Who's guilty of color touch? 1 1

[Wonderfulnews]

While playfully auguring with a fellow collector about whether slabbing is "right" or "wrong" I mentioned that according to the census that often 5% + of key books have restoration and having a 3rd party validate the book is free of restoration is quite valuable. We both agreed that restoration is a bummer, was generally done in a selfish attempt to increase the value of the book, trick an unsuspecting buyer/collector and that it sadly devalues the book for most collectors. We figured that many/most of the books cgc has designated as restored had to include color touch. This amounts to 1000s and 1000s of books! I was pretty shocked at these numbers. Who are the guilty parties? I don't really know the history of this topic but became very curious after buying and returning a book that had CT upon close inspection (MS 5). Thoughts? Stories? BTW - I've never ct'ed anything aside from my graying beard :)

[thehumantorch]

There was a point, say  early 1980s when restoring books would increase the value of the books.  That’s why you can find restored GA books from pedigrees like Mike High.  
 

but I think the vast majority of trimmed and amateur color touch was done by anyone trying to increase the appearance and value of a book without disclosure.  A local shop in town for instance trimmed many of the books they sold.  I was really bummed when my Daredevil 6 came back 9.4 trimmed

[Wonderfulnews]

There must have been a few people or stores that did a ton of ct and whatnot over the years given the qty. Just seems so incredibly greedy and selfish to do it and to think stores were involved blows my mind. They must have thought no one would ever know. Maybe there should be restoration pedigrees! 

[Hulksdaddy1]

People forget that a lot of people touched up their books back in the day because they wanted them to look nice. For themselves. Nothing nefarious about it.

That said, I've never done it. I've always been an original condition guy.

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

In approximately 1986 I purchased a collection of A S-M that at that time were readers, some still are, numbering issues 85 to 158. Several of them, and I knew it prior to purchase, had "color touch" of the blue and/or black ink ball point pen variety. It was and still is funny in that the original owner, whom I purchased from, informed me that he had "color touched" them to make them look better for sale. I love that! He was not a comic book collector and, I will add, a good person despite his comic book () desecration.

[lostboys]

FINE ! ... I used a Sharpie to touch up a very thin crease line on the top corner of my Spawn #95.

[Sauce Dog]

I only dabbled a little with CT as I was exploring restoration/conservation projects as I learned...I wasn't really into it and figured it best to leave that sort of thing to the pros.

I did however 'invent' the most dumb bonkers non-restorative way to color touch a book...seriously! What I did was I took a piece of tape and only exposed a small part of the adhesive side (blocking the rest off with plastic cut to the desired shape) and then placing it over a junk book with the color I wanted...I would then lift the tape back off, lifting the color, and then I would place the tape on another book to line up the color/gloss over an area I wanted to color fill. It honestly looked great as it meant the era specific inks, dot patterns and paper gloss all matched very well and ended up looking invisible (other than now having tape, which CGC would ignore on lower grade books)     Yes, this is the most bonkers joke way to CT a book and you should all to do it now to get those amazing universal labels 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Sauce Dog

[Wonderfulnews]

On 5/23/2023 at 10:57 AM, Hulksdaddy1 said:

People forget that a lot of people touched up their books back in the day because they wanted them to look nice. For themselves. Nothing nefarious about it.

That said, I've never done it. I've always been an original condition guy.

I'm sure that there were some folks that touched up their own books for their own enjoyment but I don't see that being a lions share of the CT that is out there. Example being that according to the census 21% of IH 1 books have some level of restoration. Similarly early Spidey keys are in the 20% range as well.  That's pretty crazy and makes me think that it was more rampant among pros then I originally expected. 

[JollyComics]

N00bers are striking back!

[KCOComics]

There are a couple of known Ebayers who color touch and trim hundreds of colors a year. They usually disclose the restoration, all be it in small writing in the description. 

In the 80s it was a fairly common practice. There were ads taken out in overstreet about beautifying your Comics

It's been a big a part of the hobby for as long as it's been a hobby.  Identifying restoration, in my opinion, is the single greatest thing CGC brought to the market.  

If people are going to spend big money on comic books, they want to know exactly what they are getting! And if you go back to 1995, the pool of buyers who really understood how to identify restoration was very small. But CGC opened that door to everyone.  It really changed the hobby for the better. 

 

[Wonderfulnews]

 

On 5/26/2023 at 9:54 AM, KCOComics said:

There are a couple of known Ebayers who color touch and trim hundreds of colors a year. They usually disclose the restoration, all be it in small writing in the description. 

In the 80s it was a fairly common practice. There were ads taken out in overstreet about beautifying your Comics

It's been a big a part of the hobby for as long as it's been a hobby.  Identifying restoration, in my opinion, is the single greatest thing CGC brought to the market.  

If people are going to spend big money on comic books, they want to know exactly what they are getting! And if you go back to 1995, the pool of buyers who really understood how to identify restoration was very small. But CGC opened that door to everyone.  It really changed the hobby for the better. 

 

Thanks KCOComics for that intel. Really interesting and I had no idea. Agree that the restoration is CGC's biggest contribution or value add to me as a collector. 

[Nick Furious]

On 5/23/2023 at 10:57 AM, Hulksdaddy1 said:

People forget that a lot of people touched up their books back in the day because they wanted them to look nice. For themselves. Nothing nefarious about it.

I think there was a time when it was just another way of getting enjoyment out of being a collector.  Some people discarded or gave away comics after reading them, some people kept them and continued to tinker with them by trying to make them look nicer.  There were a lot of slow TV nights for kids back in the day.  Coloring in a crease line and flattening comics with encyclopedias was something to do.  

[aardvark88]

On 5/27/2023 at 8:57 AM, Nick Furious said:

 Coloring in a crease line and flattening comics with encyclopedias was something to do.  

Plus using Lepage school white glue to affix those loose covers onto their square spines. There have also been misdiagnosed color touch on GA DC covers, as the red and blue inks were thick on those covers and may slightly wash off during a cover conservation treatment.

[Yorick]

I used a sharpie on a water-logged color-lost black cover silver age DC (Adventure 312).  I only got a little way into it, and decided the sharpie was too expensive to waste anymore ink.    If I find it, I'll take a picture.

I do have a few books that I want a pro to work on though.  Paper needs care if it is going to outlive us.