David Swan1

More of the same as yesterday To follow up on my posting yesterday I?ve had similar experiences with inflated prices with golden and silver age ?All Star Wastern? comics. It is dang near impossible to find high grade issues and I found myself haggling over a non CGC graded 6.5 copy of issue 108. It finally occurred to me that if the seller wanted to quibble over an already overpriced medium grade issue of a series few people care about then he could bloody well keep it. I need to remind myself that when I overpay for a comic I only regret it in the end. I found almost no CGC graded issues but I did find two on Comic Link. Issue 109 CGC 5.0 has an asking price of $100, price guide listed at $36.00 and issue 111 CGC graded 6.0 has an asking price of $100, price guide listed at $19.20. Someone responded to my posting yesterday mentioning that the sellers generally expect at the very least to get the price of the comic plus the cost of getting the issue slabbed which sorta makes it silly to slab a comic priced at less than 20 bucks. In fact the price guide for a slabbed and unslabbed copy of issue 111 graded 6.0 is precisely the same. The funny thing is that ?Fine? is the highest graded CGC in existence so is it really possible that that is the finest copy of that issue on the planet? Unlikely. I have seen other slabbed issue of ?All Star Western? at some of the more obscure sites but they?re all way inflated. I?m a really frugal buyer so no deal. So now I have a real challenge. Try and get a collection of higher graded ?All Star Western? without paying dramatically inflated prices. I guess what I?ll do is buy the best non-CGC graded issues I can find and any reasonable CGC graded comics I come across (non so far) and maybe if CGC ever comes to Cleveland I?ll bring in a stack for slabbing. There were a few ?All Star Western? issues on Comic Connect that I offered prices on but the dealer never responded so oh well. I must confess that I do take some perverse pleasure in rejecting overpriced comics. There was an issue of ?All American Men of War? that was listed as NM- at a very reasonable price? if the comic really was NM- but looking at the image it just did not look NM- so I offered a price well below the asking price. The dealer responded with a price not that far off my offer and then quickly sent an email saying he/she would accept my next offer. At this point I was regretting even considering buying the comic and never responded. I can only imagine the dealer must have been kicking themselves for not accepting my initial offer. Likewise I have to wonder if the owner of ?All-Star Western? 108 is not now regretting rejecting my offer. I would put it another offer but it would be $10 less than my last offer and I don?t think Comic Connect allows that.

When is it prudent to buy non CGC graded comics? Like probably everyone here my preferred comic would be a CGC graded comics but as my interest has turned to a few golden and silver age series, ?All Star Western? and ?All American Men of War?, the price disparity has pushed me hard away from CGC graded comics. On EBAY right now I see issue 103 of ?All American Men of War? CGC graded 9.0 for $169.00, comicpriceguide.com lists it for $85.68, issue 102 CGC graded 8.5 is likewise selling for $169.00 and is guide listed at $56.16, issue 107 CGC graded 8.5 is selling for $89.00 and lists for $56.16. Comic Link has issue 93 CGC graded 7.5 with an asking price of $250 guide listed at $38.40 (this issue was hilariously posted in fall of 2009). Comic Connect has issue 71 CGC graded 8.0 with Buy Now price of $355 guide lists it at $109.20. My experience in the past has been that comicpriceguide.com is a pretty good gauge of current prices. I bought issue 115 non CGC graded 8.5 for $16 and issue 106 non CGC graded 8.5 for $29.99. I did manage to get a very nice CGC graded 9.2 copy of issue 88 for a very reasonable price but by and large the CGC graded prices seem to be inflated through the roof. So is the guide woefully out of date or are these sellers just dreaming? It seems to me that what?s happening is people are pricing these at hugely inflated prices hoping that some day someone will be ignorant enough to buy them even if they sit on auction for years. When I first got into collecting CGC comics EBAY was the place for me but then I started drifting more towards Heritage, Comic Connect and Comic Link but now I?ve returned to EBAY. They have a much faster product turnover and I find their deliver service to be much more reliable (user feedback is an awesome motivator). Every issue of ?All American Men of War? I?ve purchased has been from EBAY because quite frankly the other auctions prices are insulting. It?s not that EBAY doesn?t have some jokes but at least it?s a mix of good and bad. There have been times in the past where I?ve asked the seller on EBAY to lower their prices even when their product isn?t listed as ?or best offer? and some have complied but I would feel really weird asking someone who lists their comic at $169.00 to lower it to $57.00. My latest purchases won?t push me up the leader list in the CGC ranking but at least I don?t feel like a insufficiently_thoughtful_person for overspending. Boo to those sellers who price their CGC comics to target suckers.

