The CGC encapsulation process, which the copy underwent at some point before its known market appearances, is designed to preserve what exists at the time of grading while providing authentication. The hard plastic case used by CGC is made from materials chosen for their inertness—they don’t off-gas acids that would attack the paper. The sealed environment reduces exposure to atmospheric oxygen and pollutants. The transparency of the case allows display without handling. For a book that has already survived eight decades, CGC encapsulation is more about preventing additional deterioration and providing authentication than about reversing damage already done.
The survival of the CGC 9.0 copy is, in this sense, partly the result of chance—the circumstances of ownership and storage over eight decades that happened to preserve the paper in near-original condition—and partly the result of human decisions to protect it once it was recognized as something worth protecting. At some point in the copy’s history, someone understood enough about what they had to handle it carefully. Who that person was and when they made that choice is part of the undocumented early history of the copy.
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THE ECONOMICS OF CELEBRITY COLLECTING
Nicolas Cage is not the only celebrity to have assembled a significant collection of rare comics. The market for Golden Age comics expanded significantly in the 1990s and 2000s as collectors with substantial incomes—including many in the entertainment industry—began acquiring high-grade copies of key issues. The celebrity involvement in comics collecting reflects both the financial accessibility of the market (relative to, say, major works of fine art by celebrated artists) and the personal resonance that comics characters have for people who grew up with them.