PGM Worlds of Fear #3 (and a bonus game of: "IS IT TRIMMED?") - GRADE IS IN!!!! OMG! 0

[Sauce Dog]

Been out of the comic world for over a year and have found myself rusty with grading, so heed my call and cast your excellent judgments upon this comic!!

What we have here is a nice looking copy of Worlds of Fear #3. Colors are very vibrant, and has just general surface wear, while its staples are perfect and tight. 
Now my fear (and a world of it!) with this issue is....the edges look too good for its age, does mean it might be trimmed? All the interior pages look very mis-cut, and even the cover wrap seems to have been printed off (note the amount of black from the front cover that is rolled onto the back cover). So half of me says it is a factory mis-cut since its so consistent across the issue, but the other half is paranoid about getting it back as trimmed from grading. I recall the original seller also being worried it was trimmed, but nothing conclusive was ever figured out. Has not been pressed, but will be prior to grading (if I feel confident it is only a factory mis-cut) 

Images in the spooky spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Sauce Dog
Grade result is in

[Sauce Dog]

More pictures of the edges just to be sure, and of the spine to show the staples being in the right spots and looking great.

 

Spoiler

 

[Point Five]

Man, that's a tough one. The book does look really great, and I agree, with the wonky miscut I can see the case either way...

I'm going to guess it's trimmed. The cover edges just look too perfectly flush with the pages, even for a higher-grade copy. I'm less worried about the apparent lack of margins inside (though that's not ideal) than the apparent lack of cover overhang on any of the outer edges.

The blacks of the spine look so perfect, I also wonder if there might be a few skillful hits of color touch there... which could bolster the case that the book had a bit of work done to it.

 

[Sauce Dog]

4 minutes ago, Point Five said:

Man, that's a tough one. The book does look really great, and I agree, with the wonky miscut I can see the case either way...

I'm going to guess it's trimmed. The cover edges just look too perfectly flush with the pages, even for a higher-grade copy. I'm less worried about the apparent lack of margins inside (though that's not ideal) than the apparent lack of cover overhang on any of the outer edges.

The blacks of the spine look so perfect, I also wonder if there might be a few skillful hits of color touch there... which could bolster the case that the book had a bit of work done to it.

 

Isn't it such a tantalizing curiosity -  as it was obviously already a great looking issue, so why trim it in the first place. I've checked for color touching as well and there isn't any (that i'm at least certain about) but it is the overhang that i'm worried about. I'm almost tempted to roll the dice and gamble on seeing what CGC says about it (translation: loose hard cause i'm awful at gambling.)

[kav]

25 minutes ago, Sauce Dog said:

Isn't it such a tantalizing curiosity -  as it was obviously already a great looking issue, so why trim it in the first place. I've checked for color touching as well and there isn't any (that i'm at least certain about) but it is the overhang that i'm worried about. I'm almost tempted to roll the dice and gamble on seeing what CGC says about it (translation: loose hard cause i'm awful at gambling.)

Do the edges show a V shape or perfectly flat?  

[Sauce Dog]

10 hours ago, kav said:

Do the edges show a V shape or perfectly flat?  

I'll check this out tonight and see if I can get a macro shot like that of the edges.

[Point Five]

11 hours ago, Sauce Dog said:

Isn't it such a tantalizing curiosity -  as it was obviously already a great looking issue, so why trim it in the first place. I've checked for color touching as well and there isn't any (that i'm at least certain about) but it is the overhang that i'm worried about. I'm almost tempted to roll the dice and gamble on seeing what CGC says about it (translation: loose hard cause i'm awful at gambling.)

Fair enough. It's the shot below that made me ask about color touch; I've rotated it for easier viewing.

To me, the fact that the black of the spine and the staple area are jet black with barely a single white color flake (!), while the pink area of the spine has some muddy-looking color breaks, is a strong circumstantial case for color touch. It's often the case with amateur resto that black areas are touched up heavily while colored areas are left alone or touched up lightly, because colors and dot patterns are so much harder to match than solid blacks.

You have the book in hand, and I'm just a guy on the internet, but I'd be pretty surprised to see this book in a blue label slab.
 

 

[The Lions Den]

 

[burritodeluxe]

From these pictures, it really looks like some black color was added around the top staple. When you open up the front cover and look at the spine on the inside, are there bleed-through spots? That's a huge indicator of added color. It's rare that black ink doesn't color break along the spine like that, and even rarer for someone to add color where it doesn't bleed through to the inside of the cover lol! 

