Has the Purple label created the dislike for restored books? 3 3

[Vixom]

Before cgc majority of collectors couldn't detect it unless it was obvious. Restored books sold for full price because the buyer had no idea they were restored. Obvious ones sold for a lot less. I love a bargain so love restored. I can remove it, do a better job, or add more. Not uncommon to find a purple label that has no restoration. 

[theCapraAegagrus]

Yes, I think that the "PLOD" has soured people on restored comic books. Nowadays, it seems that someone would rather have holes in their cover than a little bit of color touch.

Personally, I have no problems buying a quality-restored comic and sliding it into a bag and board, hopefully forgetting and/or not caring about its restored state. As long as it appears original, I am satisfied.

[skypinkblu]

On 11/13/2022 at 2:47 PM, Sauce Dog said:

The main problem with CGC 'restored labels' is that was the only catch all label right from the start. They lumped in all CONSERVATION done on a book with the restoration term. People would be disappointed with undisclosed restoration on their books, especially trimming, which brought lots of stigma to the purple label, and since CGC didn't really try to follow industry standards at the start to educate or differentiate between work done (at least not in a meaningful, clear visual way) that stigma got applied to any books with proper light conservation done to them. As I understand it Restoration is a subset of Conservation, and like was mentioned earlier are appreciated differently across hobbies. Poster collectors for example seem fine with work done on their old posters since they are meant for visual display first a foremost.

It is better now that there is a CONSERVED label, but the damage has been done and will take years before people in this hobby start to really understand the difference between the work done (we will get there, but I feel CGC hindered the clear understanding of any distinction due to how they handled labels initially)

When I got this  book originally, there was white out, some brown tape on the spine ( a lot) black marker on the tape and a stain at the top and unknown to me, the cover spine was completely split.

I had first had a very well known restorer remove the  white out and he suggested replacing  the staples with other "vintage " staples.

, I had no idea replacing the staples was an issue. I also didn't know that  the black marker on the tape would be considered resto. That had not been removed and the book came back restored. When I called and asked if I had the marker removed would it be "unrestored" and I was told no, that I'd also have to "remove " the staples, which didn't make much sense to me.

So years later since it was restored anyway, I had Ze-man (Kenny) who did a fantastic job, take off the tape and do some paper fill and color touch.

To me it was damaged to begin with and needed help to survive... so I would have loved to see it as "conserved, but I did all this before that label.

What one person thinks of as "conservation" seems to be different from what another person thinks...and there seems to be a wide difference in the books I see marked as "conserved" .

I learned a LOT about what was considered restoration at the time with that book. Having masking tape on the spine was OK, but someone drawing a line on the tape was restoration. Couldn't quite figure that one out since the line on the tape sure didn't improve the book;) 

 When I first found the eBay chatboard and learned a little more about comics than I had known as a kid who used to put silver sparkle nail polish on some of mine;) I learned about trimming.

Trimming, I was told was damage, not "restoration"  and that makes sense to me. Trimming was used to make a book look better, when it was an OK book to begin with...and was rarely, if ever disclosed. I've always thought that TRIMMING needed a separate label, it's never going to help a book survive and in most cases I'm pretty sure it's not disclosed.

Some amateur restoration done by children I found charming...it reminded me of my nail polish days...after all, these were once "toys", but the price difference in the books is high enough that I can understand removing it if you want to sell. You can't really do that with a book like this Action, but why a book with some obvious water based paint put on the cover by a kid is worth 25% of a book without that, doesn't quite match up for me, However,  it is why we see books with terrible scraping damage being sold as "universal".

Personally, I'd rather have the book with the paint if it's a scarce book, than huge white scratches.

Here is the "before" of my book.

[Black_Adam]

I have no problem adding keys to my collection with restoration as long as the comics are priced accordingly (my usual rule is 50% of the same grade in blue). However, I do not consider trimming acceptable restoration and would never knowingly buy a trimmed book. Color touch is fine - as a previous poster mentioned, I would rather have an almost unnoticeable (by design) bit of color touch on a cover than a big black sig. And tear seals to my mind are more conservation than restoration. Here is one pretty purple I recently added to my own collection at a great price. 

 

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 11/15/2022 at 11:08 AM, Black_Adam said:

However, I do not consider trimming acceptable restoration and would never knowingly buy a trimmed book.

I am generally against the idea of trimming, but if I can't stop it from happening, I'm not going to hold it against the book so long as it doesn't distract from the cover or story.

[Black_Adam]

I'd also like to appeal to anyone considering buying a purple label to NOT buy it in the hope of getting resto removal and flipping it as a blue label. Resto removal almost always involves defacing the cover by cutting or scraping away the restoration and inevitably results in a comic with far less eye appeal than prior to the "improvement." 

[PeterPark]

I've gotten great copies of Crime Reporter 2 and Amazing Ghost Stories 14 for very cheap, considering the prices of Universal copies, and all because they had restoration to the back cover.

[Qalyar]

On 11/15/2022 at 11:44 AM, Black_Adam said:

I'd also like to appeal to anyone considering buying a purple label to NOT buy it in the hope of getting resto removal and flipping it as a blue label. Resto removal almost always involves defacing the cover by cutting or scraping away the restoration and inevitably results in a comic with far less eye appeal than prior to the "improvement." 

Yeah, I'm no fan of "restoration removal". Part of the reason why "restoration" (as opposed to conservation) is bad is that it is irreversible. Pretending that you can reverse the irreversible with a razor blade and a pair of scissors does a disservice to everyone, and to the book.

[skypinkblu]

On 11/15/2022 at 1:20 PM, Qalyar said:

Yeah, I'm no fan of "restoration removal". Part of the reason why "restoration" (as opposed to conservation) is bad is that it is irreversible. Pretending that you can reverse the irreversible with a razor blade and a pair of scissors does a disservice to everyone, and to the book.

I've taken off some obviously clumped water based paint with a  q-tip and a tiny bit of water, but I know what water based paint looks like, many people don't. You can't remove paint that is not water based without other tools or chemicals.  I bought this book a few years ago and didn't realize from the scan what they had done.

I was seriously thinking of just keeping my lower grade copy when I unwrapped this one. It also reminded me that I think resto REMOVAL should be noted by the graders.