Arrival Date Sticker on Back Cover - Affect Grade?

[Mutant Manatee]

 

When I lived in Effingham, Illinois from 1986-1996 I bought most of my new comics from Lange's News & Books on the square. I have fond memories of that place and all of the comics I bought there. Sadly, like most newsstands, it is no longer there.

 

Here's a photo from 2003. (No, that's not my car.)

 

 

It was Lange's practice to put an arrival date sticker on the back cover of all the periodicals, including the comics. It didn't bother me so much at the time, but now I'm wondering how CGC would treat it if I submitted some of these books. I used the search function and of course there are several threads about arrival date stamps, but I couldn't find anything about arrival date stickers.

 

I have literally hundreds if not thousands of these books with the sticker on the back cover. Could they still be potentially graded 9.8? Or would CGC down grade them for the sticker?

 

 

 

[VintageComics]

Yup. Like 7.0-7.5 range tops.

 

Same Lange that now sets up at Detroit shows?

[mschmidt]

CGC would kill the grade on those books.

[ChicksCosmiComics]

Is it just a price tag sticker? If so find a worthless book and take a hair dryer, heat it up and see if you can gently work the sticker off. I would imagine any good presser/resto guy could get those stickers off the book without damaging the book.

 

If the adhesive on the tag has gone through the back cover then you are out of luck

[Jaydogrules]

Those ain't coming off easily unfortunately. They look like they even have slits as well to specifically make them difficult to remove. Likely an anti theft measure at the time. Tough break.

 

-J.

[JollyComics]

Sending your books to CGC will result the qualified (green) labels.

[Mutant Manatee]

Thanks for the helpful responses, guys, much appreciated. Yes, they are just price stickers. If I have any books that might be worth the expense I may look into having the stickers professionally removed on some of them.

 

I'm not sure if it's the same Lange that sets up at Detroit, but I doubt it. It was just a local family that owned the business.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

Sending your books to CGC will result the qualified (green) labels.

 

This is not true.

[divad]

Those ain't coming off easily unfortunately. They look like they even have slits as well to specifically make them difficult to remove. Likely an anti theft measure at the time. Tough break.

 

-J.

 

One must be a Zen-Master to remove these safely.

 

"I'm gonna pop some tags,"

[divad]

When I lived in Effingham, Illinois

 

That's a seriously funny name for a town . . .

[divad]

Is it just a price tag sticker? If so find a worthless book and take a hair dryer, heat it up and see if you can gently work the sticker off. I would imagine any good presser/resto guy could get those stickers off the book without damaging the book.

 

If the adhesive on the tag has gone through the back cover then you are out of luck

 

I don't use a hair dryer, but they can be safely removed by people who know how to do it. It's a bear, however, and if you got thousands of books like this . . . you've got a new full-time job.

[Tony S]

Sending your books to CGC will result the qualified (green) labels.

 

This is not true.

 

IMO that it is true. It's true for sure with books that have a price sticker over the regular price. Common practice for periodicals sold at bus stations, airports, etc.

 

Perhaps CGC might differentiate between price stickers and arrival date stickers. I don't know. I've never seen an arrival date sticker and I've been collecting a very long time.

 

And of course one can always request a blue label and take the grade hit.

[rjpb]

If only CGC had some sort of sub-forum where one could ask these sort of questions of them and get the definitive answer.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=25&page=1

[JollyComics]

Sending your books to CGC will result the qualified (green) labels.

 

This is not true.

 

IMO that it is true. It's true for sure with books that have a price sticker over the regular price. Common practice for periodicals sold at bus stations, airports, etc.

 

Perhaps CGC might differentiate between price stickers and arrival date stickers. I don't know. I've never seen an arrival date sticker and I've been collecting a very long time.

 

And of course one can always request a blue label and take the grade hit.

 

It's up to the "decider" after the team of three graders. It can be the blue (definitely the grade will go down) or green (keep the high grade with a note).

[JollyComics]

Is it just a price tag sticker? If so find a worthless book and take a hair dryer, heat it up and see if you can gently work the sticker off. I would imagine any good presser/resto guy could get those stickers off the book without damaging the book.

 

If the adhesive on the tag has gone through the back cover then you are out of luck

 

I don't use a hair dryer, but they can be safely removed by people who know how to do it. It's a bear, however, and if you got thousands of books like this . . . you've got a new full-time job.

 

If someone uses the hair dryer at the dense heat, the book will be seriously wrapped.

 

Back to 1999, I bought 3 out of Jinx Torso comic books from the used book store. There were three tiny adhesive labels on the back cover. I didn't bother them until CGC was opened in a year later. I didn't join CGC until 2009 then finally asked them about the stickers. They told me that I would get either blue or green label. Decided to gamble on it by removing the stickers. They were removed easily and were relatively small no larger than the size of Jelly Belly but the adhesive resides were still there. I used the paper that picked up the resides few times. The feeling of the resides were disappeared but the spots look dull in comparing to the gloss of the cover. I did try with hydrogen peroxide. I used the Q-tip to apply on the reside in a gentle way. Two out of three were nearly successful. One reside is still there. Two of them were almost disappeared but the spots were not gloss as usual. After Brian Michael Bendis signing my six books, all of them were graded at 9.4/9.6. Two of them with the dull spots got 9.4. Other got 9.6.

 

The smaller sticker saved me from the big trouble but the big stickers are a big trouble. I would leave it as is.