Restoration disclosure idea

[spoonerism]

With all this controversy over restoration disclosure, whether pressing is restoration, et cetera -- what if the disclosure was integral to the book?

 

This could be done in a couple different ways. Since pen marks, names, arrival dates, et cetera, are allowed on books, even in high grade (I personally like these marks), why not have restorers create a small stamp that they could check off procedures on, and would include a serial number for the book. The stamp could be put in the margins of one of the pages, and would be a good sign of a book's provenance and any professional restorative procedures. (Amateur procedures would just be fairly obvious.)

 

Another way this could be done is by adding an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip to a restored book's spine. That way, the book could be tracked by serial number electronically.

 

I realize both of these ideas are controversial, but maybe they'll spur someone onto a different, more agreeable idea?

[FFB]

With all this controversy over restoration disclosure, whether pressing is restoration, et cetera -- what if the disclosure was integral to the book?

 

This could be done in a couple different ways. Since pen marks, names, arrival dates, et cetera, are allowed on books, even in high grade (I personally like these marks), why not have restorers create a small stamp that they could check off procedures on, and would include a serial number for the book. The stamp could be put in the margins of one of the pages, and would be a good sign of a book's provenance and any professional restorative procedures. (Amateur procedures would just be fairly obvious.)

 

Another way this could be done is by adding an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip to a restored book's spine. That way, the book could be tracked by serial number electronically.

 

I realize both of these ideas are controversial, but maybe they'll spur someone onto a different, more agreeable idea?

 

Other than pressing and dry cleaning, you don't need a disclosure stamp to spot restoration. If you know what you are looking for, you can just see it.

 

And no one who is getting a book pressed and dry cleaned is going to let a restorer stamp their book!

[Dad&Son-migration]

I agree with Scott... you mean well with your idea but pressing and dry clean are nearly impossible and basically undetectable except to the artists that practice it.

This is a touchy issue because as a close buddy pointed out to me... if you are to press a book and disclose it...what's stopping the next person who gets it to just turn around and sell it. The big wheel is turned by dollars. I don't think it's an issue that will ever settle in this hobby or have a solution. You'll just have purists and profiteerers debate it until the colour touch bleeds thru.

I think the battle should be more directed at not stopping the sources that practice but buyer beware and becoming educated. Put the onous on the buyers, not the restoration experts.

[Sid]

I don't consider pressing or dry cleaning to be resto. why punish me? :\

[Dad&Son-migration]

I don't consider pressing or dry cleaning to be resto. why punish me? :\

 

I love it myself

[spoonerism]

I used to think pressing and cleaning weren't restoration, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I feel that way only because of the stigma on the word "restoration."

 

The problem is that our collections are only worth what we and a buyer decide they are worth. If you're on the buying side of the equation and someone discloses a book is pressed and cleaned, you may want to use that information as a way to get the price down a little more.

 

The onus is certainly on the buyer, but sellers should disclose any known work. Ultimately, though, the buyer will decide whether they want to pay a certain amount for a book.

 

With the stigma of PLOD, the market has become bifurcated between "restored" books and original. The price difference is self-reinforcing. If I think I can get a book elsewhere cheaper, I'll be less flexible on the upside of a price. Ditto if I don't think I can make my money back if I were to sell it.

 

Resto/Damage/Conservation/Pressing/Cleaning have been debated endlessly on here, and will no doubt continue to be, but I think the stigma will ultimately disappear. Well-done restoration is practically undetectable to the average person and resorts in a beautiful, longer-lasting book. Prices for these books will eventually converge with those of the raw grades, especially as more and more older books rot away for lack of conservation.

 

Poorly done resto is damage, plain and simple. If you can see that there's unoriginal work on the book, it should be dinged down to the appropriate grade.

 

I have a restored CGC 8.5 All Select #1. I can't remember what I paid for it. (It was from Heritage a few months ago.) All I know is that when I look at it, I am in love.

 

So what I am saying is this: I think cleaning and pressing are "restoration" by definition. However, I don't think that any restoration that can't be identified readily and doesn't decrease the survivability of a book should be stigmatized.

[PovertyRow]

I suggested this a few years ago but was thinking of using an invisible, uv activated code stamp.

 

Maker's Mark

[spoonerism]

Ah -- I like that idea!

[bluechip]

I used to think pressing and cleaning weren't restoration, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I feel that way only because of the stigma on the word "restoration."

 

The problem is that our collections are only worth what we and a buyer decide they are worth. If you're on the buying side of the equation and someone discloses a book is pressed and cleaned, you may want to use that information as a way to get the price down a little more.

 

The onus is certainly on the buyer, but sellers should disclose any known work. Ultimately, though, the buyer will decide whether they want to pay a certain amount for a book.

 

With the stigma of PLOD, the market has become bifurcated between "restored" books and original. The price difference is self-reinforcing. If I think I can get a book elsewhere cheaper, I'll be less flexible on the upside of a price. Ditto if I don't think I can make my money back if I were to sell it.

 

Resto/Damage/Conservation/Pressing/Cleaning have been debated endlessly on here, and will no doubt continue to be, but I think the stigma will ultimately disappear. Well-done restoration is practically undetectable to the average person and resorts in a beautiful, longer-lasting book. Prices for these books will eventually converge with those of the raw grades, especially as more and more older books rot away for lack of conservation.

 

Poorly done resto is damage, plain and simple. If you can see that there's unoriginal work on the book, it should be dinged down to the appropriate grade.

 

I have a restored CGC 8.5 All Select #1. I can't remember what I paid for it. (It was from Heritage a few months ago.) All I know is that when I look at it, I am in love.

 

So what I am saying is this: I think cleaning and pressing are "restoration" by definition. However, I don't think that any restoration that can't be identified readily and doesn't decrease the survivability of a book should be stigmatized.

 

 

All good points.

 

It is ultimately up to the buyer. And what the buyer needs to be told is that some books are restored, how it happens, how to spot it, etc. The buyer does not to be told how he must feel about it or that he must consider it bad. Buyers should be able to make their own decisions without fearing they will be "punished." When buyers have all the information they need and the needn't fear some kind of economic reprisal, then the attitude toward resto will find its own level and will IMV revert to what it was before when people happily bought raw copies clearly disclosed and clearly restored. There will be, as then, some hating it no matter what, but a lot more people who don't hate it having less fear about buying it.

[spoonerism]

And until the equilibrium comes, I'll continue to buy underpriced beautifully restored books.

[FFB]

And until the equilibrium comes, I'll continue to buy underpriced beautifully restored books.

 

You are never going to see a direct correlation between restored books and unrestored high grade books. This is because you have two different groups of people buying from each category. There will be times that restored prices on a super expensive book will rise at a rate that is faster than the highest graded copy appreciates (and vice versa), but the restored copies and unrestored copies are generally not going to move upward at the same rate.