William-James88

7.5-8.0 Nice book!

What happened in the end? From my experience, the most likely thing they will do is simply have you return the book for a full refund of all you paid so that they can sell it again with the proper description.

Here's another one. Right now, Heritage has a Holiday Comics 1 from Fawcett which they claim is VF-. However, the spine is torn up at the bottom right with an inch long colour breaking crease and another busted corner at the top. I gather at most 5.5 (as do others on this board), why they think it could be 7.5 is beyond me. https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/holiday-comics-1-fawcett-publications-1942-condition-vf-/p/122006-78001.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Preview-SearchResults-120115&lotPosition=1|0#

Thank you both for your assessment (I didn't catch the dirt). I too gathered around 5.0-5.5 (assuming the back isn't worse) but wasn't sure since the seller is claiming this to be a 7.5. https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/holiday-comics-1-fawcett-publications-1942-condition-vf-/p/122006-78001.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 If it was a random person on e-bay I wouldn't have doubted myself. But this turns out to be Heritage which claims to be experts (125+ World-Class Experts in 40 Categories) and who apparently has an ex CGC employee grading the comics. So i'm finding this hard to believe. Won't be getting this then.

For now, what if we assumed the back had nothing worse than the front. I just want to establish a quick concensus before I reach out to the seller regarding the grade they gave.

What grade would you guys give this? It's a giant 196-page comic book.

Thinking of getting this book but not sure about the grade. This is the only pic given.

It was something Fifties said that I kept for the sake of continuity in the discussion, I don't really have a dog in this fight, just trying to help you out with an in depth response. The point of this topic is about comics as an investment, with the notion of diversifying from stocks, so I don't see how being a collector (true or not) applies to anything your question asked. It's all in reference to the stand point of the question and not necessarily you. I don't at all mean you are not a true collector.

yeah, for sure. The original question is not from a true collector stand point and was only looking at comics like stocks, so I responded accordingly. Finding opportunities in comics as one does with stocks. It's all speculation. But this is not indicative of myself at all. The only reason why I got good deals was not because I spotted them across a wide range of books (no time for that), but because I was looking at books I loved and didn't spend more than I felt comfortable or could afford.

Here is the source the figure comes from https://web.archive.org/web/20051002164350/http://www.ugr.es/~alozano/Translations/ComicBooksinLibraries.pdf EDIT: My bad, is says for the year. The article I initially read which quoted that article did not disclose that part. So it's just over 1 million copies per issue then.

While the obvious answer is that if you buy what you love than there will always be a demand for it by you, I do get that it doesn't really answer the question. The answer is it depends the title. GA comics are the rarest around so a slight change in demand can have a huge change in prices. If 5 rich collectors want a specific nicely graded pre code horror comic in their collection, then that comic will sky rocket in price. Investment wise, that means you have to look at books that have stayed rather stable in price since that's an indication that interest is not high. The fact that there are so few copies means that almost by definition, non key golden age books are undervalued. I mean that fact that issue 10 of Bulletman (a book with only 10 or so issues in the registry) is cheaper than issue 10 of Fantastic Four (a book with 800 or so issues in the registry), clearly reveals an opportunity in the market. So there are definitely still some opportunities now, but is now a better time than before? Yes, for certain items. Here are two examples from recent acquisitions of mine. Whiz Comics #103 in 7.0 was $105 in the price guide in 2006 . We have a record of it selling at a public online auction for $70.15 raw. So they got it at a 33% discount compared to the guide price. https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/whiz-comics-103-fawcett-1948-condition-fn-vf-pete-costanza-and-c-c-beck-art-overstreet-2004-fn-60-value-72-vf/a/14071-17046.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-PreviousPricesHeritage-081514 In 2019, the price guide shows a value of $133 for this same comic in 7.0. That figure just follows inflation. And if we look at what the original $70.15 spent would be in 2019 dollars, it would be $88. However, I purchased a slabbed copy for $77. And while that is $7 higher than what someone paid for in 2006, that is a 42% discount compared to the guide price. Accounting for inflation, I paid less for the comic now than someone did 13 year ago. Also, my copy is slabbed, while the previous copy sold was not, meaning I have even greater savings if you consider the slabbed comic premium (or simply that I don,t have to pay to slab it) https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/whiz-comics-103-fawcett-publications-1948-cgc-fn-vf-70-off-white-to-white-pages/a/121948-12000.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-PreviousPricesHeritage-081514 Here's another example Captain Marvel Jr #38 in 4.0 was $90 in the price guide in 2016 (so just a few years ago). We have a record of it selling at a public auction online for $179.25 raw. So they paid a 99% premium over the guide price (so basically double what the price guide said it's worth). You can see it here, it's a nice copy but there is staining on the cover https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/captain-marvel-jr-28-fawcett-publications-1945-condition-vg/a/121728-12281.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 In 2020 (so just a few weeks ago), that same comic came back in the same auction. It had been slabbed and instead of being a 4.0 (like the person bought), it turned out to be a 5.5, which is worth $124 according to the 2019 price guide. I bought that exact comic at during the auction with a bid of $89. That is a 28% discount compared to the guide price. And yeah, instead of paying $179, I just paid $89 for that same comic, so 2 weeks ago I paid half of what someone paid 3 years ago. And it's slabbed meaning I have even greater savings if you consider the slabbed comic premium (or simply that I don't have to pay to slab it). https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/captain-marvel-jr-28-fawcett-publications-1945-cgc-fn-55-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122001-11192.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 This should also serve as a scary lesson for how wrong things can go if you look at the flip side. That person who paid $179 three years ago (instead of putting it in the bank at minimal interest) lost a bunch. Of my $89, they only get back $60. Plus it cost $40 to get is slabbed (not counting shipping). So their initial investment of $179 (if we look at it that way) became at most $20 three years later. And once you add in taxes for the initial sale of the comic and shipping to and from CGC, I am pretty sure you end up with $0. Of course, the real winner here is the auctioneer who simply made both a buyers premium AND seller commission twice in 3 years for the same comic.

