Jesse-Lee

Was happy to pick up a 9.2 from here on the boards recently (it's on its way home to me now) - mostly because I just want a copy of this book in my collection, but also partly because of the recent rumors/reports of Ryan Reynolds signing a massive deal in the MCU. I have zero plans to flip this book; it's a long-term hold for me because, like I said, I want it in my collection. But it'll be interesting to see if this news has any impact on the book.

Mr. Mxyzptlk and Dentist - Mr. Mxyzplaque

When you say "my most valuable comics" are we talking along the lines of Amazing Fantasy 15 or Peter Porker, Spider-Ham? It depends on a lot of variables.

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Do you think other early issues (beyond 2-4, 5 second print, 7 second print) will eventually see a bump in price? It's surprising to me to see #1s going for tens of thousands and other issues early in the run still going for less than $10 in a lot of cases.

Mine's just a lowly 8.5, but I bought to hold long-term. I paid $380 on Sept. 16 when it was on GoCollect at an FMV of $350, and since then GoCollect upped the FMV to $425, and it's been selling above that both before and after anyway. One exception on 9/28 - I saw that book listed at $100 starting bid, then it was taken down, and then it was sold at a $300 BIN, so someone obviously contacted the seller and got a deal. It's an old, red-label CGC and it was the only comic the seller had listed, so it was kind of an anomaly.

Ah, got it. I just find it a lot harder to trust raws these days when there's less availability to actually hold the book in your hands and inspect it (talking if you're doing a lot of buying on eBay for example), but I can see how that could be preferred too.

Current FMV on GSXM 1 iin a 9.8 s 5x that of a 9.0. I do understand the mindset of wanting to have the top grade - scarcity, it's the "best," the returns can be large as you can help set the market in some senses. But I don't feel like it's necessarily senseless to buy in at lower grades - isn't there also something to be said for diversification of assets? Meaning, if you can buy 5 different books with positive trends and desirability in a 9.0 for the same price as 1 book in a 9.8, it helps spread risk around in case one specific book would crash in value (obviously I don't think GSXM is going to crash, I'm speaking more generally).

In 2006 (32 years after the IH 181 came out), the value of a "NM" copy (so let's call it a 9.4) was $1,350. Now, 32 years after ASM 300 came out, 9.4 ASM 300s are approaching sales of $800. That same 9.4 IH today looks like it's sitting around $9,0000. I know scarcity and census and all of that has been talked to death, but there are also interesting parallels between these books (full introduction if a massively popular character for example), plus 300 has the extra distinction of an anniversary issue and one of the comic "game changing" artists (like him or not). I know people think this is a bubble, but I know I'd also have hated to miss out getting in on this book like I missed out getting in on IH 181...

9.6 sold here on the boards in the Copper Age sales forum today for $1,500:

I guess I can see the sense in that, but I'd be more behind it if it was a CGC 9.8 and it seemed like the seller was reacting to the rapidly changing market on this book. I think people will see grabbing this specific book as a bit of a risk though, since CGC is the current "gold standard" when it comes to buying and selling graded comic collectibles. If someone wanted to change the book out to a CGC-graded book to potentially protect their investment, that's a fair amount of risk to take if the book were to come back a 9.6 or even a 9.4.

Ha, yep, they sure did.

Thanks, that's kind of what I thought it might be based on reading stuff online, but then I started reading about "dust shadows" too, and thought maybe it can be that? Not sure if it really makes a difference either way, and it's not completely clear how far it affects the overall grade based on the info I can find. Seems crazy that a smallish defect like that on the back can take it from potentially an 8.5-9.0 down to a 6.5, but I realize they grade the whole book, not just the cover. I'm not the original owner; I bought it slabbed. I can still get the notes for $5, which I might do, but I might wait to do that if there ever comes a time that I'd consider selling it. For now, I just love having it and looking at it - it's so pretty...

I felt like I was cheating a little with this one - I've never seen a 6.5 that looks this good. It either has to be some inside issue like tvindy said, or it's that weird "tan line" on the back that's bringing it down (although I can't see how that drops it so far). If I ever end up getting the grading notes, I'll be sure to post them!

