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Comics Restoration and ConservationQuestions

Color Touch Removal anyone?6385

Collector KingNampa private msg quote post Address this user
Just curious if anyone has purchased a comic that had slight color touch and then paid a professional to remove it? What was your return grade? How much did it cost you?

I've seen some examples on CGC forums where it drops 2 whole grades and other examples where the grade slightly changes.

I'm considering buying some mega keys that way, its cheaper to buy them up front restored and then maybe try and get the color touch removed. I would only consider buying graded restored with Slight Professional color touch, nothing amateur.

Looking for anyone's experience with this. Cheers!
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Collector poka private msg quote post Address this user
You are not the first one who has thought about it, but if you decide to proceed you may wish to do low-medium grades where the removal might not get a big impact on grading.

Note however that the book will not look nice after the color touch removal.
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Collector KingNampa private msg quote post Address this user
@poka thanks for the response. I was looking at some 9.0+ books with B-1 slight cover touch on spine. 1/3 of the price of the unrestored version. Even with a 2 grade drop, post removal, it would be cheaper than buying the 7.0 unrestored version directly.
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Collector poka private msg quote post Address this user
Quote:
Originally Posted by KingNampa
@poka thanks for the response. I was looking at some 9.0+ books with B-1 slight cover touch on spine. 1/3 of the price of the unrestored version. Even with a 2 grade drop, post removal, it would be cheaper than buying the 7.0 unrestored version directly.


You need to be sure that the CT is really slight - the problem with removal of CT is that once removed - all colors will be scrapped away so you are left with the paper color - on dark color covers - it looks awful
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Collector CopperAgeKids private msg quote post Address this user
Never buy books with CT on the spine, if you want the CT removed.

The ink is scraped off during CT removal.

A book's spine integrity can be easily compromised during the process, that is pretty much unavoidable as the spine is already folded when the book is made, which makes it more susceptible to wear/damage.

Add in the fact that the working area is not a flat surface (unlike say the middle of a cover) aaaand than, most books are pressed after resto removal.

Altogether, that is 3 avenues of damaging a book's grade.

If a book is disassembled to remove CT, even than...it would still need to be pressed after the CT was removed and the book reassembled.
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Collector KingNampa private msg quote post Address this user
@CopperAgeKids so would a candidate with color touch on the middle of the cover be the better choice?
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Collector CopperAgeKids private msg quote post Address this user
Quote:
Originally Posted by KingNampa
@CopperAgeKids so would a candidate with color touch on the middle of the cover be the better choice?


As a rule of thumb, yes.By far.

But as Poka said, removal of CT scrapes away the ink of the work area entirely.

But very little of the surrounding area is scraped off. Even so, a very small bit of surrounding cover inks will be lost, and it doesn't take much to really stick out.

A book like ASM #1 with light CT on the FI in the lighter colored background areas would leave you with much less of an eye sore, than an FF 52 or a Super boy 68.

A light blueish/grey background on an ASM 1, opposed to a black or dark purple background on an FF 52 or SB 68, will let the scraped area "blend in" better than a book with a dark background; which those two books have.

Problem is, most books that are CT'd tend to be books with darker covers.

But if you can be sure that the CT is truly minor, like a 1/10th of a dime, at most,on a darker cover, it generally won't leave you with too much of an eye sore.

Bigger the eye sore, the bigger the drop in grade.
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COLLECTOR shrewbeer private msg quote post Address this user
@KingNampa it’s a good idea, but you would have to be able to hold the book in hand. Some color touch is easy to remove and will just reveal the color break underneath, really depends on how the touch feathered in to the color around it. Some professionals will really go far and wide to make sure their color blends well with the rest of the book
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Collector poka private msg quote post Address this user
I just posted this book in another thread but this is one which has been subject to removal. Now did they get everything off?

Book removed
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I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life. kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user
I would not attempt this route personally.
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Moderator The_Watcher private msg quote post Address this user
Here's an image of one book with CT removed (not mine)


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Collector Odins_Raven private msg quote post Address this user
Hero Restoration would be my suggestion for consulting on this type of venture. Mike is an expert and very good at weighing the pros and cons of restoration/removal.
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Collector 3JJr private msg quote post Address this user
Any book that has color touch designated as "professional", should be able to have that color touch removed, without scraping, excising paper, or other removal procedures that will further mar and deteriorate the material under the color-touch.

