What's going on with this Spirit 22 and how will it affect the grade? Take a look... 2 2

[newshane]

Hello everyone:

Many of you may know me from other forums, but please allow a quick introduction.

Even though I've been collecting comics for 25 years, I've only recently fallen in love with Golden and Atomic Age comics. As you know, there are many considerations that must be made when collecting or grading older books, and many of these simply don't apply for moderns. I'm learning how to navigate these issues, and I have a question:

I came across THIS COPY OF SPIRIT 22 ON EBAY.

The following description from the auction does a pretty good job describing the issue with this particular book, so I will quote it here: 

The bottom edge of the book has purple coloring, originally applied to signify that this comic cannot be returned to the distributor for credit. This bleeds into the back cover a bit (see photos) and onto some pages, slightly. Color matches the front  cover and does not really show. Hard to grade, beautiful book, with this flaw on the bottom edge. 

My questions:

1. Was this a common practice back in the day? 

2. Who applied these sorts of marks? The distributor? 

3. Most importantly, how will the mark affect the grade? Will it get a blue label? Would it count as color touch? How would you go about deducting points, if any, from a book marked in this fashion? 

Thank you in advance for your responses. I look forward to learning more. 

[domuhnator]

i'm By no means an expert but I would have to assume it would come back restored. Weather it was intentional or not its probably covering up some flaws on the bottom of the cover. That or they give it a blue and slam the grade. They would probably hit it a little anyways for the staining on the back. But its a Gorgeous looking book regardless.

[OtherEric]

2 hours ago, newshane said:

1. Was this a common practice back in the day?

That's the only question of the lot I can speak to.  I have no idea why it was done, but I have several books marked like that, which I got in multiple times and places.  So it wasn't totally uncommon, at least.

[n2wdw]

If it's not color touch (and maybe it's not because it's the edge of the book), then it might be like writing on the cover.  it will come back blue but with a lower grade due to the marker coloring.  But that's just a guess. 

[Sqeggs]

2 hours ago, newshane said:

Hello everyone:

Many of you may know me from other forums, but please allow a quick introduction.

Even though I've been collecting comics for 25 years, I've only recently fallen in love with Golden and Atomic Age comics. As you know, there are many considerations that must be made when collecting or grading older books, and many of these simply don't apply for moderns. I'm learning how to navigate these issues, and I have a question:

I came across THIS COPY OF SPIRIT 22 ON EBAY.

The following description from the auction does a pretty good job describing the issue with this particular book, so I will quote it here: 

The bottom edge of the book has purple coloring, originally applied to signify that this comic cannot be returned to the distributor for credit. This bleeds into the back cover a bit (see photos) and onto some pages, slightly. Color matches the front  cover and does not really show. Hard to grade, beautiful book, with this flaw on the bottom edge. 

My questions:

1. Was this a common practice back in the day? 

2. Who applied these sorts of marks? The distributor? 

3. Most importantly, how will the mark affect the grade? Will it get a blue label? Would it count as color touch? How would you go about deducting points, if any, from a book marked in this fashion? 

Thank you in advance for your responses. I look forward to learning more. 

Distributors did indeed mark their books in this way (by spraying them, I think).  I think the seller has it backwards, though, because I believe a distributor would mark books to make sure that only books he had distributed were returned to him. You see it fairly often on SA books.

My understanding is that CGC typically doesn't deduct for it if the marks don't intrude onto the cover.

I'm not sure that this is what's going on here, though, because usually the mark is just a stripe and doesn't cover the whole edge and typically the top of the book was sprayed not the bottom. 

[Point Five]

I'd be shocked if this book made it into a blue label slab. The color match and placement of the 'distribution ink' are highly suspicious. In addition, more color touch on the spine and/or edge overhang trim wouldn't surprise me. It's still a nice-looking book, but lots of potential qualifications.

