This is one of those professions I’d never heard about, but it makes sense that they would exist. I really dislike it when a big corporation tries to throw its weight around and badmouth someone, and seeing one of them get slammed is pretty satisfying.
The article wasn’t really clear, but it sounds like no one declares to buyers that the comics are restored. Is that right?
Sound like the couple were arguing that if they could restore something to “like new” condition it should be valued as “new”. I don’t know if I agree with that.
Refurbished, restored, reconditioned items are never valued the same as brand new. An untouched 53’ Corvette roadster that was found in a barn in Nebraska will always fetch more than one that was refurbished even in the most meticulous manner.
Sounds like the comic book grader could have avoided this by having included a disclaimer type grade. Something noting that the grade was for a reconditioned item. Very-Fine 10 mint-condition REFURB.
My read was that the first grading company told the restorers on several occasions what they should do and then didn’t follow through on the higher grade they said would result from the restoration. Once the restorers decided to work with a different grading company, the first company started shit-talking their work, misstating findings and ruining their reputation.
Doesn’t sound that way to me at all. And old comics are never going to be new, so their “new” value is not the point. Restored artwork is more valuable than unrestored artwork, at least if you believe Antiques Roadshow. That seems to be the case here.
Given that the Meyeres were in the comics restoration business, that doesn’t sound right.
I prefer non-restored comic books (cite: three closets full of not-all-that-valuable comics).
But did you see this, from the article?
Matt Meyers first began restoring comics in 2013, and through research of different techniques, created a unique way to restore comics by individually painting each dot on the comic book page, giving the art a “more precise” look.
There’s being a meticulous restorer, then there’s being a crazed zealot!
Most collectible comics were printed at 60 lines per inch, so that’s 60x60 or 3600 dots for every square inch! Figure at least 32 pages, at 6.625 x 10.25 inches… doing math in head…[ten minutes later]…that’s hundreds of millions of dots!
Well, let’s deduct a few pages for ads, and assume a portion of a typical page is white… okay, we’re down to less than a million dots.
But still, imagine looking through a magnifier, trying to “punch up” a single dot with an individual bristle of a brush , then on to the next… I’d love to know how long one comic book took!
If you send in a comic book to be graded that has any restoration it will get a special label stating exactly what was done to it. And It will be worth a lot less than unrestored.
But why would CGC care about the interior of the book? Or anyone buying one?
CGC “slabs” the book. Seals it in a plastic frame. For the rest of eternity, except for the front and back cover, no one will get to read it.
You know, reading? That thing that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko hoped would brighten up the lives of children, so they slaved over the Spider-Man concept, the plot, the dialog and the art?
Just another reason I’ll never “slab” a book…
(Even if i could get $16,000 on ebay…)
The people buying it care. Not me, I will also never slab mine or buy a slabbed book. I like to read them no matter how old or valuable.
Some people will buy a slabbed book, crack it open, have it cleaned and pressed, then have it re-graded. Crazy, I know.
Matt Meyers first began restoring comics in 2013, and through research of different techniques, created a unique way to restore comics by individually painting each dot on the comic book page, giving the art a “more precise” look.
In art / museum conservation terms that is not restoration - which is about removing extraneous material and reducing the effects of ageing and wear without adding new material that is mistaken as part of the original work.
Since these are not regulated terms anyone can do anything to an old painting or comic and say its ‘restored’, and it falls on the buyer to understand exactly what that means and whether they are buying heavily lipsticked pigs or ones that actually do look pretty good for their age.
I don’t know much about the sorts of paper stock used on comic books, but if they behave like the cheap garbagey newsprint used from the 1950s onwards, then any treatment other than careful deacidification is very likely to promote even more rapid deterioration.