Grading help on Golden Age Zane Grey, please

[backtomarvel]

Any grading help for a still newbie would be much appreciated on this Zane Gray from 1949. There's some browning and ink in the upper left, light wear around the lower stable, and a bit of a "nudge" in the lower left.

 

But, overall, I think the spine is strong, there's no creasing and even a bit of the gloss is left. All in all the book presents beautifully. I haven't the expertise about the pages, but they have a supple feel.

 

I'm curious of the grade and seeking opinions on whether, given it's age, this book could be called "high grade" if listed on eBay.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

The front.

 

The back.

[Zanarkand]

Nice 4-color. Without the dust shadow on the left I'd say Fine+.

[backtomarvel]

Thanks. Yeah is does present nicely. These large scans may emphasize faults to a, well, fault.

 

The picture on the back is great, too. I got four of these Zane Grey's in a large lot and the art on the back cover is tremendous on all of them.

 

Never been a big 4-color collector, but now my curiousity if piqued.

[garthgantu]

I'd say about a FN- 5.5, depending on how much wear the cover actually has (hard to tell in the scan), and how much gloss remains. The dust shadow likely wouldn't get dinged too badly by CGC. But there's a fair amount of spine wear/creasing.

 

Nice book, and the back cover's very clean!

[Mr. Zipper]

6.0

 

Nice book!

[backtomarvel]

By the way, is that dust shadow what this Wonder Bread rubbing is supposed to get rid of? And, what does it knock the grade of a book down? I'd guess a full grade at least ...

[Zanarkand]

By the way, is that dust shadow what this Wonder Bread rubbing is supposed to get rid of? And, what does it knock the grade of a book down? I'd guess a full grade at least ...

 

I've never gotten the Wonder Bread trick to produce results that were worth the effort (and bread). For me, the dust shadow is just as eye-appeal issue, not in the same category as a structural defect like a crease or tear. This book looks really great to me because of the yellow background. Faded yellow looks sickly and awful. Yours has happy bright yellow.

 

I would guess that CGC would not knock you more than a half point for the dust shadow, if they knock you at all. They're more lenient of GA books than newer ones, and also the book already has enough minor defects to put it in Fine country. Once you're there, minor dust/sun shadows are allowed.

[garthgantu]

I've seen pretty significant dust shadows on HG (VF and above) books. I seem to recall a WW or Sensation #1 in CGC NM 9.4 with a distinct dust shadow. I don't believe CGC really considers dust shadows to be 'damage'.

 

As for the wonder bread, I've had pretty good results with it. It certainly won't remove or reduce a dust shadow, or foxing for that matter. It's really only effective at removing general dirt from covers. I've not tried it on GA books, as I have a suspicion that the heavier gloss found on SA and later books is somewhat important to effective wonder breading - without the gloss, I'm concerned that the oils in the bread might be absorbed into the cover paper on a GA book. This definitely doesn't happen on SA books.

 

Get a moderately dirty SA book and give it a try. I've seen wonder breading bring the grade up by .5 - 1 grade on a significantly soiled book.