I think I'm going to have to start learning to press books because...217 working days ~10.5 months is too long to wait for books to be pressed with uncertain results 7 7

[Sillydiabetic]

On 2/25/2022 at 1:35 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

Sometimes you have to sell roadkill....as roadkill.  You can’t polish every turd.

 

Heck, I don’t stop to pick up roadkill!

[justafan]

On 2/25/2022 at 3:35 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

Sometimes you have to sell roadkill....as roadkill.  You can’t polish every turd.

 

So I've been polishing some turds lately and here's some results.  Nothing major but just perfecting the craft. 

ASM #5 unknown comics variant. purchased at shows which is where I like to buy higher priced raw books for being able to verify condition. However, at this time it was late on Friday and rushed through the inspection of the books I was buying.  When I got home here I find a ding at the top left front cover corner that propagated all the way to the back cover.  It also could have happened as I put it in its protective box and shoved into my overcrowded suitcase.  In the past I would have just had to eat it and hunt for a better copy.  But with some elbow grease and refined pressing techniques I saved myself another $10-15 and more time spent looking for a better copy.

The annoying defect: NCB spine corner bend that propagated through the comic.

Before                                                                             After

 

Before                                                                            After

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by justafan
reload to accept images.

[Dr. Balls]

On 2/18/2022 at 8:37 AM, MetalPSI said:

No, doing the type of menial work, most likely warehouse type shipping/recieving, sorting, filing, data entry.....thats all minimum wage stuff 

Its the CULTURE that is fostered by upper management that makes or breaks employees. 

If you are able to make an employee enjoy what they do, they are happy and productive. 

Money isn't the be all, end all to happiness.

 

On 2/18/2022 at 9:56 AM, darkstar said:

You sound like an HR shill

The culture of everyone demonizing every vocation as a banal workaday existence is one of the worst things that our society has been subjected to, thanks to social media. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in your job - regardless of what it is - getting paid and enjoying your life. With 98% of teenagers thinking that they will grow up to be "influencers" who is going to be left to check your order in, press your book or pack it up and send it back to you five years from now? When social media brainwashes such a gigantic portion of society that your life is meaningless unless you are pursuing your "life's dreams" or a "job that makes your heart sing" - we are in trouble.

I don't know about the culture of work life at CGC, but I imagine it's not like working in a meat packing plant in the 1920s. Its a sad day when the comment the likes of "money isn't everything" is met with derision and disbelief.

[darkstar]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:04 AM, Dr. Balls said:

 

The culture of everyone demonizing every vocation as a banal workaday existence is one of the worst things that our society has been subjected to, thanks to social media. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in your job - regardless of what it is - getting paid and enjoying your life. With 98% of teenagers thinking that they will grow up to be "influencers" who is going to be left to check your order in, press your book or pack it up and send it back to you five years from now? When social media brainwashes such a gigantic portion of society that your life is meaningless unless you are pursuing your "life's dreams" or a "job that makes your heart sing" - we are in trouble.

I don't know about the culture of work life at CGC, but I imagine it's not like working in a meat packing plant in the 1920s. Its a sad day when the comment the likes of "money isn't everything" is met with derision and disbelief.

The derision directed at metalpsi is the result of his middle management corporate nonsense post that is used when paying people a non-livable wage. Money, who needs it? We'll make working here fun for you and that's all that matters, right? GTFO here with that. 

The only people that write trite garbage like this:

"Money isn't the be all, end all to happiness."

Are the people that have never been without it. 

[justafan]

Some more ASM v6 #2 regular cover.  I didn't really check condition for books under $3 so this one slipped by my eyes as well. Very disappointed when I got it home and looked at it. I would have been content with just moving on and grabbing another better copy at another time but this defect made for a good practice as it had some very deep and sharply indented defects that are hard to show in addition to the 3/4" bend.  I used higher heat and pressure for this than the others.

Defect: light NCB bend to the Top Right Front Cover corner that propagates through the book to the back cover. Small sharp creasing lines at TRFC corner

Front Cover

Before                                                                                                                      After                                                               

 

Inside Front Cover

Before                                                                                                           After

 

Back Cover

Before                                                                                                        After

 

The rest of the interior pages had a similar Non-Color Break bend as the Top Left Back Cover page above and all interior pages no longer show the bend.  Though if you look close enough you can almost see the faint outline of where the bend used to be on the After photo but only when zoomed in like this with light at the right angle. Perhaps another round in the press would remove even the slightest trace but for now I will leave it to see if any reversion occurs.

[Dr. Balls]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:58 AM, darkstar said:

The only people that write trite garbage like this:

"Money isn't the be all, end all to happiness."

Are the people that have never been without it. 

