What Is Happening With The Ewert Trimmed Books?

[jonjesper]

Could always donate them to the school library where I teach? Good press and a nice way to end a bad situation!

[Scheradon]

Let's see...

 

CGC PLODS the book.

Brulato refunds the buyer.

CGC then returns the book to Brulato.

Ewart refunds Brulato.

Brulato returns the book to Ewart.

Ewart cracks the PLOD.

Ewart re-sells the book as Unrestored to some dupe.

Dupe unaware, submits book to CGC.

CGC misses the unannouced microtrimming and gives it the ol' Blue Label.

Book shows up on eBay.

Someone here recognizes it and posts it here.

Welcome to the next estorm.

 

, maybe they should just keep them as training tools for spotting future restoration. I think it's just too risky having them out there on the open market. If I were CGC, I'm not sure I'd want to risk some form of the above scenario.

[Red Hook]

You forgot the part where Jason sells the book to Aardvarkps.

[ronm3-migration]

I thought Ewert and Brulato were tied in together? If not than why would Brulato pay people back?

[Mr. Zipper]

With Steve Borock's permission, here is his response to me in a PM:

 

We would never trash any comics, that would be worse than trimming them. As of this moment, we are just holding them. I would love to give them to an orphanage or something like that. Imagine being a little kid and getting a Green Lantern # 77 for free. Just not sure what to do with them yet, but they will never be destroyed by CGC.

[Guest]

I think collectors of the ultra-high grade material just need to accept that there are some cat turds in the sandbox they're playing in and there's just no way to sift them out.

 

The man's a veritable poet of his times...'cat turd in the sandbox' beautiful, dude.

 

And the sentiment is all too correct, someone would try and pick and up and palm them off for the full potiential (untrimmed) value within a heart beat of them returning to the market.

[mrwoogieman]

I think collectors of the ultra-high grade material just need to accept that there are some cat turds in the sandbox they're playing in and there's just no way to sift them out.

 

The man's a veritable poet of his times...'cat turd in the sandbox' beautiful, dude.

 

And the sentiment is all too correct, someone would try and pick and up and palm them off for the full potiential (untrimmed) value within a heart beat of them returning to the market.

 

Why thank you Mr. Pym.

 

It's too late to close the corral gate, the horses already ran off. Anyone who thinks that CGC is going to gather them all back up is in dream land. My guess, they'll get less than 20% of the micro-trimmed books out of circulation.

[Guest]

It's too late to close the corral gate, the horses already ran off. Anyone who thinks that CGC is going to gather them all back up is in dream land. My guess, they'll get less than 20% of the micro-trimmed books out of circulation.

 

True, but thats when we turn around and thank CGC for picking up the trimmed books that they do.

Irrespective of various peoples feelings towards CGC, my own have always waxed, and waned. But what they do pick up is still inifinitely better than poor Joe bloggs standing there on the convention floor trying to determine whether what he's potentially about to buy is the genuine article.

Yes, the true figure of trimmed books out there against trimmed picked up could be disasterously low, but basically...what CGC is contributing is alot better than previous comicdom standards centered around each inidividuals experience in detecting trimmed/doctored books.

I have serious collector friends who simply 100% don't touch high grade silver age Marvel, because they're been burnt by trimming. We have one dealer who did it post CGC, and he got caught.

There's one quote from the whole Ewart saga that has stuck in my head.. 'if it looks to good to be true, it probably is'. That tells us he was the only one doing this practice on mass, no one else (individual) has come close to the height of his reputation before the scandal broke. If it is happening elsewhere, and yes it probably is, is it happening on a scale that is concerning??

[Red Hook]

I think collectors of the ultra-high grade material just need to accept that there are some cat turds in the sandbox they're playing in and there's just no way to sift them out.

 

That's not the attitude we take around here, Mr. Woog!

 

[Zonker]

With Steve Borock's permission, here is his response to me in a PM:

 

We would never trash any comics, that would be worse than trimming them. As of this moment, we are just holding them. I would love to give them to an orphanage or something like that. Imagine being a little kid and getting a Green Lantern # 77 for free. Just not sure what to do with them yet, but they will never be destroyed by CGC.

 

That's good to see. Some of the comments here about pulping perfectly good comics that happen to be micro-trimmed are Just because they are no longer pristine high grade specimens doesn't mean they are now the spawn of the devil. Reminds me of "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

 

I like the idea of stamping the back cover with an indelible "trimmed" notation. No worse than a date stamp, right? And date-stamp haters would be even less likely to want an Ewert trim job, so where's the harm?

