Tell us what you really think, Marnin!

[sfilosa]

I have no problem with Marnin's pricing either.

 

Here's the problem that I have with extremely high pricing, especially if the books are not that common yet priced well above other comparable sales of similar books.

 

It makes me NOT want to collector those books. He has tons of nice ungraded (and graded) Pre-Hero Marvel / Atlas books, but his prices have ALWAYS been double what they sell for on the open market. But because he has one of the nicest selection and I know to obtain any of them, I would pay a significant premium, I have stopped bying them from anyone.

 

Say I could obtain half the issues of a nice run of some GA books that are fairly hard to find. And I would pay high, but not unreasonable prices for them. But I knew the only other DEALER who had many of the other issues, only would sell them at prices double (or more) higher than what I could get the first group for.

 

Well, I probably wouldn't want to obtain the first group since it would be almost impossible to obtain the second group without paying a huge premium.

 

Just the way I feel.

[namisgr]

As for Marnin, how is he putting his money where his mouth is?

 

I suspect Mark is referring not only to the examples of bad press jobs, but many other things Marnin is trying to do. Marnin is certainly trying to raise the consciousness of collectors about pressing, he is paying to have Susan perform resto checks on alot of his unslabbed stock, and his digital database for the remaining Massachusetts pedigree books and the "Trolley collection" he is selling should go a long way toward identifying any work that may be done on these books in the future. Finally, for those high grade collectors who still enjoy buying unencapsulated books, he offers that alternative. Not cheaply, but then Marnin has always been known for the very high quality of his inventory, and not any bargain prices.

[FFB]

So what's your theory on what caused what we're looking at? Wet pressing, improperly dried?

 

Could be. One possibility is that excess humidity was applied before pressing and then the book was not kept under pressure until it dried. I could see paper cockling like that under those circumstances, just like any paper will cockle if it is made wet and then dried without being under pressure.

 

Or, it could just be regular old humidity damage. Humidity relaxes paper fibers (remember from the discussion with Friesen?) and if a book gets humidified or wet, it'll flatten out the other parts just from regular, tight storage (such as being stored in a stack). But at the spine, where you have the staples keeping two sections of the cover stationary while the rest of the cover near the spine is swelling and then shrinking as the moisture level changes, I could see damage like that happening.

 

If a book were pressed incorrectly apart from excess moisture (too much heat, for example), you'd more likely wind up with what Kenny (or maybe it was Zipper?) had happen when he used the iron -- you get most of your warping along the outer edge and/or the middle of the cover away from the staples (i.e., "flyaway corners"), and it affects the entire cover.

 

Like I said though, you really need to have the book in hand to make an assessment like that. Pressing is impossible to detect from a scan, and I don't have as much faith in Marnin's ability to spot pressing. I'd be really surprised if that back cover crease were caused by a press job. That's a new one to me, and I can't understand at all how Marnin thinks that a press job caused that crease.

[FFB]

I have no problem with Marnin's pricing either. I just wish he would disclose pressing in a less inflammatory way so that people are not told that pressing is evil. Pressing isn't evil. Some people care whether a book has been pressed and others don't. Selling books with undisclosed pressing is the problem for people who care about it. Since he isn't selling books with undisclosed pressing, why all the fire and brimstone?

 

Scott, I can agree with you on this.

 

Pressing. Good.

 

Those who press. Evil.

 

How can we agree when I said neither of those things?

[nearmint]

Are you saying that Susan is identifying professionally pressed books?

[Batfiend-migration]

Like I said though, you really need to have the book in hand to make an assessment like that. Pressing is impossible to detect from a scan, and I don't have as much faith in Marnin's ability to spot pressing. I'd be really surprised if that back cover crease were caused by a press job. That's a new one to me, and I can't understand at all how Marnin thinks that a press job caused that crease.

 

Come off it Fisting, you have read a few papers and spoken to a few people and you are now an expert? I would trust Marnin's experience long before I believed your uninformed rhetoric.

[Foolkiller]

let the flame war begin.

[supapimp]

movie style butter please

[uclapeterg]

who the is "Fisting"?

[Batfiend-migration]

who the is "Fisting"?

 

Fantastic Fisting Bozo. (tm Batfiend 2005)

[Red Hook]

Why would anybody bother with dignifying an obvious shill by engaging in a flame war with them? I thought that was an honor reserved for legitimate posters.

[Batfiend-migration]

How am I a shill? A shill is somebody pretending to be somebody else! I am not pretending to be anybody but myself. If someone was to ask then you might be surprised at the response. So Brad, don't talk out your a*s*s about things you don't know about. By the way Brad, love the pictures that you did for Marnin on his site.

[Red Hook]

You mean the No Press Zone and Pressed logos he paid me to do for him? Yeah, I love them too! Have you seen my top 100 images thread? The Pressed logo was #5.

 

So what? Did I hit a nerve?

[AlexH]

OK, this might be a silly question as I don't really pay attention to pressing issues, but, if there is a wave pattern on the book, does this mean it could be pressed?

 

OK, so getting back on topic here. What do you folks think of this book? Pressed or not pressed?

 

 

[Red Hook]

I would say someone sat on it.

[esquirecomics]

Many of you forumites have gone on and on saying people should put their money where their mouth is instead of spouting off, and that is what Marnin has done. He should be applauded for it. Few others have the guts to do anything.

 

Mark.

 

Which forumites have said that? I have merely stated that there doesn't seem to be a significant number of collectors changing their buying habits as a result of the revelations about non-disclosed pressing. I certainly haven't called on anyone to put up or shut up. If you're not referring to me, than who?

 

No, I wasn't necessarily pointing to you. I don't remember specifically which forumites said it, but clearly a bunch were. Don't make me work and conduct a search!

[esquirecomics]

As for Marnin, how is he putting his money where his mouth is?

 

I suspect Mark is referring not only to the examples of bad press jobs, but many other things Marnin is trying to do. Marnin is certainly trying to raise the consciousness of collectors about pressing, he is paying to have Susan perform resto checks on alot of his unslabbed stock, and his digital database for the remaining Massachusetts pedigree books and the "Trolley collection" he is selling should go a long way toward identifying any work that may be done on these books in the future. Finally, for those high grade collectors who still enjoy buying unencapsulated books, he offers that alternative. Not cheaply, but then Marnin has always been known for the very high quality of his inventory, and not any bargain prices.

 

[Red Hook]

 

No, I wasn't necessarily pointing to you. I don't remember specifically which forumites said it, but clearly a bunch were. Don't make me work and conduct a search!

 

What he's saying is....if he can't bill you for it, he's not going to do it.

[uclapeterg]

I don't think so. I have owned a few GS 1 like that.

 

Unless they were all pressed.

[esquirecomics]

I have no problem with Marnin's pricing either. I just wish he would disclose pressing in a less inflammatory way so that people are not told that pressing is evil. Pressing isn't evil. Some people care whether a book has been pressed and others don't. Selling books with undisclosed pressing is the problem for people who care about it.

 

How can we agree when I said neither of those things?

 

I was agreeing, in general, with your statements above.

 

The rest was mine. It was funny. Where's your sense of humor? What are you some corporate lawyer or something?