Steve Borock Interview On STL Comics

[Silver Surfer]

>>A number of rumors have surfaced ranging from Chris Friesen opening his own comic book press shop because there is more money to be made in pressing than restoration detection <<

 

I thought this was extremely interesting. A service devoted to pressing. I guess this is the direction the hobby is going in. sigh.

 

[Forbush-Man]

>>A number of rumors have surfaced ranging from Chris Friesen opening his own comic book press shop because there is more money to be made in pressing than restoration detection <<

 

I thought this was extremely interesting. A service devoted to pressing. I guess this is the direction the hobby is going in. sigh.

 

.....sometimes I just feel so very, very tired,........!

[awe4one]

Remember POV, no one listens to you!

 

I'm listening.

 

Lorde I don;t know what to say! I don;t think this has happened to me before! I wish there was a "joyfull weeping" avatar! ::joyfull weeping::

 

I've always listened to your sage opinions as well. In fact, your posts are so well thought out and concise, there's nothing left to add or debate. So the interpretation of "not being heard" is inaccurately surmised...

 

Jim

[supapimp]

Hammer asks:

 

There was a period in time, of about 10 months, when I was filling the CPG Forums with hundreds of before and after images of Heritage Permanent Auction archives images. These images clearly showed books that were re-submitted to CGC and received higher grades AFTER they had been visibly altered. I just want to know how he felt about seeing the concise evidence of this in HUNDREDS of examples that I presented on the CPG Forums. 7.5s pressed and cleaned into 9.2s, a 4.5 pressed and cleaned into an 8.5, and in many cases, grade jumps of 1.0 and more without any discernable alteration at all.

 

SB: I will answer ANY question this guy has if he ever shows up in person with his NY drivers ID at a show or at the CGC offices (when he is back in jail, the offer is off the table). Listen, unlike this guy, I show up at cons and CGC forum dinners and answer ALL questions. "Hammer/Meth/Dupcek/Koos/Comic-Keys" loves the internet. He is allowed to sit behind a computer, sell restored comic books as unrestored, give false and bad advice to newcomers, and spills hate filled rhetoric all over chat boards. Nice, huh? Good way to keep the hobby healthy. I do not believe STL should encourage this guy like you do.

 

i'm still waiting

[goldust40]

Oh - on the pressing issue: Steve says Taking a bend or fold that does not break color out of a comic book is not a bad thing. It is not like you are adding glue and/or color touch, using something artificial, to bring paper closer back to LOOK like it's original state. You ARE bringing it back closer to its original state.

 

...and to this I have to seriously disagree. No primary colors in this reply!

 

You MAY be bringing it back closer to its original state or you may be just making it LOOK closer to its orginal state. Most of us are familiar with those non-color breaking but really harsh dings that can occur on a comic. The paper fibres are genuinely impacted. But the ink does not break. It happens and it happens a lot.

 

Pressing these out does NOT bring the paper back closer to its original state. The fibers are damaged. Pedriod. Pressing thewm may make them LOOK more like original but the fibers are still damaged.

 

One cardinal rule about pressing - if fibers are damaged all the pressing in the world will not "heal" them. The book may LOOK just fine but that pressed area with fiber damage is still going to be a weak point in the book.

 

I confess to being genuienly saddened at this one.

 

Sorry Steve - you shoot straight and I can only shoot straight in return.

 

Hope some truly pro restorers can also offer their perspective on the impact of pressing to broken fibers that do not break ink.

 

Very interesting point, Pov, and one rarely touched upon. I for one would like to know more.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Daniel@PGX asks:

 

1. How do you feel about not being able to force PGX out of business?

 

SB: Who?

 

Utterly Classic!

[goldust40]

Daniel@PGX asks:

 

1. How do you feel about not being able to force PGX out of business?

 

SB: Who?

 

Utterly Classic!

 

Yep, that was spot-on - neatly avoids the politics and swats the fly with one pithy word.

[Norrin_Radd]

Remember POV, no one listens to you!

 

Well, yah! I have reconciled myself to that for a long time now. But still - a voice crying from the wilderness is better than no voice at all. ::must remain...optimistic...Spock! SPOCK!)

 

 

Yes?

 

 

[drbanner]

Remember POV, no one listens to you!

 

I'm listening.

