key mile highs with some degree of restoration

[shrunkenhead]

 

While there are some cases when restoration is actually desirable, or at least negligible enough that the book shouldn't be stigmatized to the point of uncollectibility, I find it hard to believe that anyone in possession of a Church book, let alone a key wasn't aware that they were compromising the integrity of the book by "touching it up".

 

This was/is my initial impression, too. I mean, c'mon, you're sitting on a pile of books from the single greatest collection this hobby has ever known, and it's still not good enough!? Ridiculous.

[Aman619]

I believe it was done in the early 80s. The Church books had been around for a relatively short time. There was no way to assume that another similar collection woudl never surface again. What one man does with his books alone in his room is his business. He could not know that he was defacing hwhat would turn out to be irreplaceable copies.

 

Stupid though it was or turned out to be to retouch them, SELLING them was strike two!

[FFB]

most of these books were touched up in the early 80s,when doing this IMPROVED its value..of course the opposite is true today..our opions are CONSTANTLY changing on restoration,which is why i stay away from it...i mean one day its a blue folder and i resub later its a purple folder,,what better reason for a knowledgeble collector to stay away from restoration

 

There is nothing "knowledgeable" about what you just said. All you've done is lump all restoration in the same boat as "Church copy" restoration (i.e., unnecessary restoration of ultra high grade copies).

 

Lumping that kind of restoration with all other kinds of restoration is not a knowledgeable thing to do. It is the height of ignorance. When restoration is performed to prevent a book from falling apart or deteriorating further (such as when tape or other harmful substances are removed) restoration is undeniably a good thing. I think (and this is my opinion) that anyone who would rather leave cellophane tape on a book than have it removed because they "don't like restoration" is an insufficiently_thoughtful_person and is allowing his fear of the perceived value of his book to override the importance of preserving the book as a piece of history.

 

This is not to say that all other kinds of restoration are "bad" either. Whether or not to restore a book is a personal decision to whomever owns a specific book. As long as sound, conservational methods of restoration are used and the integrity of the artifact is not being compromised (in other words, color touch on a high grade copy, or erasing the writing from the Pay Copy of Marvel Comics #1), I have no problem with it if that is what a book's owner wants to do. If someone wants to own a nice copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 but can't afford $250,000 for a 9.6 copy, I see nothing wrong with that person spending a few thousand dollars to buy a low grade copy and getting it restored to a higher grade. Granted, it'll never be worth anywhere near what an unrestored 9.6 copy would be worth, but that isn't the point. The point is that the collector has the nice looking copy of AF#15 that he wanted and he didn't have to put his family in the street to get it.

 

Having said all of that, if someone wants to avoid restored books because they don't like restoration, that is their prerogative. But to try to scare off other people from considering restored books simply because other potentially uninformed people are afraid of them and won't buy them at any price is wrong, IMO. Equally disturbing is the fact that you seem all too willing to allow CGC to dictate what books you will or will not buy, simply by changing its standards from one day to the next regarding what notes to put on the label or what level of color touch to allow under a blue vs. a purple label. Maybe you should just sack up and decide for yourself what books you like or don't like and what you're willing to pay for a given copy, and to hell with CGC if they want to put a written note on the label or give the purple label to a book one day and a blue label to it the next day?