Readcomix

15 hours ago, tricolorbrian said:

Cool cover.  I bet it was cheap too...LCS' usually don't know about that kind of stuff.  I found a Teenage Romances #33 (with a Baker cover) in an LCS about 10 years ago for $12...

Yep. I traded for it, but he only had $25 on it. And my photo does not do it justice. Other than the lower left crease and very slight roll upper left, the rest of it is flat, bright, and clean.

6 hours ago, porcupine48 said:

Brian,I want that Blazing #3!Golden Turtle rules!

 

If you like the Green Turtle, wait til you open a Blazing and read Jun-Gal!

8 hours ago, Chadwick said:

I'm less worried about the grade as I am about the book shifting from the cover. Anyone have a similar slabbed book?

Sorry; misunderstood!

Sorry...PB crash, wrong url! Hang on!

From German aerodrome to South Pacific beach

5 minutes ago, Tony S said:

There is a FMV of $250. My understanding is that they will reject any books with obvious (call it amateur)  restoration - but will not be performing a professional restoration check.  With the value limit, there isn't going to be much economic incentive or opportunity to pass off professionally restored books.

All that said, the service would offer more value if it included a restoration check  

You raise a good point that at fmv $250 there's not a lot of incentive, perhaps with the rare exception of a highly skilled archivist who happens to be a collector,  with low enough principles to not disclose their work! Hopefully, that's a narrow slice of the hobby.

53 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

Re: wall books at the LCS

I always assumed that price was placed there as a starting point because seasoned collectors would haggle them down to a reasonable price point. Also-- lets the store charge a huge markup to the unseasoned collector/novice/person buying for someone else.

Not an unreasonable way to price things-- used car dealers do it all the time. People at big comic cons too apparently. Well most dealers with boardie Gator explaining he puts the bottom line price on his books (based on what he wrote here in the last year or so).

This is what I figure too. I might have a price range in mind for a given grade, and the calculation most always includes eBay as a source, but I don't rattle off sources and prices. I just stick to my range and negotiate into it or walk.

why? Because I hate when dealers say to me, "I can get more on eBay!" To which I reply, "Yeah, but this is I'm standing here with cash bay!" No return because you see me walk away happy, no non-payment, cash in hand. That's worth something too. Reference eBay all you want, but I can't stand when either side uses it as an exact negotiating tool. (Exception -- if both sides take a "blended rate" on a highly liquid book such as ASM 300 where there's lots of current transactions for most any given grade. I think that's mutually fair to do together. But most gold and early silver, the N of transactions is not big enough to set a price in stone. A floor maybe, but not a final price.)

Found this tucked away in a guy's estate collection that I purchased in its entirety

Found this in an LCS

9 hours ago, batman_fan said:

Here's one that fits the original description for the thread.  It was a Sunday night and I was watching the auction on HA when this book popped up.  I thought "oh yeah, that's a cool cover".  I had seen it several times over the years.  Well the price was pretty good so I got into the bidding and ended up winning.  Once I had it in hand and could see how truly amazing the book was I knew it was a permanent addition to the collection.

I have always been curious about that book and liked that cover....I could see how it could sneak up on you, especially after Jimbo described the interior! (National 16 the same way...please don't tell me I'm going to love that one cover to cover too!)

3 hours ago, tricolorbrian said:

I don't own any books that I didn't plan on buying because I really liked them...Every GA book I've ever bought was methodically searched for and coveted, or found by accident and immediately coveted.  I feel left out in this thread...

What about one of the accidentals that has gotten better over time with you?

War of the worlds to Korean war

6 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

If you are looking for the full complete grading service with the restoration check, then you should be sending it in for the regular service that includes the resto check.  Sounds as though you guys are asking for the full regular service and yet only expecting to pay for the discounted raw grading service. 

Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work like that. 

I get that. I'm just thinking most of the cost is in slabbing materials and labor to slab safely. Whatever the price point is for complete check, that's the right # to make raw grading work is all I'm saying. That said, I have pretty narrow and infrequent use for slabbing; some guys will slab anything. There's a whole range of perspectives. Even with 2 levels of service it's hard to please everyone. But there's certainly room for it.

2 hours ago, Chadwick said:

Just the spine of the cover is split, the book itself is tight and ow.

