Should the PLOD become a BLUE label?

[FFB]

I was referring to the word[dope] that you used.I wasnt really insulted.Poor choice of words.Dont give it another thought.yes ,we simply dont agree.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean anything personal by that. I was just caught up in the heat of the debate.

[action1kid]

thanks FFB....

[lou_fine]

Hey lou, in the interest of disclosure, how many restored books do you own?

 

Hi Joe;

 

Sorry about the late response since you had asked me a direct question here. I just don't know how you guys can spend so much time on these boards here.

 

Anyways, to answer your question here: Out of my slabbed collection, I do not currently and have never owned a single PLOD. Of course, this does not really mean anything since my entire slab collection (all blue) numbers less than 10 in total.

 

With respect to my raw collection, unfortuantely, I would not be able to answer your question with complete certainty since they have not all been checked out for resto. There's just no point in having a book slab for your personal collection since they take up too much storage space and just does not look as nice as books in mylar. Most of all, a slabbed book in your hands just feels like a commodity instead of feeling like a comic book which you can actually open and touch and read.

 

I will, however, try to answer your question to the best of my knowledge. The BA, CA, and MA books which probably makes up about 95% of my collection and maybe 5% of the value were all brought brand new off the newsstand and should therefore be free of restoration. The SA books which I have were all brought for a nickel a piece at used bookstores around the city whereever my bicycle could take me. No doubt a very wise investment decsion on my part here since I was saving a whole nickel or seven cents as opposed to buying them brand new off the newsstand (excuse me for a minute here ). These should also be quite safe from the PLOD although a few of them may qualify for the GLOD here.

 

The Golden Age books which probably make up only 5% of my raw collection, but maybe 95% of the value is a completely different animal. Virtually all of my GA books were brought between 1988 and 1995 before the crazy run-up in prices whereby dealers were offering ridiculous multiples for HG GA books. High prices and silly shenanigans with CGC books have unfortunately kept me away from this part of the market except for the very odd book here and there since then.

 

My GA collection is made up primarily of mainly high grade books. When I first started collecting in this part of the market, the advice I got was to buy high grade, early books, key books, and classic covers since the marketplace would one day place a much higher value on books with these qualities. I was advised to stay away from mid grade, mid run generic books since these would tend to be more easily forgotten over time and just not have the same potential to retain their value, or even hopefully rise in value over time. Most of all, I was advised to stay as far away from restored books as possible. As a result, since the size of my wallet is very limited in comparison to some of the BSD's here, I tried to saved my money for books exhibiting as many qualities as possible from the first group instead of wasting all my ammo on the mid grade, mid run generic books and not having anything left when the quality books did come around.

 

Based upon the above GA purchasing strategy, the only copy of Target Comics I have is issue #7, the only copy of National Comics I have is #7, the only copy of Comics & Stories I have is #31, the only copy of Jackpot I have is #4, the only copy of All-Select I have is #1, the only copy of All-American I have is #61, the only copy of Adventure I have is #73, the only copy of Funny Pages I have is Vol 2 #10, the only copy of Police Comics I have is #1, the only copies of Superman I have are #14 & #23, etc, etc, etc. All in high grade and many of them pedigrees. I guess I worked on the old axiom, it's better to have quality over quantity.

 

Unfortuantely, this silly stubborness has also resulted in some bad decisions on my part such as passing on a file set of Spidey's #2 - #10 for $1K back in 1988, for the simple reason that I would constantly worry about finding an equivalent copy of Spidey #1 or AF #15 to match the set. Well, the set went to Geppi who then passed it along to the Dentist who then passed it along to some of the other old boys in the network or some type of order like that.

 

Not exactly sure how many of my books are restored, but I always always persisted in asking many many questions about possible restoration before I made a decsion to buy a book. For example, I know there is restoration on the Superman #14 in the form of a very tiny tear seal which could be easily eliminated if so desired. The book was just too beautiful to pass up even though the dealer had told me in advance about the tear seal. For some of the books I had worries about, I would have a restorer take a look at it for possible restoration.

 

Although this still does not answer your question, I did forward a very small sample of my books to CGC for grading through Bill Hughes for one of the early Manning auctions when CGC first came on the scene. Just wanted to test some of my books and to see how CGC worked. But most of all, to prove to my wife (and possibly myself) that there was actual money in these silly toys for boys. Out of about 12 - 15 books submitted, only one of them came back with a PLOD (slight professional) with the rest of them residing in blue labels ranging from 9.2 to 9.6. The one PLOD I did get was totally expected since it had come from Mark Wilson who was notorious for not letting a book out of his hands until something had been done to it. Thankfully, I had already passed virtually all of my Wilson books back to Mark in the mid 90's at a very hefty profit margin. The few Wilson books I have left in my collection are keepers which he has verbally guaranteed to be totally untouched ( if that actually means anything) or are so rare in any grade that slight restoration should not have a crippling factor in the eventual resale price.

