XxSpideyxX

6 hours ago, Ssantoss said:

I've talked to poeple about comics many times, I've found that the trick is to connect it (comics) to something tangible, something that seems more "real" to the listener. I've had the pleasure of holding lectures about comics for non-comic interested people, but always made the subject with some kind of angle. The latest I held a while back was "Sex and sexuality in comics through publishing history.". Sex sells. But more important, people know about sex, they know about literature. This was just a more niched dive into the subject, and a fun one to boot.

People who read comics know about sex?

With the holidays upon us, many of us will have friend and family around.

Do you ever feel compelled to show off your collection to non comicbook/superhero fans?  If so, how do you present your books?  How do you talk about them?

How do you answer the inevitable question of ‘how much is that worth?’ 
 

After all, part of the joy in collecting is sharing that with others.  But how do you do so without either boring your audience to tears or boiling it down to cost/value?

10 hours ago, Hollywood1892 said:

This is a really good post

Thank you.

I agree about the originality of a book and keeping it that way, same as a painting. I also agree with restoration on historical books.

When it comes to slabbing, I would tend to submit books without restoration, but if people feel the need to do it, that is their choice.

If I restored a book purely based on preserving its antiquity rather than watch it fade to black, than that is the reason I would do it and I would not submit it.

Though at the same time, is submitting to CGC not a form of preserving, in itself?

I don’t know enough about comic book degradation to be sure, but I would imagine that storage under basic comfortable living conditions would result in a book that never fully fades to black in one person’s lifetime.  

I guess If I owned one of the last remaining copies of a comic on earth, I would first digitize it.  Then I would see what preventative measures I could take to stop further deterioration.  But I’m still quite certain I wouldn’t try to ‘bring it back to life’ with a facelift for aesthetic reasons only.  
 

And yes, slabbing is certainly a form of preservation.  But that is something entirely different.

I think of it this way:  preservation with CGC is boiling an egg.  It looks the same, but you can now only see the outside.  Restoration is pulling out all the chemicals, colors, paints, and stickers to make Easter Eggs.  

I don’t understand the concept behind comic book restoration.   I’m not talking about preserving very rare books for historical purposes.   I mean color touch, trims, or other means to bump a boom up a grade or two, only to gain that dreaded purple label.  
 

What is the point?  Does the grade bump with the purple label generally command more than the same book without the restoration work?  

I personally prefer to have books in all their loved imperfections.  Its kind of like plastic surgery after 60.  Everyone can tell what was done and it’s never as good as what would have presented naturally.   
 

But I’d love to hear arguments or reasons to the contrary!

2 hours ago, oldrover said:

I would only use Voldemort if I had an unverified signature. And even then, reluctantly. 

Are we talking about the same thing?

For those who don’t want to fork over the subscription cost of GPAnalysis, does Go Collect offer comparable figures?  Overstreet seems way under what the current market sells for.  EBay seems a fair gauge.  But sometimes it’s nice to have a reasonable reference point for certain items that are offered for sale here or on other auction sites. 

6 hours ago, MARK ARNEY said:

cbcs is typically graded higher than cgc. so a good press may bring you up to a cgc 7.0 or even 7.5 but not likely. however I have seen a few videos where people crack cbcs slabs and they come back higher by cgc. This seems to be happening more frequently by books that have been graded by cbcs in the last year. I don't know if cbcs hired an old cgc grader or what, but they seem to be closing the gap. the only problem is, 98% of buyers want that cgc label. its like, would you rather have converse or nike? there may be a few thrashers out there that go for that cbcs, but they are far and few between, and pgx is like some k-mart kicks brah. when it comes to resale, my money is these cgc jordans.

I thought the same going in.  Did you see the results?  

Look what I got in the mail today!!!

3 hours ago, TellshiarMarvelmaniaCollector said:

After the convention (just weeks) the Marvel Merchandise Letters were sent. Stan Lee used the image as part of the letterhead (version 1). In  late-1975 Romita cleaned up the image.

Wow!  This is incredible.  Thank you for sharing!  Did you see the link that @bronze_rules shared?  Based on the original art for the board game that I referenced, I'm wondering if this is, in fact, when the redesign occurred?

https://bigglee.blogspot.com/2014/03/1977-spider-man-game-john-romita-sr.html

Great stuff!

2 hours ago, kav said:

It was reused in many sticker and decal items.

Yep!  I’ve seen countless iterations over the years.  Stickers, posters, models, etc.  I have just never seen the original source and am wondering where it first appeared.  

I’m actually hoping I am wrong and it’s from a comic so I can get a copy!  

So much promotional material is lifted from the source material nowadays it’s hard to imagine that Romita did so much incredible original art for Marvel outside of the comics themselves!

This is my single favorite Spider-Man art of all time.  However, I don’t know where this image originally appeared!  I am fairly certain it was never on a comic cover and also pretty sure it never appeared within any comic pages, either.

I know Romita worked as an art director at Marvel for a while where he created promotional material.  I imagine the artwork was originally used in this way, but does anyone know the source or first appearance?

Thank you! 

