comicginger1789

^ I will second that. Another book oh so close to my birthday (date wise, not year)!

Def a press candidate. 6.5 as is, 7.5-8.0 potential!

I definitely feel there is a group of sellers who have manufactured a belief that an MJ insert automatically equates to big bucks. If you look at books selling on ebay, the insert only serves as a way to sell a book. Meaning, you are more likely to sell a $5 if it has the insert and if you only charge a couple bucks more for that insert. Again, this applies to books that are not key or whatever term you use. Are they rarer? Yes. Are the oober valuable every time? Nope. They were printed for yeaaaarrrs. Across many titles and books.

Neat book you have. Problem is, it is a book no one cares about. If it did not have the insert or double cover, it is a fifty cent to a dollar book. Maybe $2 to the guy who needed a newsstand copy. But you have a double cover. Okay, now you need the guy who needs that double cover. Honestly, if it sold for $20-30 with the double cover, I feel that would be best case scenario. BUT you also have an insert. Again, cool and more easy to find insert collectors than double cover ones. But the insert is hit and miss and really only helps sell a "common" book. If the insert is on a key issue, you could get a lot more. But for a common book, meh. A bunch of 70s Marvel Team Up issues recently sold with the insert and only for a measily $10. Overall, value wise, what you have here is maybe a $40 comic. MAYBE $50. If someone offers to pay you anything more than that, you take their money faster than a speeding bullet. As for grade, eh tough to say without more pics. Graded and high grade, maybe it fetches more...I say maybe because you have narrowed into such a niche and on a nothing book that if you spent $40 or whatever to grade and tried to price such a book (even if it came back at like 9.4-9.6) at $100+, the list of people running up to pay that is gonna be a looooong wait.

Ah yes the classic "mint in sealed bag with tape".

I could list probably 100 000 comics from 30 years ago (1990 can ya believe it!) that are worth less than what was paid. Even if you go back 30 more years (1960) it still comes down largely to condition. Grading is something that I would not expect someone who has put in even a month of continuous study to be good at. Here is what helped me become a semi competent grader: - 15 years of looking at, buying and selling comics - buying several overstreet grading guides and studying the pictures - viewing countless ebay images of books in various grades - watching the "please grade my comic" thread on here (and participating...if someone posts a book and you see 6.0 and others are saying the same thing, that's great. If everyone is saying 4.0 and you are thinking 8.0, more learning to be done!) - participating in some fun grading contests on here to see how well I can do

To answer the original post, if it is something like what I have posted, I would open it because I would want to keep the box (and the other contents supposedly inside). If CGC gets something in a bag, small cardboard slipcase or otherwise, I am pretty sure they just take it out and throw the rest away. For me, I would keep the above box but I may be the minority in that.

It could be this. I have one, still sealed. Someday I may open it.

That is great to have the time for that and I wish you well. Hopefully you live in an area where you can buy in bulk from people selling collections to accumulate books you want. Doing it all online (from ebay or otherwise) and trying to turn a profit that way is much more time consuming. Can def be done but requires a lot of devotion.

Sounds good and again, get some feedback to confirm on a grade estimate. My brother has basic comic knowledge (he doesnt collect tho) and he thinks awesome condition is a book with one corner crease. I am not saying you grade the same way, I am just saying to make sure your grading is at least very good. That way, you will make the best decisions about which books to send to CGC to grade (knowing they will come back around where you think) and be worth more. All to often people send books off, only to get 7.0 or less grades on books that aren't worth that time and money for such a grade and would have been better off to sell raw. And a final thought...just because a book has a chance at being a 9.8 does not mean it is worthwhile to grade. You may see a 9.8 online for sale for $200 and think "wow, I paid $5 for the same book and it is probably a 9.8...I better slab and sell!" But reality is, selling that book is the next challenge. Finding the right guy who wants to pay $150-200 for a Black Lightning #10, as an example, in CGC 9.8 is gonna be very hard. First, you gotta find the Black Lightning guy who needs every ish in 9.8. That guy may not exist. Or if he does, he may have done what you did and found a great copy and submit it for his own 9.8. I have known sellers with what I call "random" 9.8 books trying to sell them for AGES. One guy had a Marvel Two In One issue (was a late 70s book, like issue 78 or 79) that he tried to sell for $150 for 2 years. Then, he got tired of having the book and sold finally for $80. He still made a profit but to wait several years just to make $40 or so on a book was a waste for him.