 

Sorry for the long convoluted answer to your question if you haven't fallen asleep by this point, but I guess it's just my way of saying I am not exactly certain of how many restored books I have in my raw GA collection. Hopefully it's just a minimal number somewhere in the single digits or at most in the low teens even though the above sample might not be a truly statistical representative sample of my GA collection.

 

I hope this indirectly answers your question to me at least, since it took me way too long to write it.

 

Lou

[adamstrange]

For those that have been following the FF3 thread in the general forum, is now the right time to switch to all blue label?

 

Imagine the comments:

 

"They couldn't tell the difference between the restored and the unrestored so they just gave them all blue labels."

[joe_collector]

For those that have been following the FF3 thread in the general forum, is now the right time to switch to all blue label?

 

Imagine the comments:

 

"They couldn't tell the difference between the restored and the unrestored so they just gave them all blue labels."

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/sho...ge=0#Post929774

 

I was thinking about exactly who would benefit from the upcoming change from Restored Purple to Blue lables, and I came up with the following:

 

Dealers, Resto Collectors, Speculators who bet Resto books would increase in value, etc.

 

But then I realized this is all a pipe dream, as changing the label will NOT make Franken-books any more desirable, or otherwise remove the restoration present or the speculator stigma attached to resto books. If people really believe that restored comic values will skyrocket with the change to Blue, then you're dreaming.

 

When it really comes down to it, CGC is the only party that will benefit.

 

Totally apart from the resubs, which could be significant if a regrade will be required, we need to get back to the restoration question, and exactly how many headaches it's given CGC. We've seen trimmed books pass by, and many sellers have bragged about slipping resto by the CGC Gods. This has hurt CGC's credibility, especially as the Resto'd Books and the PLOD have gained quite a stigma, and are highly visible.

 

So what's the obivous solution?

 

Downplay the aspect of comic book restoration, of course. Say by.... getting rid of that very noticeable Purple Label.. and maybe moving to the beautiful Blue of a Universal Label. Making restoration less visible also means that less light will shine on CGC, and in the future, maybe get rid of resto notes entirely, moving to a numerical equivalent...

 

Nah, that could never happen.

[action1kid]

joe/

 

once the change is implimented,[the new blue restored label] i will no longer be buying slabbed books and put into consideration the jason ewart thing too!

 

if they change the rules.i will be only buying raw unrestored[ONLY] from dealers that i have a track record with.

[Ghost Town]

No. A thousand times, no.

[divad]

What's the difference at this point?

[joe_collector]

Wow! It looks like the forum has spoken!

 

[Psiknight]

I guess I'll chime in on the subject.

 

Joe_Collector made a decent point in that many collectors do not want to even consider restored books. If I see a book has had any professional restoration, I pass on it...the purple label assists me with this sort of shopping. If the label was blue with the word restored on it, I'd have to spend much more time filtering through books I have no use for.

 

On the other hand I certainly think the purple label has stigmatized restored books (someone made a funny comment about a red "scarlet letter" label). There certainly is a difference between minor amateur restoration and extensive professional restoration...yet most people tend to lump them together now (due to the label difference, IMO). A lot of dealers complain that it is nearly impossible to move restored books in many cases.

 

Overall, I think the switch (which is pretty much a done deal) is a bad idea. I'm not certain it will revitalize the market and I'm positive it'll lead to more than a handful of unhappy buyers.

[PovertyRow]

Wow! It looks like the forum has spoken!

 

 

JC - do I HAVE to pull up again all your posts on thje validity of shills? You made enough of them when you were trying to defend yourself on thse boards. Heck, you even once said

 

2/8/04 - "Now I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but does it not bother people that there is no way of verified tracking or identification on the ComicLink sales? EBay sales may be somewhat anonymous, but we all know how to separate the BSD bids from the Zero shills."

 

and even further

 

1/9/04 - in response to the comment "It's the thought that someone hates you so much that they create 5 shill accounts just to make you lose a star." JC replies "Then there must be a ton of them on here"

 

Got a slew more on your opinion on the reality of shills. So why do you support the polls that appear to support you yet also admit the reality of shills?

 

I just do not get it. Oops - I forgot my Geritol. Let me take some and I will get back to you later.

[Aman619]

hey grandpa - - put a sock in it!!

 

the Geritol that is.