BuyTheRedCar

A cool Kubert pickup from Baltimore Comicon last year.

True Crime Comics #3, Low grade reader's copy. Complete.

Spine is entirely split and held together with 4 pieces of tape. The back cover is still attached at the top staple, but it is only barely hanging on.

I would say the page quality is LT/OW. The book is fragile but can be read.

1.75" tear on middle right of front cover extending to the "T" in "Rat".  5" tear in interior text page as pictured.

Chunks missing from spine as seen in photos.  1" triangular shaped bit missing from the lower right front cover. Staples are rust free (not shiny though).

Price $475

Hello everyone.  I've been here on the boards for a while, mostly looking/learning, sometimes buying, and one previous sales thread. However, most of my previous sales have been on ebay. My wife and I use the ebay account nwente (100% positive feedback). If you look through my feedback there, you can see I've received great reviews for the comics I've sold there.  Just looking to get some cash to fund other purchases. I've got just a few for sale. If you have questions, please ask. 

I also have a couple pieces of original Batman comic art listed in the Original Comic Art Marketplace forum.

PAYMENT: Paypal is preferred. I will also accept a check or money order but will not ship until your payment clears.

WHO WINS? First person to claim the book in the thread wins over PMs/Negotiations in process (If you want to pay with check or M.O., I will PM you the address etc.).

SHIPPING: I will pack everything carefully and ship within 1 business day of receiving your cleared payment.  USPS Priority SHIPPING is $20 shipped to the US (lower 48, Alaska and Hawaii only). Sorry, no international shipments this time.

RETURNS: I want both of us to be happy. I will gladly accept a return of the item in the same condition if you notify me within 7 days of the of USPS date of delivery of the book. Return shipping at your cost unless I've greatly erred in my description of the book.

HOSERS & PROBIES: No sales. Sorry.

Thanks for looking.

On 1/24/2023 at 12:33 PM, Phill the Governor said:

As mentioned above, the real question is what the production cut of the two copies looks like.

What you're showing in regards to the damage to the first wrap is not that big of a deal and can be remedied under a conso label with leafcasting, or have the minimum amount of tear seals/reinforcement done if looking from a cost perspective (not factoring in a technical grade difference).

The decision to leave it "completely untouched" is a personal preference. Without seeing the cover you'd be looking at a qualified green label with no work done, or a much higher conserved grade no matter what, which notates the work, isn't trying to misrepresent the condition in any way, and is becoming more and more accepted on GA books because of overall age: especially in the case of book that are 1.8 or lower in grade, or have married parts.

Phill.

Thanks for your professional guidance on the relevant issues at hand regarding marrying these copies.  I had not considered the impact of the cut of the books. I was primarily focused on going with the "parts" that appeared to be in the best condition.

On 1/23/2023 at 10:09 AM, pemart1966 said:

Am I missing something?  

Why not marry the coverless copy with the cover (don't attach the cover) and then have it graded?

Thanks for you input Petmart.  

There are some issues which I did not mention in my 1st post (sorry, don't mean to waste anyone's time) regarding the coverless copy. The 1st wrap of the coverless copy has several problems (as can be seen in the attached photos): it is detached; it has a big tear (from the top spine down to Cap's right foot); and it is missing a couple of chunks from the spine. Also, the two center wraps are detached, but are in pretty good shape otherwise. There is no writing, no rust and no tape. Page quality seems to be cream to off-white. 

As far as the graded copy goes. I have this:

Grader's notes for the ,5 copy are as follows:

detached cover
light finger bends on cover
light wear all edges of cover
missing centerfold affects story
moderate creasing to cover
moderate spine stress lines to cover
moderate wear all corners of cover

Thank you again to everyone for sharing your views.

Thanks for the advice Frisco.

I was under the assumption that the grade would remain a .5 without putting the book through some sort of conservation. I hadn't really considered the possibility of a qualified green label.

I will also take your 1st post under advisement.

Regards

Hello all. I am interested in your opinions about whether (and how) to marry a Captain America #46. I got lucky and acquired an incomplete CGC graded .5 copy (missing centerfold, detached cover, but otherwise nice looking) and a coverless (otherwise complete) raw copy (see photos below).  Down the road, however, and for purposes of our discussion, let us assume the relevant consideration is desirability in the hands of other golden age collectors.  As I see it, the options are:

1. Marry the centerfold and have the .5 copy conserved (that is, reattach cover, seal tears, and attach centerfold) and have it regraded.

