In 2021 Sports Illustrated did something pretty cool with Shohei Ohtani. They produced two covers of him the same week. One as a hitter and one as a pitcher. I’m cleaning and pressing this hitter variant for a customer.

While this dent was small, it did run pretty deep. This era of SI is tougher to work on because by then they had moved to a glued, square spine instead of the traditional stapled spine. A very satisfying before and after!

The service I offer my customers is cleaning & pressing. It always seems like the “cleaning” part gets forgotten about. Not on my watch!

I’m working on this Muhammad Ali & George Foreman cover from 1974. This is the “Rumble in the Jungle” fight where Ali was a 4-1 underdog. Using his now famous “Rope a Dope” strategy, Ali got the 8th round TKO win over Foreman. It’s one of the most memorable fights in boxing history!

Always clean before pressing. Now that this dirt is gone, it goes into the press before being sent to PSA for grading.

Seems like pop culture collectibles are having a moment, especially in cards. We’re seeing something similar in magazines. This is Inc. magazine from October 1981 featuring Steve Jobs. I’m cleaning and pressing this copy for a customer.

This is a great example of the limitations of pressing. While there’s still lots of surface damage that pressing can’t fix, all the bends and creases have flattened out. What we’re looking for are degrees of improvement, and I certainly got improvement here.