On 10/24/2019 at 12:34 PM, Greg Ciraulo said:

Congrats on the bump!! I would have gone for it too.

if interested, please check our grading group out on facebook. This would be a great story to share with our members:

https://facebook.com/groups/makingthegradecomics

Oh, neat!  As soon as I receive the book and can take pictures, I'll post the story

If anyone has Netflix, this is an interesting watch that could have some parallels.  I recommend it from a collector's perspective:

https://decider.com/2019/07/25/jack-of-all-trades-netflix-baseball-card-documentary/

1 hour ago, blazingbob said:

Normally if my customers buy CGC books from me they can trade up at the price the paid on their original purchase towards the newly negotiated price on the higher grade.  If the book that they bought has gone up where that makes no sense they can use my consignment service to sell it and apply the proceeds toward the higher graded copy.

What is your company name Bob?  I am new to this community :)

Hello!  

I'm curious how some of you go about "upgrading" your books.  

For example, let's say you own a 7.5 and want to get a 9.2.  

Assuming you need to sell one to get the other, do you typically sell the 7.5 first in order to have cash toward the next, or do you buy the 9.2 in hopes of selling the 7.5 for a decent price?

Do you try to take "grade steps?"  Meaning...go from 7.5 to 8.5 and then 8.5 to 9.2, etc.?   Or is it more financially prudent to just make the leap to whatever highest grade you can afford at the time?

I realize a lot of this is budget contingent and a bit of risk/reward strategy, but I'm curious what methods generally seem to work for improving the favorite books in your collection

2 hours ago, chromium said:

 I read a lot of good points and counter arguments,  here is my take. I’m a member of a few Facebook groups consisting of local, Belgian, Dutch, French and other European collectors.

Most groups have a few 100 members, and they tend to infect and educate each other, a few weeks ago someone posted a couple of  70s Intantino Flash books and now half a dozen of the members are buying and showing off these books. This happens with a lot of titles, as long as they are cheap enough.

Most are between 20 and 40 years old With the average being around 30. A lot of them have come into the hobby due to the Marvel cinematic universe and most of them but not all get their fix from TPBs and HCs but about a quarter of them buy cheap 60s 70s and 80s comics.    Almost none of them have pull lists or buy monthly new comics.

Most have no major keys, I think the most expensive book I’ve ever seen posted was a plod cgc Hulk 181 4.0 and everybody went gaga over it. So these people are true readers and collectors, the most positive thing is even if they are not spending a lot of money right now, most of them have a plan to someday own one or more of the super keys (AF15 IH181 Xmen1, TOS39, JIM83...) when they own their own house, when the kids are grown up, when they’ll have more disposable income or a better paying job. For most it will take 20 years, but I do believe most of them will try and obtain them, even if they lose interest ( and their current collection) along the way. 

Well, this is the best news I've read on this thread.  

3 hours ago, awakeintheashes said:

Understanding that every modern-day huckster slithers in through the Modern section only to disappear soon after, I'll just answer and your question instead of telling you to post it in the correct section or embedding "Posting and You" for the 100th time.

No.

Don't really understand your answer other than the final word, but thanks!  

7 hours ago, PopKulture said:

 even though my bids are often in line with the much maligned Overstreet.

I've missed this conversation.  I grew up reading and loving the new editions of Overstreet over the years.  Has it become obsolete due to grading and the fluctuations of online auctions?  

But doesn't your statement kind of validate Overstreet since you are often in line with that they report?  

On 8/9/2019 at 7:43 PM, HouseofComics.Com said:

There was the big 2017 dip as referenced in this thread but this year is flat in dollars to last year and down about 5% in units.

https://www.comichron.com/

That's the overall trend for years also--dollar volume flat, with declining units.

My quick take on the movies was that they brought all the lapsed collectors who quit in the 90s back into the hobby. And there were a ton of them out there. But that's kind of a one-time generational thing. OTOH, people are living longer and the rich get richer, so I can see even declining numbers of collectors keeping things going (if not setting records). As for the low end, I feel that the internet really helps because people can more easily learn about collecting and what's out there and it's such an inexpensive hobby on the low end. You can get plenty to read and plenty of books for $100 a month.

This is completely true for me.  From the late eighties until the end of the 90s, I collected Amazing Spider-Man comics. I had a set of nearly 2000 Spidey comics, but no Silver age keys, even though I had read them all.  Then the clone saga happened, stretched out for 2 years, and pissed me off so bad I stopped collecting and even sold all the comics I had to start life with a bit of extra money as a newlywed and welcoming my first child.  

I never stopped loving Spider-Man.  I just stopped buying and reading the comics.  Every so often I would pick up a new issue, but I never found anything that peaked my interest.  Instead I’d buy occasional Spidey merchandise like toys, clothing, magnets, etc.

Now I’m 40 and the past 10 years of Marvel movies have definitely rekindled my original love for Spider-Man comics.  But rather than buy up a huge collection, I want to own some of the few key issues that were my absolute favorite stories and art.  I want to own the best versions I can afford of those, and nothing more.  

These few issues (ASM 33, 39, 50, etc) symbolize and summarize why I love Spider-Man.  I could (and should) write an essay for each comic I own.

But I could have bought raw versions or even reprints.  I bought these issues in at least a 9.0 slab so they present really well (I could stare at them all day) but also to hopefully gain value.  I’m just not sure this will happen to any significant degree.  

I personally will never get tired of seeing superhero movies.  And I know my son won't either.  

How many issues is Detective Comics up to now?  Or Amazing Spider-Man?  And those come out one a month, not once every couple of years!    I don't think it's possible for me to burnout on any form of Spider-Man