Worth a call; you may have a shot at better than 0.5 I'd think. Especially if not brittle too.

From Bushmiller and Ritz to Feldstein and...

On February 22, 2017 at 4:50 PM, ThothAmon said:

Here's one I've rediscovered. Until Captain Sprocket appears on Riverdale I'll say the back cover is more desirable.  

I had the book advertised on that back cover! Lots of Archie SA GGA goodness in that one. Sold fast when I offered it.

2 hours ago, Chadwick said:

Nice brother  

No insult intended but is the spine split? I'm thinking of slabbing a book with a fully split spine. It's a book I've been hunting for years, and in the highest grade I can afford right now. But I want to take care of it, it looks beautiful in the Mylar, but I want it slabbed. Has anyone had a split spine slabbed? Would the book or cover separate once in the slab?

I bought it the day my son was born, it'll be his in 16 years, 5 months.  2034 

Fully split, as in pages as well as cover? Due to brittleness? Likely 0.5 in that case. Less severe, dunno but you may have a shot. What is the book?

2 minutes ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

No Problem at all.  Didn't take it that way. 

I'm glad, I'm just trying to buy one and thought I might find it here, base on the firepower you had deployed thus far. Great books! 

16 minutes ago, Zolnerowich said:

Fantastic! I love how the lady is completely unfazed by the brawl, calmly poised with knife in hand.

Thx! Comicjack posted one in the GGA thread and I instantly started researching ... Gerber 7, hmmm..... Found a few sales, mostly over guide....found this copy available from DTA, graded fine by them, and though I am more inclined to call it a 5.0 than a 6.0, it was a reasonable ask either way based on what I had seen, and they came down a bit. Great to do business with! Just a handful on the registry.

On February 24, 2017 at 10:57 PM, Ricksneatstuff said:

I think that one is tougher than the 12!

Rick & Solar,

i really wasn't doing this

I honestly thought, with the heat Rick is bringing in this thread, that there may be a shot of a Roly Poly 12. I mean, geez...Dizzy Dames, so it was no more a stretch than that

1 hour ago, Sqeggs said:

Nice pickups!

Thx Sqeggs!

1 hour ago, 1950's war comics said:

 i just love how when even a low grade comic comes back from CGC it usually looks so much better in the slab !!!

That's for sure! If you pick one with the right flaws making it low grade (basically, the major stuff is anywhere but the cover) it is like Mylar on steroids, from a presentation perspective.

8 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Yes, that is exactly my intention and thought, although I would LOVE to have a Batman 1 sneak up on me any day of the week 

Oh, I agree! If I ever am able to acquire a Batman #1 (or a National #18) I'm sure I'd feel overwhelming happiness. But not of a surprising sort!

Heck, I look at Jimbo's Fox book with Samson on the cover and remind myself that there are whole swaths I do not start on for fear of being unable to stop, such as those and big 5 DC war books. But some you just cannot predict the impact of; like that early True that Jimbo posted. I have a couple and they have grown rapidly on me, quite unexpectedly.

5 hours ago, comicquant said:

What I meant by negate the grade was there is a significantly higher potential for damaging a book in a Mylar/board setup than a slab.  When I look at a slab that says 9.4 and the slab looks like it hasn't been cracked or the book doesn't move freely within I'm pretty sure it's still a 9.4.  You don't have that luxury with a Mylar and backing board.  I'm sure everyone on these boards has added a spine tick to an otherwise pristine book while unpacking one in a bag/board, but unless you're unpacking a slab with a hammer there's a good chance the book arrives unscathed with grade intact.

Gotcha. And I agree. I've damaged books in and out of bags and mylars, as we all probably have. I just think the protection gap is overstated, in practical reality. Books in boards and mylars in boxes are generally as static or moreso than slabbed books. Handling is high-risk; other than those times, it's off the table.

18 minutes ago, mschmidt said:

If that's correct, that's insane - I guess they have zero problems providing legitimacy to scammers passing off restored books as unrestored.

18 minutes ago, mschmidt said:

If that's correct, that's insane - I guess they have zero problems providing legitimacy to scammers passing off restored books as unrestored.

Good point....how's that a complete grading service?