Grading Question on 2 Issues

[epowe10097]

Hello. I have 2 books that I have questions about. The first one has what looks like a liquid stain of some sort on the bottom left of the back cover. It goes through both sides of the back cover but that's all. Sort of like the book was opened from the back and that particular spot of the back cover landed in some sort of liquid. How much does that lower the grade if that is the only issue on an other NM+ book? My other questions is the impact of an 1' tear on the back cover of a book? Any help is appreciated. Thanks. Eddie

[joeypost]

Eddie,

 

Stains = Very bad. Stains that go through a cover and a few pages = very, very bad.

 

An other wise NM book can be downgraded to an 8.5 based on a small stain. A bad stain can drop a book all the way down to 4.5/5.0 depending on size and if it affects all pages and covers.

 

Tears are also bad. I have seen books that structurally look to be 9.2/9.4 that have 1/4 to 1/2 inch creases drop to 8.0.

 

There are a lot of variables involved but most of the books I deal with are Bronze age so I cannot say what the outcome would be for Silver or Golden age books.

[epowe10097]

Thanks for the quick reply. The tear is on Shazam # 35 (A bronze book) and the stain is on Daredevil # 181. They look great otherwise. Oh, the tear is 1", not 1' as I originally mistyped. Eddie