Suspicious Double-Stapling on this Amazing Spider-Man #194 1 1

[Skwerl]

So, it's a year later, and we have an answer.

I sold this to a buddy awhile back. I of course pointed out the stapling issue and my concerns. But he was cool with it, and sent it into CGC. Came back a 7.5 universal, with the extra staples noted on the label.

 

[Dick Pontoon]

Thanks for the followup!

 

Do you wish you'd kept the book now? Did you sell and get another copy?

[gadzukes]

I've had about 8 of this particular flaw in my collecting life.

And it's always frustrating because I feel like if you submit to CGC they will automatically assume you've married the cover.

I found a TTA 27 with this flaw and decided to sell it raw.  In my description I stated it was a production flaw and NOT a married cover, but..... it still held the price down.

Frustrating

It's good to see CGC recognized the Spidey 194 as a manufacturing flaw.

Edited February 5, 2022 by gadzukes

[djzombi]

I just recently acquired a raw book with this exact error.  I wasn't aware of it when I bought it, but discovered it while grading it for my personal collection.  I thought it was such a bizarre curiosity that the interior would have went though the stapler, then AGAIN with a cover on it.  It made no sense to me how this could happen at the printer.  

[Skwerl]

On 2/5/2022 at 5:58 AM, Pontoon said:

Thanks for the followup!

 

Do you wish you'd kept the book now? Did you sell and get another copy?

Yeah, I bought a graded 7.0 a little while after selling it. And man, this one's really been heating up lately. But it was always one of my favorite books. Honeslty, seeing that my buddy got a blue label and the grade I had called it was just a relief, and that outweighed any jealousy I had. I didn't want to gamble with it. He did, and I'm glad it worked out for him. I also have a weird thing where I prefer x.0 grades for my PC. I know it makes absolutely no sense, but I like the look of a 6.0 on the label over a 6.5, or a 7.0 over a 7.5. I've sold a couple 8.5 slabs to keep an 8.0 of the book for the PC. I know I'm insane, but at least it saves me some money and grief. If it came back an 8.0 though, yeah, I'd be a tiny bit salty, haha.

[Stronguy]

It's not all that uncommon.  In the manufacturing process you will have extra covers and extra stapled interiors laying around.  Since the printer was paid by the unit they would oftentimes manually assemble those remainders in order to fill their quota.

[Kevin76]

You have to remember, Comics back then were printed differently back then. The covers and insides were printed separately, sometimes the covers were printed at a different location!  

Ever notice the cover isn't newsprint stock?  That's why. 

Anyway, The covers were manually assembled with the insides (called the guts)  and people would assemble the book on separate stitcher machines. Someone could have stitched the book only to realize no cover was on it and the restitched it to add the cover.  Don't know for sure to be 100% but it's a possibility.  I think CGC got it right.    

[Kevin76]

On 2/7/2022 at 12:25 PM, Stronguy said:

It's not all that uncommon.  In the manufacturing process you will have extra covers and extra stapled interiors laying around.  Since the printer was paid by the unit they would oftentimes manually assemble those remainders in order to fill their quota.

Printers sell ink and paper with the paper being the biggest cost which is sold by the pound. When I was in printing, the GM said that for every bundle of books (newspaper flyers) that they wanted to make $14 profit. It basically cost around 3 cents to print each Sunday flyer insert, this was about 3-4 years ago. As long as we printed up what we needed and all the skids weighed up, we were good to go as far as count. The idea is to not print more than what we really need. Just prayed we didn't have a skid come back short after we took the plates off.  

[silverseeker]

I purchased a Strange Tales #104 CGC 7.0 last year, and when I cracked it out I discovered it had two extra staples just like this book...

Unlike this book, the extra staples were not noted on the label.