towards2112 Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 Found something out the other day that common sense and history has probably taught most of you that deal with the higher grade and more expensive issues. Picked up a nice copy, or so I thought, of ASM # 135 from a local dealer last Saturday, payed only a respectable price for it and was satisfied. My son is a Spidey freak, ASM only, and didn't have a copy. Bought it for him, being the kind and charming father that I am. Glossy black cover, nice. 'Cept when I went to his bedroom that night to give it to him, he had the stereo blarring, strobe light flickering and his black light on. He tripped out when I gave him the comic, he's not a mint freak, collects to collect and reads with respect. I snagged a couple of sodas from the fridge and went back in to whip his at a video game he's been goading me with. But,,,, I noticed that small flecks on the cover of the comic glowed. Kinda off green. Small dots, and a few small streaks, he thought it was cool, I was curious. Took the copy to the bathroom and double checked under the HUGE lights there, and sure enough, it appears that someone had 'touched up' a few spine and cover nicks. I've been doing comics, collecting, buying and selling since the late '60's, and had never run across this before. Any other things an old fool like me might need to know?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murph0 Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 Take it in, point out the restoration and ask for a refund. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towards2112 Posted September 26, 2002 Author Share Posted September 26, 2002 Going to take care of that Saturday AM. I'd never thought of a black light before. I've seen spine stress or black spine lines touched up with markers, fairly obvious most of the time, but now I think I'll return to my childhood roots and buy a black light. Coooollll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murph0 Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 Yes black light works wonders for detecting color touch and the sort..but there's other forms of restoration it doesn't detect. Btw, is your words per line really low or something? Your text is taking up only the left side.. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantastic_four Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 I'm not an expert at blacklight color touch detection yet, but I have learned a few things: Many types of foreign material show up under a black light, not just color touch. So make sure you brush all the dust, hair, and other off the cover so you don't mistake it for CT. Every big poster black light I've seen sucks in comparison to the smaller blacklights created explicitly for foreign material detection. I don't know enough about light to know why this is; I'm assuming there's a wavelength difference between the light used for posters and the light used for detection. I have always been told that black color touch applied to a black comic book cover does not show up under most types of ultraviolet light. Supposedly, CGC has a specialized light that DOES detect color touch to black areas, but that's just a rumor. Are you positive that what you saw on that black-colored Spidey 135 was color touch? I've always been told it's invisible under most popular types of black light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggy Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 Steve Borock said in a previous post that black and dark blue touch ups don't glow with the black light. I have tried the one I have against black colour touch and have confirmed this. However, you can normally tell that the shade is different from the surrounding area! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aardvark88 Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 But some of us r so anal about color touch, we may be imagining things on the spine which are not really there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towards2112 Posted September 29, 2002 Author Share Posted September 29, 2002 No, it really glowed. Not a blazing glow, but you could definetly tell it had been touched up. Small flecks [sic; flecks dots etc] none larger than a grain of salt, which brought to mind that maybe a foreign material had been dusted on the cover. Nothing on the back ad, just the cover and spine. Shop owner was very good about it and offered me cash or trade, I took the trade and got a ASM 26 low grade for the son. Then spent more money on Mylars......... Regular resolution, just used to adding emails and notices through an AS400 business system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantastic_four Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 I have viewed approximately 50-60 comics under a black light, and every single one of them had little flecks on it the size of salt grains. On those I looked at, those flecks were dust. That's the first thing I do when I look at a book under black light, brush the dust off once the UV makes the dust glow, THEN I start to look for glowing material. If it doesn't move when touched, then it's some sort of adhesive foreign material, like glue, paint, or...what else? I'm still not sure that other legitimate foreign material doesn't shine under UV light, like water/food stains, hairspray, or whatever. Did the guy at the comic shop brush off the dust, or touch those little flecks to see if they moved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
