KCOComics

You are right, the delivery methods are going to change. Markets evolve and printed comic books will be strained. My son is 7. He loves collecting comics with me and we go to comic book stores and buy "true believers" to read all the SA marvel keys together. I know we are the minority, but outside of having a dorky dad, graphic novels are enormously popular with kids. I've bought him every "Dog Man" and "Captain underpants" book. The delivery method is evolving for sure and comic book stores will need to evolve to survive. Graphic novels, streaming video and digital content are the present and the future. My kids will have a different relationship with the Avengers and Xmen than I did. I grew up after the days of buying comics at the local drug store. I fell in love with comics because of after school cartoons and card collecting. There are allot of collectors my age on these boards with similar experiences who's childhood love for those characters evolved into SA and GA collecting. My kids are falling in love with the same charectors because of movies and streaming content. Will that one day translate into collecting? No idea! But I do think collecting will survive the evolution of the delivery method. And look, if 50 years from now my collection is worth pennies on the dollar, I'm ok with that. I've enjoyed this hobby since I was a kid. And collecting with my kids..... going to cons, reading old stories, filling in key books to complete a run, I love it! Just no PCH until they are older!

Here is my #1. A nice looking copy, but it's trimmed with some very amateur color touch. For my price range I had to choose between restored or very beat up. Ultimately I got this at a great price and ran with it.

Congrats! I've got #1 and 2 out of the way. Still working on 3 - 6!

I wouldn't think so.

I agree - archival tape shouldn't get you purple. If anything it would "conserved", but I suspect it would be green because of the married CF. Also agree with the 4.0. Beautiful book!

Are you looking to have it graded? The staples do look like they were added post production. I have seen books with extra staples will get a blue label, so I don't think it's considered resto. Could be wrong.

Don't base anything off Ebay asking prices!! Sales prices ok.. I also saw that shocking mystery 51. Great eye appeal and I had to tell myself to look away. Just trying to be disciplined in my collecting for a change.

Wait wait wait.... that Blue Bolt 112 you sold me isn't guaranteed to go up in value???? Can I get a refund? In all seriousness, my personal philosophy is to buy comics because you love them. They aren't an investment to me. Of course I'm happy to see books I bought years ago go up in value, but I never bought a comic book with the attitude of "someday this will be worth a fortune." In fact I've been working on finishing some Atlas runs that are relatively cheap books and likely will never appreciate all that much. But I love the covers and awesome stories. Invest in the market to grow wealth (401k, index funds, mutual funds and 529s). Buy comics to have fun.

I think that's a bit of a misconception. Most investors who try to time the market fail. While "buying the dip" with strong companies is good advice, most successful investors build wealth by diversifying and staying in the market. As for comics, I would argue the vast majority of GA collectors are working class. Even guys dropping 5 figures on books are usually selling parts of their collection to fund new additions. I bought Hulk 1 this year by selling FF48, DD1 and a bunch of ASM. I hated to see them go, but I couldn't justify parting with that much cash otherwise. The guys dropping 6 and 7 figures on comics are the minority, but they do exist.

This is very true. From a buyer stand point, it's nice to see established sellers with good reputations that you can talk to.

Congrats to both. Beautiful copy!

Looks like a typo on the ASM 57

I hope you have something good. People don't seem to interested so far.

Umm.... I will also take Doll man?

I tend to agree with Wally. I don't think it takes away from a spectacular cover, but compared to everyone else that one image is cartoonish and out of place. Still a great book I would love to own.

I didn't even know this was a thing until I read it on these boards a few months ago. Now that I'm looking I see it all over the place. There was s low grade FF1 on Ebay that looked like resto removal a few months back and I couldn't help but think about how nice it must have looked before the scrape job.

I agree... and I personally don't look at collecting as an investment. It's mui hobby that brings me great joy. But I do hate over paying for anything.

That's downright upsetting! Not disclosing restoration removal incentivezes the butchering of comic books!

Buying raw can be tough. And when you get to that NM range it's nearly impossible to distinguish between a 9.4 and a 9.6 (at least for me) My advice is, spend some time learning to grade. Watch YouTube videos, study graders notes, ask questions in the spare a grade area.... Your wallet will thank you. As an aside, I'm not a good grader. I can usually get within a range, but I'm wrong more than right. With raw books, my buying philosophy is based on worse case scenarios and downside risk. I don't steer clear of raw, but outside of a few dealers, I don't trust anyone's assigned grade and try to only pay for what I think the lowest possible outcome would be. I have worked hard to identify restoration through pictures. Other than that, if you want a sure thing, buy them slabbed. You pay more to avoid the risk.

My father works for a recently defunct art college in CT. I don't know what's left there, but if you are serious PM exactly what your looking for and I can reach out. They still teach private classes there, but are no longer accredited. Not enough art majors to keep them afloat.

Congrats! Great pick up

1.0 - 1.5 Very cool find. You don't see that every day!

1.8

2.0 to 2.5 But is it worth grading such an insignificant book? Kidding aside - I love that it was bought locally and hasn't strayed far from home. Congrats!

This is my thinking and I'll subject myself to cyber bullying if the boardies think I missed it. In my mind this should be a purple label 1.0. - the detached cover gets the grade down, and the trimming makes it purple. Perhaps the submitter requested a qualified grade (the qualification being the detached cover) rather than a purple 1.0. I don't know if that's possible, but I believe I've read you can do that with CCS screening? And if it fetches 5 figures, then the submitters request paid off.