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ComicFan70 Posts: 4
1/2/2016
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Hi all,
I've been collecting on/off for years, and one of the things that bugs me is when a book is bought off the shelf in a LCS, it looks pretty good, it gets home, possibly read (with fingers barely touching the book at all), and slipped into a bag and boarded.
What would the grade of a book be w/ no discernible defects, no strange random spots, the pages are cut well, etc...
(when the book is at the store), then after a book is read with care, and bagged/boarded and so on?
Would it be safe to say at least a 9?
(The reason I ask is I've not gotten around to grading anything yet UNLESS the book was damaged in some way that was noticeable.)
Thanks for reading!
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netstuffers Administrator Posts: 239
1/2/2016
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This guide is pretty good at giving you rough ideas of grades.
You can get away with a little bit of wear and still get a 9+, just so long as you don't have several little things adding up. Even a cover bend/crease can still get a 9 so long as the interior is pristine.
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chukueke Posts: 1
1/10/2016
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I am one of those people comic book stores hate or find funny, because I carefully pick the best or least damaged comic to buy. I have been doing this decades. I even often bring my own bag and boards to put the comics in if they don't come that way, to put the comic in after buy them and before I get on the New York subway. This care in buying often pays off, but not always. At time I miss a defect in some page in the comic, but what the *(^&66 I tried.
As far as care check out my site for a few ideas: http://www.comicpreservation.com/
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axchou Posts: 5
1/11/2016
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chukueke wrote:
I am one of those people comic book stores hate or find funny, because I carefully pick the best or least damaged comic to buy. I have been doing this decades. I even often bring my own bag and boards to put the comics in if they don't come that way, to put the comic in after buy them and before I get on the New York subway. This care in buying often pays off, but not always. At time I miss a defect in some page in the comic, but what the *(^&66 I tried.
As far as care check out my site for a few ideas: http://www.comicpreservation.com/
+1
Not to mention that the staff at Midtown manhandles their comics. I've seen them drop a whole stack of books on the floor, then grab them back up and shelf them.
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
1/16/2016
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You can, get books in the very highest grades off the shelves but you have to know your grading pretty well to do it consistently. there are people out there that firmly believe that it is impossible or near impossible to do this but that is not true. To be fair though 9.9 and 10.0 are very, very hard grades to find/achieve. This is simply because the odds are drastically stacked against books surviving printing, shipping to distributors, handling, shipping to stores, and handling at that end, then surviving their life on the shelves. never mind surviving all the handling afterwards.
As to whether or not handling reading will drop books down in grade, there are many who say absolutely but I must disagree here as well. You can carefully handle a book, leaf through it, and return it to it's protection without causing damage. I have done it, professional graders do it everyday, as do many other collectors. It is all a matter of doing it in a way that you know you will not put any sorts of stress on the book that will cause damage. It also means that you may have to pull out the "extremely anal" card and wear gloves and whatnot but it can be done and the fact that you find a great deal of high grade books out there is evidence of this. Of course when you look through the ages you find that as time has gone on and people learned more about handling and protecting books there are more surviving high grade book now than there are from the 30's to the mid 60's.
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erichey Posts: 31
3/9/2016
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My opinion is that reading it once or twice won't/shouldn't affect the grade at all. So long as it's carefully handled. It isn't like a new car that loses it's value just for driving it off the lot. Most comics on the shelf are 9 and above. It all depends on how much or how significant the defects are. Grading is just so subjective. But all grading guides allow for some problems that still maintain high grade values. I don't think 10's exist because that grade is just an ideal, not a real value. My opinion is that alot of comics right off the shelf are 9.8, and stay that way if read carefully, stored carefully, and kept out of the sun and humidity.
edited by erichey on 3/9/2016
edited by erichey on 3/9/2016
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ComicFan70 Posts: 4
4/25/2016
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Hi all,
Thanks for the replies, apologies for the delay, RL health gets in the way. After reading these, I think I can safely say that, just as chukueke said, I take my time to find the best looking one on the shelves. I don't bring bags/boards with me, but I do gingerly open them and read them, quickly put them in bags, etc. So, I think my initial grade of 9 'off the rack' was a little on the low side, as I've probably seen, picked up, handled, read and put away books at least a 9.4+.
And as erichey was saying, I keep care to keep my books out of the sun, humidity, etc.
As a quick Q - Does anyone totally rebag their books with new boards, bags every 5-7 years as I've heard, or is this an urban LCS legend?