See Many of the Highest Grade Issues If someone would have told me that one day I would own the highest known grade copy of a Captain Marvel Adventures issue I wouldn?t have believed it. I would have expected it to be both prohibitively expensive and nearly impossible to find. Possibly I might stumble upon one maybe two but surely the owner would covet them like gold. Currently I own 12 of the highest grade issues including 4 which stand alone as the highest grade (i.e. not tied with any other issue). All were acquired within the last half year and the amount I spent was FAR less than I would have expected. It?s certainly possible that there exists higher grades that simply haven?t been graded by CGC but it?s my experience that most owners of high grade issues are getting them CGC graded. For instance I?ve never seen anyone advertise a Near Mint or Mint condition golden age comic that wasn?t graded and sealed, generally by CGC. My assumption is that even if there are higher grades they are extremely rare. What amazed me was how easy it was for me to put this collection together. Top grade CMA issues just sat there on mycomicshop.com, Heritage and Comic Connect for months on end even when many were priced well below guide prices. Issue 112, for instance, is graded 9.2 and is one of only two CGC graded issues known to exist the other one being a sorry little 2.0. This issue is extraordinarily rare, was priced well below guide on mycomicshop.com and wasn?t selling. I guess all I can say is lucky me but it?s interesting what pique?s the interest of collectors and what doesn?t. Captain Marvel is a household name who?s still relevant today in comics but his golden age stuff (besides the early early issues) is shockingly easy to obtain. At least it was until I swooped in like a vulture. I?m very proud of the collection I?ve built so far and honestly consider it the most enjoyable to view among CMA collections. It most CERTAINLY doesn?t have the highest point total, that would be starman221 whose collection is nearly 8 times mines point total but starman221 doesn?t include any images. Daily Star is about 7 times my point total but that collector?s collection is obscured. Mine has the most images beating Timulty by 1 (Timulty?s images are superior to my own but I intend to improve my images in time). All of my comics have detailed descriptions. I created my collection to be the kind of collection that I?d like to see if I were browsing which means lots of images and descriptions. So if you?re a fan of Captain Marvel and you want to actually see many of the highest grade images known to exist please step by and take a look. Thank You

Check Out This Collection I Stumbled Across I like to peruse the various collections that people have put together looking for some really neat ones and yesterday I came across one that just blew me away. This may possibly be the most staggering comic collection I have seen. I?m not plugging for this person because I know them in any way but WOW you have to check this one out. It?s ?Off to the Museum? by clarkkentdds in Superman #1-#423. I briefly flirted with starting a collection of early Superman comics before concluding that the high grade issues were simply out of my price range and settled on the much more reasonably priced Captain Marvel Adventures. This collection has the feel of someone with unlimited funds because this HAS to be the most impressive collection of golden age Superman comics ever and the collection was only added within the last month. Never would I have expected that there could possibly be this many 9.0+ early Superman comics in existence much less collected by a single person. I only wish the person had included images because it would be an amazing sight to see. Congratulation to clarkkentdds and remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Keep those comics safe.

Wondering about photographing slabbed comics I have a question and a comment. First, I was wondering if anyone has advice on photographing slabbed comics. I?m sure everyone who tried to do it has come up against the obvious problem of the reflection of the flash (as well as the reflection of the photographer if no flash is used). Some of the comics I have in my collection have beautiful photos but I pulled those from the website I purchased them from. The only thing I can assume is that these were photocopied. Is that how these are taken to avoid a flash? My concern with that is blasting my covers with a few moments of intense light. I?ve tried tilting the comics and that works to a degree but obviously they come out looking a bit wonky. I also want to take a photo with high enough quality to see the certification number but reducing it under 128 KB kills that for the photos I take. I know I must be doing something wrong. I also have a comment. I greatly admire many of the collections people have put together but I?m really surprised at how many of the top collectors don?t include images. I want to send out huge congrats to Ghost Town for including images of 100% of the comics in his collection. That is AWESOME. Also, a shout out to Merced as a fellow DC fan. But why why why are your best collections obscured? Rosland is another one with a great collection with 100% images but they?re obscured. Oh how I would love to see them. Seeing a collection as nothing more that the certification number and grade is pretty unsatisfying. Even though my images may be a bit weak I plan on getting one for every issue. Thank You