Trimming Comic Pages and Grading?

[bandwidth_bandit]

I have 3 or 4 comics I purchased from eBay a while back and they look as if someone trimmed the edges of the pages with a knife or something. What effect if any would this have on the grading for these comics? Are they worthless as far as grading is concerned?

[mdandy8]

Dude, if they did it with a knife, then yeah, likely it will change the grade. It is sometimes tough to tell unless there is obvious art missing. I have an X Men #2 which looks like it is cut close on the right hand side, but when I check other copies I find about the same margin....maybe others can help?

I don't know how far down they grade for "knife trimming" vs missing piece

[Sal]

post scans of the books. what years are they? it's possible they could suffer from "Marvel chipping," a pretty common printing defect of early Silver Age Marvels

[bandwidth_bandit]

No these are 1999 or so copies of Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-man. I will scan and post one but I am not sure if you will be able to tell what they look like exactly or not.

 

Here are the scans - what do you think?

 

[grandz-migration]

I wish I had these books to compare them. To me

it just looks like a bindery trimming defect. Where

they were miss cut at the printer/binder. If someone

were to trim a book, they would try to match the front

with the back cover (In my opinion).

 

Though it is uncommon (thankfully) it does happen. I

have a silver Surfer # 50 that was horribly miss cut.

[FFB]

They might be trimmed or they might be factory miscut, but thankfully, those books are not worth much more if they're untrimmed. That's quarter-bin stuff.

[mdandy8]

No I don't think it's trimming. Comic trimming and marvel chipping are very related and these books are way too young to be having any chipping. I remember some books from this period had overlapping covers which I believe was a printing error and on some it was I think part of the design (if the cover had an ad folded in, or a pull out poster). Of course kids will do anything and it is at least possible someone cut them.

[bandwidth_bandit]

No I don't think it's trimming. Comic trimming and marvel chipping are very related and these books are way too young to be having any chipping. I remember some books from this period had overlapping covers which I believe was a printing error and on some it was I think part of the design (if the cover had an ad folded in, or a pull out poster). Of course kids will do anything and it is at least possible someone cut them.

 

Well I picked up another book tonight Sensational Spider-man Vol. 1 #25 Variant edition and the front cover is about 1/4" shorter than the rest of the book. Maybe they were factory defects but it seems like I heard of people trying to trim books awhile back to make them appear to be a better grade. I was just curious about these. Below is the one I purchased tonight. I didn't notice the cover until I got home with it.

 

[Lazyboy]

Well I picked up another book tonight Sensational Spider-man Vol. 1 #25 Variant edition and the front cover is about 1/4" shorter than the rest of the book. Maybe they were factory defects but it seems like I heard of people trying to trim books awhile back to make them appear to be a better grade. I was just curious about these. Below is the one I purchased tonight. I didn't notice the cover until I got home with it.

 

That's intentional. Most Marvels from that time period are like that due to the cover folding out to reveal the characters and previous events of the current story. And I seriously doubt many people are trimming comics published between 1987-2007.

 

Trimming is generally used when a small difference in grade equals a large difference in value.

[bandwidth_bandit]

 

That's intentional. Most Marvels from that time period are like that due to the cover folding out to reveal the characters and previous events of the current story. And I seriously doubt many people are trimming comics published between 1987-2007.

 

Trimming is generally used when a small difference in grade equals a large difference in value.

 

So you think the trimming is a bad press cut. I had thought of that but I have never seen comics cut this hazardly before. I realize some people would try to trim a higher grade and then again there are some people selling on eBay who might not know any better and just trim thinking they are doing something good when in fact they are destroying the comic.

[mdandy8]

I don't think anyone would have any interest in trimming any of these comics or anything from this era. I think trimming has mostly stopped, except for some rare cases. It was something done mostly with Marvel Comics of a certain era that had trouble with chipping due to paper type and the machines used to cut and bind them. Back in the day when you did not have photo guides or the web it was easy to disguise this process since the book you were selling might have been one of the few a person had seen and they could not eaisly compare it to others. Now it is more obvious because you can eaisly pull up photos to compare and notice right away that some of the art is gone. Do a search for Silver Age Marvel on e bay and compare, it's easy to find.

[PovertyRow]

I don't think anyone would have any interest in trimming any of these comics or anything from this era. I think trimming has mostly stopped, except for some rare cases. It was something done mostly with Marvel Comics of a certain era that had trouble with chipping due to paper type and the machines used to cut and bind them. Back in the day when you did not have photo guides or the web it was easy to disguise this process since the book you were selling might have been one of the few a person had seen and they could not eaisly compare it to others. Now it is more obvious because you can eaisly pull up photos to compare and notice right away that some of the art is gone. Do a search for Silver Age Marvel on e bay and compare, it's easy to find.

 

Actually cheap books are ideal trimming and other restoration processes prospects. The unscrupulous ones who hack books to get more money or folks interested in learning restoration techniques need to practice on something. And quarter bin/cheap moderns offer a wealth of practice candidates.

[bandwidth_bandit]

I don't think anyone would have any interest in trimming any of these comics or anything from this era. I think trimming has mostly stopped, except for some rare cases. It was something done mostly with Marvel Comics of a certain era that had trouble with chipping due to paper type and the machines used to cut and bind them. Back in the day when you did not have photo guides or the web it was easy to disguise this process since the book you were selling might have been one of the few a person had seen and they could not eaisly compare it to others. Now it is more obvious because you can eaisly pull up photos to compare and notice right away that some of the art is gone. Do a search for Silver Age Marvel on e bay and compare, it's easy to find.

 

Actually cheap books are ideal trimming and other restoration processes prospects. The unscrupulous ones who hack books to get more money or folks interested in learning restoration techniques need to practice on something. And quarter bin/cheap moderns offer a wealth of practice candidates.

 

Well I don't mind them prcticing their trade I just don't want for them to try and sell them as VF to NM and take me for a sucker.