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CapnDoug Administrator Posts: 151
4/26/2016
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ComicFan70 wrote:
Hi all,
Thanks for the replies, apologies for the delay, RL health gets in the way. After reading these, I think I can safely say that, just as chukueke said, I take my time to find the best looking one on the shelves. I don't bring bags/boards with me, but I do gingerly open them and read them, quickly put them in bags, etc. So, I think my initial grade of 9 'off the rack' was a little on the low side, as I've probably seen, picked up, handled, read and put away books at least a 9.4+.
And as erichey was saying, I keep care to keep my books out of the sun, humidity, etc.
As a quick Q - Does anyone totally rebag their books with new boards, bags every 5-7 years as I've heard, or is this an urban LCS legend?
I push my rebagging to every 10 years, but yes, I do fell better making sure that the bags and boards not really old. I've seen comics that were still in their original bags from the 80's and 90's and can safely say that it is not just an LCS urban legend. Those bags had almost liquified in spots and the boards had the back ad burned onto them. Replace your bags and boards, but you can stretch the timeline a bit.
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lealew7 Posts: 73
5/3/2016
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I too carefully look through new comics on the shelves to find the nicest one, if they are still worth it and i also carefully read (sometimes not at all) before i sleeve and back my comic and place it nicely into my boxes. my collection is carefully handled and if i do not think you are careful enough to look at my collection, i will say so and ask you NOT to touch them sorry, the nerd in me has been doing this for over 2 decades since i was a teen and i'm in my 30's. i judge no one for caring for any collection, its what brings me peace and joy 
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Guest
11/5/2016
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I've also noticed that diamond can ship books in all manner of disarray.
While at my lcs I've watched them open boxes where stacks of new books were folded creased and even torn because they were haphazardly thrown in the box.
I was at a waldenbooks once that got their comics from their warehouse in plastic binding straps where 5 or6 of each title where bundled together in 40 book stacks.
It is a true wonder that 9.8+ books make it off the racks. It does happen though and I salute those who strive to maintain quality in their LCS for doing things the careful way.
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crockettartworks Posts: 1
12/14/2016
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CapnDoug wrote:
ComicFan70 wrote:
As a quick Q - Does anyone totally rebag their books with new boards, bags every 5-7 years as I've heard, or is this an urban LCS legend?
I push my rebagging to every 10 years, but yes, I do fell better making sure that the bags and boards not really old. I've seen comics that were still in their original bags from the 80's and 90's and can safely say that it is not just an LCS urban legend. Those bags had almost liquified in spots and the boards had the back ad burned onto them. Replace your bags and boards, but you can stretch the timeline a bit.
Hello, Folks:
On the question of comic bags: for me, it was love at first sight when I discovered Mylar. You can see and feel the difference in many ways from typical plastic; it is transparent but smoother to the touch. It is an archival material engineered specifically for the protection of paper items, and I'm fairly sure it does not break down at all. It is more expensive, but I use mylar bags for all the books I really care about.
If you care about the book, and the plastic feels or looks different than when new, even a little, I would immediately change them out. I've noticed that after I've pulled a few bags off, and they're sitting in the trash bin, old bags can have a yellowish tinge to hem, or take on a tea color that you can't see as clearly when you're looking at single bags. Changes of color, or "moistness," means the bags are breaking down, which is NEVER a positive thing for your books.
I'd certainly agree it's better to be safe than sorry, but if the books are bring kept in a climate healthy for comic books, it will help the bags, as well. If you are confident enough make sure there's been no breakdown in the bags, I don't think they need be change out. but again, much better safe than sorry.to It's also important to realize that when we speak of "plastic bags," it's not like "plastic" is monolithic, or just one thing.
In the last 20 years, the manufacturers of the bags have (for the most part) very much improved the product. Which is no small part of the reason why changing out the bags is recommended. The earlier bags were flat out dangerous!
A few years back I bought some old FF comics from a seller on eBay that were really nice people, a married couple. Their books were absolutely magnificent in their condition, with one serious exception. From cover to cover, there was extreme tanning.
I sent him a note to thank him, and said "what a shame about the browning." He had mentioned it in his ads. He back explaining that he and his wife were long-time comic nuts, and they'd had a strong sense early on that the books would be valuable one day. So, being conscientious people and all, they bought the best plastic bags available, and boarded and bagged them all, and then put them away, untouched, for some years.
When they finally went to pull them out, they were horrified to see that their prized books had been completely "cooked." The particular bags they were using had apparently been extremely unstable.
I never forgot that. Imagine how frustrating that would be. Had they simply stacked them up and left them alone, they would have been fine.
Thanks for your ear.
edited by crockettartworks on 12/14/2016
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