Doktor

Nah. It's not gold. It's nice but will require at least a reasonable amount of restoration & could be very nice, but it is still missing some important bits & is only partially usable even after its been restored until the missing brackets & plates are replaced. But it's still nice. It could be very nice once it's pieced back together & restored. But in the shape its in, it's not really worth much more than the OP paid for it. This isn't a flip for profit piece. This is a buy, put in the elbow grease to restore it & then flip for profit piece. But if the OP doesn't have the skill or the time or the desire to do the work required to make this piece into something more valuable, then really it's really not worth much more than he paid for it. It was a good price because it had potential to be very nice. With work. Without work, it's still a nice price but not for flipping.

Seems that the middle one of both of the Blue and Gold sets are probably the most popular. At least for me, it is.

Yep. Definitely doing an X-Men Blue #1 store variant as well. And I love it.

X-Men Blue set

Just now, the authority said:

Really hoping for a separate book somewhere as I have The Authority in every way possible...in multiples. Either way, I'm getting that story. 

SAME! I already have an original printing of Absolute Authority Vol 1. I just really don't need to buy a new copy of it just for a new story.

So there's about to be a new printing of Absolute Authority & as confirmed by Bryan Hitch on twitter today, he & Warren have a whole new story that's going to be included along with Authority 1-12 & Planetary/Authority: Ruling the World. Whether or not this new story is going to also be printed in a single special or not is unclear yet.

 Hitch Confirmation Tweet

looks like JSC is going to be doing a store exclusive for X-Men Blue as well. He just showed a bit of inking of YOUNGJean & YOUNGScott on his IG

1 hour ago, Aweandlorder said:

Id restore the body. Not the sign/s

Yeah. Restore the frame. Wash the signs. That little mixture of original signage with a near perfect frame looks great. And retains that aged vintage look IMO. 

Eh, I'd be interested but not just a CGC PiF thread. Often times, I was more interested in taking and offering many of the offers that weren't ACTUAL comics, since there's so many things that are more comics-adjacent that people are also interested in as well. But I was probably the odd one there.

They also need to NOT just go to the next city down the road for the following month's show. It basically tells customers "don't bother coming to this city 300 miles away. Wait a month & we'll be only 30 miles away". Double dipping into a similar target demographic can work if you spread out how frequently you dip into that potential customer base. Yes, it's a lot more cost effective to set up in Chicago and then set up in Indy a month later and set up in Columbus the next month & then Pittsburgh the following month, but the Indy people won't come to Chicago if they know they just gotta wait another month or if they DO come to Chicago, they won't have the $$ saved up to actually spend anything of note when the show gets to Indy the following month. A big show can draw in attendees from a few hundred miles, but it won't if those attendees will just wait a month for the show to get closer. They can leapfrog cities & then hit the skipped city on the way back. But doing them one after another kills the market for at least some of those shows.

11 minutes ago, Michelangelo said:

If one were to want to buy a comic rack, what would a target price be? (assuming it's not restored and has expected signs of wear and aging)
What's considered too much? I've seen a couple 60's racks go on eBay for around $250 

Really depends on where you go. I got mine for a steal. Picked it up for less than $50 on LetGo or one of those apps. The base needed sanding & re-painting because it was a little beat up, but it was complete. A washing took care of the grime on the rest of it. But normally? I'd say you'd probably be looking in the $200-400 range.

2 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

There are certain restorative techniques that you can no longer perform to retain the original patination once it's been painted.

Fair enough. I'll take your word for it, but I wouldn't see how the option of going back to bare metal isn't available anymore. It's not like it didn't start as bare metal & had some different finish applied or treatment done to the generate a finish. It's probably fairly rare that that isn't still an option for something like a comic rack. It's nothing but bent-to-shape metal wire, welds & a finish of some sort with some signage folded onto it. Going back to bare metal would seem to still be an option if refinishing with some special technique is necessary.

3 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

As a personal property appraiser, I can tell you there are instances where leaving an item as is can mean the difference between selling it or sitting on it forever. While it does largely depend on the context and the piece in question, there are definitely situations where people will not want something that's been restored, and it's not so much they are adverse to "restoration", but rather that they wanted their go-to restoration guy do the work.

But what's preventing them from still taking it to their "go-to restoration guy" even if it's already been restored?

Now that I think about it though, I think some degree of similarities to the vintage furniture market might be at play here. Certainly a pristine unrestored piece carries probably more value than a restored piece, but would a superior presenting piece of restored vintage furniture be more sought after? IMO, yes. But that might be a personal bias of caring far more about presentation & condition than originality.