 

Lorde I don;t know what to say! I don;t think this has happened to me before! I wish there was a "joyfull weeping" avatar! ::joyfull weeping::

 

I've always listened to your sage opinions as well. In fact, your posts are so well thought out and concise, there's nothing left to add or debate. So the interpretation of "not being heard" is inaccurately surmised...

 

Jim

 

I agree with this POV Pov, keep it up!

 

Unfortunately, many of the issues that get a lot of posts (Pressing - is it/is it not resto, what book started the (x) age, TGC and the State of the American Economy, etc.,.) are re-hashes of old arguments/discussions so I don't really feel like repeating myself on said topics for the 3rd, 4th, 27th time so I don't post in those threads as much as I used to. However, the discussions are new for newer forum members, and your insights are useful...listen to this man people, he knows of what he speaks!!

[RS]

Daniel@PGX asks:

 

1. How do you feel about not being able to force PGX out of business?

 

SB: Who?

 

Utterly Classic!

 

Just like the Big Three from Detroit said in the 70's Car's from Japan HAHAHAHA

[Silver Surfer]

Remember POV, no one listens to you!

 

I'm listening.

 

I'm listening too.

 

Steve's pressing response was extremely disappointing for quite a few reasons, none of which really have anything to do with the debate of "is it restoration or not?"

 

For those interested, I address the issue on the pressing thread.

 

Pov/Q,

 

I share your frustration on this topic and I wish they did not use Hammer's name when that question ws asked as maybe it would have been addressed (although I doubt it). Also, on the issue of SCS I do think it is a bigger problem than Steve leads on. I'm not sure how it could be minimized because the right side edges of books are delicate and at various times during the shipping process they will be pushed up against the slabb by gravity and SCS will happen.

 

Perhaps a simple clamp that keeps the slabb firmly up against the book so it doesn't shift while being shipped is the answer? I always try to firmly tape cardboard reinforcement up against the slabb to "pin" the book and then use ample bubble wrap and an oversized box to ensure proper support. Shipping multiple books at once makes it difficult and much more expensive to do this properly. I think if more people took the time and effort to do this, SCS could be minimized. I also think those neat one book slabb holders offer minimal protection during the shipping process. Having siad this CGC did do a great job of packing my return submissions and didn't cut any corners.

[Justin Case]

Hammer says he might just turn up at a New York show with his ID card dangling 1 inch in front of Steve. I for one want to be there to check his ID card not because i want to see what he looks like as i know that already but because i think it might be colour touched and trimmed and i want CGC to give it a restoration check.

[TheBrockley]

Hammer says he might just turn up at a New York show with his ID card dangling 1 inch in front of Steve. I for one want to be there to check his ID card not because i want to see what he looks like as i know that already but because i think it might be colour touched and trimmed and i want CGC to give it a restoration check.

 

who are you?

[scourge456789-migration]

This is Dupcake. He has written me asking that I alert him to when I will launch my missles against him. I have told him. It will be at a time and place of my choosing. JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED !

[whetteon]

Hammer says he might just turn up at a New York show with his ID card dangling 1 inch in front of Steve. I for one want to be there to check his ID card not because i want to see what he looks like as i know that already but because i think it might be colour touched and trimmed and i want CGC to give it a restoration check.

 

who are you?

 

Does it matter? It was kinda of an amusing post.

[jbud73]

Great Comments Pov, the thing that stood out for me - Steve really didn't say anything that I haven't heard before, was the posting of graders notes on the internet. Now that is the best Idea I've heard in some time, I hope they can bring this one to fruition.

[Rip]

PGX or whatever they call themselves will NEVER be a trusted company unless they take more drastic measures of cleaning up their poor reputation and their questionable relationship with dealers like PGX-it/Christina collectibles.

 

Another book with missed resto was found from PGX-it/Christina collectibles.

They seem to be more and more like Comic-Keys with missed resto and doctored scans.

[iron maniac]

PGX or whatever they call themselves will NEVER be a trusted company unless they take more drastic measures of cleaning up their poor reputation and their questionable relationship with dealers like PGX-it/Christina collectibles.

 

Another book with missed resto was found from PGX-it/Christina collectibles.

They seem to be more and more like Comic-Keys with missed resto and doctored scans.

Actually Daniel did recently announce that he cut all ties with Terence Leder.

[supapimp]

hasn't he said that before?

[Rip]

He said that before.......then we caught PGX-it doctoring his scans to show an older grading date

 

So then PGX said they were accepting his submissions again

 

So why should we believe him this time?