Marnin's Article on Pressing

[Red Hook]

Does this mean a new grade ("CGC 11 - Virgin Mint") or will there be a new label color - ("CGC Virgin Grade")?

 

Will CGC comments now include "OFF-WHITE PAGES, PUFFY VIRGIN"

 

 

- Sean

 

 

That will be the new CGC Pink Label.

[sterlingcomics]

Thanks FFB for posting the follow up article. When I returned to active collecting status three years ago it was in fact "A Brave New World". CGC has entered the market, and I'm definitely wiser to the whole collecting biz. That being said, two things remain constant:

• 
  
• The amount of drama, strong opinions, and deception present in this industry--it's a wonder there are ANY collectors.
   
  
• There seems to be two types of profiles: those who actually love the hobby, and struggle through this process (despite better communication with peers through Internet forums) to acquire quality collectibles with FULL disclosure, AND
  those who try to use any trick in the book to increase profits at the collector's expense (undisclosed restoration, pressing, bad grading etc). The ying and yang if you will.
  

Marnin's response is fairly accurate, and like everyone else, have their background, motivation, and perspective.

[Red Hook]

Great summing up. Dead on, Sterling. And thanks Fantasy for bumping these articles.

 

I read through the two Marin articles and found them refreshingly upfront. Not sure exactly what his motivations are, and not knowing a whole lot about him, I'd say he ain't getting invited to too many Dealer Roundtable BBQs this summer. But despite the self-serving nature of some of his comments, I commend him for writing these articles.

 

Full disclosure.....that's what this is about. I just want to know as much as possible what I am putting my hard-earned dough down for. There may be collectors out there who aren't the least bit put off by a professionally pressed book, as long as, in their eyes, it looks great. All power to him or her......I never try to judge another collector's monkey. But as for me? I want full disclosure on the label. And if it means going back to one color label, do it. I think the market might take an initial dip, but it would recover in the relative short term and the hobby would be much healthier for it. I want more information on the label, not less.

 

My question for the day is rhetorical.......if professional pressing is not restoration, why won't 99% of the dealers and auction houses admit to it? Duh.

[CompleteRunComics]

The amount of drama, strong opinions, and deception present in this industry--it's a wonder there are ANY collectors.

 

No doubt, you hit the nail on the head. It's like a little comic soap opera.

 

CRC

[batman_fan]

I really appriciate Marin's article. Having been a collector for the past 28 years, I will admit openly to having been ripped off my several dealers in the past. I have had several personal exchanges with individuals where restored books were sold to me as unrestored. When I was very young, I had a dealer trade me about $600 worth of hot X-men for a Batman 15 that had been restored and trimmed, my first golden age book. As you can imagine, I was extremely excited to have such a great book until several years later when I learned about restoration and found out how badly I had been cheated. Since then, I have been more careful, but I am sure some have slipped through. Now mind you, I have bought restored books before. I have Detectives 43, 48, and 49, all restored, the restoration disclosed up front, and I am perfectly happy with it. What I hate are the dealers that either claim ignorance for any restoration of don't fully disclose what was done for the book. I myself have never dealt much with Marin over the years. I have actually only bought one book from him, a Batman 40 (great Joker cover). During this transaction, I found Marin to be very straight forward and a pleasant person to deal with. The Batman was graded VFN, unrestored with sunshadow, and even after 7 years, I would say he was right on, putting the book in the 7.5 to 8.0 range. I personally have seen the inconsistency of CGC's grading. I agree with Marin on this, it is tough to be consistant in grading. This is one of the things I actually like about Heritage Auction, the large scans. This allows me to look over the book a little better and make my own grading of the book. If I don't agree with CGC, then I bid low (and typically lose, but why pay too much and have regrets). Once I get my scanner up and running, I will post some scans of identically graded books, but the books are very different in real grade, by at least 1 full point in my opinion.

 

For those of you that wonder why I have only bought from Marin once over all the years, it is because he hasn't had too many Batman's I needed, but I have his site bookmarked and check it frequently.