Philflound

I agree that though some magazines may be the true 1st appearances, most collectors don't deal with mags and buy the first comic appearances and consider that their 1st ones. I own very few magazine sized comics and don't really have a desire to purchase them based solely on size... and money of course. If I did have room to buy comic magazines, I probably would consider collecting them. Maybe some time in the far future.

How many of these boring posts are people going to write about. Will you buy so and so comic or so and so comic. If I had $900, I wouldn't buy either but invest it in Silver and Gold books.

I don't think it in the bag is going to add any value whatsoever. It's not like it's limited in any way or comes with a trading card or something not available otherwise.

What I did when I had more store and even afterwards was give them away for Halloween before the companies made Halloween comics to giveaway. Tattered stuff and kid friendly low grade or even unsellable high grade is always great. Hopefully you create a collector if they aren't one already. Also, I had the reasoning that if I gave away say a Ghost Rider comic, if the kid liked it, he would come back and buy other back issues I had and I'd have created a fan for a character.

Despite the fact of Overstreet putting higher values for GD and VG for mid to late 60s Marvels and DC, these are available by the ton. There is no shortage of pretty much any of these books, especially in low to midgrade.  I think for the most part it isn't worth the effort of most dealers to bring lower priced books to cons. The return isn't worth lugging and using up valuable booth space. I saw a lot of $5 boxes at C2E2, so I think at least at major cons, that will be the lower sale boxes for most dealers.

19 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

Is Wolverine #1 (1982) no longer the most slabbed book?

Nope!

Wolverine mini #1 11495

Spidey 361 should be in a well, not lid to lid. I can't tell from the photo. The staples seem to be unstable and well to well will often tear the cover and shift it, usually slightly. I haven't seen something that drastic.

If he likes the books and wants them slabbed, then don't tell him not to. I wonder all the time the mid grade moderns submitted valued at like $2. I can only guess they have more sentimental value than monetary value as the cost of slab with shipping both ways exceeds the value of the book itself. Maybe it's his first 2 comics he ever bought.

 I probably bought a few copies of Punisher ongoing #1, Silver Surfer #1, and a couple of other 1980s books, but Wolverine 1988 #1 came top at 50 copies. I tried getting my parents' friends to buy into that one.

On 6/5/2017 at 4:17 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I've often wondered what will happen when all the issues of a key end up slabbed,  then I checked it at the door, I don't know a single book that had a healthy print run that has got 100,000 slabs on the census. I wonder what the most graded book is and what number it sits at in the census.... also, I'm sure there are low print run, especially moderns, that there is a high percentage of the print run slabbed.....Like print runs of 500 that are promoted as Gauranteed 9.8 etc.

in short 

I don't think that collections will dry up until EVERY BOOK OF A KEY OR COLLECTIBLE, is slabbed imo

  or at least close to it  

New Mutants #98 - 12739

Amazing Spider-Man #300 - 13587

Probably the 2 most slabbed books. Hulk 181 has not hit 10,000 yet. Probably will by the end of July.

On 4/29/2017 at 10:13 PM, Philflound said:

Just picked up Youngblood V2 #1 newsstand along with Cyberforce #1,2, Maxx #1, Shadowhawk #4 with the Savage Dragon on the cover, Spawn #12, 14, 16, 17, 39, 75, 79, 112, Medieval Spawn / Witchblade #3, and Spawn Bible #1. Cleaned house of all these awesome newsstands for $1.20 or less.

Mentioned that I picked up Maxx #1 here. Not sure if people go through every page, so I wanted to repost this find from about a month ago.

Not sure if you can slab them with the laminate. Also, covers only do not get grades, so it doesn't really matter what grades people think they look like. I guess if they're complete and decent looking, there may be a market. Captain Marvel hasn't been holding much popularity in the collecting marketplace in my opinion.

3 hours ago, Bird said:

okay people, how do you tell the newsstand on these issues? I was running my hand over shadowhawks yesterday to feel for the embossing. What about Deathblow, Pitt, Darker Image (are there barcodes or is there another way). C'mon, share the knowledge! (Please?)

All newsstands have barcodes. Some issues are cheaper. I have many Witchblades that are $1.95 while their counterpart direct editions are $2.50.  The barcode is all numbers, the words DIRECT EDITION are not in with the barcode, which was released a few years later. Many of the newsstand versions have matte newsprint pages while the directs usually will have glossier pages. That should cover about most of the items. Newsstands of embossed gimmick covers will not have the gimmick to my knowledge.

I still have books in bags that are 30+ years old. I don't think any damage has occurred. Whether those books are worth anything is a guess. Probably some are over $10, maybe over $50, others are not. I'm not too worried about them. I'll change the bags/boards when I finally get to them.

Not sure what is seen here as I can't tell too much. But the yellowing that usually occurs in the center of the inside covers with still white borders is known as transfer stains from being in contact with the first and last page and causes the covers to turn yellow.

Ads do help the value of books in some instances. Early Silver and Gold issues featuring super key books are noted on CGC labels. Rust #1 featured an ad for Spawn #1. Fanzines and preview mags like Marvel Age are noteworthy and may have a slight increase in value. But imo first appearance should be comic book story only, even if it's a cameo or backup story. That would be like saying you had a copy of a film preview reel promoting Star Wars 1977 be worth more than the actual movie itself.

You can air out a book and can reduce or eliminate cigarette smell. Cat urine is the worst of everything and is disgusting. Mildew isn't pleasant either. Some people put some kind of dryer sheets or something similar to get a flowery smell on a book. Probably used to mask something nasty. When I had video games, the old Atari boxes, if they smelled like cigarettes, I would put them on the air conditioner and have it sit there for a day opened. I don't know how well a comic would fair as the pages would flutter and may bend.

Smell does not affect the grade. Odor may be listed as a defect, but it does not detract at all.

No MVS = incomplete, qualified for 3.5 or higher, 0.5 otherwise. I guess it's up to the buyer as to whether or not it's worth buying without it. I would definitely pass. Though the Hulk 181 still sells for outrageous prices even incomplete. There is absolutely no shortage of that book, but people are just nuts for it.

Most of the time on the inside cover or bottom of the indicia it should say it, especially in the present. Some issues before 1990 they didn't put it.

Looks pretty nice. Too bad about the tape pull.

Restoration depends on extent and quality. I think grayzr is being generous with 1/2 amount. More like 30% or less in my opinion. Your book had professional restoration, so that would definitely yield more money vs an amateur doing the work. Some restoration can be reversed, but the cleaning can't. I guess you can always soil the book some, but it probably wouldn't work.

Giant size books are subject to slightly different defects, mainly due to the staples. Poking through cover is a common occurrence. Also, there can be splits on the spine of front cover and back covers, technically 4 splits if edge of spine is intact. Pieces missing along end of spine is also a common defect which will expose the multiple wraps. 

Every time a book is cracked out to get a new signature, it goes through the entire grading process. There can be additional damage in handling a book with the new signing, especially those with heavy hands. Most of the time a book remains the same grade though 9.8s may go down to 9.6 if stress lines occur with the new sigs.

Foreign substance such as food will usually scrape right off. Sometimes they will leave stains, sometimes not.