rumrunner71

I'm curious about that too. With the black, you don't really see it on the front cover, so maybe it will press out? Probably still leave some kind of ring though

I learned to check the centerfolds after having two different comics have undisclosed detached pages.

Thanks for the help in estimating the grade on this one!

Thanks!

Thanks for the tip! It would be great to improve some of the smaller issues with this copy. And a faster sale is never a bad thing

Thanks! Now to decide whether to slab or sell raw...

Yep, they were on the outside, which was a PITA because a few of mine have peeled off over time.

Thanks!

Posting two this evening, with gratitude for your input. This is Fight Comics #84. The colors on this one really pop in person. Some chipping along the top edge, a beat-up corner on the top spine, and quite a few color-breaking creases. Thanks for your thoughts on the grade!

Hi All, Thanks for the help in estimating a grade with this one. The colors are sharp, but there are some issues that I see: quite a few color-breaking folds, some white spots (maybe from light tape? not sure) between the A and the T in "Bat," and somebody must have used it as a coaster at some point (see inside cover pic.) There's also some rippling on the back cover, bottom left corner that looks to me to be pressable. A few of the pages have bends (again, maybe pressable?) at the corners, and a couple have some chipping. I know she ain't the highest grade, but grateful for your thoughts on it!

I don't think I've seen that one before. Great cover and beautiful copy!

It also depends on the collection. If your Golden Age collection is, say, an early run of a popular character, you might have luck selling it for close to FMV to a collector. Again, the selling forum is the best bet

By "retail" prices, I'm assuming you mean fair market value from GPA or another source. This depends on how you want to sell the books. The local comic store will offer you "wholesale" probably because they are offering on the whole collection. Often, a whole collection will be sold at a discount because you, as the seller, save the time of selling them one by one. If you want fair market value for each comic, you will probably need to sell them individually. The sales forums here are great. There are a ton of online options, but each will take a percent or charge fees. The long and short is, if you want retail prices, you need to put in the work of being a retailer: grading (not slabbing, mind you), taking pics, posting to the forum here or Instagram or something, responding to inquiries, packaging for shipping, etc. For some people, that makes sense. For others, they want the convenience of selling the collection as a whole in one fell swoop and so are willing to take a discount for the saved time.

Xmen 1, just this year. Picked it up raw from my LCS. Although some of my textbooks from undergrad felt like they could be in the running

I've gotten burned by this coming and going. First, by losing out on books because I kept saying "next time" and then by spending too much to stave off regret with other books. There could be a whole thread about the ones that got away. Wait...is there a whole thread about the ones that got away??

Interesting question and responses. I don't know that I prefer low grade so much as I am not bothered by it. I'd rather have several low grade issues I really want than just one high grade one I want. But it depends. Some of the issues, it's the covers that I'm really after, so a high grade is preferred. Some, it's the historical significance of it (thinking platinum or early gold), so the grade isn't as big of a deal. I agree with what others have said about the anxiety, too. I don't want the worry of not being able to handle a book because of its high grade and value. Of course, I don't want the worry of a page breaking off a really low grade one either, so there's that.

If I was Biro, I think I'd find another place to put my sig, rather than having my name on the car right by the getaway driver

Even better, just for the promise of free cigarettes (which, as a smoker, makes total sense to me)

The only thing I might to the already great advice here is if you are not confident in your storage abilities if you aren't selling soon. Low grade like that, I wonder how the corners, spine, and pages are holding up. A slab might keep it from going from a 1.5 to a .5. Not forever, and Mylar and care can do the same but still. (And poor shipping or packaging could send it to lower grade territory anyway.) I also tend not to buy really low graded slabs because to me, those are reader copies. If I see a slab, I see a lot of money for plastic I'm going to crack out later.

Most definitely, "reasonable" means different things at different times. I didn't mean to imply you were out tossing $$ around

I will add to this a bit and just say that there have been some times on these boards where I still get that thrill. Some of the rarities and obscurities that come up are amazing, and often, the sellers offer really good prices. So the boards offer a bit of that thrill still.

That's a really good point about the hunt. If you are looking for the best copy or a pedigree or something for like a GA book and you have the funds, I imagine the hunt is still there. But for many of us, I imagine, we've been priced out of that hunt

Completely agreed. I'm not going to sit around with the kids and tell them the epic tale of me setting a watch alert on an auction and checking my phone for snipes before I finally got the win notice and invoice.

This 100%. My wife designs clothing for art fairs, and across the board, with some exceptions, sales at those shows are down. I really do hope for the sake of you and other artists that there is a bounceback. A lot of folks left the art fair business after 2021

Some of the slow down for me in intensive collecting is that it feels like the thrill of the hunt is gone. I used to love going to flea markets, antique stores, and comic shops in new towns trying to find that one issue to fill out my run or always looking for the diamond in the rough, that one super valuable, hard-to-find 1st appearance that not everyone knew about that was buried in a stack of drek. With the internet, there isn't that thrill. I need an issue to fill a run? There's 25 copies on MCS. That obscure title? The local flea market guy is trying to sell it for 20x GPA. If I have the wherewithal to overpay, I can just do eBay. I still love seeing a well-stocked wall at a con, but with the net, I have access to almost all of those if I really want them, whenever I want them (with few exceptions.) There's almost no adrenaline rush anymore.