Please grade my Brave and Bold #28

[reality_consensus]

Go easy on me, I am new to this, please grade this Brave and Bold #28 picked up a while back from an Original Owner collection .. pages are nice cream to off-white .. thanks ..

 

[Tatterdamillion]

It looks like the top staple is rusty but otherwise pretty sharp.

I would say 6.5-7.0 without the staple problem but that might knock it down to a 5.5. I have a 6.5 and think yours is much nicer.

[Sid]

I personally think you should make the scans a bit smaller.

[Point Five]

That's a tough one to grade. A handful of minor flaws on both sides (spine wear, light crease on back, scuffs top edge, rusty staple), but lots of positives going for it. I'm going to say 5.5/6.0, though it presents better. Very nice!

[reality_consensus]

Thanks for the grading opinions .. appreciate it .. as far as the scan size being too large, dont know how to alter it .. the image comes up that way from Photobucket .. if anyone knows how to change it, please PM me ..

George

[Mr. Zipper]

 

Tough call due to the top edge which is a bit of an eyesore on an otherwise very pretty book.

 

I'd say 5.5 because the top edge damage + top spine corner + small stains + rusty staple may be a bit too much for a straight up 6.0.

 

 

BTW, is the staple rust transferring to the paper? Personally, if the book was mine I'd send it to Matt Nelson to see if there is anything he can do to clean off the staple without technically replacing or restoring it. It's too nice a book to let the rust transfer and stain the paper.

[reality_consensus]

The staple rust is very minor, just on the surface .. showed the book to Matt at the Heritage Auction in Baltimore .. said book could be improved, the light back cover crease being a problem .. the wear at the top is due to the cover overhang .. in the past some people have trimmed the edge to correct this manufacturing defect .. think this would be un-necessary restoration (comments?) .. as far as scraping the minute rust of the surface of the staple, guess some of the book is being removed (oxidized metal atoms), but maybe in doing so, book is being preserved (comments?) .. maybe the grading and restoration thread is a better place to discuss this ..

George

[Silver]

I would go with the 5.5 comments as well. This is one off those books that I would get my one year sub to collectors society and send in for the free grading. I can only see positives in getting this book slabbed if you were going to sell it. If it came out a 5.5 people wold see it as a nice looking 5.5 and you would probably get a decent price. The staple rust would most likely get overlooked once in a slab.

[reality_consensus]

Here's a very basic question, and I'm not trying to be clever ..

 

This book was obtained from the Original Owner, so I know its not been fiddled with .. I have had the book for some time, and yes enjoy paging through it from time to time .. it would be nice to place it in another collector's hands who would also appreciate it for what it is .. if an agreeable price can be reached, what difference would it make to have the book slabbed? With this being a CGC sponsored forum, maybe my comments are out of line, but since this is not a superhigh grade copy what benefit would it be to slab it .. in doing so, the buyer could not open the book to thoroughly inspect it (page quality, centerfold staples, etc.) I would prefer that a perspective buyer could indeed inspect the staples and do whatever he/she deems necessary to preserve(?) the book ..

[Foolkiller]

Here's a very basic question, and I'm not trying to be clever ..

 

This book was obtained from the Original Owner, so I know its not been fiddled with .. I have had the book for some time, and yes enjoy paging through it from time to time .. it would be nice to place it in another collector's hands who would also appreciate it for what it is .. if an agreeable price can be reached, what difference would it make to have the book slabbed? With this being a CGC sponsored forum, maybe my comments are out of line, but since this is not a superhigh grade copy what benefit would it be to slab it .. in doing so, the buyer could not open the book to thoroughly inspect it (page quality, centerfold staples, etc.) I would prefer that a perspective buyer could indeed inspect the staples and do whatever he/she deems necessary to preserve(?) the book ..

 

Some of it has to do with establishing grade, and then a barometer on price, but frankly, I think it's better if it stays raw -- especially if you eliminate resto from the equation.

 

The problem is when you start factoring grade and price into the equation. One person says raw 6.5 and another says raw 5.5 the price disparity might be $800 or so... and then the real debate begins. For better or worse, CGC takes the debate and at least lessens it. And on major expensive keys, that's why a lot of people prefer it.

[reality_consensus]

Brian,

Point well taken ... as an engineer, realize the appeal towards quantifying physical properties (ex. an ounce of .99999 refined gold) .. have purchased slabbed items from the Heritage auctions with some dissapointment however .. a slabbed Marvel Mystery #3 comes to mind .. Graded G+, cracked it out, and the book nearly fell apart due to a spine split .. book could not be read without risking that the entire comic fall apart! Had this book not been slabbed, would have been able to assess the weak spine and pass on the book outright .. have other cases we can discuss later ..

 

Not saying that scans and descriptions over the internet are the end-all get-all, but personal inspection of a raw book by a knowledgable collector is as-good-as-it gets as far as I'm concerned .. been doing it for decades ..

 

George

[Foolkiller]

Brian,

Point well taken ... as an engineer, realize the appeal towards quantifying physical properties (ex. an ounce of .99999 refined gold) .. have purchased slabbed items from the Heritage auctions with some dissapointment however .. a slabbed Marvel Mystery #3 comes to mind .. Graded G+, cracked it out, and the book nearly fell apart due to a spine split .. book could not be read without risking that the entire comic fall apart! Had this book not been slabbed, would have been able to assess the weak spine and pass on the book outright .. have other cases we can discuss later ..

 

Not saying that scans and descriptions over the internet are the end-all get-all, but personal inspection of a raw book by a knowledgable collector is as-good-as-it gets as far as I'm concerned .. been doing it for decades ..

 

George

 

I agree with you. Seeing the book in person by most collectors is going to be the preferred route for many experienced collectors I believe, even if it is CGC graded because there may be some disagreements with the assigned grade. However, some resto is hard to detect -- and it can be missed by even experienced collectors.

 

CGC also adds liquidity to the book, in that as I mentioned, no debate -- if you sell the book to someone who sees it raw, and relies on their eye -- and resells it later perhaps to someone who is also experienced and agrees on grade and price... then no problem. But many books get resold to collectors who are not as experienced... and many collectors want the "safety" that CGC provides. Also, the fact the book is slabbed generally makes it "worth" more than a raw counterpart because of the lack of confidence in the grade. 6.5 CGC B&B 28 goes for $1500, a 5.5 for about $1k. Would a similarly graded raw book sell for the same amount? I don't know... in some cases... I would certainly pay the same if I agreed with the grade, but you'd have to know going in you might loose money.

 

I look at this book and say, here's a beautiful example of the book, when you look at the grades from the scans, you're looking at a $1200-$1600 copy -- but... others might not pay that high unless they had the CGC certification behind it.