What to do with Semi-$$ books with detached/split covers?

[Tony S]

Which restorer would this be?

 

Matt at Classics Incorporated

 

Wow. That's substantially less than I would have imagined. That price cannot possibly include piece replacement & color touch. Because I've had estimates of $200-$300 just for small amounts of color touch.

 

If you just rebuild the spine and don't replace the missing chips and color touch it you are not going to be happy with the final look. Matt has examples on his website where customers have opted to just leaf cast missing pieces or repair spines/small chips without color touching because of the cost. You should check it out. I found the look of his examples done this way underwhelming..

 

Matt's a great guy and his work is first rate. But if you are set on getting this book restored I would also encourage you to check with Mike at Herorestoration.net. He too is great guy whose work is now pro level. Never hurts to get more than one estimate and you might find one person can get it done quicker than the other depending on other jobs they have going on. .

 

My belief is that if you go down the restoration route, you are going to have to spend $300 to get a book with a solid VG/VG+ look. If you sold your copy and applied that money plus the restoration costs towards another, you could purchase an unrestored VG-. But I understand that sometimes we just want to do something and the cost/benefit isn't the only consideration. You found a hidden gem - you'd like to make it whole again.

 

If you go for the restoration, months from now when back in hand how about posting up before and after pics plus the final price?

[Soft-Serve]

After much consideration, I think I will leave this issue alone. If I had more pieces of the missing areas handy, I might consider a simple seal without color touch, but I really don't want to spend the money and have glaring areas of rice paper showing along the spine. Matt advised this as well and I appreciate the honesty! Oh, and you're right - this price is for a simple spine seal - nothing else.

 

Besides, after living with it in mylar for a few days, I'm coming to appreciate just having this book for so little, irregardless of being able to safely remove the book from time-to-time.

 

Thanks for all the opinions and advice!