So how do you press a book?

[TupennyConan]

comic apocolypse

 

 

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

 

 

 

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 

 

I doubt it. The pretty books will always command a premium.

[Logan510]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

[Tony S]

It's like asking coke to let you know their secret formula since you want to know what you are ingesting.

 

Pricing was through the roof for a long time because competition simply was not there. It is only after competition arrived that nosebleed prices have come down.

 

Regarding sharing methods, anyone worth their salt would not. Early on I helped out a few board member who promised "I only want to do this for myself", it will not impact your business. Well, after getting bitten in the posterior a few times I no longer do it.

 

You want to know whats happening with your books? They are being pressed professionally. Thats why you sent them in after all. The results for the pro's speak for themselves.

 

I cannot tell you how many books I have to fix, even from individuals who own a press, after they botch them up. As simple as everyone says it is, they often realise it is not.

 

Thanks Joey. Thought about posting up a reply, but yours does it justice and no need for more. So I'll mention some other points brought up that you don't touch:

 

The question "why pick one over the other, explain the difference" is just another way of asking the question of "how is it done?". Not that any given person pressing professionally could really answer that question. It's not like there are board meetings notes are compared.

 

The statements that "I appreciate the transparency - at least he shows how he does it" - hmmm - doesn't seem well thought out. If for instance you had a budding interest in terrorism - and I posted a video showing how to make a bomb that 99% of the time would blow up in your face - would you still appreciate the transparency? I'm still an insufficiently_thoughtful_person, I don't know what I'm doing - and the "information" is worse than worthless - it's dangerous.

 

If you really want to learn how to press and your aren't willing to spend the next two years aquiring the necessary basic knowledge, equipment, supplies and figuring it all out - because the devil is in the details - there is one professional presser offering to teach you for $1500. Too cheap as far as I'm concerned. Just search "comic book pressing services" on the internet and start looking.

 

Knowledge always costs you something. Time, effort, money or really some combination of all three.

 

[Tony S]

DiceX. He's about as helpless as a porcupine in a nudist colony.

 

...and about as subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oatmeal. (That's the one FL quote I know, and I say, I'm a gonna keep sayin' it!)

 

Hey now! I'm subtle!

 

No matter - Dice still has the best signature line video on the boards.

[Jiminy_Cricket-migration]

This board is ripe for a new game show.

 

[John R]

No Whammy, no Whammy!

[joecgcmaniac]

This board is ripe for a new game show.

 

 

needs a "your luck crapped out, the book got a PLOD" square

[RockMyAmadeus]

Years ago, I was gung ho about how we needed to debate pressing and disclose pressing and talk about how pressing was done. Nowadays, I see that was a mistake. The only thing talking about pressing did was create more pressers.

 

This is a fallacy. Kind of like saying the popularity of the NFL as the number 1 sport in the US is due to all of the newspaper press the league gets.

 

What created more pressers was the increase in pressing (through PCS, Matt, Jason, and the other earlybirds) coupled with the money being made by the press/flip approach. The discussions about pressing on the boards are merely reflections of this.

 

Wrong again.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

[Racer-X]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

 

But when one spends many thousands of dollars on a comic, when the time comes to sell (even if it's the kids), he/she wants his/her money back, and hopefully then some...

[Tony S]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

 

But when one spends many thousands of dollars on a comic, when the time comes to sell (even if it's the kids), he/she wants his/her money back, and hopefully then some...

 

+1.

I don't think of my comics as just an investment. I do love on them. But you can collect and invest at the same time. I have such a wide range of interests (characters and genres) that it would be foolish of me not to collect books - especially the ones I've paid a fair amount of money for - that have a good chance of growing in value.

[Comicopolis]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

[oakman29]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

 

Let's be honest here, you don't pay thousands of dollars on one book just for the love of the medium.You hope that your investment will sustain if not gain value when it comes time to sell.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

 

Let's be honest here, you don't pay thousands of dollars on one book just for the love of the medium.You hope that your investment will sustain if not gain value when it comes time to sell.

 

I pay for the love of the book. Yes, I hope they hold value, but I enjoy trying to complete my run. Part of me hopes they will sustain value so that when I complete my run and start upgrading books I can resell, but I'm not in this for an investment.

 

And most likely I will have a hard time selling off issues anyway.

[DeliBebek]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

 

Let's be honest here, you don't pay thousands of dollars on one book just for the love of the medium.You hope that your investment will sustain if not gain value when it comes time to sell.