44 minutes ago, FineCollector said:

The same argument goes for comics as anything else: wear and tear tells a story which shouldn't be covered up, but if an item is in such disrepair that it can't be used for its intended purpose anymore, you may as well restore it.

I disagree. I think with something like this, getting it looking as close to original condition is far more important than it actually being original. Unless you're adding a significant amount of new bits or unoriginal bits, even if that means some sanding & painting.  (then again, I don't really get the objection that collectors have with married copies of comics as long as the condition isn't affected by uneven staples or uneven wraps where the married pages/cover stick out or don't match up.) But fixing a weld or sanding it down & painting it up nice & clean or polishing up the original plates/signs is not even the tiniest problem.

I also don't see the comic market & the comic rack market as even slightly similar. One is a collectable while the other is essentially a piece of furniture. Vintage furniture, but still furniture.

So this is something that's been in the back of my head for the past 24 hours after seeing the thread about the 1940's comic rack someone found at a flea market or antique shop or whatever:

I know that with the comic market, that PLOD is a death knell. But does the same apply to comic racks? Would you pay more or less for a comic rack if it was completely original but rusted & with missing bits or welds broken? or would you prefer a restored unit that has maybe had some wire work fixed or replaced? A weld repaired? Has been sanded down & repainted to give it that "brand new in the pharmacy or grocery store" look?

I'm of the opinion that as long as the unit itself is not a modern reproduction and the plates or signage are original, that any repair or restoration would be ancillary. And the only way I'd care is if the fully-original one that hasn't been repaired or restored was in equally good condition. But I'd absolutely prefer the one that isn't rusted or that presents better. Regardless of how much labor someone put in to fix it up & make it look good. I mean, I wouldn't even want an old rusted one even if it's completely original cause I want to stick my comics on it for display. I'd much prefer the restored shiny clean one for that.

Now the question is, am I in the minority here? Does condition trump originality? Or does the original unit, as long as it's complete-ish or functional, trump condition?

14 hours ago, comicwiz said:

On the bolded parts, and judging from the pics alone, the rack needs two tin sign brackets fabricated and welded on the pocket frame, and 6 tin signs to complete it. To my knowledge, the wireframe was a black painted finish originally, but the signs were alternating black on yellow backing or yellow on black backing. If these pieces were detached but still with the rack, then it would change things value wise. I would suggest a completely different procedure than painting it. As soon as it's painted, fabricating 6 of the 10 tin signs and 2 sign brackets would still put it into extensive restoration territory, and while I agree a spruce up could help, having restored some display pieces in the past, if this was something I would acquire, I would rather this be left as is and have either someone I know work on it, or work on it using methods that would keep as much of the pieces original patination.

I guess you're right on the brackets. I didn't notice initially that the brackets were missing too until you pointed it out. And I figured the signs could be sourced from someone else that has some but doesn't have a rack. But you're right. There's going to be some fabrication or at least some relatively expensive sourcing of parts from an incomplete or broken rack that someone else has.

Personally, I'd look to source the original signs & fabricate some brackets that they'd mount onto for as many of them as possible & refinish it completely. But as the OP stated, he's not interested in putting in that kind of work. I don't blame him. So it's kind of a moot point.

Maybe the issue of price on unrestored vs refurbished/restored should be its own thread cause I'm really curious about that & don't want to further distract from the OP's original topic here.

37 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

I would agree with most of this, except for the part about value add. Unfortunately many of the values mentioned earlier would be on an unrestored example that's man cave ready. Incomplete, in need of work, and/or restored will unfortunately be valued differently. I'm totally with you on the spruce-up idea because this is a display piece, and no one is going to feel comfortable loading it up to have their books/bags marked-up by rust. As someone who collects comic racks, I've handled a few fix'er uppers and they are a labour of love, and even if you are reasonably handy, you would be at a loss if you factor in your time alone. No matter how hard you try, the fabricated tin made to look old will always contrast with the originals.

I both agree & disagree. I don't think it's really that much work to repair something like this. Spinner racks are a whole different question.

But this? Literally a few hours of labor. Taking off the old plates is a 20 minute job if you take your sweet time. Wash & wet sanding to remove the excess rust is an hour job in the garage. Fixing the worst of the bent wire work is probably another hour. Spraying with a rust neutralizer takes only a few minutes & then the most time is waiting for the 24 hour flash-off period. Use this time to clean up the old plates & get rid of as much of the dirt & grime as you can without damaging the finish. Fixing the weld is a 5 minute job if you know how to weld and a 30 minute job if you're a novice. Then the respraying the whole thing with primer & paint is maybe 2 hours with a lot of waiting between coats. You're probably at maybe 5 hours of actual labor total by the time you're done.

