Disturbing Trend

[fantastic_four]

I mentioned sometime last year that I had seen clear/stiff backing boards, and I think JR asked me where I saw them. Unfortunately, the guy that had them has not been around the local shows lately, so I've been unable to look into it any more. They were between 1/16 and 1/8" thick, and crystal clear and looked real sharp (or maybe I thought they looked sharp b/c the book was a nice Schomburg Cap cover)!

 

I got the idea from Ultra-Pro, who has a bag/board combo they were selling at one time where the board is sealed inside the back of the bag. When I saw that, I thought, "that's a great idea...too bad it isn't also clear like the bag." I suggested it to Bill Cole in early 2001 but he thought it'd be too expensive to produce.

 

I've since decided it's probably only useful for books that are too cheap to make it worthwhile. Specifically, being able to see through the backing board would be useful mostly for books in the $10 to $25 or maybe $50 range, where they're not worth enough to perhaps scan the entire interior, but they're worth enough to make you want to make sure the back cover doesn't have grade-reducing damage. For books worth more than $50, you want to look over the interior to make sure there aren't any major defects, so it's kind of a moot product at that point.

 

If they could be done cheaply, however, they'd be a real improvement on storage and display. I mildly dislike the bag and the board being two separate items that you have to "assemble" when you're bagging comics.