Comic Book Restoration, why?!? Why?!? WHY?!?

Back when I first started collecting and dealing comics restoration was not nearly as frowned upon as it is today. As a matter of fact, it was pretty rampant and many dealers would perform restoration work in front of customers right there at their convention tables! Now, there were some dealers who were very good at it and they would typically do relatively minor things like pressing and cleaning. Others, on the other hand would take it to the extreme and marry pages into a book, color touch, restaple, seal tears (glue or tape) and other things that I don't even remember.

I remember watching one dealer at a show in Long Island in the mid eighties take a Very Good copy of Hawkman 1 and turn it into a Very Fine appearing copy. First thing he did was pull the bottom staple that had cut through the cover (very common in 60s DCs) and put a tiny sliver of archival tape on the cut and replace the staple. Next he cleaned the front and back covers with Wonder Bread. Last he took a couple of different magic markers and did about a dozen very tiny color touches along the spine. From a $10 copy to a $30 copy.

In another instance at a show I personally sold a copy of Jimmy Olsen 2 that was missing the centerfold to a dealer in South Carolina. He knew what he was getting and I had discounted the book deeply because of the missing centerfold. He snapped it up and took it back to his table where he promptly pulled the centerfold out of a Fox and Crow or Flippity Flippity Flop or whatever it was from the same month and year and put it in as the centerfold. Ten minutes later he turned a $25 comic into a $150 comic.

Another time at a small show in NJ, again in the mid 80s, I watched as a dealer took a copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 that was pretty heavily soiled and cleaned it with an art eraser. Funny thing about this one is the customer had already purchased the comic and asked him to do it for him!

There are many other instances that I have seen over the years where a dealer took a bad looking copy and made it more attractive with some type of restoration work. I have done it myself in the past by taking a copy of something that was in bad shape with something like a tear or spine split an putting tape on it. Did it raise the price like the first two examples I gave above? Nope. But it sure did make that Fair condition copy of Uncle Scrooge Four Color 386 that I taped the split spine on 20 years ago look a heckuva lot better and easier to sell. As were countless low grade 50s and 60s comics in 50 cent and dollar boxes that I sold at shows in the 80s and early 90s.

My point is that back in earlier days of collecting many comics were restored not out of malice but out of the realities of the market. Most customers, especially of lower grade material, really did not care about restoration one way or the other. There was a pretty large contingent that looked at it as a way to get a better looking copy for a lower price. Now the flip side is that there were also unscrupulous dealers out there who would do this kind of work, not tell anyone about it and charge full price to unknowledgeable collectors. Through CGC, experience and education these comics are being found and fortunately there is a strong belief that restoration of any kind should be disclosed, which is as it should be.

And as a side note, all three of the dealers that I mentioned above are still in business today. And, no, don't ask me to name them as what they were doing at the time was accepted and they were not ones to hide the fact that they did work to their books. But, I will say this, be aware of what you are buying. Learn how to spot a color touch. Learn how to spot tear seals. Learn how to protect yourself from bad investments. Having a copy of Fantastic Four 1 that is restored to a VG is not a bad thing at all. It is a classic comic that anyone would want to own. But having the same copy and not knowing what work has been done to it is bad!