I think if that's the only reason collectors paid money, then the market would go one of two ways: 1. all comics would be worth cover price, regardless of age. (If you care nothing about comics or their contents, then why care about Action 1 at all?) or 2. the back issue market would be a lot more like the stock market, waxing and waning more on the perception of everyone else's interest more than on the actual interest.

 

That's from someone who has yet to pay thousands of dollars for one book.

[mintcollector]

"the back issue market would be a lot more like the stock market, waxing and waning more on the perception of everyone else's interest more than on the actual interest."

-DeliBebek

 

Does this NOT already happen? Not that many people cared about IM #55 before Avengers...

 

It is a 'key' but not one worth thousands...

 

[Davenport]

2. the back issue market would be a lot more like the stock market, waxing and waning more on the perception of everyone else's interest more than on the actual interest.

If the back issue market has been anything over the decades, it's been an endless series of bandwagons.

Hot character, hot publisher, hot artist, hot movie, hot mega-event, hot tv show, hot hotness and hot variant hotness...

[ComicConnoisseur]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

 

Let's be honest here, you don't pay thousands of dollars on one book just for the love of the medium.You hope that your investment will sustain if not gain value when it comes time to sell.

I think if that's the only reason collectors paid money, then the market would go one of two ways: 1. all comics would be worth cover price, regardless of age. (If you care nothing about comics or their contents, then why care about Action 1 at all?) or 2. the back issue market would be a lot more like the stock market, waxing and waning more on the perception of everyone else's interest more than on the actual interest.

 

That's from someone who has yet to pay thousands of dollars for one book.

Basically most comics that have come out since the 1980s are worth cover price or less,and that`s not counting inflation. Rarely does a Walking Dead #1 or ASM #300 come on the scene.

I was browsing this which came out in the early 1980s

and everything that was deemed a key then in this book is still considered of some value,while most of the comics books that came out since then are only worth more than cover if slabbed as über-mint.

So the last 30 years modern comic books have been great reads,but for the most part they have been an illusion as a great investment.

 

[oakman29]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

 

Let's be honest here, you don't pay thousands of dollars on one book just for the love of the medium.You hope that your investment will sustain if not gain value when it comes time to sell.

I think if that's the only reason collectors paid money, then the market would go one of two ways: 1. all comics would be worth cover price, regardless of age. (If you care nothing about comics or their contents, then why care about Action 1 at all?) or 2. the back issue market would be a lot more like the stock market, waxing and waning more on the perception of everyone else's interest more than on the actual interest.

 

That's from someone who has yet to pay thousands of dollars for one book.

I'm not saying I collect only for investment,but it would be nice to sustain value if not gain.I love the medium,but collectors collect because there is value to their collections.

Tell me how you feel when you put up 5-10 thousand dollars for a book my friend.

Oak who is feeling like Cal today

[mintcollector]

I fear that one day we are going to look back on these days,and remember how pressing has ruined the comic book hobby.Devaluing of books,census overloaded with high grade examples,leaving people uninterested in a value less hobby.

 

If you love your books and don't look at them as an investment you never have to worry about such things.

 

This.

 

Let's be honest here, you don't pay thousands of dollars on one book just for the love of the medium.You hope that your investment will sustain if not gain value when it comes time to sell.

I think if that's the only reason collectors paid money, then the market would go one of two ways: 1. all comics would be worth cover price, regardless of age. (If you care nothing about comics or their contents, then why care about Action 1 at all?) or 2. the back issue market would be a lot more like the stock market, waxing and waning more on the perception of everyone else's interest more than on the actual interest.

 

That's from someone who has yet to pay thousands of dollars for one book.

I'm not saying I collect only for investment,but it would be nice to sustain value if not gain.I love the medium,but collectors collect because there is value to their collections.

Tell me how you feel when you put up 5-10 thousand dollars for a book my friend.

Oak who is feeling like Cal today

 

You are correct in your analysis, Oakman. There have been members of this forum who have exited the hobby due to losing money on a 'resub.' How many discussions have I gotten into with individuals who state that their collection is a great 'investment' and part of their 'legacy?' Anyone here who spends hundreds or thousands of dollars on a book and states that they are okay selling it for next to nothing or at a loss is kidding themselves.

 

This is true of any collector of anything. The most popular question I am asked in BOTH the antiques and collectibles market is, 'Is this item a good investment?' or 'Will this item go up in value?'