GA Wonder Woman: Is this color touch? 1 1

[Greenlake]

Later Update: I sent it back. The funny thing is right after I'd boxed it up, I got an email from them. I forget I wrote and asked if I could have this sent for grading (like they offer for consignments) before they shipped it to me. I guess he didn't know I was returning it or that they said they might not let me buy again, since he said next time to contact them before making the purchase and they might be able to arrange it.

 

I just picked this up from an online store that takes returns, and I'm trying to figure out if what I'm seeing is color touch. There's what looks like bleed through, but the dots are mostly tiny, too many to count, and yet I don't see them where I'd expect them -- not at tears, not in line with the bottom-right color-breaking crease, and as far as I can tell not at the spine (though I didn't open the book up too aggressively.) Plus there's other oddities with the color that don't seem to be restoration-related, such as the stray red on the front by the lasso or the dots on the side of the camera. The low gloss doesn't seem to change where there's more bleedthrough, though obviously I'm no expert.

What do you think? Let me know if more pics would help.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by Greenlake

[Bomber-Bob]

It looks to me like this book had extensive water damage as I see some 'tide' lines and discoloration. I think the black dots and other black areas is mold. I would not keep this book. Black mold is dangerous to breathe.  If it is black mold you can get really sick.

[Greenlake]

20 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

It looks to me like this book had extensive water damage as I see some 'tide' lines and discoloration. I think the black dots and other black areas is mold. I would not keep this book. Black mold is dangerous to breathe.  If it is black mold you can get really sick.

 

Thanks. I was thinking there's a very good chance you're right about it having mold, but since the book is difficult to get in any condition -- only five different copies have ever sold on Heritage, and the top census grade is a 6.5 -- I decided to ask a retired librarian who I know has experience with mold problems. He went over it and gave it a clean bill of health. He ran a finger over some of the more odd looking parts and pointed out that the gloss is uniform over the spots, and he's very confident about it being okay. I'm slightly less confident since it's my money, but I guess unless there's a lot of dissent on here I have to consider that question settled.

Now I have to decide whether the undisclosed water stains mean it was misgraded badly enough that I should return it.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Greenlake

[skypinkblu]

What did they grade it? 

 

[Greenlake]

Just now, skypinkblu said:

What did they grade it? 

 

They had it at 5.0.

Here's the outside of the back:

 

 

 

[skypinkblu]

I don't consider myself any kind of "expert" but I've been collecting WW books for quite a while. That was never the hardest book to find, and it really does look like mold, expert or not. 

I'm not sure what to say, other than I'm sure I've had at least 4 different low grade copies and as I slab some of mine, I'm finding that lots of them have very few in the census.

You need to remember that a few years ago, these were not books that were worth enough to merit slabbing, unless they were pretty high grade...

that's for the MOST part. There were exceptions like the 7, 6, early numbers.

 

[skypinkblu]

I'm going to see if I can find my copy, sometimes the ink was just funky on these.

[Greenlake]

Just now, skypinkblu said:

I'm going to see if I can find my copy, sometimes the ink was just funky on these.

Yeah, one of the ones on heritage has an arm and chin that looks spattered with blood and another has the weird black stuff along most of the case lid bottom and right, so when the librarian said it was probably a printing problem I figured I had no better answer.

I appreciate your opinion and thought of DMing you about it, since you have experience with these books.

 

[skypinkblu]

[skypinkblu]

What bothers me most is the stuff near the spine. If you didn't pay too much, have it slabbed, that way you won't get asthma if it is black mold (although I'd hate for the graders to get sick, too). If you paid a lot, give it back.

I can tell  you I wound up with Asthma from black mold.  It was not from comics, we had a water leak and we were away for a few weeks. It's not a lot of fun, so please, please be careful with that book. 

It's very dangerous, had I understood, I would not have moved around anything in the house, I would have left until the mold was gone.

[skypinkblu]

The outside of the book is not the issue, those marks are consistent with the one I have. It's the inside that concerns me.

[Greenlake]

10 minutes ago, skypinkblu said:

The outside of the book is not the issue, those marks are consistent with the one I have. It's the inside that concerns me.

Yeah, I only meant my reason for going along with being told the inside was probably a printing problem was because the outsides seem sloppy and inconsistent so it seemed reasonable the insides would be sloppy. I notice your inside cover shows some of those dots by the umbrella near the spine, but now that you called out the other area near the spine I can see how that pattern is the most mold-like. Ah well. I paid about 50% more than the restored 4.5 Mile High went for earlier this year (it went $454, I paid $650+3%) so I guess that means I should send it back.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Greenlake

[skypinkblu]

Unless you are a completest and HAVE to have a copy of that book...I know how that goes, I've been there;) 

I'm sure you can find another WW for that money without the "staining".