2. Marry, but do not reattach or conserve, the centerfold to the .5 copy and have it regraded.

3. Have the coverless copy graded and have a pair of CGC slabs.

4. Leave them as is.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Please check out my Golden Age listings on Ebay under my seller name of nwente. The auction style listings end this Sunday,  August 1st, 2021.

The books are:

Whiz Comics #35 CGC 8.5 Pennsylvania Pedigree White Pages

Whiz Comics #43 CGC 8.5 Off-White to White Pages

Whiz Comics #78 CGC 9.0 DESLABBED White Pages

Captain Marvel Jr. #4 CGC 5.0 Cream to Off-White Pages, Otto Binder's name written inside

Captain Marvel Jr. #10 CGC 3.5 Off-White Pages

Batman #15 CGC 6.0 A-1 White Pages

Action Comics #22, CGC 2.5 Off-White to White Pages

Target Comics V2#11 CGC 8.5. White Pages

Has everyone seen the latest?

Okajima collection coming soon to 50objects.org!

Apologies if this news is already posted here. 

Yep, sorry. I originally posted in Golden Age and didn't see here. 

Just saw this advertised at my LCS, Fantastic Worlds in Scottsdale, AZ.

I was told that Fantastic Worlds, Harley Yee and Dale Roberts will be among the vendors in attendance.

Don't know who else will be there, but the last time the event happened (2019), there was a great turnout with some really cool books for sale.

Don Winslow was sure a snappy dresser going into combat. So confident in his double breasted dress uniform, complete with tie and dress shoes. I guess he wanted to be ready for an impromptu gala later in the evening.

In my opinion, the conserved/restored effect on value debate usually fails to acknowledge a likely truth.  That is, every comic book of significant value has (probably) undergone some manipulation or beautification (amateur, professional or both) in an attempt to improve its appearance and grade.  As the value of the book increases so does the economic incentive to improve its appearance.  1) The fact that grading companies do not notate certain kinds of manipulation is hypocrisy in our system (my opinion again). 2) Furthermore, the fact that certain kinds of manipulation are not detectable is merely a weakness in our grading methods.

Consider for a moment the following idea:  CGC begins noting on the label that a book has been pressed and/or dry cleaned. For any given grade, would a buyer pay the same price for a book with such a notation on its label as book without that notation?

Under current grading standards, buyers do pay the same.  But, IF the label was changed.... so would our pricing.

It is all about the economics of efficient markets.  More information leads to better decision making.

The simplicity of a color coded label and a three tier system should give way to some sort of document with meaningful details/photos of the type/extent/quality of the work. Then factors such as, who did the work (Cicconi, Sanderson, Heft, Nelson, DeChellis or someone with a t-shirt press and a handheld Conair humidifier etc.) become much more important.  The buyer spending thousands would like to know this information as much as the buyer spending millions, and both would probably would pay for it.

I believe if we started looking at these kinds of details, we would start caring less about simple colors/descriptors.  

3 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

I do not think a staple replacement should impact value one iota.  In fact, I think we, as a collecting community which wants to see books preserved, should encourage staple replacement.  In the fine art world, no one would downgrade a piece of art because an inherently damaging object is removed or replaced.  Comic collectors should not be so dumb as to insist that switching out rusting staples, of all things, for period correct clean staples is a "downgrade" warranting a price reduction.  They are just staples for God's sake!  

Amen!

It is refreshing to hear people talk about the book and not the label. I realize many/most people would place a lesser value on a book with replaced staples, but shouldn't the value of such a book increase (assuming the work is done properly)?   After all, the book is improved.

Shouldn't we also have this view toward deacidification and tape removal?

If the books could talk, what would they want? I know. I'm being silly.

Collectively, as a hobby we should really try to incentivize behavior that preserves these fragile pieces of paper.

Naivete? 

Oops.  Please disregard. I committed a slight breach of etiquette in making this post.  Sorry.

A book that is cool enough to stand on its own merits to boot! Nice bit of research onlyweaknesskryptonite.  Thanks for that tidbit.

Also, I think the first CGC graded/encapsulated book has a place in here as well. Have know idea what book it is though.  

These two.