mcribar

1 minute ago, KirbyJack said:

In 1988, I passed on a Fantastic Four #1 for $900. I had that much, but I didn’t want to spend it on what was at the time, a hobby with zero monetary consideration. I figured I’d find a nice enough copy for a couple hundo. It turned out, my first FF1 was a $240 reader that I would later upgrade to a g/vg.

The 1988 copy was a very fine at least.

I can TOTALLY relate.  I was at the first and only comic shop around here at the time (1979) and he had a FF #1 in the showcase with a sign that said "Buy Me! $125.00."  I would say it was a 7.5 if memory serves me.  The owner was 30 years older than me.  Since I knew him pretty well he kept telling me I'm a fool for not buying this.  He said I will be able to buy a house with it when I'm older.  I just didn't have that kind of money at that age.  It sat there from about  6 months and somebody finally bought it.  He probably got it for $100 or so I would guess.

43 minutes ago, MatterEaterLad said:

Thanks! It's a 4.5. I'm downsizing my collection right now, but that's one I'll hang onto for a long time. 

4.5 is great!  I always liked the original Kirby Hulk more than any other.  But I'm sure to younger collectors that's the equivalent of a B&W silent movie....lol.  I too am downsizing.  Now is certainly the time. 

13 hours ago, Jayman said:

Great covers......Thanks for sharing!  One of my main areas of focus has been bronze age horror.  Although I am completing Marvel runs I have always thought the DC covers were superior.

23 hours ago, MatterEaterLad said:

 Got a great deal on a Hulk 1 years ago

Congrats!  That book is probably tops on my want list.  Actually 1-3 are.  But I'll never get them unless I hit the lottery.  What shape is your Hulk #1 in?  So hard to find higher grade copies.

On 4/22/2021 at 9:35 PM, thunsicker said:

Not selling my comics in 2007 and putting all the proceeds into AMZN.  Not selling all my comics in 2016 and putting the proceeds into Bitcoin.  Not selling all my comics last year and putting the proceeds into GME.

Well....You still have dogecoin.  But I haven't checked the price in 5 minutes.  Could have easily have went to 1,000,000 or to .01 in that time frame.

On 4/22/2021 at 8:27 PM, Pontoon said:

A funny thing about regret is that it's better to regret something you have done, than to regret something you haven't done. And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend, would you be sure and tell her…

Well said. Too bad most of us learn this the hard way.  And when you try and share this wisdom with less experienced people they tend to humor you with a fake acknowledgement and proceed to laugh it off.  But I suppose most of us were like that in our arrogant and ignorant days....hahaha. 

On 4/22/2021 at 8:19 PM, chrisco37 said:

Try not to regret the books I’ve sold/traded over the years as I mostly did alright compared to my cost in.  Some of the prices similar books are going for now sting for a second when I see them.  But, again, I did well at the time.  

Yeah...I don't regret anything that made total sense at the time and worked out as planned.  Can't look back and say "what if" on those events.  But in the context of this thread, "Regret" would be something that you were not sure about at the time but took a chance and ended up losing.

2 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Well, given that grading is still more of an art (i.e. a so-called "professional" opinion at a particular point in time), as opposed to an actual science, wouldn't it make much more sense to simply sub books that will still have value whether it comes back as CGC 9.4, CGC 9.6, or CGC 9.8, instead of only subbing books that have value in CGC 9.8 and above.  Even more so when you have to take in CGC's probable margin of error when it comes to grading.    

To each their own, but wouldn't it make more sense to sub a book that has actual value regardless of the grade within reason, as opposed to subbing for a grade when the underlying book doesn't have any worthwhile value if it doesn't hit that grade.  I guess it's really a case of if you are truly collecting comic books or are you really only collecting graded labels.    

From my limited, recent exposure to the current market, I have concluded that it's dominated by speculators and flippers who ONLY care about 9.8.  They couldn't care less what book it is.  People are buying and flipping the grade which of course causes an artificial bubble.  This will eventually end in a crash so if you are in it solely for the money I wouldn't be holding onto anything.  You may never see peaks like this again.  But I'm wise enough to know I could be wrong and maybe the so called market has fundamentally and permanently transformed and collectors will no longer set the true value of a book.  Time will tell.