Definitely an 8.0 and I think the back cover would clean up even more, giving it 8.5 potential.

Def rare and should def find a buyer. Others have suggested best way to sell. As for price, I am also of the price it high and wait (if you can). Otherwise I should think someone would def buy it at $2000-2500 without much waiting. At the end of the day, how much do you feel you want to make? For example, I have bought books in lots that technically, I paid $4-5 for. They could sell for $300-400 but I price them at the lower point for a quick sale. Maybe I miss out on $40-60 here or there which for someone trying to make money, isn't great. But for me as a collector, it is all profit and allows me to keep buying and selling and adding to my personal collection without ever really dipping into my "real" money.

A few things... 1) If you don't have a love for the characters or even a certain character, writer, etc., it is very hard to just start "investing" in comics. I assume by saying this, you want to buy books, grade them and then sell for a profit. If you just want to collect books that have a chance of growing in value over the years, okay that is still investing but more of a long term thing. That can be hard to predict outside of going with tried and true comics that collectors have desired for ages (Your ASM 129s, X-Men 101s, that sorta thing). 2) Use the "Hey buddy can you spare a grade?" forum here to help get a grade on a book. There are a lot of really good eyes here and they can narrow down (95% of the time) the grade for you. This should help determining whether or not to submit a book. For example, maybe you have a Black Lightning #1 you think looks great and want to get it graded for value. However, that book is really only worth the time if it is 9.2-9.8 condition. 9.0 and lower, and they sell for $60-90, which is basically the time and effort it might take to get it graded in the first place (you might make a tiny profit). 3) Ebay sales and other sites will always have sold results. Spend the time to look and even pay to subscribe to such sites. If you cannot find a book sold on Ebay and it was produced in the last between 1970 and now, chances are it is either super rare or so plentiful that it just does not sell and no one cares about it. If it is older (from 60s or 50s or 40s), well chances are that is more rare and you can ask more about it in the Golden Age forums. 4) In regards to your question about Giant Sized Fantastic Four #1...there is a book from the 70s (GS Superstars featuring FF) which in 9.8, probably would fetch around $200 to the right person. There is an ish from 2009 (FF Giant Size Adventures) that would probably be a very VERY tough sell, even in 9.8. Also, is this a "I think it is 9.8" or a CGC graded book? Again, get some feedback from people here who have been grading comics and collecting for years. At the end of the day, if you have just jumped into comics period in the past couple months and are going to take a crack at making money, I advise against it. Unless you have the financial means to buy certain books and large collections of older and valuable material. Watching some youtube videos does not and expert make. Heck, I have been collecting for almost 20 years and I still learn something new every couple days. If you keep that mindset, and start small, you can definitely grow into an experienced collector.

A follow up in a few months would definitely be nice to see, to know if mold colonies were for sure dead. I agree that trying to "salvage" this copy for any real value is not worth it BUT suppose you had a great Golden Age book with just a small mold spot, maybe the size of a penny. If there was a process that could make it barely visible and knowingly kill the mold colony so it could not spread or damage the book further (or others it may be stored with), would that not be worthwhile?

Light leading edge wear and corner wear. 9.2 as I think 9.0 is a tad low and 9.4 a tad high. .

5.5 Nicer than a 5.0 but the staple pop brings it down from the 7.0 it appears to be if the staple were attached. \ I have a copy of ASM #82 that VF to VF+ but sadly, top staple is popped. I call it a 6.5 personally.

At least it wasn't an eggplant followed by a peach following by water droplets followed by the poop emoji!

A restored 2.0-2.5

I missed the smudge. Without it, I think my 8.0 would have stood. But then again, that means I overlooked. Shame has come upon me.

With that corner, I put it around 6.0, maaaybbeee 6.5 Without that corner piece, 5.5. Basically, it is as good as gone so I would grade it at 5.5 as though it was not there, even if it was barely hanging on.

Correct. At this point, C is definitely not an option.

Up the playback speed you will get bored twice as fast! Or half as much...???? math.

4.5-5.0 The foxing likely puts it closer to 4.5

2.0 It does not look rough enough to warrant lower and I think 2.5 would be a tad too generous so 2.0 it is.