jcjames

If I had unlimited funds, I'd go for the highest grade possible in every book. But since I don't, I buy the books I like in grades I can afford and am happy with. For example, I have a 4.0 Detective 359, a 6.5 Batman 232, a 7.5 Batman 234, a 6.5 Batman 251, etc. For me, I'd rather have those 4 books in the grades I have them in, vs. one of those books in a much higher grade for the same total cost. I agree with this, from a collecting standpoint and an "investing" standpoint. There've been many threads in the past where this has been fleshed out with statistics using various keys (both big and small keys). The idea is that if one has $X,XXX to spend on keys, from a collecting standpoint, many folks would prefer to have several different well-presenting keys rather than a single highest-graded key. Also, from an "investing" standpoint, it's been shown many times that SA/BA keys more often than not (but not in all cases) have the highest room for growth in value and ROI if they are mid-grade rather than the highest-graded specimens. Plus suppose one spends $3,000 on a single key book. When it's time to sell, that's all one has is that single specimen. Whereas if one were to buy say three mid/upper grade copies of the same book for $1,000 each, one can sell one or two of them at various times later for a gain and still have one left for longer-term holding. And as mentioned, mid/upper grade books often will grow in value at a greater rate than the highest-graded copy. Especially when the highest graded prices get too high for the average collector. Personally, I agree with JL, I prefer the highest-quality looking book I can afford, but since I don't have unlimited funds, I don't want to sink a huge amount into just a very few number of top-grade books.

Ash Ave Comics has almost no SA or BA back-issues. It's on University west of Mill in the heart of Tempe. Monster Comics has scattered amounts of SA/BA back issues, but not a lot. It's on University west of 101. Can't say much about Brandon Comics in Tempe, visited once but don't remember it much. Best bet if you can is try to head up to Fantastic Worlds way up in Scottsdale. I've bought a decent amount from them. Came dang close to snagging an ASM1 there, but the kid ahead of me got it and it really made his day. That's about the only place in Tempe/Scottsdale area that has decent SA/BA back-issues and OA too.

Don't buyers still have the option to put things in the "cart" then pay for them all at once, to account for combined-shipping discounts?

Yeah, when I submitted it, I didn't look to see if my reply showed up in our PM thread, I just hit submit, then closed it. Again, lesson learned!

So weird, I just opened up my PM with Mike and hit "reply" and my scores that I entered (but never submitted) popped up and said my reply was "restored". Apparently the PMs reply box will "time-out" just like entering a reply to a thread, so if you keep a reply box open too long, it won't submit it even if you hit submit button. It just clears it. Then when you re-open the reply box, it shows the text again. Ah well. In any case, these are the grades I had entered (but got timed-out) and never submitted. Chilling Tales #13 4.0 Diary Secrets #30 3.5 +3 Horrific #3 2.5 +1 Doctor Solar #1 5.0 Avengers #7 7.5 +1 Dang. This would have been good round for me if I had actually submitted the grades and they didn't get timed-out. Lesson learned, don't hold the PM reply box open all the while you're examining and grading each book. It will time-out and not be submitted even if you hit the submit button.

I feel your pain. I REMEMBERED to get my grades in, but apparently I forgot to hit the "submit" button. Would have been a good round for me too I believe, I think I would have gotten 5 pts this round.

Oh no. UGH!! Ah well. Thank you for the contest. It's always a challenge and fun.

I know I submitted them and then posted the frowning dog face in this thread. But now I don't see them in the PM

Wait. Did my grades get recorded? I don't see them in Mike's PM???

I bet it's more like 30 seconds at most looking at the cover (not counting resto-check). Moderns would get maybe a 5-10 second once-over. The volume of books they have to look at per hour would make it impossible to spend 2 minutes/book.

Great idea for a topic! 45 FF - 1st Inhumans 47 DCCP seems like a bigger key than MP 47, 51 FF - Key story & cover, 71 AV - 1st Invaders 93 TTA - 1st Silver Surfer outside of FF 99 TOS - Final Issue

Yet well-within striking distance of the top of the mid-pack! One more round...

This was an easier round I think - but I don't know WHAT I was seeing in that HoS to give it a 4.5 Maybe the top f/b cover chipping. I dunno.

Vary Nais!

7pts for me I think. HOS did me in. Motion Picture #110 6.5 +1 War Fury #1 3.5 +1 HoS #4 4.5 +3 Strange Tales #114 6.5 +1 FF Annual #6 8.0 +1

Stuxnet was da'bomb.

In...

Incoming this afternoon. Thank you for the heads up!