I haven’t been posting here for awhile as I’ve been busy working on other clients web sites. Yes, in my spare time I help small to mid-sized businesses to improve their sales and follow-up process as well as gain a web presence, or improve their existing web site.

Although I focus as a Internet Marketing Consultant for Lapeer County, I also work with small businesses abroad. Ok, enough about me, let’s get to the good stuff, eh?

Last time, I wrote an article on the “7 Defects To Look For Before Prepping Your Books For Grading“. If you haven’t read that article yet (shame on you!) then please go read that one first.

Now I will be showing you what defects can be “fixed” or “corrected” on a comic book that you would like to have prepped before having it graded. But, I am doing this a little different this time.

…Jeopardy music playing in background…

I run a comic book prepping service and one of my customers (Brian Maton) has allowed me to “Showcase” his comic book here. I will explain to you what things can be corrected along with some pictures. Here we go…

5 Defects That Prepping Can Fix To Increase The Grade Of Your Comic Book

The comic that I prepped for Brian was an Amazing Spiderman #103

This is the back of the comic before prepping.

This is the back of the comic after I prepped it.

Defect # 1. Dirt on the covers.
The most common problem with decent comic books when I prep them is, dirty covers! Dirt can make your comic book look older than it is and can reveal wrinkles and creases more profoundly. Take a look at the above picture. You can see that there is plenty of dirt and wrinkles on the back cover of this comic.

Be careful when determining dirt on your comic book, some of it could be soiling or some type of stain - which in most cases cannot be removed.

Dirt can be easily cleaned up with prepping, making your comic book look fresh from the news stand.

Defect # 2. Wrinkling on spine, cover or inside pages.
Look for shadowy areas on your spines and covers (especially white covers, as shown above). This will let you know that you have wrinkles. They usually are obvious to catch, but some may actually be gouges from a sharp object such as a pen, pencil or something that scraped along the spine. See what you can detect on the back cover above. Are they wrinkles or gouges?

Most wrinkles can be removed with prepping. Deep gouges and even tough wrinkles may not be able to be removed.

Defect # 3. Bumped corners.
A bumped corner often extends to every page in the book, it looks like it was hit against something and the book tried to correct itself. Here is an example (not my customers comic) of a comic with a bumped corner:

Bumped corners can be pressed to original condition, bringing the grade of your comic up significantly.

Defect # 4. Stress along the spine.
Look for areas on the spine that are similar to a wrinkle, but smaller but they don’t break the ink. The bumped corner example to the left has a good example of this.

It’s a deep shadowy area, but does not break the ink.

Stress along the spine can be pressed out making your spine look like new.

Defect # 5. Ragged edges.
Look for this type of defect on the underside of the front and back covers. It can also show up on the internal pages of your comic books. If you open your comic and look straight down the edge of the cover or page, it will look jagged instead of seeing a crisp clean line.

Ragged edges can easily be pressed out to make those covers and pages look crisp and straight.

If you’ve read my first article 7 Defects To Look For Before Prepping Your Books For Grading and determined that the comic books you want to submit for grading are free of those defects listed there, then your next step is to determine if you have any of the defects listed in this article.

Why do you need to do that?

Because you need those defects corrected in order to get the best grade you can once it is submitted to CGC for grading. I’ve had customers send me comics that, at arrival, estimated at 7.0 and found out from them later that it graded out at a 9.4. That’s a huge upgrade!

Here is the finished product after I prepped Brian’s comic book (It’s a beauty!). Your comic books can look the same:

Would you like to improve the grade of your comic books?

I offer a comic book prepping service that improves the grade of your comic books. If you would like to get more information about how this service works, please send me an e-mail using my Contacting Me page. Please let me know if this article was interesting or if you have any other topics you would like me to cover on this site.

Patrick
The Comic Collector

I received an e-mail from a passer by to this site, Charles Graham, who asked me when I was going to do my article on prepping books for CGC. Some time back I promised to do this and Charles gave me the kick in the butt to start it. So, without further ado here is the first of a few articles to help those of you who want to get your comic books graded.

7 Defects To Look For Before Prepping Your Books For Grading

As comic book collectors we want our comic books to be in the best condition they can be, especially if we are going to spend the money to get them graded by CGC. CGC is a company that “slabs” your comic books in a sturdy plastic case and attaches a grade (a point system from 0.5 - 10) to the comic. This process is pretty intense and they carefully look over each comic for defects which, when found, will determine the final grade of the comic.

SIDENOTE: Take a look at CGC’s site and review their process in grading to get a much better understanding of how this is done.

What Exactly is Prepping?

In a nutshell, comic book prepping is a way to clean up a comic books non-damaging defects which improves the grade of the book and makes it more presentable.

The following seven defects will help you determine if your comic book can be prepped before sending it into CGC.

Ok, here we go…

Defect #1. Spine creases that break ink.
Look for creases (similar to cracks) on the front and back of the spine of your comic. You can determine if the crease breaks ink by looking for the paper showing through the ink (it will typically reveal a white color). The more of these there are, the less the grade of your comic book.

Typically, if all other things are good (see list below) and there is one crease that breaks ink, I automatically set the grade of that book to a 9.4. Of course, there are exceptions, but usually that will be the grade you will receive.