It's not like this is a spinner rack with a lot of layers of wire work. This kind of rack is a much simpler job & less time consuming. The majority of the time spent on this weekend project is on waiting for flash-off and drying. It's basically a $50 of supplies & 5 hours worth of work job & as a display piece in your house or in a shop, it'll definitely sell for at least 2x what the guy paid for it without any problem. Even being refinished/restored.

I have never really noticed a significant difference in "unrestored" price on things like these because the market is so small. The closest market to something like this would be probably the classic car market? And my (admittedly limited) knowledge of it is that condition often trumps "unrestored" and "unrestored" only gets a price bump when it's compared to an equal condition vehicle & even then, only on the most rare & sought after cars does it really add significant value. And that's with things like worrying about if the parts are "numbers matching". It's not like he's adding new metal or unoriginal parts. Just repairing the condition of the existing metal. While the opposite is true with comics, as  the market long ago decided that condition comes secondary to how original it is. But I think the comic rack market is closer to the car market than the comic market, even if it appeals to the same crowd. Maybe I'm wrong?

Also, you talked about the fabricated tin look? I may be wrong, but I thought these came painted & not raw metal originally?

I would put in the elbow grease & repair this as best as you can before attempting to make a trade. The weld can be fixed easily. Either actually welded or just JB Weld. And it can very easily be refinished well with some washing, sanding, taping-off of the name-plates (or temporarily removing them & bending them back on once you've finished restoring it), and respray with a primer & a fire-engine red paint. Or a matte black. It will look gorgeous if you do that. And someone else can find the missing plates.

Plus, add a little heat before you spray & some effort & you can likely mostly straighten out many of those bends in the wire frame.

Unlike comics where restoration is bad, restoration of metal work is pretty much always a value-added endeavor.

Likely the major differences in the line work is a mixture of pencil/pen & digital. Like Wolverine/Old Man Logan's head/torso (mask vs no mask, jacket vs spandex) were scanned at different phases & stuff was digitally colored & changed then, while JSC finished doing additional line work as it went & stuff was photoshopped together. I don't know if there'd ever be "TRUE" original art for this since there's different changes in line work throughout. Some that are different on every single one & some that don't change at all except for minor variations that are also still probably done via digital coloring. 

For instance: Rachel's cloak in the current era team vs no cloak on the 80's and a different mask & hair & no spikes in the 70's. Colossus with shoulder pads vs no shoulder pads. Kitty's 3 different hair styles. Even Storm's face/eyes looks slightly different on the  80's version than the current & the 70's. In addition to the totally different hair style. Almost like a different head was drawn for the 80's version and photoshopped in place of the one for the current & the 70's versions. Hell, the only 2 that really didn't change are Colossus (except for the shoulder pads) and Nightcrawler (slight change in his hair on the current vs the other 2)

A lot of it is probably just changed during the digital coloring process, but some appear to need totally separate line work.

Just now, kevhtx said:

I usually buy one for PC, sell the other to offset cost.

+1

I contemplated doing that but opted not to. I prefer just buying my personal collection copies tho. 

I snagged 1 unsigned set. I'm not specing them tho. Just for the personal collection. 

Just read #2 last night & really enjoyed it. It took me a little while to remember who Kenada was though. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Ellis is building in Wildstorm 2.0

I'm going to be first in line for a set of these. X-Men + Campbell = TAKE MY MONEY! Also easily one of his best covers in a few years. He definitely had fun with this one. Very 80's style & I love it.

12 hours ago, shadroch said:

So if I buy something, someone else can still get it until I pay for it?

It should only apply to best offer sales. BIN and auctions are a done deal as soon as the buyer totals out (or requests a total)

10 minutes ago, aerischan said:

The retailer exclusives also get added to Diamond sales numbers. That's how Batman #1 and Harley Quinn #1 got 300+K unit sales.

For something with 3 cover variations like JSC frequently does, that's an extra 5,500 copies sold (Cvr A 3000, Cvr B 1500, Cvr C 1000). Granted, that's a lot less than if 1,000 people were to pay a premium for a copy of the JSC 1:50 (51K minimum sales).

I know that... but I feel like because I wouldn't be contributing to driving up sales to hit ratio variant numbers, I'd be supporting this book (and this awful writer) less if it was a store exclusive. Whether or not that's ACTUALLY true (a sale is a sale is a sale), it's just the psychological trick ratio variants play on me compared to store variants or even orderable variants.

*edited my post because it was really rough to read & didn't flow at all*

It's not that she's going back to HER black/grey costume. She's going back to a female version of the Uncanny X-Force Wolverine costume. Basically the same as he wore during that run. Not HER costume from that era.