In these cases, the color touch being designated, thus implied that a restoration professional performed the color touch using completely reversible material. This professional designation should not include inks and such that must be aggressively excised.
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Collector DocBrown private msg quote post Address this user
Don't do it. The collecting world will eventually come around. CT removal tends to look awful. I saw a beautiful Hulk #1 a couple of years back...absolutely gorgeous...9.0 range...with slight dots of color touch along the spine.

It would be a crime to ruin that book even further by attempting to remove that CT, and for what...? A non-restored label...?

It's not worth it.
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Collector Homer private msg quote post Address this user
Your odds of successfully removing color touch to get it into a savalagible blue label is very low. Especially if you see the book online as that’s a dumping ground for problem restored books. Any restorer worth there salt will not attempt color touch removal on a silver or newer book other than a few tiny tiny dots.
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Collector CopperAgeKids private msg quote post Address this user
The Batman 40 is a good example of a book with a dark cover background, hat should have been left alone.

If there was very light CT in a yellow area, it may be able to be scraped off without complete loss to the paper underneath.

But it would have to be super light, and performed very recently.....and add in the likelihood that it wouldn't likely have been applied to a lighter area to begin with as dark colored areas show rubbing/ink loss worse than light areas....

The problem with removing CT on books with newsprint stock is that newsprint is like a sponge.

So even if it was applied recently, the paper stock will fight you every step of the way.
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Collector Homer private msg quote post Address this user
A golden age book can have some color touch and still get a blue label from CGC, Silver and newer has to be zero color touch or known restoration. Big difference when looking for an unrestorable candidate.

You can have some color touch and scrape most of it off and get a CGC blue with Gold books, you can have some color touch and scrape almost all of it off and your still stuck with a purple on Silver and newer from CGC. Your also left with the "cat scratches" from the restoration removal attempts.
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Collector KingNampa private msg quote post Address this user
I see this example on the web of color touch removal. Looks brutal


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Collector MR_SigS private msg quote post Address this user
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Watcher
Here's an image of one book with CT removed (not mine)




'Daily Bugle'. Never noticed that.
"The Batman is a menace!"
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Collector 3JJr private msg quote post Address this user
Quote:
Originally Posted by KingNampa
I see this example on the web of color touch removal. Looks brutal




Look closely. Some of the color touch is still there in the after removal photo. Look to Daredevil's knee/thigh area, among other places. If resubmitted to CBCS or the CGC, and the resto guy grants leniency for effort, it's still purple without question.
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Collector jrs private msg quote post Address this user
The person who color touched that Daredevil book did a pretty good job!
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Why just the women? I like bears. Gaard private msg quote post Address this user
I'm sure there's something there, but I'm just not seeing anything in the very bottom circle (on the white area).
Post 22 IP   flag post
Collector 3JJr private msg quote post Address this user
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrs
The person who color touched that Daredevil book did a pretty good job!


Not really. The amateur color touch bled outward, spreading out to cover a significantly wider swath of ct than was necessary in key places where the creasing was more fibrous. This typically happens when ink pens are used amateurishly instead of professional colors that don't bleed and feather outward into the exposed fibers.

That's why now, although the majority of color touch is removed, the removal of more than what would have been necessary if professionally touched up had to be done, giving the apparent wear an "artificial" look. Whenever more color, a wider area of wear, has to be excised than the initial normal rifts there pre-color touch, this occurs.

You can always tell when amateur color touch was removed if you know what to look for. When the CT was professionally applied with archival-friendly materials, it's not as obvious.
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Collector jrs private msg quote post Address this user
I'm not getting so technical. The green is a fair match as far as I'm concerned. Could have been worse!
Post 24 IP   flag post
Collector 3JJr private msg quote post Address this user
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrs
I'm not getting so technical. The green is a fair match as far as I'm concerned. Could have been worse!


Unfortunately, removal is highly technical, unless you want to throw good money after bad and have a resto-removed book return to PaPa in a purple label anyway.

What the amateur who applied the color touch on the DD 1 didn't take into consideration is the feathering in fibrous areas. The ink soaked outward, beyond the perimeter of the fissure the color touch should have been contained within, which resulted in the otherwise well-matched green color darkening the border/horizon areas of the creases when it soaked/feathered outward which darkened the original green of production around the fractures.

The color might have been well-matched, but it was applied with no mind to being reversible, which is a major consideration when a professional performs the work and the stark contrast between professional and amateur restoration.
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