12 minutes ago, LoST Ups said:

Tree fiddy.

Is that payable in Loch Ness currency?

I just sold over 3000 books (mostly bronze) through a local auction house.  Did much better than anticipated.  I'm now going to sell all of my GA and SA that are under 4.0.  I'm also going to sell some slabbed books on Heritage, currently talking to one of the consignment directors.  From what I can get there the 15% commission is well worth it.  This will leave me with just my favorites (I'm a collector first) while at the same time reducing my collection by 60% when the market is hot.  The local auction is great.  No hassle, no E-Bay, no problems, no complaints.  I drop off my stuff and a week later go pick up my check.  I know I can do better on E-Bay but it would take far longer to sell and it would be in bits and pieces that I don't have the time or desire to deal with.  The auction commission of 35% works fine for me since many of these books I bought out of the quarter boxes back in the early 90s. 

I doubt there's any demand even for a nice copy with a cover.  Religious comics have never been in demand.  See the "Spire" label or even the Marvel issues on the subject. 

24 minutes ago, Kripsys99 said:

Mine is card related, instead of comic related. In 2014, just before my daughter was born, I sold most of my collection of graded NHL Rookie Cards from the 70s and 80s. I just didn't feel right hanging onto them heading into a year of the wife being on mat leave, followed by years of daycare fees, not to mention saving for the kid's university fund. I had everyone who was anyone in my collection, including three Wayne Gretzky rookies graded 8.5 by BGS and SGC. I sold all the cards for FMV, which at the time meant I got about $2500 a pop for the Gretzky rookies. Hard to let them go, but I figured I'd buy one again some day. Well, one of my former Gretzky rookies recently sold for over $75k - the others were in at least as good condition. Not only did I miss out on the value of the cards, I doubt I'll ever own a Gretzky rookie in similar condition ever again.

Great story about being noble and responsible.  Can't look back negatively on this one my friend.  You still made a profit and netted some cash for your new daughter. Hard to regret that! 

Being an off and on collector of comics and magazines for over 40 years I've made my share of mistakes and have done things I regret.  But to keep it simple I will list the top in each category:

Regret:  Selling most of my top books back in 1982 when I though I matured out of collecting comic books.  I got back into it in 1991 and went through period of lamenting seeing all the books I used to have in comic stores and conventions.  My intention was to sell all of my comics but the shop owner cherry picked them.  He did however refuse my Iron Man #1 since he already had 6 or 7 in stock.  I bought my VF copy in 1979 for $12.00.  It's currently waiting to be slabbed here at CGC.

Mistake:  Buying large lots of various books thinking of the deal I was getting.  In retrospect I would have much rather used all of that money and purchased a few higher grade GA or SA keys.  That's a mistake I think a lot of us make.  For those COLLECTORS that are newer to the hobby, more isn't better.  Take quality over quantity.  You won't regret it.

2 minutes ago, media_junkie said:

And bam, there it is.

And lets not forget the REAL kung-fu hero of the 70s....................

1 hour ago, jsilverjanet said:

theres only one reason this movie is being made, let's not kid ourselves

The timing of it is certainly interesting.  You have the successful "Karate Kid" series which is now followed by the reboot/modernization of "Kung-Fu"  All 3 happening in a short period of time.  In any event I'm not sure if the movie is going to rekindle the kung-fu hysteria of the 70s.  But stranger things have happened....I guess...haha.

32 minutes ago, namisgr said:

According to the CGC census, there are 34 signature series slabbed copies of Gold Key Star Trek #8.  No information is provided on the breakdown of actor/creator signatures on the copies, and none of the signature series copies available for sale now on E-Bay were signed by Nimoy.

I'm especially fond of this issue, as the cover photo features the main cast in its entirety.