Finally, the scans look super-amped here as do all this seller's scans. I wouldn't expect the real book to have the off-the-charts color pop shown here.

 

[Dr. Love]

That kind of apparently extreme overspray, by itself, would not get it into a PLOD.  But it will get the book downgraded in a way that normally, with minor spray, it would not.  Figure at least a grade, maybe two grades.  My comment is based on my experience with one similar situation.

[Badger]

I have a number of Mighty Mouse comics that have this same level of distributor ink on them.  Its not uncommon.  That said, I'd save my pennies and go for a nicer copy.  The price this one is already at seems to be about its fair max to me.

[newshane]

3 minutes ago, Badger said:

I have a number of Mighty Mouse comics that have this same level of distributor ink on them.  Its not uncommon.  That said, I'd save my pennies and go for a nicer copy.  The price this one is already at seems to be about its fair max to me.

Thanks for all of your responses! 

I wasn't planning on buying the book. I just saw the auction and was curious about the distributor ink. 

[rjpb]

19 minutes ago, Dr. Love said:

That kind of apparently extreme overspray, by itself, would not get it into a PLOD.  But it will get the book downgraded in a way that normally, with minor spray, it would not.  Figure at least a grade, maybe two grades.  My comment is based on my experience with one similar situation.

The  color looks consistent with purple distributor spray from the 1950s. I don't imagine it's a sloppy attempt at color touch, or a disguised one, as some have suggested,  whatever it would be hiding wouldn't bring the grade down any more than the messy overspray. Your estimate of the grade hit makes sense, particularly on an otherwise higher grade copy. I have no experience with how CGC would treat this, but certainly it would impact desirability either way. That said, because the spray blends in nicely with the cover inks at the bottom, this particular book retains solid eye-appeal. 

[october]

The scans are definitely amped.

The overspray, while not restoration, definitely impacts the grade in cases where there is a significant amount on the cover. 

 

[miraclemet]

I've never seen three edges with distributor spray.... I've seen one side soaked, and seen one side soaked with some overspray that made it to one edge, but thats a TON of overspray!

[rjpb]

47 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

I've never seen three edges with distributor spray.... I've seen one side soaked, and seen one side soaked with some overspray that made it to one edge, but thats a TON of overspray!

There was a find a few years back of multiple copies of mid 50s to early 60s books that all had significant overspray. Many had more than one edge sprayed.

[Badger]

2 minutes ago, rjpb said:

There was a find a few years back of multiple copies of mid 50s to early 60s books that all had significant overspray. Many had more than one edge sprayed.

I wonder if this book is from that find?  Just like the Spirit 22, in hand you can see warping caused by the heavy ink spray.  This is from 1958, almost 8 years later than the Spirit 22.  It makes me wonder if this is true overspray or some type of industrial accident?

 

 

[rjpb]

7 minutes ago, Badger said:

I wonder if this book is from that find?  Just like the Spirit 22, in hand you can see warping caused by the heavy ink spray.  This is from 1958, almost 8 years later than the Spirit 22.  It makes me wonder if this is true overspray or some type of industrial accident?

 

 

It looks like one, they were mostly lower mid grade even without the spray. I recall seeing a picture posted (on the boards I think), that showed the find, and it was a tumble of boxes and/or bundles that hadn't exactly been well cared for, with plenty of dinged corners. I bought a small lot on ebay, but parsed them out shortly after, so I have none anymore. Initially they were mostly sold in small lots of random groupings, IIRC.

[Artboy99]

Imagine a stack of books piled up ready to be sprayed by the distributor. The book on the top of the pile would get the most ink as it has the most edge exposed. Likely what the books shown in this thread are.

 

[thunsicker]

@JazzMan has some good examples of heavy overspray books that he's posted before when people ask about overspray.  Maybe he'll share again.

[JazzMan]

My purple blob variants.

 

[jjfversion1]

I have a book that is similar. Thought I would share.

[Point Five]

Um...