My insanity mostly lies in the craft beer world, where I would (on many occasions, but typically Black Friday) show up at a beer store at 1 a.m. for a 9 a.m. opening to be first in line for bottle allocations of rare bourbon-barrel-aged stouts. But as crazy as that is, it was a lot of fun too - usually everyone who showed up that early would bring rare beers to share, someone would bring breakfast sandwiches or do a breakfast run, and there'd be tons of stories as we all sat freezing in our camp chairs for 8 hours in the cold November weather. For comics, I don't have many stories. I guess as a kid I'd beg my dad to take me to the nearest LCS which was an hour and a half away at the time, all so I could pick up about $10 worth of comics. But like the good dad he is, he indulged that quite a few times actually. I did go to a local outdoor flea market a few weeks ago, and while they didn't end up having any comics, there was a huge crowd of people standing around two guys who were selling live chickens out of cages, presumably to take home and cook for dinner - they looked like roosters, not egg-laying hens. It was crazy, someone would point out the chicken they wanted, the sales guy would grab it and stuff it in a huge orange "onion sack," and the person would walk off lugging this live chicken. The same flea market also had the saddest looking camel I've ever seen that little kids could ride on for a fee. I know it sounds like a weird dream, but it's 100% real. They did have a few booths selling video games, but most stuff was either bootleg or way overpriced.

To use myself as an example: Almost all of the books I buy slabbed are books I want to own, not flip, so for my goals I want to get as good-looking a book as possible. So instead of looking solely at grades, I go for look most of the time. I also don't grade chase, but I usually do want to buy in a solid enough grade that if I ever do decide to sell, I'm not losing money (and hopefully I'm making a little bit back over time). I also don't like to pay over FMV, so I hunt a lot for the best book at the best circumstance. So far the only book I've paid above FMV for is ASM 300, and even that book, since I bought it only about 2 weeks ago, is now selling for above what I paid, and the FMV has been adjusted up above what I paid.

Is the price the same on the 9.2 and 9.0? It doesn't look like a huge gap on FMV, but still a couple hundred bucks it looks like - on that book, I'd definitely go the higher grade personally, but that's my . Or if it's for personal and the 8.0 looks great and is a huge amount less, maybe you want to go that route? A lot of it comes down to goals and personal preference.

If the prices are equal, I'd probably go with the 9.2, but I guess it depends on the book. For me personally, age plays a small part too - if a book is from before the early to mid-80s, I feel like I'm not as concerned about OW/W vs W. Probably a silly distinction, but just my preference. It also depends on your goal - if you're looking to buy and sell, you probably want the higher grade - if it's for your personal collection and you're not worried about a "flip," then like @KCOComics said, I'd rather have the better presenting book regardless of grade.

Based on this item, people might want to be careful buying raw copies: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amazing-Spider-Man-300-Awesome-Reproduction-Cover-Marvel-1st-Full-Venom-App/114402165102?hash=item1aa2e6816e:g:87MAAOSw6rxfWqZV

My favorite Neal Adams cover (and I think my favorite all-time cover too) on the Batman 244. I didn't care about the grade, this is one of the cleanest examples of this cover I've seen, looks amazing in-hand... And I got a good deal on the X-Men 141.

Couple more this week:

Thanks for indulging me (and for helping confirm to myself that I’m not nuts). Here’s a full photo of the graded book: Sorry, kind of a long story here: I watched this auction and studied the photos for days. I’d been looking at other copies in a price range I was comfortable with, and I saw this one and couldn’t believe it. I’ve seen 7.5s up to 8.5s - and even a couple of 9.0s - that didn’t look as clean or present as well as this book. Most of the copies I found in those grades either had some kind of color rub, crease or some other defect that impacted the cover art in some way that I didn’t like, or they were severely mis-wrapped (this one is slightly mis-wrapped, but in a way that’s at least acceptable to me, where the white/black line down the spine is basically uniform). The only thing I can note on this book now that I have it in hand is in this photo that I included above: What looks like a shadow cast by the slab edges (on the side and bottom edge of the book) is actually a discoloration of some sort on the actual book. It’s not water damage, it’s way too uniform for that and doesn’t have that “water damage” look. What it looks like is if some papers or other books or something were sitting on this one for a long time in such a way that it made some lined discoloration. Not sure if this kind of discoloration warrants a grade bump down that far? Any insights? At the end of the day, the auction was not misrepresented in any way – it was listed as a 6.5 CGC, and there was no mention of “under-grading” or any other gimmicks to try to get anyone to buy. There were photos of the front and the back (I thought that discoloration was a shadow myself). I was the lone bidder, and I paid 6.5 money for the book – dead-on the current GoCollect FMV for a 6.5 in fact. This is probably my favorite cover of all time (and I love the story too), and I was thrilled to get such a great-looking copy at a huge discount compared to higher graded books that didn’t look as good in my opinion. This book is absolutely gorgeous in-hand, and the colors really pop. I was just really surprised by the grade and I wondered if others were seeing what I saw – that it looks way better than a 6.5. I can’t see myself getting it regraded anytime soon since I don’t plan on selling it, but I guess it would be nice to know if people think it would grade higher even with that discoloration. Maybe if I ever go that route or get curious, I’ll spring for the grader’s notes and see if I can learn more. Thanks again!

I kinda like it myself, it's unique.