This is also my favorite cover.  When I was a kid my best friend gave me his copy (1974 or so).  I still have it today   I'm just a few issues short of the entire run.

On 4/20/2021 at 12:02 AM, gadzukes said:

I'm sure other board members have lots of war stories to tell about collections they've bought, but.... wow I just went to see (and ended up buying) such a disgusting presenting collection.  Ugh!!!

11 long boxes.  It's sitting in the back of my (covered) pick up right now.  I don't even want to bring it into my garage (my wife will divorce me if she sees it).

The woman who had them was a hoarder, a cat person, a bird person..... she wouldn't let me into her house (cuz she was embarassed).  When I arrived she had 4 of the long boxes in her front yard and she was trying to clean the cat vomit and bird poop off of them.  She later told me that her cats have eaten on top of the boxes for years.  Ugh!!!!

Yes, I know... you want to run away right now.  But what if there's a major key issue?????

From talking to her I knew it was a Copper/Modern collection which is a time period I don't know a lot about (except that there's a ton of drek in the 90s)

But..... there's always a chance of Some Batman Adventures, or New Mutants 98, or Walking Dead so I stopped breathing thru my nose and plunged in.

The first box I grabbed had early Teen Titans including #2.  My big test was to open the disgusting mylar and see if the comic inside was actually nice.  Ugh! To my delight it was actually fairly high grade.

I found many more keys from the era.  Probably the biggest comic I found was The Crow 1 in pretty nice shape.  I also found Xmen 266 in nice shape.

There's a bunch of Turtles comics which I don't know a lot about (and didn't feel like figuring out at the time because of how disgusting everything was)

I made a fairly low ball offer because of how disgusting everything was.... she took it.... and now.... my goal is to remove every comic and dispose of the awfulness of the bags boards and boxes as soon as possible.  But... with 11 long boxes, that's a lot of work!!!!

Here's a pic of the Crow 1 comic.  Front cover presents like a 9.0, but there's some small flaws on the back cover.  By itself it will probably pay for the entire collection.

2nd pic is of one some of the boxes I was dealing with.  As bad as I've ever seen! I think her cats used the boxes as a scratching post.  Luckily EVERY comic I checked out was good in the mylar, but the mylars are disgusting too.  It's really bad.

Have any of you had to deal with a disgusting "presenting" collection like this?  I will say this.... It sure makes negotiating easy.

 

 

 

Wow.....I thought that might have been the coffin the Crow crawled out of.....   

My impression is that if you don't spend the extra for fast track you are screwed.  From the dates I'm seeing posted any NEWLY arrived fast track is going to leap frog over your submission until there aren't any fast tracks left to grade, which won't happen anytime in the next 12 months.  I've had standard submissions sitting there for 2 1/2 months now while I watch all of these fast tracks get logged in and scheduled for grading in a matter of a few days (or less).  I'm not going to be cynical and say this was the plan all along in order to force people to pay for fast track.  Instead I will take them at their word.  But that also means the situation should subside within a month or so.

I wish I could have got in on this from the beginning.   But I have picked up a few of the more recent issues.   I did subscribe to their version of Vampirella "Vampiress Carmilla."  I just got the 3rd issue a couple days ago and so far all 3 have been decent (still reading issue 3).  Just like the Warren of old, a few good stories and a couple dogs but the still more good than bad.  Love the homage to Warren.  Warrant really nailed that.

On 3/31/2021 at 11:46 AM, Galen130 said:

Nothing as fancy as these posted CGC SS books, but this was my first comic as a kid.  

Love this book.  Thanks for sharing!  Would be great if they could work him into the MCU somehow.  But ANYTHING is possible in the Marvel worlds so who knows..

12 hours ago, I am not Glenda said:

Shhhhhhhhh these are they guys buying all my Death of Superman books for $150 pop. ( I am sorry I could not resist )

I've always been a fan of Gold Key painted covers but my favorites have always been Turok and Space Family Robinson.  I have several of each (silver age) in my collection.  I need to pull them out and enjoy the covers again.