I can appreciate that some people feel that way, but I believe that feeling comes from a misplaced desire or priority. And this isn't going to be some Old Man River lecture about prioritizing ones' finances. To live your life thinking that money is what will make you happy - and that not having as much as you'd like makes you miserable - sounds dreary.

Every person has a different perspective, but mine is that spending your life looking for the big score instead of enjoying the time we are here is a waste of a perfectly good life. And honestly, if we're all talking on a message board about comic books - all of us likely have the opportunity to have a great life outside of our work despite how much or how little we make.

I'm not going to stick up for corporations that say those thing - I agree with you to that extent. But it's not up to the corporations to make us happy, that's up to us - and there's a lot of people in the world who treat people with respect in every kind of job, you just don't hear about it because that goes against the narrative of making everyone miserable.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Dr. Balls
Trimming down the wall of text

[MetalPSI]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:58 AM, darkstar said:

The derision directed at metalpsi is the result of his middle management corporate nonsense post that is used when paying people a non-livable wage. Money, who needs it? We'll make working here fun for you and that's all that matters, right? GTFO here with that. 

The only people that write trite garbage like this:

"Money isn't the be all, end all to happiness."

Are the people that have never been without it. 

I grew up on the wrong side of the poverty line

You want to be bitter and resentful, thats your prerogative 

I grew up being told, Get on with a good company and they'll take care of you

This turned out to be a total lie, and at least 20 "career" changes later, I'm STILL switching it up, and taking the jobs I want based on my personal criteria.

Simply put, you want something, you work for it. Doesn't mean you have to be miserable doing it

Not making enough? Find some place that pays more.

Don't have the skillset? Get it

Or, you know, just chafe at people who have more experience than you

[MetalPSI]

You better learn to play the guitar

You better learn, to bang them drums

 

[KingOfRulers]

I've been pressing comics for 15 years. I started out pressing just my own books that I was flipping, but quickly began offering the service commercially. At the time, I'd say the average dealer and collector didn't know what pressing was. There were constant flame wars on the topic of pressing here on the CGC boards, but outside of this community it was was pretty much unknown. Nowadays, it's common knowledge within the hobby. It seems as though every raw comic book is priced with FOMO (fear of missing out) in mind. People hear fabled success stories of getting mega-keys pressed from a 9.0 to a 9.6 and getting wealthy in the process.

Unfortunately, while the existence of pressing is common knowledge and common practice, many people are still fairly ignorant about what pressing can and cannot do. Some books can benefit immensely from a press, while others might only benefit minimally, or not at all. And then there's some where a press might do more harm than good; if the book is very fragile in some way. This ignorance of which books are quality pressing candidates mixed with FOMO/salivating over hitting some magic grade where the value of the given book skyrockets, has led to two things: 1) often unrealistic expectations of their own books and 2) press everything.

I don't mind pressing everything for a client, if they understand what they're asking for. It's more income for me! However, I have on many occasions been baffled by the books clients will send me for pressing. Books that clearly (at least to my professional eyes), cannot be improved enough to make paying me to press it worthwhile. Not to mention the additional costs of CGC grading and shipping. Whenever I receive such submissions, I'll reach out to the client and let them know my thoughts on the books. I'll advise them against pressing and grading, but more often then not, they still want to stay the course. Perhaps the huge amount of books being submitted for pressing and grading, that probably shouldn't be submitted for either, are what's causing so many slowdowns in services.

[seanlinc]

I'm with you. I bought a press a few weeks ago and have been experimenting ever since. I just didn't see I was getting much from ccs for the cost as I still got dinged for creases on several books. I'll put together a small submission with books I've worked on soon to test the results.

[justafan]

On 10/27/2022 at 9:24 AM, seanlinc said:

I'm with you. I bought a press a few weeks ago and have been experimenting ever since. I just didn't see I was getting much from ccs for the cost as I still got dinged for creases on several books. I'll put together a small submission with books I've worked on soon to test the results.

This is the way.

Keep at it and dont get discouraged. Dont be afraid to try different techniques and make mistakes as long as u learn from them and do them on cheap common books first.  Try different presses too. Ive got 3 now for different methods and always experimenting with new approaches. Im loving the results im getting for my own books so far. And i like to think im helping to alleviate the CCS and Joeys pressing queue by pressing my own drek books.

I dont think ill ever want to do this as a business as it becomes tedious and repetitive but it is far more economical for me to press my $1-$50 books than sending them off. I will stick with the pros for the specialized and really high dollar stuff.

[NoMan]

On 1/19/2022 at 10:56 PM, justafan said:

TLDR: professional pressing services are taking too damned long and may have quality control issues to where I could probably learn and do it myself in the time it would take for the current TATs.  Offered up free labor and legal agreement not to disclose the secret sauce if allowed to use knowledge learned to work on personal collection books only in my home.

