This issue we continue with feedback we’ve received in preparation for the
next edition of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide. As
always, we welcome your feedback as well. Let us know what you
think!

Jeff Weaver
Jeffweaver@aol.com
Any grading
criteria that relies in any measure on the intent of an individual does this
hobby no good. If something has tape or glue or color or whatever, it should be
graded the same way regardless of the “intent” of the actor.

Differentiating between one category of glue that is conservation and one
that is restoration will only create additional confusion and undermine the
credibility of the grading system. I understand that there are collectors and
dealers out there desperate to justify why their books with a purple label
should have a blue one.

And CGC is just as interested because people
don’t send restored (or conserved) books to CGC because of the market stigma
that has been created around CGC’s purple label.

Maybe CGC should not
have had a purple label to begin with but trying to un-ring that bell is
pointless and likely damaging to the market place. It smacks of the big players
manipulating things. I have little doubt that buyers will treat “conserved” blue
label books the same as purple ones and the gold standard that the blue label
has become will be undermined. I think CGC provides a valuable service but this
change and the corresponding change in the Grading Guide should rightly
cause anyone outside the hobby who has seen comics as a new area of investment
to be wary.

Everyone should count to ten and wait for the market to
respond to the growing gap between blue labeled books and those with a purple.
(Provided it ever does given the significant constriction in the hobby).

Gary Colabuono
Moondog’s
Glue:
I believe the
use of glue in any circumstance is restoration. No middle ground here. One is
adding a foreign substance to the book to enhance its appearance.

The
argument that it could be preventing further damage is not a strong
one.

Tape, Tape residue, Pressing: I have no problem with these
definitions.

Paul Aragon
woodchuck89@sbcglobal.net

I must say that taping shouldn’t be accepted. Use of glue on comics
only in an alternate universe.

Douglas W. McCratic

dougmc@pgtc.com
I’m writing in response to the “Glue” question
in the latest edition of Scoop.

I do not like the new
definition at all. Conservation should be just that. It should work to keep the
item available in the future. Conservation should be very narrow in my view,
including only de-acidification and staple replacement. It should be done to
prevent further deterioration caused by agents inherent in the original
materials. Beyond that, you’re working to improve the item that is in hand.
Restoration would be any repairs made to the book such as tear sealing, color
touching, cleaning, and adding missing pieces. It would be done to repair any
damage done to a book caused by handling over time. These definitions hold true
regardless of age. A repair is the same whether the book is 7 days old or 7
decades old. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide never made
distinctions on age in its grading guide, why should we do so with restoration?
A bent spine is a bent spine just as glue is glue.

Put simply,
conservation is done to stop the clock on books where restoration is done to
turn the clock back.

I’m left scratching my head at Overstreet’s
decisions of late. First the new price guide omits grading definitions. They’re
gone! How can I accurately price my books if I don’t have a solid foundation and
clear standards? I’m confident in my ability to grade, I’ve been collecting
nearly 25 years, but when a book is “on the fence” or a seller is blatantly
over-grading, The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has always been there
as a reference. Even if the seller reads the definition and still disagrees,
it’s there for me. Now, it appears Overstreet want to allow more and more into
the realm of conservation. Why? What is to be gained except that a few big
dealers get their books labeled “Universal” when dealing with CGC?

For
our hobby to continue to survive and possibly even thrive again, we need
complete transparency within the community. If a book is restored, say so and
tell a buyer specifically what was done. If it is in “Fine” condition, be ready
to back up that grade with criteria met or failed. Don’t just expect us, the
collectors and buyers, to simply “take your word for it” regardless of who you
are and what your qualifications may be.

I’ll step off the soapbox
now.

Editor’s note: As has been mentioned previously, the Grading
definitions will be back in the next Guide.

