Obvious water stains on an otherwise Fine or better book?

[All Be D'Oh!]

I've been trolling around for all the great information, especially regarding grading and restoration. I want to thank the board members for their insights and knowledge.

 

As for my question...

 

It is my understanding that obvious water stains would automatically lower a book into the Good range -- is this the case? That is, if a book has only slight general wear and appears Fine but has tell-tale water stains (but not wrinkly), would this lower it into the Good range?

[joeypost]

It would, but the book could be improved if the moisture or water damage has not left tide marks or stains.

 

If you can see water marks or stains then the book would not get graded above VG/VG+. The worse the damage the lower the grade.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

Scans/photos are always helpful.

[the blob]

Yeah, what are we talking about? A small mark the size of a dime on a back cover or a three inch triangle of the corner that got soaked? big difference, no?

[All Be D'Oh!]

I was looking for a general guideline for very obvious tide marks. Chuck at Mile High seems to draw the line at Good: "If you can see a waterstain without having to look carefully, you've got a Good comic." Lone Star is a bit more lenient at Very Goodish: "Water stain allowed only if barely noticeable. Area effected must be as smooth and flat as rest of comic."

 

Would seem that the hard line would be GD/VG 3.0

 

Does anyone have a CGC 3.5 or above with obvious water stains?

[All Be D'Oh!]

This would be useful knowledge when I have to "eyeball grade" a comic that I cannot touch.

 

Please guestimate the grade of the book below, based on the fuzzy images provided by the auctioneer. I had a chance to bid on it, but without the ability to touch and confirm, I placed an unwinnable low-ball maximum bid. Couldn't afford the risk of missing pages or pieces (auctioneer is not knowledgeable) or more extensive water damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[the blob]

Fair? Fair+ if you give it the "major key" bump?

 

It starts out as a 2.0 - 2.5 or so before the stain or am I missing something?

 

At that level the stain probably doesn't make it a .5.

[All Be D'Oh!]

That's in-line with what I thought of the book too, blob.

 

Now suppose that gnarly tide mark on the back cover was present on a pressed Fine-looking copy, would you automatically call it a GD/VG 3.0? or 3.5?

 

[the blob]

No, I guess I couldn't even call it a 3.0. Or a 2.5. 2.0 would be pushing it. Seen too many presentable 2.0s out there.

 

Maybe the first one needs to be a Fair Minus and the otherwise 6.0 with a stain would need to be a Fair +. The stain is so dark and icky. I've seen much more subtle stains that I would feel could allow the book to be higher.

 

Let's be honest...and this is where grading gets weird, what would you rather have, a beat up book with that disgusting water stain or a nice looking 7.0 with half an ad page removed (not impacting story). Wouldn't the half an ad page make it a .5 or does it need to be a full page? (Clipped coupon I don't think makes it go all the way down to .5).