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Does this look trimmed ?

7 posts in this topic

I've got a few books like this and they are not trimmed. So....don't let the "look" fool you. Best way to know, is to just measure it and compare it another book that came out around the same time. If it's 1/16" shorter.....it could be. grin.gif

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I've got a few books like this and they are not trimmed. So....don't let the "look" fool you. Best way to know, is to just measure it and compare it another book that came out around the same time. If it's 1/16" shorter.....it could be. grin.gif

 

I used to think the same thing but I learned that you can almost never tell if a book has been trimmed by measuring it.I say almost because 1/4" difference on a Bronze age book is probably trimmed. A 1/16th of an inch is a nothing differential - you could easily take 10 silver age books and more then half of them will be different by a 1/16 of an inch. I have seen Golden age books up to 1/4 difference without being trimmed ( rare but they are out there.)

 

Take a look at this thread :

 

Silver age variations

 

Prior to modern books, of all things you have to focus on the edges of the paper. If the edges of paper ( opposite of spine of course) are all the same size it probably has been trimmed. Think of a newspaper, notice how the center pages tend to stick out a bit. That is because as you fold the paper and stack in between each other the page on the outer section has to encompass the thickness of the prior pages. That will make the outer pages appear smaller then the inner pages. If you look at a silver book where all the pages are exactly straight and the same size in reference to the edge - the book is trimmed. The next thing you have to do is look for signs of cutting - color differences ( page color edges and cover), miniscule fraying effect, rough edges, corners that are too sharp. The aforementioned cutting signs are good signs to look for on the top and bottom edges.

 

Nothing is absolute but I can tell you that it is virtually impossible to tell if a book has been trimmed from a scan and measuring a book is almost never the way to go. Do a searchfor trimmed, trimming etc and look at threads for detecting trimming, I think Pov had a good post a while back.

 

 

Just from the scan I would guess that the book is not trimmed but , again, you can never tell from a scan.

 

 

 

 

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Think of a newspaper, notice how the center pages tend to stick out a bit. That is because as you fold the paper and stack in between each other the page on the outer section has to encompass the thickness of the prior pages. That will make the outer pages appear smaller then the inner pages. If you look at a silver book where all the pages are exactly straight and the same size in reference to the edge - the book is trimmed.

 

That makes a lot of common sense except for one thing--I'm 95% sure that Marvel trimmed their books after folding them, and I suspect DC did too but I'm not sure yet. I own a lot of CGC Universal books where the inner pages don't poke out; with all those early X-Men you own, I can't imagine you don't also have some. Miscut books strongly suggest this, and DiceX confirmed it based upon his knowledge of printing since that's his profession. He thinks that the reason the interior pages stick out is because of "paper shrinkage," which is something I can neither confirm nor deny.

 

Before anybody refutes the theory that cutting occurred after folding, please read the thread below about folding and cutting and respond to ideas there you disagree with:

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=gradeandresto&Number=272738

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