in blue before too long.