Douglas W.
McCratic
dougmc@pgtc.com
Glue, pressing, and tape are all
restoration. Period. The trick lies in being able to determine whether a book
has been glued or pressed, especially if done by a professional. It goes back to
transparency within the hobby. If you have work done on a book, please disclose
it. If you buy and then sell a restored book, please disclose it. Regardless of
the quality of the work done, it was still done and improved the appearance of
the book.

Tape is a major no-no. I won’t even consider a book with tape
on it, so to me the definitions related to tape are pointless.

Dan Edwards
Architect/Senior Associate
LRS
Architects, Inc.
RE: Tape on comics

In the early 60’s, I taped
books to stop them from splitting further or losing a corner. That was viewing a
book as a reader. Looking at a book as a collector, I want the book to be as
unaltered as possible. So yes I agree.

Terry O’Neill
Terry’s
Comics
I have an opinion on the following questions.

The
designation of Conservation would only be given if the glue is archivally safe
and done only to preserve the life of the comic book. Do you agree with this
change? Why or why not?
I agree, it is conservation although I still
thin the extent of archival gluing should be disclosed.

Additionally,
where do you draw the line between restoration and conservation as it relates to
this definition?
I draw the line at fixing a minor tear or split less
than 1/4″ as opposed to re-attaching a cover page.

PRESSING
I think
Pressing will continue to be controversial, as long as nothing else is done, I
think It is only conservation although Disclosure should be made.

TAPE
Most tape eventually damages the paper to which it is adhered.
In other words, it may hold something together for the interim, but it actually
speeds up the decay of the comic it is supposedly helping. Indeed, some museum
consultants have pointed out that even archival tape is no longer used when they
mount paper products.
I think this should be added: Archival tape is
accepted by many comic collectors and dealers for minor repairs because it is PH
neutral and reversible in most cases. I does not improve the overall grade above
4.0 Very Good.

As such, tape cannot be considered restoration but
should in fact be considered damage to a comic and should be accounted for
accordingly.

Do you agree with this or disagree? Let us know!

I generally agree with this although I personally use Archival tape to
Repair small tears , spine splits and re-attach covers on books that look good
otherwise, I always disclose its usage and find most of my customers accept this
practice and prefer it to a loose cover or a split or tear that will only get
worse with time. The Archival PH neutral tape is used at many Museums and is
fully reversible in most cases.

TAPE RESIDUE
The definition
of Tape Residue has been broadened by the removal the word
“cellophane,” so that in now reads as follows: “TAPE RESIDUE –
Adhesive substance from tape which has penetrated paper fibers.”
I
agree this statement.

Sean Clarke
zzutak@aol.com

Hello, You solicited ideas in this week’s Scoop email about the
new Grading Guide. I didn’t know that a new one was being prepared. There
are a thousand points of debate about definitions, and what defects should be
allowed in which grades, and whether the last two Grading Guides have
been radical in departing from decades old standards in terms of allowing
formerly impermissable defects into the higher grades.

These questions
can be debated ad infinitum, perhaps to the greater health of the hobby, I don’t
know. But for this publication to be of value I think it critical that you
reassess the format of the last two books in favor of a larger (and, if
necessary, more expensive) sized book that features images and printing quality
where readers can actually visibly discern the defects described in text
surrounding the pictures.

The most beneficial part of the last book was
the section with the descending-graded “Atom” comics in the end of the book.
Otherwise, there were dozens… maybe hundreds of little arrows pointing to
defects in the photographed comics that are not visible at all, perhaps due to
the printing process. Again, for this guide to be of value and not just
something to fill a market niche and answer commercial demands of the publishing
end of things, I think it needs to be of sufficient dimensions that comics from
all time periods (alright, maybe not odd-size comics, but Golden Age to modern
comics) can be printed full size, and the defects described should be
visible.

As somebody who has bought and uses the last two Grading
Guides, and will likely buy this one, that’s my two
cents.

Gene Smith
Alien Entertainment
Pressing
should be acceptable as long as it is done professionally and then only to
flatten the book without altering it.

If a book had a slight bend and it
is straightened out that should be allowed however, disassembly should not be
allowed as that is extensive and constitutes repair.