 

Oh, and then by all means give the stamped books to the orphanage.

[Illiterati-migration]

They will not be destroyed. If true that would be the most stupid thing CGC has ever done.

However cgc might buy them and take out of the circulation. At least that's what they should do in my opinion, if they aren't able to detect those trims.

 

Holy carp, take them out of circulation?? Who made CGC the official governing body of Comicland? There *might* be people who are interested in buying those books... people who don't MIND having restoration performed on their books.

 

CGC should NOT be policing the hobby.

[Illiterati-migration]

With Steve Borock's permission, here is his response to me in a PM:

 

We would never trash any comics, that would be worse than trimming them. As of this moment, we are just holding them. I would love to give them to an orphanage or something like that. Imagine being a little kid and getting a Green Lantern # 77 for free. Just not sure what to do with them yet, but they will never be destroyed by CGC.

 

That's good to see. Some of the comments here about pulping perfectly good comics that happen to be micro-trimmed are Just because they are no longer pristine high grade specimens doesn't mean they are now the spawn of the devil. Reminds me of "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

 

I like the idea of stamping the back cover with an indelible "trimmed" notation. No worse than a date stamp, right? And date-stamp haters would be even less likely to want an Ewert trim job, so where's the harm?

 

Oh, and then by all means give the stamped books to the orphanage.

 

Screw the orphanage. Give them to me. They'll look sweet in my comic book room.

[Zonker]

You have a comic book room? NERD!

[Illiterati-migration]

You have a comic book room? NERD!

 

[Mr. Zipper]

That's good to see. Some of the comments here about pulping perfectly good comics that happen to be micro-trimmed are

 

I too am a bit perplexed by the "Since it's trimmed, it must be completely destroyed" mindset. Or those that feel that complete destruction is a better option than stamping "Trimmed" on the back cover.

 

Indelibly mark them and auction 'em off for charity. I'll take a sweet FF 3 for 1/10th of guide.

[Red Hook]

And what was the big secret about this info anyway?

 

Why can't CGC just post it on the boards and append it to Harshen's proclamation about the returns?

 

Again, PR of the worst kind.

 

Red

[ronm3-migration]

I thought Ewert and Brulato were tied in together? If not than why would Brulato pay people back?

 

Once again!

[mrwoogieman]

I thought Ewert and Brulato were tied in together? If not than why would Brulato pay people back?

 

Once again!

 

I believe (anyone feel free to correct me, of course) that Brulato has disclaimed all knowledge of the trimming, stating that it was all Jason's doing. Brulato was in a partnership with Ewert on some of the trimmed books; that is, Brulato provided capital for the purchase of the books by Jason and was to share in the profits made on the resale of the books by Jason. Brulato feels that by offering to buy the known trimmed books back from their current owners, he is absolving himself of his unknowing participation in Jason's scheme to defraud collectors.

[ronm3-migration]

I thought Ewert and Brulato were tied in together? If not than why would Brulato pay people back?

 

Once again!

 

I believe (anyone feel free to correct me, of course) that Brulato has disclaimed all knowledge of the trimming, stating that it was all Jason's doing. Brulato was in a partnership with Ewert on some of the trimmed books; that is, Brulato provided capital for the purchase of the books by Jason and was to share in the profits made on the resale of the books by Jason. Brulato feels that by offering to buy the known trimmed books back from their current owners, he is absolving himself of his unknowing participation in Jason's scheme to defraud collectors.

 

Thank you. So it sounds like it was all Ewerts idea and Brulato said if you get caught this has nothing to do with me. Thats cool. I applaud Brulato for paying people back.

I would want to know when Brlulato got involved because that would mean Ewert had been doing this already and got Brulato involved after the fact.

Okay thats all I needed to know much appreciated.

[awe4one]

I believe (anyone feel free to correct me, of course) that Brulato has disclaimed all knowledge of the trimming, stating that it was all Jason's doing. Brulato was in a partnership with Ewert on some of the trimmed books; that is, Brulato provided capital for the purchase of the books by Jason and was to share in the profits made on the resale of the books by Jason. Brulato feels that by offering to buy the known trimmed books back from their current owners, he is absolving himself of his unknowing participation in Jason's scheme to defraud collectors.

 

Being a partner of the joint account used to perpetuate the scandal makes him very involved in my eyes...ignorance only goes so far...

 

Jim