Can this defect be fixed with prepping? No

Defect #2. Soiling or mold.
I’m sure many of you have seen what paper looks like when it is soiled with oil, some type of condiment or mold has grown on it. Due to the paper comics are created with, the same things can happen to them. Look for darker areas on the inside of the covers and pages. You can also spot mold by smell - similar to must and wet.

Can this defect be fixed with prepping? No

Defect #3. Water damage.
When water finds it’s way onto a comic book, it can cause some damage. You can tell water damage by the dis-coloration and are shaped like clouds, lakes or some form of circle. Here is a picture of a comic that has water damage:

Can this defect be fixed with prepping? No

Defect #4. Rips, tears or pieces missing.
This kind of defect is typically easy to spot if they are a 1/4″ or longer but be careful to not pass up those that are smaller in size. Even the slightest tear, rip or piece missing can knock the grade down on your comic drastically.

Defect #5. Rusted or loose staples.
The staples of your comic book should be tight and clean. It’s fairly easy to see if your staples are lightly rusted, have heavy rust or they are loose. To check for loose staples, look at the outside of the spine and see if the cover has any movement by the staples. Also, hold the comic in your hand and open it to the center.

Very carefully, touch the staple to see if it moves around or has any play. if so, It’s a good sign that the staples are loosening or are already loose. This eventually can cause damage to the cover and inside pages.

Can this defect be fixed with prepping? No, but it can be fixed as a restoration to the book.

Defect #6. Ink marks, gouges, fading on front/back covers.
When I prep comic books, I don’t fret too much about date stamps, especially if it’s in an inconspicuous spot on the cover. Ink marks are usually when someone writes on the cover or inside pages of the comic and if they wrote too hard it causes gouges. Pencils can also cause gouges when the comic is written on.

Although the pencil itself can usually be cleaned up, the gouges remain and will drop the grade of your comic book.

Fading is not a grade stopper unless the comic has been sitting out in the sun for a long period of time. It is still beneficial to keep an eye out for it on your comic books.

Can this defect be fixed with prepping? Yes/No. As I explained, pencil can be cleaned but if gouges remain it will affect the grade of your comic.

Defect #7. Subscription crease down the center of comic.
I’m sure we have all seen one of these before. A sub-crease happens when the Post Office delivers your comic book and folds it in half to place it in the mail box. This creates a vertical crease from the top to the bottom of the comic. If the comic was folded too much it could cause the ink to break.

Can this defect be fixed with prepping? Yes/No. The front and back covers most likely cannot be fixed but inside pages can be pressed out but would be a lot of work.

There you have it. You can greatly improve the grade of your comic books by first determining if they are free of most or all of the defects above and get them prepped before you send them out to be graded by CGC.

My next article will cover those defects which CAN be fixed. Keep an eye out for it.

P.S. I wrote this article today because I will be getting my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday (oh, it is Friday already) and I will probably not be up to posting anything this weekend.

Patrick
The Comic Collector

Mine are:

- Green Goblin
- Mysterio
- Rhino
- Sandman
- Hydroman

Happy Collecting.

Patrick
The Comic Collector

I know, I know… It’s been awhile since I last posted but I am working on putting some good content together for you. Recently, I received this question from “Angela” a fellow collector:

“I have some old Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom Comic books that I have had since I was a teenager. They are still wrapped in plastic. They were limited editions. How would I find out what these would be worth today?“

First, thank you for the question and it is definitely a question that many collectors ask quite often before they determine to sell their comic books or maybe determine worth for their collection. Let’s get started shall we. (Thanks to my good friend Sean over at comicbooksecrets.com for the outline for this - go check out his site after you read this.)

Step 1: Gather Titles and Issue Numbers

If you have an “Amazing Spiderman” collection, what you would do is list all of your issue numbers on a piece of paper or in a text editor such as notepad. Here is an example:

Amazing Spiderman 300
Amazing Spiderman 316

Step 2: Determine Condition or “Grade”

A quick note here, grading your comics is subjective. As an example, I prep comic books for collectors to increase the grade of the book before they send them into CGC or PGX for grading. They may send me a “Wolverine 1 Limited Edition”. That collector may have graded that book a 9.2, but when I review the book to determine an estimated arrival grade, the grade may actually be a an 8.0.

That’s a huge difference when it comes to grading. So, what’s the best way to determine the condition or “grade” of my comic books? First, acquire for yourself the Bible of the industry, the “Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide” along with the “Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide” (you can find these in the right navbar under the blog signup form. Look for “Recommended”).

The basic comic book gades are:

For more details and descriptions of these grades, visit my good friend, Seans site and watch his video.

Mint (MT) and Near Mint (NM)
Vefy Fine (VF)
Fine (F)
Very Good (VG) to Good (G)
Fair (FR) to Poor (PR)

Step 3: Find The Value of your Comic Book

We have a couple of ways to find the value of our comic books. First, we can use the Overstreet Price Guide but, as my good friend Sean has said, this is really only good for research of first appearances, villains, etc. as the pricing is a year or more behind and can be biased as they receive a lot of data from dealers.

The best way to find values for your comic books is on eBay! Yes, you’ve read that right - the famous eBay site has the most up-to-date pricing on what you could get for your comic books.

So, what I’m going to do is a video for you guys on how to research your comic books on eBay. Keep watching this site as I will have this coming up soon.

Happy collecting.

Patrick
The Comic Collector