Tape is not
restoration but repair. Books that are taped are technically damaged and that
should be reflected in the grade as such.

When I grade magazine I not
all tape repair and downgrade
accordingly.

Lynski
Larrtj@aol.com
We at Toad
Hall Books and records in Rockford, IL for years used thin archival tape to
repair small cuts and other defects. The archival tape can be removed and does
not damage the book.

Unless there is evidence contrary, this is what we
used.

Bill Karis
KarisWG1@aol.com
Restoration
is restoration, whether it is glue, tape or whatever. By letting earlier stuff
slide, it takes away from the unrestored finds such as the Mile High collections
of past.
It should always be noted and graded as such. If there where no 8.0s
the 7.0s would be the sought after issues. Supply and demand. Pure and
simple

Pressing: I don’t understand what difference it makes if an issue
was scrunched in a box full of other comics for 20 years, or someone put a big
book on it to flatten it our some. I think now we are nit-picking. If you can’t
tell, then what’s the point of worrying about it.

Michael
Naiman
Dealer-collector
Glue:
You say …
it has been
commonly accepted that on comic books prior to approximately 1950,
a
very minor amount of glue and/or a very minor amount of color touch

is acceptable as “unrestored.”

This bit of historical
revisionism has come about as a result of CGC’s entry into the marketplace. News
to me that this was acceptable…by anyone! Why would color touch on a book
published before 1950 NOT be considered restoration when a book published in
1951 with color touch would be considered restoration?

This has partially
come about due to the fact that those people who found some early pedigrees
decided to “fix” the books with color touch. CGC reports restoration and color
touch…these sellers of fixed books who did not disclose they colored
touched the books they sold are being exposed. Truth be told.. A buyers are
hopping M-A-D! Some of these people are well known and respected collectors who
“forgot” to tell the buyers paying multiples of Guide for a book that
they had fiddled with the book so that they could extract the maximum sales
price. Sounds dishonest to me. Just like not disclosing any color touch from
any year!

Same goes for
Glue…Disclose…disclose…disclose.

Trying to link restoration and
conservation is totally bogus and done for completely different reasons.
Restoration is done to maximize profits…pure and simple.

This hobby is
nowhere near the mindset of grasping the cause of conservation.

Tape:
Tape is damage…period.
Those comics with tape sell for very little of their
Guide valuation.

“TAPE RESIDUE – Adhesive substance from
tape which has penetrated paper fibers.”

I would add… and leaves
behind visible evidence of its previous application.

PRESSING – A term
used to describe a variety of processes or procedures, professional and amateur,
under which an issue is pressed to eliminate wrinkles, bends, dimples and/or
other perceived defects and thus improve its appearance. Some types of pressing
involve disassembling the book and performing other work on it prior to its
pressing and reassembly. Some methods are generally easily discerned by
professionals and amateurs. Other types of pressing, however, can pose
difficulty for even experienced professionals to detect. In all cases, readers
are cautioned that unintended damage can occur in some instances. Related
defects will diminish an issue’s grade correspondingly rather than improve it.

I would delete the text in italics.

James Payette

Dealer
Restoration and conservation really is about the same
thing. I guess if people want to split hairs it works for me. The definition is
fine, but I would grade a book in vf+ with glue below fine. In lower grades
defects are more acceptable then higher grades.

Tape is a defect, but
also it is a form of restoration. Any book that is graded VG or higher should be
an otherwise grade. Such as a Fine book has a 1″ piece of tape on the spine. I
would price this maybe VG or less depending on the book. If I grade a book less
then VG and the book has only a little tape I would not mention it. If the book
had a complete taped spine I would grade the book as it looks and mention that
the spine is completely taped and price this lower than the grade.

Tape
residue:
I think this change is fine. It clearly defines what tape residue is
as it affects the book. This is a defect, but I guess not restoration. This
could be construed as the result of restoration even if it has been a crude
attempt though.