StreetPreacher

Sorry, just had the others sitting here and figured it might be fun to see tall of the 3 issue mini series together... My most sincere apologies, I hope I haven't unintentionally upset anyone.

.

It seems like the only real reason to get a book slabbed is to maximize the resale value... So unless you can easily sell a book for AT LEAST the $~20 it costs to be processed by CGC, then it doesn't really make financial sense. If you're planning to sell the book right away then it should be easy enough to research what slabbed examples in similar condition are actually SELLING for, and then determine whether the potential higher sale price is worth going through the hassle rather than just selling it raw and letting the next owner worry about grading just wish there were more options to purchase EMPTY comic book slab containers! I'm not planning on selling any of my books, but I LOVE the look and protection aspect of having books encapsulated in slabs... The only trouble is that the only quality empty slabs I can find online seem to sell for AT LEAST $15 a piece... And if it's $15 for 1 DIY empty plastic slab, then you might as well spend the extra few bucks and get it slabbed AND professionally graded at the same time by CGC! I Just wish CGC didn't take so long, and of course there's the crippling mental anguish that people must have to endure while ensuing they're safely packing and shipping their prized comic collections! And then praying that the courier doesn't pull an Ace Ventura, and the comics are actually returned in their original condition

My first introduction to TMNT was actually seeing some of the other kids playing the old Palladium RPG at recess. I still remember dressing up as a Turtle for Halloween a year before the movie came out, and nobody knew what the hell a TMNT was! Anyway, I was a bit too young for the original Mirage comic, but I LOVED the cartoon, and was a big fan of this 3 issue mini-series released by Archie comics, which covered the story from the cartoon's first few pilot episodes. The interior book art is a bit childish, but at least the covers are credited to Eastman/Laird and someone named Steve Lavigne who I assume probably actually did most of the work... And I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but my other question is, are these actually worth anything? I assumed that it was only the early black and white Mirage books that were in demand, but when I checked ebay I saw some slabbed examples 'listed' for up to and above $200!?!? Of course I also saw some raw examples listed for far less, so are these triple digit asking prices just 'pie in the sky' ebay sellers just hoping to snag some unsuspecting sucker? Or is there a specific Canadian news stand variant that actually trades for over $100?

That definitely looks cool, and I'm sure CGC must LOVE people doing this! What would the 'break even' sale price be for a CGC graded book? Assuming the comic is worthless, I guess the cheapest service would be $20 plus shipping & handling to get a book graded and slabbed for your collection?

If you take it out of the slab you'll be able to see the cover more clearly.

Thanks for the honest opinions guys! So it sounds like the hassle and expense of having it graded wouldn't justify the increase, or I guess even a potential reduction of its market value... My only other question, is there actually a market for a 'raw' book in this condition? I guess I should just do my own research on ebay and see if/what they're selling for... The UPC code doesn't do anything for me, so if it's in demand then I'm happy to just hold onto my direct copy for posterity I never really became a serious collector, and actually assumed that the direct books were more desirable since they don't have an 'ugly' UPC code blemishing the beautiful cover art! I hadn't even considered the fact that Newstand copies are considered variants, and were often printed in lower quantities making them more rare and desirable.

I've had some free time during the good old 'lockdown', so decided to look up a few of my old books on Ebay. I was a teenager in the 90s, and was one of the suckers who thought that the new comics I was buying might actually be worth something some day! Of course, at the time I wasn't aware that the main reason older comics were going up in value and becoming collectors items is because fans in the Silver and Bronze ages actually tended to buy just to read, and in many cases didn't even bother holding onto books after they'd read them a few times, let alone preserve the dimestore comics in mylar bags with cardboard backings to keep them in pristine condition So yes, I'm one of the kids who has a single opened copy of Rob Liefeld's 'glorious' X-Force #1, and another half dozen copies still sealed in their original bags with the playing card etc... And does anyone need a sealed copy of "Robin II"? I also have pretty much every variant of Jim Lee's X-Men #1 cover, including the extremely pretentious fold out gatefold version... I also found half a dozen copies of Uncanny X-Men #281 that I needed so badly that I remember begging my dad to drive me to the comic store across town which was the only place that had it in stock... I still can't quite remember what all the hype was surrounding Uncanny #281, but I remember my group of friends deciding we had to buy multiple copies because it was going to be worth a fortune some day! I actually still admire McFarlane's Spider-Man #1 cover series, but had to settle for just the basic green, and an already opened silver embossed variant, that seemed like a prize at the time... I never could afford the still sealed variant displayed on the wall of my local comic book store.. Its funny, but at the time we would tend to judge our friends level of coolness by the quality of the books they had pinned to their bedroom wall While looking through my old comic collection I also noticed just how many of the characters were rebooted in the 90's! And now I realize that was most likely done so Marvel could release an entire lineup of NEW #1 ISSUES of everyone's favourite characters! So now all of the 90's comic investment speculators had the chance to grab #1 PREMIERE COLLECTORS ISSUES of new comic books, and everyone knew just how much money a #1 comic would probably be worth in 30 years! So LUCKILY I was SMART enough to grab a few NUMBER #1 COPIES of Younblood, Deathlok, Deadly Foes of Spiderman, Deathstroke the Terminator, Robocop, Ghost Rider Rides Again, The New New Warriors, Pitt, Savage Dragon, Sleepwalker, Wildcats. And it was a GENIUS move to support the entire launch lineup of IMPACT! comics... Anyway long story long, I did notice that one of my copies of McFarlane's "Spawn #1" has the UPC code on the cover, while my other copies don't have anything else on the cover... I guess I must have just grabbed one copy off the rack from my Becker's corners store, and then bought few more copies (as an investment...) when I was able to travel to the actual comic store. So is it worthwhile to have this copy professionally graded and preserved in one of those plastic slabs? The only imperfections I see are 1 or 2 nearly imperceptible white stress marks near the spine. And I didn't even notice it until I looked at the Scans, but there also seems to be some sort of light white line which you can see just below Spawn's left glove... At first I thought it was some sort of scratch, but as far as I can tell there isn't even a physical indentation of the paper where the white line appears... Not sure if it was a printing issue, or if the cover scraped against something at some point. I was trying to cross reference all of my books with sold listings on Ebay, but some issues have so many different variants and multiple printings that it' hard to be sure exactly what you have on hand! lol. Like I thought I had the first appearance of Deadpool in New Mutants, but for some reason I must have ended up with a worthless second printing!