I'm not even sure this is a business CGC wants to be in as its just insane to have to wait that long or even 2/3 of that time with fast track.  CGC is almost begging customers to go elsewhere to have their modern comics pressed.  It's not that I don't want to pay the fees or shipping or use an existing service, but to have to wait more than a month for a book to be pressed is not really a turn around time, it's now a free storage company.  A collector/dealer with limited storage space could ship their entire backstock of books and schedule them for a pre-screen and press and have the books sit for 6 months to 1 year before any service is performed and then still be able to cancel all orders and have them returned back to them for just the price of shipping.

All the really well known pressing pros are backed up.  Even such that I feel quality control is beginning to suffer as they balance rushing to meet TATs and providing a good service.  I received a book back from CGC post press last year on one of the quicker TATs that still had some easily pressable non-color break bends on the back cover.   Honestly I feel like I just need to go apprentice and work for free as a sweat shop laborer at one of the pressing masters for 6 months to learn the trade, buy the gear, and then set up my own personal pressing studio just for my own comics.  I'd even be willing to sign a non-compete agreement and NDA just to be able to press my own books.  I've been hired for my ability to keep secrets so there's that.  Any pressing masters in the DC VA area looking for an extra helper? 

If I had started doing that last year when I shipped my books to CGC, I'd probably have already learned how to clean and press my books and had them done by now.  I know there's a bunch of resources on the web which I may have to resort to making do with.  I also can't stand a rushed job.  I'm at the point where I've lost faith in the quality of the press that one can expect when a service is not personalized.  Some pressers will do due diligence but at the end of the day, they don't always have the time to troubleshoot your press job on a random low value modern comic that you paid the modern tier for when they have thousands of higher value books waiting for a press.  I get that there's some defects that revert and paper has memory sometimes with some bends and continuing to work the page may lead to damage but at least I can identify that for myself in a timely fashion and make a decision on whether or not it should be submitted for grading and not have to wait a year to find out.

Hence, why I feel we've hit the point where the demand for the typical service has exceeded the cost/value ratio.  As such, I feel even if I have to venture these murky and cryptic waters of pressing on my own using the internet and what help I find along the way and reinvent the wheel in terms of technique and art through trial and error, at least I will be further along to getting my books pressed than where my submission is currently.  Don't worry, I will still plan on using the pros for the rare, really delicate, and super high dollar books in my collection.  It's just the typical $10-$100 modern that could become a 9.8 book if its defects press out are what I'm mainly focusing on.

dang, I wrote a wall of text.

 

On 1/19/2022 at 10:56 PM, justafan said:

TLDR: professional pressing services are taking too damned long and may have quality control issues to where I could probably learn and do it myself in the time it would take for the current TATs.  Offered up free labor and legal agreement not to disclose the secret sauce if allowed to use knowledge learned to work on personal collection books only in my home.

I'm not even sure this is a business CGC wants to be in as its just insane to have to wait that long or even 2/3 of that time with fast track.  CGC is almost begging customers to go elsewhere to have their modern comics pressed.  It's not that I don't want to pay the fees or shipping or use an existing service, but to have to wait more than a month for a book to be pressed is not really a turn around time, it's now a free storage company.  A collector/dealer with limited storage space could ship their entire backstock of books and schedule them for a pre-screen and press and have the books sit for 6 months to 1 year before any service is performed and then still be able to cancel all orders and have them returned back to them for just the price of shipping.

All the really well known pressing pros are backed up.  Even such that I feel quality control is beginning to suffer as they balance rushing to meet TATs and providing a good service.  I received a book back from CGC post press last year on one of the quicker TATs that still had some easily pressable non-color break bends on the back cover.   Honestly I feel like I just need to go apprentice and work for free as a sweat shop laborer at one of the pressing masters for 6 months to learn the trade, buy the gear, and then set up my own personal pressing studio just for my own comics.  I'd even be willing to sign a non-compete agreement and NDA just to be able to press my own books.  I've been hired for my ability to keep secrets so there's that.  Any pressing masters in the DC VA area looking for an extra helper? 

If I had started doing that last year when I shipped my books to CGC, I'd probably have already learned how to clean and press my books and had them done by now.  I know there's a bunch of resources on the web which I may have to resort to making do with.  I also can't stand a rushed job.  I'm at the point where I've lost faith in the quality of the press that one can expect when a service is not personalized.  Some pressers will do due diligence but at the end of the day, they don't always have the time to troubleshoot your press job on a random low value modern comic that you paid the modern tier for when they have thousands of higher value books waiting for a press.  I get that there's some defects that revert and paper has memory sometimes with some bends and continuing to work the page may lead to damage but at least I can identify that for myself in a timely fashion and make a decision on whether or not it should be submitted for grading and not have to wait a year to find out.

