Grading tanned books

[Collect4Fun-migration]

Looking through my collection the other day I ran across this X-Men 21. I'm not sure how it managed to turn so tan and I'm not even sure how to grade it! Is this sort of condition even restorable? How do they get this way? I bought it 10 years ago and I don't recall it ever being quite that tan. Its been stored in 4mil mylar with an acid-free backing board ever since.

 

Perhaps its the fact that I live in California and have to store my books in the closet. Not exactly the cool (but certainly dry) place a lot of publications seem to recommend. What choices does one have? Or is it the fact that we all end up storing our books boxed in a closet the 'dirty little secret' we all share. Perhaps I should relocate some of my more valuable books to a safety deposit box; allowing a more controlled environment.

 

Fortunately none of my Bronze Age books are showing this condition and only one other SA book has done this - Amazing Spider Man 41. Seems the white cover is a target.

 

Anyway - the front cover:

[Collect4Fun-migration]

Bear with me while I figure out how to get this photobucket image in the page....

[Collect4Fun-migration]

Saw a previous post that explains how to do this so I'm trying again. Just in case this doesn't work. Here's the link at least:

 

Front:

 

http://photobucket.com/albums/v476/dbrandt_67/xmen21.jpg

 

 

[Collect4Fun-migration]

And the back:

 

[divad]

Looking through my collection the other day I ran across this X-Men 21. I'm not sure how it managed to turn so tan and I'm not even sure how to grade it! Is this sort of condition even restorable? How do they get this way? I bought it 10 years ago and I don't recall it ever being quite that tan. Its been stored in 4mil mylar with an acid-free backing board ever since.

 

Perhaps its the fact that I live in California and have to store my books in the closet. Not exactly the cool (but certainly dry) place a lot of publications seem to recommend. What choices does one have? Or is it the fact that we all end up storing our books boxed in a closet the 'dirty little secret' we all share. Perhaps I should relocate some of my more valuable books to a safety deposit box; allowing a more controlled environment.

 

Fortunately none of my Bronze Age books are showing this condition and only one other SA book has done this - Amazing Spider Man 41. Seems the white cover is a target.

 

Anyway - the front cover:

 

D, My guess is that your recollection may be incorrect. I'm betting the inside covers are equally as tanned in the same pattern. What you are seeing is tanning of the covers resulting from acidification of the newsprint (interior pages). This has probably accelerated over the last ten years, but had a good start, since this book is what? 40 years old. This is quite common with older books, and may have nothing to do with your current method of storage, but with how the book was stored before you owned it. There is little to do to arrest this symptom at this point. Some will recommend "microchamber" inserts between the covers and the interior pages, but this tanning is pretty far along. Obviously, it wouldn't hurt, and it's not expensive. You can get these at comicsupply.com.

[Collect4Fun-migration]

D, My guess is that your recollection may be incorrect. I'm betting the inside covers are equally as tanned in the same pattern. What you are seeing is tanning of the covers resulting from acidification of the newsprint (interior pages). This has probably accelerated over the last ten years, but had a good start, since this book is what? 40 years old. This is quite common with older books, and may have nothing to do with your current method of storage, but with how the book was stored before you owned it. There is little to do to arrest this symptom at this point. Some will recommend "microchamber" inserts between the covers and the interior pages, but this tanning is pretty far along. Obviously, it wouldn't hurt, and it's not expensive. You can get these at comicsupply.com.

 

Thanks. I think you are right. I don't have any pictures of the book from when I initially purchased it and I do remember not being as informed about comic book conditions then as I am now. A sure bet I was just happy to get another early X-Men copy. I'm thinking the 30 year head start had something to do with the degree of tanning. That and I have an X-Men 14 I bought around the same time that isn't showing tanning to this degree (the X-MEN title on that book is off-white but not tan). Perhaps the White covers take it hardest...

 

Makes me wonder about all those books I've seen tacked to comic store walls over the years....

 

As for the microchamber inserts. It was finding this book in my collection that spurred me into action. I've been buying mylars for the rest of my collection and I bought some interleaving sheets from Eclipse Paper Conservation. I'm going through and boarding, bagging, and sheeting my books. I'm sending my better issues to CGC for grading and 'slabbing'. One thing I noticed about the sheets. I bought the silver age size but they don't cover the entire page; the cover still overlaps the sheet a bit. Is this going to cause issues later? Meaning will I end up with a rectangular border where the interleaving sheet didn't quite protect the covers?

 

Finally, What sort of grade am I looking at for a book as tan as this? 3.0 - 4.0?

 

Thanks.

[jimm94]

IMO, CGC is not going to be that harsh on the tanning of this book, because the structural integrity has not been compromised at this stage in the comic's life. This level of tanning is allowable in grade.

 

Eventually tanning will turn to browning, which ultimately leads to brittleness. For the time being, however, you still have a real nice looking book that I would grade at around VG/FN, possibly a tad bit higher. You're doing the right thing (and essentially all you can do) by using high quality storage materials and keeping the comic in a consistent environment.

 

Hope this helps!

 

-Jim