Hamlet

It’s relevant to whether he makes a profit, but it isn’t relevant to what the right decision is to maximize that profit ( or lack there of ). The best way to maximize what he is able to sell the book for doesn’t change based on what he bought it for. There are two ways to sell the book. If he sells it raw he gets $X. If he sells it slabbed, he gets $Y - grading costs. He should get it slabbed if (Y - grading costs) is greater than X. None of those values depend on what he paid for it. Are people really not getting this?

Did you read the thread? People were asking what he paid for them to determine whether it made sense to slab them. I was pointing out that what he paid for them didn’t matter when making that decision. It’s a sunk cost and doesn’t change the difference between what he can sell it for raw and what he can sell it for slabbed.

If he overpaid for the book, it isn’t going to change the difference between what the book will sell for raw and what it will sell for graded. Say the book will sell for $100 raw and is going to come back a CGC 9.6 that will sell for $175. Since grading the book is going to cost him less than $75, he should get it graded regardless of what he paid for it. Say it costs $50 to slab it. He will be $25 ahead getting it slabbed. If he overpaid for it and paid $200 originally, he’s going to lose money on the book either way, but he will lose $25 less getting it slabbed ( $75 vs $100 ). Unless you think the price he paid will change what he can sell it for. I’m pretty sure that with these books that is not going to be the case.

It doesn’t actually matter what he has invested in them. It boils down to whether the costs involved in slabbing are less than the increased sale price he will get from a slabbed book compared to a raw book. The amount he has invested will change the profit he makes from the sale ( and if high enough he could lose money ), but the value of slabbing the books won’t be changed.

There is still hope for him unless he cracks that out and reads it. 🙂 Although it probably makes more sense for him to spend $5-10 and just get a raw reader copy. That book is very affordable in non-nosebleed grades, considering how cool it is. I’ve got six, ranging from VF+ to fugly.

Thanks!

I can’t remember much beyond the first five issues. I remember thinking that it was a 1-2 issue story expanded into five. I pretty much lost interest in the series after that. The covers are cool though. I’ll probably put together the run as much as I can out of 50 cent boxes. 🙂

Here is a question- What kind of print runs did these Gen 13 books with Campbell covers have? The Gen 13 issue 12 seems to be the cover with at least a little demand. It occasionally sells on EBay for $5-10. I’m guessing it’s got a pretty big print run, but if anyone has ballpark figures I’d be interested in some confirmation. I was completely out of comics at the time these came out.

I’ve been pulling some of this stuff out of 50 cent and 3/$1 stuff lately. Some Gen 13 Campbell covers. Silver Surfer Warlock Resurrection ( 1st 2 issues ) X-Factor New Mutants A few Spawns ( I’ve never read a Spawn comic. Now I have a few to try out ) A few Spideys of the various titles Most of it is early 90s. I don’t expect it to ever really be worth much, but it fun pick up all of this stuff that came out just after I mostly quit collecting for almost nothing. I bought the two Silver Surfers out of a 3/$1 box and their original cover price was $2.50 26 years ago. I figured for Starlin Warlock stories at that price I can’t lose. I read them and they were pretty so-so, but if I find the last two at a similar price I’ll finish the story. It’s fun to put the runs together out of the cheapo boxes.

I suspect that for most dealers at shows, their overhead costs for doing a show are at least as large a percentage as the shippings costs would be if they sold the books online. That $15 for shipping the online book goes towards covering the table fees and other expenses of doing a show. I don’t think a lot of dealers are making a killing doing shows - at least not the smaller shows I go to. Ultimately though, it boils down to “what price will the book sell at?” If the dealer is priced too high at the show, they won’t sell any books. If the books are selling, then they obviously weren’t too high. I look at most Wall books at shows and think they are overpriced. However, the books seem to change from year to year, so they must be selling. Frankly, I’m thrilled to pay the same price ( including shipping ) at a show as I would online. I get to inspect the book in person and don’t run the risk of having to deal with returning it when it shows up with an undisclosed surprise.

I agree that most key books are more expensive at the shows I go to than online. However, the non-key books are often cheaper, do to the cost of shipping and the fact that books are hiding in boxes. The bargains online get snapped up fast because they are searchable. At a small show, someone has to actually dig thru the boxes and find the bargains. There are rarely bargain wall books, but there are usually some reasonably priced books in the boxes.

I’m just going to mention the one that I haven’t seen anyone else list- Warlock I didn’t read this stuff when I was a kid, and I think you need nostalgia to really like the stories about him. He is in some books with great art though.

Why is Star Wars 68 expensive? Is it just the cool cover?

Prices got pretty crazy at the peak last year. Seems like a return to a little sanity to me.

Obviously no one knows what the future holds. I can’t prove we are at a peak for movies/TV. However, would it surprise anyone if looking back in 10 years that Endgame was the high water mark for superhero movies? There are very few times in the past where a genre of movies was made at an extremely high level for decades. Typically, Hollywood gets lazy and runs stuff into the ground, and then people start looking for something new. The success of the MCU has been amazing, but at some point it is going to be hard to keep that success going. They are going to have a pretty dramatic turnover in casting now, with RDJ and Chris Evans moving on to new things. There is pretty serious risk here. I’m a comic guy, and I’ve been getting tired of comic movies. This is while they’ve been putting out really good movies. What happens when they inevitably make a few clunkers in a row? The prices have risen fast enough that it starts making me think back to the early 90s comic market, or the 1999 tech stock market. It may not play out like that- markets are almost impossible to predict. However, there are so many people saying it can’t play out that way that I’m getting twitchy. At any rate, I’m priced out of most popular books these days. I’m not buying anything high dollar in a market this frothy. On the plus side, there are always areas to collect in that are not popular. That’s where my purchases will be concentrated.

Well, none of them are high grade, but most of them are nice enough for me. The Vampi 36 has tape on in, but for $5 I couldn't really pass up filling in the gap. The 31 was the last Vampi Frazetta cover I needed.

I think now is a bad time to invest in the comics that most people are buying. When many Marvel keys are up so much so fast, it seems extremely risky to buy them, IMO. I’m noticing that some of them are actually down quite a bit from the peak prices last year already actually. GPA for a 7.5 FF48, for example was up past $3000 for a few sales last year - there was just one at $2200. However, there are always things that can be collected at reasonable prices because they are not currently “hot”. Some of those become very good investments if interest picks up in them. Of course, some of those things continue to languish and trend down forever as well. You pay your money and take your chances. 🙂

Another plus to your method is that it gives you time to get more familiar with the specific market for the material you are collecting before you make major purchases. I’ve found that the books I’ve overpaid for are often ones I’ve bought when just starting a new area of collecting. Since most key books have gone up so much lately, it has insulated people from their mistakes to a large degree, but I suspect that an ever-rising market is not something we can count on in the future.

My recent additions -

If you don’t need them in a plastic case you can have an even bigger collection. 🙂

Yeah, I had to mail order 238 in the 80s. It was only $2, but it wasn’t available locally for me.

Also, Impact #1 for an earlier book. You can snag a VGish copy for $50, and it is well worth it. I’ve ended up with three copies. Ordinarily I would sell duplicates, but it is way cooler than most any other $50 book out there.

Strange Tales 101 and 135 Epic Magazine 1 For really small ‘keys’ that I’ve pulled out of 50 cent boxes recently, FF 232 ( first Byrne ) and X-factor 41 ( Art Adams art and 1st Alchemy ). Calling them keys is a stretch, but I feel like they should at least graduate to the $2 boxes.

I remember that issue 4 was mislabeled 4 of 4. After we read it my friends and I were like “That’s the end?”