Mine is one of the lower grades I still have, so they are not common...but then again, they never were. It's just that the ones in the 80's were always tougher. These you saw a lot more often.

So one day, 4 will be listed at the same time;)

[skypinkblu]

I think I was told all the Mile Highs are restored. I know the one I have has slight color touch.

[Greenlake]

18 minutes ago, skypinkblu said:

Unless you are a completest and HAVE to have a copy of that book...I know how that goes, I've been there;) 

I'm sure you can find another WW for that money without the "staining".

Mine is one of the lower grades I still have, so they are not common...but then again, they never were. It's just that the ones in the 80's were always tougher. These you saw a lot more often.

So one day, 4 will be listed at the same time;)

Thanks. There's actually another WW issue that I want more and I've been scouting regularly since summer but the best I've found is a 3.0 with detached centerfold. Oh, plus one of the few other WW issues I bought -- the most expensive one -- turned out to be a label swap. #37 was something I only started looking for this month, so when this popped up I thought perhaps I'd finally had some WW-related good fortune smile down on me. (Okay, so I'm also pretty happy with my WW 107 7.0.)

Edited December 18, 2017 by Greenlake

[Bomber-Bob]

36 minutes ago, Greenlake said:

Thanks. There's actually another WW issue that I want more and I've been scouting regularly since summer but the best I've found is a 3.0 with detached centerfold. Oh, plus one of the few other WW issues I bought -- the most expensive one -- turned out to be a label swap. #37 was something I only started looking for this month, so when this popped up I thought perhaps I'd finally had some WW-related good fortune smile down on me. (Okay, so I'm also pretty happy with my WW 107 7.0.)

Sounds like you are a big WW fan. Before the movie hype, there wasn't many of us that collected WW. Sharon(Skypinkblu) was probably the biggest collector. I once owned nearly the whole run but never quite made it . With less than 10 to go, I gave up and sold many of my copies, including everything under 30. Luckily, I still have a lot.  Below is a link of my slabbed copies. I probably have another 20 or so raw. I'm not interested in selling but thought I would share.

http://www.myslabbedcomics.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=897

[skypinkblu]

43 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Sounds like you are a big WW fan. Before the movie hype, there wasn't many of us that collected WW. Sharon(Skypinkblu) was probably the biggest collector. I once owned nearly the whole run but never quite made it . With less than 10 to go, I gave up and sold many of my copies, including everything under 30. Luckily, I still have a lot.  Below is a link of my slabbed copies. I probably have another 20 or so raw. I'm not interested in selling but thought I would share.

http://www.myslabbedcomics.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=897

GAtor is a lot taller than I am;) I know there are other collectors, but he's definitely been up there;) (forgive my biggest collector joke;);)

I think the difference is, he stopped at the end of the "GA" I went all the way through.

Edited December 18, 2017 by skypinkblu

[Bomber-Bob]

1 minute ago, skypinkblu said:

GAtor is a lot taller than I am;) I know there are other collectors, but he's definitely been up there;) (forgive my biggest collector joke;);)

I think the difference is, he stopped at the end of the "GA" I went all the way through.

HaHa on my poor choice of an adjective. Actually, I don't think Gator collects WW anymore but his wife does. The books in his registry are hers !

[Greenlake]

43 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Sounds like you are a big WW fan. Before the movie hype, there wasn't many of us that collected WW. Sharon(Skypinkblu) was probably the biggest collector. I once owned nearly the whole run but never quite made it . With less than 10 to go, I gave up and sold many of my copies, including everything under 30. Luckily, I still have a lot.  Below is a link of my slabbed copies. I probably have another 20 or so raw. I'm not interested in selling but thought I would share.

http://www.myslabbedcomics.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=897

That's a great collection even without anything under 30. 

Yeah, WW is the only GA/late 50s SA book where I'd be interested in building some small runs. Unfortunately I only back got into collecting this year and my funds are relatively limited, so I'm mostly focusing on buying the issues I like that aren't big keys. I might give in to buying a modest WW 5 or 9 but otherwise I doubt I'll get anything under 10 any time soon, and there's only a couple of Sensation Comics even on my radar because of the cost. 

[Bomber-Bob]

23 minutes ago, Greenlake said:

That's a great collection even without anything under 30. 

Yeah, WW is the only GA/late 50s SA book where I'd be interested in building some small runs. Unfortunately I only back got into collecting this year and my funds are relatively limited, so I'm mostly focusing on buying the issues I like that aren't big keys. I might give in to buying a modest WW 5 or 9 but otherwise I doubt I'll get anything under 10 any time soon, and there's only a couple of Sensation Comics even on my radar because of the cost. 

Thanks. With a tough title like WW, you have to let the books come to you. Take a title like Amazing Spider-Man, if you had unlimited funds you could get a complete collection within a week or so. Not so with Wonder Woman. Many issues just never become available.