Cleaning your collectible means using a method of varying erasers and tools to remove dirt/grime and residue that could hurt the collectible's condition and grade.
Pressing the comic is a process in which applied heat and pressure are used to smooth the book to the original state removing bends, folds, rolls, and light spine stress.
Comic pressing should be considered anytime there is a desire to improve the overall condition of the book. This can either be for resale purposes, grading and encapsulation purposes or simply to improve the appearance of your collection at a minimal cost instead of spending time, money, and effort in acquiring new, higher condition issues.
There are many defects (both small and large) that can occur to a comic that will result in a lowered appearance and while there might be some advantage in pressing any and all conditions of books, the best results will usually be seen on books that are already in higher grade.
The majority of the damage that can be addressed is limited to non-color or non-image breaking defects like Light Creases, Slight Surface Dents, Light Scratches, Subtle Folds, Minor Spine Rolls, Ripples or Waves, Surface dirt, Smudges, Fingerprints, and other disruptions in surface gloss.
If you are considering having your comics pressed, please take a moment and visit our before and after photos to have a better understanding of the difference pressing can make for your collectible.
No, not at all the techniques utilized are to ensure that the book is taken under the best measures to make it as clean, flat, smooth, and ready for grading.
Pressible Defects (Good): include the following problems that don’t break color: dents, bends, folds, light creases, minor spine wear/ roll, impacted corners/ edges, warping, ripples, waviness, stacking bends, light cover impressions, light pencil marks, and dirt.
Not Pressible Defects (Bad): creases that break color, missing chips/ pieces, tears, stains, detached staples/ staple tears, spine splits, fading, spine stress that break color, rusted staples/ rust stains, rounded corners, pen/ ink stains, brown. brittle cover/ pages.
I have spent well over nearly two decades handling comic books with a decade of experience with graded comics, I can give a fair estimate on the current grade but as a customer, if your desire is to have the comic encapsulated with grading then I can happily submit to CGC or CBCS Grading companies as I am an Authorized Dealer for both companies and can gladly accommodate submitting your books to either.
A typical dry clean and press job will take approximately 24- 48 hours. If more significant dry cleaning, humidification, or a second pressing is required, the turnaround time will obviously be longer. If a comic is heavily soiled, cleaning can oftentimes be quite time-consuming and require much more attention. As of writing we currently have 4 presses operational resulting in a turnaround time of 4 comics per day with as many as 28 comics done in one week.
We have a local drop-off point out of West Monroe, La but if the drive is a little out of reach your comics can be mailed directly when you are ready to submit your books.
For my end of cleaning and pressing books, I offer flat rates of
$12 for Modern Comics
$14 for Silver, Copper, & Bronze
$24 for Square bound & Golden Age
If Whitening - Stain Removal etc; is something you're looking for as well I do offer that and you can see several before and after photos and the difference it can make.
That Starts at $75 (depending on the severity of the book & can take anywhere from 18-50+ hours)
Absolutely, once comics are received they are placed into the queue to be worked on. Once, your books are on the workbench then they are examined and dry-cleaned. The next step is the books are prepared for pressing and then pressed. After the press has been completed then the books are either sent back to you or to the Grading Company desired to be graded. When the books arrive and are checked into the system an invoice will be e-mailed to you including the totals for all pressing, shipping & grading fees to make it as fluid as possible throughout the entire process.
Of course you can, just include the invoice for grading with your books and the same process as above will apply - when the books are checked into grading then you pay.