I feel confident in saying that Super Heroes truly capture the essence of the Golden Age. Unlike the other genres, this one was born of Golden Age comics and thus I feel represents it best.

1.0

No problem, all the best man!

Well look, I'll tell you this. I was a grader for a collectibles shop and if you brought that in I would be comfortable buying and selling it as an 8.0. It might be an 8.5 but I don't want to push my luck in case someone brings it to CGC, it comes back as an 8 and they come back demanding a refund or whatever. Especially if I'd put it up on e-bay with that 6 month guarantee period paypal has now. Pretty positive it's not a 9 though. The idea of a 9 is that aside from small noticeable defects, it's an otherwise near mint book. The defects here, which are due to wear as opposed to being manufacturing defects, are just a bit too noticeable.

I would be very surprised if this gets less than an 8.0

Being in Canada, you will be spending a mess ton of money and probably not gain anything from it. The shipping to and from the states is brutal for canadians and you have to incur those shipping fees twice. So you'd be spending a minimum of 50$CAD per book you send in. The only stuff worth grading from that era has to be in really great shape, like looking near flawless to you. Because or else, anything with noticeable flaws (like ticks along the spine and beat up corners or folds) can be sold for similar prices on ebay or kijiji without being slabbed. What I recomend you do is buy 2 books: Overstreet Price guide Overstreet grading guide The first will show you what is worthwhile while the second will help you know just how good or bad the condition is. And then you can decide otherwise.

7.0

It's not a 3.0, sadly. More of a 2.0.

As in professionally? I'm very surprised to see they couldn't get that lower crease out. Either a 8.0 or 8.5

Exactly, VG

Thats the same I was thinking.

Haha, people are catghing on. For the bad condition one, don't bother with slabbing it, it can still get you a decent amount raw.

The really expensive comics featuring those characters is mostly from the 60s. Hulk, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Avengers from the 70s are only worthwhile if they are in really nice condition. I used to work in a collectible store and someone brought in a similar looking collection and since they were all in not great condition (so lots of folds and the like), the owner didn't think there was anything to offer that would be worth the trouble of going through it. They will not fetch 100s of dollars. The ones that might be worth something are some of your x-men comics. if you have Uncanny x-men 101 for instance, that would be worthwhile to dig up and sell, same for giant size x-men. Captain Britain 8 would be worthwhile to get too. Your best bet, is to buy a price guide (overstreet price guide available on amazon) and there you will see which exact comics are worthwhile.

I know this is an old topic but it still comes up and I do have official word from CGC about this. Basically, comparing slabs that have the notion of "detached centrefold" to determine how many points are deducted is a fool's errand. A detached centrefold can reffer to a book that was made that way (so not due to wear and tear) AND it can reffer to a book which had a centrefold initially attached and has since been detached. Plus you have the notion of detachment at one or two staples for either scenarios and that gives you 4 subsets of possible grades further depending on other defects found on the book. Plus there is the idea that if that's the only issue with the book, you might get a green slab instead, which itself has it's own subset of grades. So basically, the range can be very big and none of it really contraditcs the overstreet guide (which also has various grades but helps to distinguish the grading by using words like "loose" or "detached", which CGC does not).