Barry Brager is an articulate and knowledgeable person, and personable. Really enjoyed this interview, thank you!

Another incredible interview! I learned a ton about cleaning comics. This video also confirmed that CGC will need new cases. Wow!

Great conversation. I'd enjoy learning pressing from Barry. Nice shoutout to the Gold Key Scooby Doo #1- I wonder how many of those Mr. Brager has worked on.

This man did a fantastic job of explaining his position and opinions . Very interesting was the comparison to super high end art or museuem art in which the biggest masterpieces in the world have all been painted over several times now and its well respected and valued highly

Excellent interview dude. An hour well spend as I learned so much…

@Swagglehaus

6 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

good interview, bro. very informative.

@Swagglehaus

6 ай бұрын

Appreciate that!

This interview was amazing, but all I could think of was Homer telling Pepi, "LEARNED, son. It's prounounced 'LEARNED'..." 😂

That was really informative I’ve only been collecting for 5 months or so have over 5k already but I’m looking at pressing some and getting graded etc it’s a bit harder as I’m over the pond but we’re getting onto the scene I think. Cheers 🍻

As a fine artist & life long collector that started cleaning & pressing my books now a few here & there for a local friend collector, I very much enjoyed this video, I am considering doing a limited number of books for the public,the detailed cleaning takes time but I love doing it, I clean Norman Rockwells pallet like its my own. ☺ of course comics are art & I do treat it as such. I do send in a dozen a month for grading & have cracked out my own books if I think I can do better,so far every book has benefited, I only dry clean,have not tried any other methods. Peace!

Its nice to see your face Barry!

This guy was informative

Great video! I enjoyed Barry's insight. Just wondering, at the start of the video, Barry had tons of blue labels in his hand. Does he eventually notify CGC or CBCS to remove them from the census. I forgot who did a video, maybe it was Bry, that the census might be overstated.

@Swagglehaus

6 ай бұрын

Not sure what Barry does. But I would guess the most of the hobby does not report it. Which mean the census is definitely not accurate. 😬

Clean/Press or leave Raw- ASM 238 Mark Jewelers Variant and complete with original Tattooz insert, now just by looking at it and going off of CGC grade scale I would say its at least a 6.0, thoughts and comments are appreciated , also have the 2nd and 3rd appearance in MJ variants as well!

i wonder if can he remove the brown staining that comes with water damage.

If it was C2, and bleadthrough... how come that wasn't spottet under pressing?

Love Barry’s stuff - one question, is it normal to clean and press a book with amateur restoration on the cover and not see it? As the one that is trying to get the grade bump for the client, it seems that you are the one that’s most intimate with what’s going on with the book. You didn’t see the sharpie work on the cover. I’m just asking so I know what to expect from my cleaner.

@jonr269

5 ай бұрын

I press and clean for clients as well and honestly we dont really look for it. Unless we get the book with a Purple label already or its very obvious when were working with the book. We treat it like any other book that we are expecting to get a blue label. Example, i had a client sent me an X-men #1 that i cleaned up and pressed for him. Few weeks later he sends me a pick showing the book recived a purple label stating it had color touch on it. He asked to see if i could find it and if at all possible remove it no matter if the book took a grade hit. I got the book cracked it open and found the color touch had been done professionally as some parts of the spine and 1 spot on a corner had been colored over. But i had to put the book under a microsope and look at each individual color dot on the book to find these spots. I know this is a more extreme case, but it just shows that as pressers we cant always see or find it unless its "in your face obvious." Otherwise if we were forced to look over a book in such an extreme manner then this would slow our abaility to work on books for clients by alot at which point our cost to work on said books would then also increase significatly as well to compensate the cost for time doing this. So unless you inform us that there is color touch on the book and where it is located at, we will just treat the book as any other blue label.

Who is the 3rd party standard they use for "cleaning and pressing?

Felt like an infomercial for his company

I like my books raw too. Been at it for 40 years. I don’t own a single slab.

Seems like a good dude though. Clearly very smart and I don't ever want to hate on a guy for striving for clarity.

Pressing and restoration if done right is great even on big boy grails. Why does your wall not have an amazing fantasy 15. Biggest marvel key ever and most popular character of all time.

@wylier

6 ай бұрын

If he actually owned a copy he would likely have it on the wall.

With that Hulk wolverine in a 9.0 it was pretty obvious it was not a 9.0. Not so obvious that it was restored however. Likely this issue was just swapped and not sent to CGC. With their tools there is no way they would have both graded it a 9.0 and missed the restoration. I think the majority of the fault on such issues needs to fall on the consumers shoulders. If you are getting into this hobby and spending large amounts of money it should be first required that you are able to understand the grading scale. Next if people familiarized themselves with the anatomy of a slab and what to look for this would also be very helpful. Maybe it would be a great show idea to show off a slab in great detail and understand what to look for related to these concerns.

@Supertomscustoms

6 ай бұрын

Grading companies have intentionally opened the door to uneducated buyers. They knew they could attract the same idiots that invested in NFTs and crypto, who care little about the hobby, and are just looking for easy money. Oh, and money launderers 😂.

Yo

Id have to have no respect for a comic collector with a spinner rack in their house... Friggin spinner racks!😂

I don't think a purple label is "not allowed," but I think it should be noted on a comic book. I think the average comic collector lowers the value of this book, because it is a cost additive element. The collector wants a valuable book at the best price, and a meticulously cleaned and conserved book is a cost they may or may not realize any return on investment. Sellers, dealers, flippers absolutely might recoup that cost on a high value book though. And, I would say that there is "value" in my mind certainly for a high grade book that didn't have to undergo cosmetic surgery. There's plenty of pretty models that have paid money, but a naturally beautiful person will take your breath away. Lol

I feel like every time you lob this guy a nice softball his reply is "NO! NOT AT ALL!"

One observation is that, why do we use CGC at all? Cleaning and Pressing is too expensive and you can't use your CGC credit against it. They obviously have ingrained issues and could be deemed unreliable. Also, CBCS holders are far superior and are Newtons Ring free... horrah! I propose we all go over to CBCS ?... no brainer.

Affects…..

@7:25 Did I miss something? That book should have NEVER been cracked out. He did his customer a massive disservice by doing that.

Maybe cgc is keeping the good copies 🤔🤔🤔

I don’t totally agree with him presenting CGC as being unique in the art world regarding restoration. Think of essentially any fabric-based artwork. The idea that cleaning that fabric would be considered restoration just isn’t true. To me, he seems to be conflating fine art restoration with comic book cleaning. Imagine if you had a 1957 Chevy and you washed it. No one is going to claim that as being restoration. So this really stark line he’s drawing where CGC alone sees pressing and cleaning as not restoration just doesn’t ring true. It’s only relevant when comparing it to fine art.

Excellent interview dude. An hour well spend as I learned so much…

@Swagglehaus

6 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!