SCS: my troubles continue

[MutantKeys]

Shaken Comic Syndrome

[grider67]

Danke!

[MutantKeys]

[Davenport]

Shaken Comic Syndrome

[Aces]

Shaken Comic Syndrome

So that's what they use at the post office...

[awe4one]

A) how were the CGC books packaged? Every single time I've gotten an SCS book it is because of poor packaging.

 

A good number of the books I bought with SCS were from one of the best packers on this Board...Greggy. The packing had absolutely no bearing on the SCS occuring...

 

Here's one I've posted before...

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

 

Jim

[trevorlsmith]

The placement of the impact damage is unusual in this example. If I hadn't seen a before pic, I never would have chalked this up to SCS.

 

Btw, sorry about your book. Although, it doesn;t look like there are any tears so the damage should be reversible.

[THE_BEYONDER]

The placement of the impact damage is unusual in this example. If I hadn't seen a before pic, I never would have chalked this up to SCS.

 

 

It's not unusual at all. That's what happens when the edge of the book is smashed up against the inner well...

 

[trevorlsmith]

Maybe you are right. I just have trouble understanding how the straight edge of the inner well can cause isolated impact damage on the comic edge.

 

I hope that is clear.

 

In contrast, damage to the corners or damage in line with the recession of the four corners of the inner well makes sense to me.

[THE_BEYONDER]

Maybe you are right. I just have trouble understanding how the straight edge of the inner well can cause isolated impact damage on the comic edge.

 

I hope that is clear.

 

In contrast, damage to the corners or damage in line with the recession of the four corners of the inner well makes sense to me.

 

Think of the paper bending before it 'breaks'.

[FFB]

The packaging is irrelevant. You can pack a single slab into a refrigerator box full of bubble wrap and packing peanuts, and if the box gets jostled during shipping AND if the book is slightly loose in the slab and has any kind of overhang, you can get SCS. The packaging makes absolutely zero difference. I've had books that were packed in bomb-proof packaging that had SCS, but didn't have them when the seller scanned them for the auction I was bidding on (thus confirming that the SCS happened on its trip to me). It is the ability of the book to move within the slab, coupled with the 90 degree inner well walls and the slight separation between the top layer of plastic on the inner well and the bottom layer of plastic (which the overhang gets jammed into) that can cause SCS with even a light shaking of the book during transit.

 

I've got a few points to chime in with.

 

A) how were the CGC books packaged? Every single time I've gotten an SCS book it is because of poor packaging. I've talked to CGC about the way they package their books, and I email sellers with specific packaging requests for books I have bought. Over the years I have learned (sometimes from my own mistakes) and come up with a formula for an almost perfect packaging system. I'll go into it below...

 

B) If in fact the books were not packaged well (lots of bubblewrap and a big box does not constitute good packaging in my mind) then it is unfair to blame CGC. I have spoken to several guys at CGC about their slabs. They have literally spent $1000's and $1000's of engineering dollers in finding the best possible solution. I am sure if someone has a better idea, they would galdly pay for it. Anyone have a suggestion isntead of a complaint?

 

3) Sellers could be resonsible for at least some of the damage and it may not be shipping related. I've dropped books. We probably all have.

 

Not saying it doesn't happen. Just saying that the design of the slab is not always to blame.

 

The best packaging method I have come up with:

 

i) Cardboard sandwich on either side of the CGC slab.

ii)Small amount of bubblewrap around slab sandwich to keep it together.

iii)Fair sized box to allow Slab to sit in box with plenty of packaging peanuts around the edges.

iv) The styrophoam packaging peanuts are the key to the safety of the book . They allow subtle movement of the book which is a good thing. The peanuts are able to shift, bend and absorb impact much more efficiently than any other material. Consider them to be almost like a sponge. If you have JUST bubblewrap, or bubblewrap and then that scrunched brown paper that CGC uses, I find that impact is more directly transferred to whatever is inside at the core (in this case the book) because these materials are too stiff.

I am curious to hear about the actual packaging methods used when SCS happens.

R.

[FFB]

Maybe you are right. I just have trouble understanding how the straight edge of the inner well can cause isolated impact damage on the comic edge.

 

I hope that is clear.

 

In contrast, damage to the corners or damage in line with the recession of the four corners of the inner well makes sense to me.

 

I wondered this too, and then I figured it out by rattling around a book that had bad "steak knife" SCS like you see here. The answer is this: there is a very slight gap between the top layer of the inner well and the bottom layer. The separation is not uniform along the entire edge of the inner well wall, and so when a cover overhang rams into that edge, part of the cover slips into the space between the layers and part of it doesn't. The part of it that doesn't slip in between gets folded over, creating a jagged "steak knife" effect like you see here.

[FFB]

Like CGC said to me, if someone can come up with a better design (and there are some smart and wealthy people on here) then bring it on.

What stops them from just reverse engineering a PGX holder? There've been alot of comments about it being a "better" and "more solid" slab design.

 

The PGX slab isn't perfect either, I've noticed that in some there seems to be a weird kind of warping of the book, or warping of the inner well... anyone else noticed this?

 

I have over three-hundred slabbed books. I have about 12 broken CGC cases and four or so CGC books with SCS. I have about 40 PGX cases and not one broken case or one case of SCS. I have not seen any warping effect. From my optic, PGX cases are superior. They have other major issues but the casing is not one of them.

 

Harvey Dude, is most of your collection golden age? GA books tend not to have overhang and so SCS is much less of a problem. If you were a silver/bronze/copper age collector, your numbers would be much, much higher than that.

[FFB]

It may be pressed books reverting.

 

Or it might be the aliens switching out your books with their warped books (which are not books at all - they're just shape-shifting aliens who are posing as your books until there are enough of them to switch back to their natural forms and jump you while you sleep so that they can eat your brain). You know, while we're speculating, we may as well get creative.

[DeeDee-migration]

It may be pressed books reverting.

 

Or it might be the aliens switching out your books with their warped books (which are not books at all - they're just shape-shifting aliens who are posing as your books until there are enough of them to switch back to their natural forms and jump you while you sleep so that they can eat your brain). You know, while we're speculating, we may as well get creative.

 

[sterlingcomics]

this is a great idea, but i would hold off on calling it "Infinite SCS Thread" were you to do it here

 

just sayin

 

Yep...I should call it "The Finite SCS Thread because they pulled my sorry *spoon* off the boards" thread!

 

It's really not me talking though...it would be the product talking for me...

[sterlingcomics]

Perhaps by devaluing slabs by the collecting community it will make an impact on submissions to the point that someone will listen and take action.

 

This has already happened to a point. Collecters who know about the problem look for SCS and thus affects the amount they're willing to pay...

 

Jim

 

Agreed. Educated consumers rule.

[ShoNuff-migration]

Sellers that don't ofer refunds can blow me.

 

 

Hark...fair Juliet speaks...and her words glide gingerly through the air like the sweet song of a mourning dove.

 

[DeeDee-migration]

Sho'Nuff's posts

[ShoNuff-migration]