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Reslabbing necessary or not?
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11 posts in this topic

Hey folks

 

how much do slabbed books deteriorate over 15 or 20 years if kept in a dark and cool acid free box? i have about 90 slabbed books from 2000/2001 and am keeping half for the next ten years or so before selling (am in the process of selling the other half now to put my daughter through college).

 

I cannot spot any deterioration of the books, and the microchamber paper is supposed to last a long long time in low airflow environments -

 

so do i reslab? do the slabs deteriorate and wreck the books over time?

 

thanks

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Thanks for the replies!

 

The books are worth between $2000 and $15,000 each. They include a 9.0 Spiderman #14 (old label - i would rate the book a 9.2 or possibly even a 9.4 based on the current cgc grading i've seen), two Avengers #4 (one an 8,5 and one an 8.0), a Spiderman #9 (that they damaged the upper right corner on when they slabbed it - they gave it an 8.5 but the color and sharpness of the book is astounding - but it has a bad wrinkle on one of the inside staple pages and that brought the grade down from the 9.4 range), a daredevil #1 in 7.0, an Avengers #1 in 7.5, a Spidey #6 in 9.2, two Captain America (silver age) #1 at 9.0 and 9.2, and another twenty or so low number spiderman/ff/avengers and daredevils in 8.5 to 9.4 range. Highest graded books are a Spidey 33 in 9.6, and spidey 100 in 9.6, and xmen 94 in 9.6. Two hulk 182's in 9.4. Spiderman #3 in 9.0, #2 in 8.5, #1 in 5.0. AF15 apparent 8.0 was sold (It was a restored copy) back in the mid-2000's for about 10k.

 

I dont want to reholster - i want to unload about half the books for my daughter's college (I figure at 60k per year for the schools she is applying to, i am looking at about 280k all in with housing, allowance, etc. That means about 30-40 books will need to be sold.

 

I also had the bad experience of getting at least 2 books damaged by CGC. Granted, this was when the company was new, but they cut their 'seal' too close to the tops of some of my books that had 'finger wear' - the phenomenon that some books have wrinkling of their top edge because of too much gripping pulling them into and out of bags. One of the books 'split' the top edge and the other clipped the corner. On the ASM #9 I was quite annoyed as the book was extremely sharp - on the other, they didnt punish the grade for their own bad handling.

 

Back then, the books were worth maybe $400 or so in the NM- range, but now they are worth much more and I prefer to leave them alone so long as they arent wasting away in there.

 

My younger daughter, at 11, will get whatever books remain for her college. By then, I will probably need 400k, but should have enough books to cover it.

 

 

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thanks for the replies!

 

The collection was started via subscription to all the old marvels in 1971 when I was 5. Most had the dreaded folded subscription crease, but by 1975 I had over a thousand books stacked nicely in my closet. Picked up a slew of old books at the local comic shops when you could buy early marvels (save the #1 issues) for a couple of bucks. Probably had 5 really nice copies of ASM 14 and multiples of all the early journey into mystery issues post 83, as loki and the goblin were my favorite villains. Traded or sold away most of of the collection in the early 80's at a comiccon in NYC, got maybe 5k for it. But I kept back about 500 or so books that were in the best shape, and I cgc'd 90 of them right after cgc started up. I have not slabbed any of my early hulk or tales of suspense issues, even though i have some really really sharp copies of the early issues. I might decide to slab them some day, but i've got microchambers on every other page and they are sitting with 2 gerber fullbacks in mylite 2's and i've seen absolutely no aging, foxing, etc in the last 15 years.

 

I think though I am going to have to crack a few of the cgc cases to check the papers if, as BlowUpTheMoon indicates that the papers might age inside the cgc case.

 

the only real difference in the way that i store the cgc books and my other books is that the cgc books are not in a conservation resources acid free box as they dont fit. All the other unslabbed books are in one of those admittedly expensive boxes but they have survived a year in a warm humid garage before being moved back to a closet and i didnt really see any degradation (though the books are packed *really* tight and i have dessicant tabs taped into the holes of the boxes).

 

It is interesting that the only books i have that suffered that year were the 20 or so EC horror books i have (all low # issues in the mid 5.0 to 6.0 range). Their inside pages were already tannish when i got the books at a flea market in the mid 80's, and even with microchamber on every page of the book they still are decaying. seems that once they pass a certain point - say when you pull a book from the mylar and you can smell the acid - that there is no stopping the process without possible deacidification.

 

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It might have been Joey Post that said he's pulled out micro chamber paper that had a strong smell to it.

 

That's great - means the micro chamber paper is doing what it's supposed to do :thumbsup:

(thumbs u

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