In my half-decade-or-so of grading experience, I have seen manufacturing errors where the book was lobbed off from the factory, and especially since your copy looks so off-kilter it is possible that it's not trimmed. It's rare, but it does happen, so it's a little hard to tell from these photos.

I see from the photo of the back cover that there some creases along the bottom. Pressing will likely improve the appearance of these defects, but I wouldn't bother spending the extra cashola if there's color-touch. 

[Sauce Dog]

21 hours ago, kav said:

Do the edges show a V shape or perfectly flat?  

 

 

 

Took some more photos. In one case it looks like a V but the opposite direction (pointing in).

21 hours ago, kav said:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Sauce Dog

[kav]

2 minutes ago, Sauce Dog said:

 

 

Took some more photos. In one case it looks like a V but the opposite direction (pointing in).

 

Looks untrimmed!

[kav]

5 minutes ago, Sauce Dog said:

 

 

Took some more photos. In one case it looks like a V but the opposite direction (pointing in).

 

Not sure why reverse V maybe different print methods?

[Sauce Dog]

2 hours ago, burritodeluxe said:

From these pictures, it really looks like some black color was added around the top staple. When you open up the front cover and look at the spine on the inside, are there bleed-through spots? That's a huge indicator of added color. It's rare that black ink doesn't color break along the spine like that, and even rarer for someone to add color where it doesn't bleed through to the inside of the cover lol! 

In my half-decade-or-so of grading experience, I have seen manufacturing errors where the book was lobbed off from the factory, and especially since your copy looks so off-kilter it is possible that it's not trimmed. It's rare, but it does happen, so it's a little hard to tell from these photos.

I see from the photo of the back cover that there some creases along the bottom. Pressing will likely improve the appearance of these defects, but I wouldn't bother spending the extra cashola if there's color-touch. 

I was suspicious of color touching as well, but honestly if its there it is a VERY good job. There is absolutely zero bleed-through on anything in the inside, and the black matt/gloss is consistent across the cover except for a few scuffs (one being near the staple where I was originally suspect of it being CT). 

[kav]

Just now, Sauce Dog said:

I was suspicious of color touching as well, but honestly if its there it is a VERY good job. There is absolutely zero bleed-through on anything in the inside, and the black matt/gloss is consistent across the cover except for a few scuffs (one being near the staple where I was originally suspect of it being CT). 

any access to a black light?  

[Sauce Dog]

Just now, kav said:

any access to a black light?  

The one piece of conservation/restoration equipment of mine that broke and I haven't replaced yet  of course!

I'm honestly kinda feeling like its more exciting at this point to just gamble on this and see how wonky it comes back, just for the boards entertainment benefit   

SO...lets go assuming the magical best case scenario of no color touch, and it isn't trimmed: What's everyones guess on grade?

[kav]

9.6 assuming this wrinkling is on the bag otherwise 8.5

[Point Five]

You know, one more clue... I just noticed the back of the spine where the black color wraps around. To my eye, the color has a mismatched, smeary look to it, and there are LOTS of color breaks running down the black strip, as opposed to the uniform look of the black on the front spine...

Very hard for me to imagine this isn't color touch. 

 

[Sauce Dog]

14 minutes ago, Point Five said:

You know, one more clue... I just noticed the back of the spine where the black color wraps around. To my eye, the color has a mismatched, smeary look to it, and there are LOTS of color breaks running down the black strip, as opposed to the uniform look of the black on the front spine...

Very hard for me to imagine this isn't color touch. 

 

Yup - looking at it now 100% color touch. It was VERY slight and an excellent color matching, and I didn't notice it until now (nor did the original owner of this, as CT was never mentioned but the possible trimming was clearly stated).

So 100% no way in hell this isn't restored - which means even though the pages are not straight is is 99% a trim job as well since the edges are so perfect. 

So a 9.2-9.6 (I would guess) Trimmed with minor color touch isn't the worst thing for what I paid for it considering I bought it just because its an amazing cover and looks beautiful.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Sauce Dog

[Point Five]

Sorry mate. We've all been there!

Nevertheless, yep it's a great-looking cover and any GA is a good GA. Keep in a Mylar and enjoy.  

 

[kav]

Anyone know how trimming can result in inverted V? @joeypost