Hence, why I feel we've hit the point where the demand for the typical service has exceeded the cost/value ratio.  As such, I feel even if I have to venture these murky and cryptic waters of pressing on my own using the internet and what help I find along the way and reinvent the wheel in terms of technique and art through trial and error, at least I will be further along to getting my books pressed than where my submission is currently.  Don't worry, I will still plan on using the pros for the rare, really delicate, and super high dollar books in my collection.  It's just the typical $10-$100 modern that could become a 9.8 book if its defects press out are what I'm mainly focusing on.

dang, I wrote a wall of text.

Pressing is restoration and you shouldn’t be doing it to begin with. 

[MetalPSI]

On 10/28/2022 at 12:52 AM, NoMan said:

 

Pressing is restoration and you shouldn’t be doing it to begin with. 

 

[NoMan]

On 10/27/2022 at 11:54 PM, MetalPSI said:

 

It’s not a game. Stop with the damn squishing books to death. You know how damn hard it is to find a key to complete a run that isn’t pressed and smooshed in an effort grab another couple of dollars. 

[MetalPSI]

On 10/28/2022 at 12:58 AM, NoMan said:

It’s not a game. Stop with the damn squishing books to death. You know how damn hard it is to find a key to complete a run that isn’t pressed and smooshed in an effort grab another couple of dollars. 

I'd say, in the past 5 years, I seriously doubt I've bought a graded book that hadn't been pressed 

[NoMan]

On 10/27/2022 at 11:59 PM, MetalPSI said:

I'd say, in the past 5 years, I seriously doubt I've bought a graded book that hadn't been pressed 

Seriously!  It makes me want to eat out of the cat’s litter box. 

[MetalPSI]

On 10/28/2022 at 1:00 AM, NoMan said:

Seriously!  It makes me want to eat out of the cat’s litter box. 

Well.......that's honestly the most insane thing I've read in awhile

Kudos, cause I read rantings all the time

 

[KingOfRulers]

Here's a selection of some before and after pressing I've done. It's a nice feeling when the book is in such bad shape, that it feels as though it was rescued. The Superman #6 specifically would've only gotten worse if not pressed.

 

 

[MAR1979]

On 2/18/2022 at 10:37 AM, MetalPSI said:

No, doing the type of menial work, most likely warehouse type shipping/recieving, sorting, filing, data entry.....thats all minimum wage stuff 

Its the CULTURE that is fostered by upper management that makes or breaks employees. 

If you are able to make an employee enjoy what they do, they are happy and productive. 

Money isn't the be all, end all to happiness.

Agreed but that becomes a trite and vile cliche for good reason to those who may not make their rising rent or who are down to only instant ramen being their primary dietary component.

In the 90s I worked for a firm who stated there was more about working than the money as an excuse for a tiny contract increase.

3 weeks later i was an employee at new firm where i was happy and well compensated. I just got the "gold watch" for my 25th year. However the happiness did fade 18 years back, but the income did not and allowed me to buy a ton of OA and other stuff over the years.

Life aint anywhere near perfect but not having to worry about having the dough to pay taxes on my mortgage free home nor worry about my next meal is priceless. like it or not the benjamins are the most important factor for most workers. 

Edited October 28, 2022 by MAR1979

[MetalPSI]

On 10/28/2022 at 10:22 AM, MAR1979 said:

Agreed but that becomes a trite and vile cliche for good reason to those who may not make their rising rent or who are down to only instant ramen being their primary dietary component.

In the 90s I worked for a firm who stated there was more about working than the money as an excuse for a tiny contract increase.

3 weeks later i was an employee at new firm where i was happy and well compensated. I just got the "gold watch" for my 25th year. However the happiness did fade 18 years back, but the income did not and allowed me to buy a ton of OA and other stuff over the years.

Life aint anywhere near perfect but not having to worry about having the dough to pay taxes on my mortgage free home nor worry about my next meal is priceless. like it or not the benjamins are the most important factor for most workers. 

Of course it is. I've changed jobs countless times and the factor has always been more money

The complaint I was addressing is that people rather sit in their parents basement than have a job because of their expectations 

I worked 3 jobs for 2 years at one point to pay my bills

As my later post states, don't like the job, find another. Not qualified for the job you have? Get it

Doing practically anything at all is better than sitting on your hands and doing nothing. You aren't going to be satisfied until you reach the level you want, but always, you have to WORK for it

Even if it means working somewhere you don't want to

I've never worked at a place and been completely content, its the reason my resume is long and varied

Weird though, I've ALWAYS been able to find work. There is always a job nobody wants to do, especially these days. Its pretty much the same as finding money on the ground