How much does water damage affect a comic books value? 1 1

[Silver Fox 7037]

Old time collector here - all with raw comic books I collected before CGC was formed.  I am new to this forum and wanted please ask for some guidance!

How much does water damage affect the grade?  On the surface this iron man # 1 looks good, but has water damage on the right hand corner of each page!

2 questions:

-how much does this affect the value? 

-Can this be restored? If so will it have a purple label (likely!)

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[marvelmaniac]

Welcome To The Boards!!!

I have been collecting since 1979 and all of my books (2000, except 1 graded Book) are also Raw.

From what you are showing this book not only has water damage and due to this it appears that the pages in those areas have become brittle and are falling apart to the touch.

A book is graded on it's entirety, however, brittle pages and staining are a killer, with just a quick glance at your photo's, this book appears to be in FN 6.0 range without the water damage/brittleness, with the damage, I do not see this book grading higher than a GD 2.0, possibly lower if the damage gets worse.

As far as repair, it would have been easier to repair the damage had it been caught when it happened and dried properly, as it is, with the pages becoming brittle and stained, it would require restoration to repair the issue which would probably be costly and not worth the effort on this book. (Yes I know this books value in low grade is in the $300.00 - $400.00 range)

Everything I see online only talks about drying/repairing water damage as it happens, not after the water has dried and damaged the pages. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of conservation/restoration will chime in.

Page Quality By Grade.

PR 0.5 - Paper exhibits moderate to severe brittleness (where the comic book literally falls apart when examined).

FR 1.0 - Paper is brown and may show brittleness around the edges but not in the central portion of the pages

FR/GD 1.5 - Paper is brown and may show brittleness around the edges.

GD 2.0 - VG 4.0  Paper is brown but not brittle.

VG/FN 5.0 - Paper is tan to brown with no signs of brittleness.

FN 6.0 - Paper is tan to brown and fairly supple with no signs of brittleness.

 

 

 

[zzutak]

On 8/4/2023 at 9:11 PM, Silver Fox 7037 said:

How much does water damage affect the grade?

That all depends on (1) the extent of the moisture staining and (2) the "otherwise" condition of the book (which can't even be guessed at without a decent scan/pic of the back cover).  If you'd like to get some estimates of condition grade, feel free to launch a thread in the PGM/Spare-A-Grade Forum (but do your best to follow the General Guidelines).  Welcome to the Boards! 

[Pantodude]

I don't see any brittleness, and the interior page quality looks pretty good, so not sure why someone is discussing worst case scenario as if your pix warranted it.  If it's just that quite small right top corner stain throughout book (and rest of book was not ever submerged in water), I expect a significantly higher grade than 2.0, and CGC will note presence of some water damage to the corner of whole book.  Nice book!

[joeypost]

Water damage is one of the worst things that can happen to a comic. It often leads to the paper deteriorating, rust forming at the staples and mold, if not dried out properly. 

[newshane]

I personally avoid water damage at all costs...unless it was some sort of extremely rare golden age...even then. 

[The Lions Den]

On 8/5/2023 at 12:11 AM, Silver Fox 7037 said:

Old time collector here - all with raw comic books I collected before CGC was formed.  I am new to this forum and wanted please ask for some guidance!

How much does water damage affect the grade?  On the surface this iron man # 1 looks good, but has water damage on the right hand corner of each page!

2 questions:

-how much does this affect the value? 

-Can this be restored? If so will it have a purple label (likely!)

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

My best guess is that this would grade somewhere in the Very Good range...  

[The-Collector]

On 8/6/2023 at 10:40 PM, Pantodude said:

I don't see any brittleness, and the interior page quality looks pretty good, so not sure why someone is discussing worst case scenario as if your pix warranted it.  If it's just that quite small right top corner stain throughout book (and rest of book was not ever submerged in water), I expect a significantly higher grade than 2.0, and CGC will note presence of some water damage to the corner of whole book.  Nice book!

Ditto. No brittleness I can see. The book is laid open and the pages look tanned but supple (though that's hard to tell from the pics). Interior staining will drop the grade a lot. however, 2.0 is harsh imo. No back cover scan so I can only throw out a wild guess but this book looks VG-ish to me. 

[evilskip]

VG from what I can tell.