Removal Service
Unlike our other services which are designed to improve the appearance of your comics, restoration removal actually works in the opposite direction. This service is designed to remove very minor, unnecessary restoration from comics to obtain an unrestored grade from CGC, and thus increase its value. The grade of a comic often decreases after removal because concealed defects, such as color breaks or tears, become visible again. This is mostly true for high grade comics, but the lower grade, the less chance removal will affect that grade. In some cases, pressing the book may offset a decrease in grade if that book happens to be a good pressing candidate (which we can determine with our Pro-screen service).
Only a tiny fraction of restored comics are feasible removal candidates; the restoration must be slight in nature, and only certain kinds of restoration can be reversed, such as color touch, glue, and rice paper repairs. Cover or interior cleaning cannot be reversed, nor trimming, replaced or cleaned staples.
The best removal candidates exhibit professional restoration that can be safely removed with minimal risk to the book itself. This includes tear seals and support using rice paper and water-soluble adhesive, and color touch using acrylics, chalk or watercolors. Removing amateur restoration, which includes the use of hard glue for tear seals and markers or pen for color touch (resulting in bleedthrough), can often deface a comic because it is necessary to scrape, dig and cut the affected parts to achieve an unrestored grade. For Golden Age comics, CGC allows very minor color touch or glue on unrestored books, giving them a label we can "blue with notes." In these cases the color touch is infinitesimal, and the traces of glue cannot serve a function (like seal a tear or hold a staple in place). When performing removal on Golden Age books, we often aim to achieve a blue with notes, which can considerably preserve the grade of the comic. For spine support and sealed splits, be aware that removal often results in a cover becoming detached from the interior and/or the cover splitting in two along the spine. Because this often results in an enormous grade drop, we do not recommend the reversal of this kind of work. If your restored comic is already CGC graded, the first step is to obtain the graders' notes using the serial number printed on the label. After you email us this information, we can determine if removal is feasible before you submit the book. There are four categories of slightly restored CGC books, which are listed below in order of feasibility:
We take a very conservative approach with restoration removal, believing it is wise to remove too little restoration and risk a restored grade from CGC, rather than "go overboard" with removal and cause a significant decrease in grade. In most cases, particularly removal on high grade comics, an extra CGC fee is worth saving your book from losing an extra one or two grades simply to guarantee the book will get an unrestored grade the first time around. That being said, our success rate with obtaining an unrestored grade is very high. Having worked closely with CGC during the last decade, we are intimately aware of what they look for when performing their restoration check. If your comic does receive a restored grade after our removal, we will attempt further removal at no charge until an unrestored grade is achieved. Please note we will not pay the additional CGC fees.
We offer restoration removal primarily as a means for collectors to recover or protect their investment, especially if the comic in question was purchased as unrestored, and returning it to the seller is not an option. But in all cases, consideration should be given to the long term. Even though unrestored comics sell for a considerable premium over the same comics in restored grade, the restored market has rebounded over the past five years, and we think this trend will continue. Caution should be taken when considering removal; if the grade drop from removal is significant, we will suggest not performing this service. In some cases, further restoration to obtain a higher apparent grade is actually more feasible, especially when dealing with comics that have the potential to achieve an apparent grade of 9.4 or higher. We also explore this possibility when your comic is Pro-screened for removal.
1440 Halsey Way (Venture Building), Suite #114, Carrollton TX 75007 | 972-980-8040 |
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