Axelrod

Oh man, the memories. These were some well-loved books in my youth. But from them I totally got my appreciation of the history of all the characters.

People being snarky aside, I think it is "worth it" if you can reasonably expect the value of your comic after grading to be increased by more than what it cost you to have it graded/shipped. You can get a pretty good idea of what the values of graded comics are from a number of sources. It might also be worth it to you personally if you have comics that you just want to be protected/be shown off in a nice display case and the cost isn't really an issue. Seems like those are the main possibilities.

I mean, guys, he's not wrong. Newbie here, and never sent anything in to grade yet, but if I sent off 10 sets of books/cards for grading, all about the same quality, and got 9 sets back in a reasonable timeframe with a certain spread of grades. But 1 set out of the 10 is lost or delayed for months. And then, after a complaint, the set instantly appears, but some of the cards are damaged, and the grades are distinctly lower than the grades from every other set I sent in from that same timeframe. I would probably call foul too....

Is the concern that CGC - seeing the grade of the book that the other company gave it - would be unduly influenced by that grade? So if you are hoping to get a higher grade you crack it out and don't let them know what grade it previously received? Is that the same thing people do when they resubmit books directly to CGC that got a CGC grade they didn't like? Crack it out and resubmit, just hoping that this time, maybe with a different grader, in a different mood, it will get a different grade?

Pretty sure Book 1 says 2nd printing if it’s second (I have one of those). So, maybe that’s a 1st? If there are “grey” issues with the 1st, I don’t know about them.

As I recall, the issue with that series was the second issue, where the fact that is was a second printing was not stated in the book. And the way to tell the difference between 1st and 2nd printings is that the greys on the inside cover and first page match in the 1st printing, but they are different in the second printing. I don't know if that is issue 2 you are picturing there, but those greys do not look the same from that angle at least, which would make me think 2nd printing.

It does seem like they ought to let you know that it has been restored before they do the final encapsulation. So you could decide if you even wanted it anymore. Especially since they also offer an "unrestoration" service that you might have wanted to use. Rather than just surprising you with the label. Maybe that's too much to ask.

Don't forget the first "Maxi-series!" Or, do forget it. You know. I thought it was cool. I was young.

Yup. It's rather discouraging to see a book that - for a minute - seems like it's worth something, and then realize that that is only for a CGC graded copy and the raw copy I have is basically considered "bulk." Everywhere I read it says "comics from around 1980 and on - with certain exceptions, of course - are usually not very valuable...." When did I start collecting? 1980. That's actually seems pretty close to what I was imagining. Thanks!

Yeah. I was hoping there was maybe a website or an app or something that was already doing the work on tracking ebay sales and such. I suppose that's too much to hope with ungraded/non-slabbed books.

Well, this is for myself, but what I'm interested in is what it could be "worth" if I were to attempt to sell it. I have 1800+ "raw" books from the early-mid. 80s. And I know what you can sell something for depends a lot on where you sell and how patient you want to be, but I assume there's a baseline value for every book. I mean, I know I can look up each book individually and research what they are listed for on mycomicshop, and/or what they are selling for on ebay, etc. but I was hoping for something easier than that, if it exists. Thanks!

As the title says. My guess is one of those subscription services? And manually entering titles. And maybe it lets you specify what grade your particular book is. And then it spits out an overall "value?" Something easier/better than that? Does that even exist exactly?

I am at this moment wrestling with submitting some comic for the first time. None of mine are super valuable in the condition they are in, but I still kind of want to do it just for the experience. Right now I'm thinking that for the money it would cost me, it only even makes a little sense to send in comics that I think will be "worth" over $100.00 after being graded, and which would then have a re-sale value of at least $30.00 higher than what the going rates are for a raw book. That would be just to about break even on the financial side of things. Not that I am planning to immediately turn around and sell them. But, you know, one day. It might happen. Maybe.

I'm a little confused. If you're not trying to "flip" it, and it looks just as good as you say, and it costs $200.00 less, why would you even want the 9.8? Literally what is the upside there? Seems to me that the 9.8 obsession is just collectors being collectors.

Here is my uninteresting story: So, I'm like 11. I have bought comics before, somewhat randomly, an issue here or there. I'm at a drug store browsing through the spinner rack, and I see a copy of New Teen Titans #2. That by itself wouldn't have meant anything, except I remembered that earlier that same day, when I was browning through the spinner rack of the 7-11 (or whatever the equivalent of a 7-11 was) across the street, I had seen a copy of New Teen Titans #1 and a copy of New Teen Titans #3 on the same rack. And I just thought, hey, I can get issues 1-3 of this new series all at once, right now! That's cool. So I did. And, of course, that comic was awesome and I was hooked. So, I immediately went to look if there were any other series that I could get multiple consecutive issues of right then off those two spinner racks across the street from each other. And I think I got two Hulks and two Justice Leagues, and I was addicted from that moment on, until I left home for college.

If you want to have "fun" going through boxes of comics, here is a current add in our local craigslist (Raleigh, NC). Pay me $4000 to take away all the comics I have left after I have picked out all the valuable keys please. I don't know how anyone finds a deal anymore. You have to somehow stumble on someone who has no idea of the value of what they have? And then you're pretty scummy if you buy it cheap off them anyway? Maybe estate sales are okay? But even then the administrators would have to be pretty clueless for something valuable to be missed.

This seems like something one should do on a lark with a few spare bucks because it sounds fun, rather than considering it a serious investment. $.02

If you think a "raw" book will sell for ~$50.00 (and you can look at ebay and such to get an idea of what the raw books actually sell for - not what dealers price them at) then the math is "how much more does a CGC graded book sell for?" They (usually) sell for more, so the question is does the increased value justify the cost of getting the book slabbed. I figure you need the slabbed value to be at least $30.00 higher than the raw value just to break even. I doubt that $50.00 books are usually going to be worth it. My mental cut off has been that books over $100.00 might be worth it, but I haven't done the research. Of course, people get books slabbed for other reasons than increasing re-sale value also, but that doesn't sound like what you're talking about.

Well, my point is that it's shady if what they are doing is overselling books by "fractionalizing" the purchase price. Which seems to be what a lot of that other thread was also discussing them doing? The amount of the oversell isn't the main thing, though it's certainly less dramatic if it's not $75,000. I guess it's still a pretty good deal for them even if the market price was spot on, since they aren't really "paying" it, but they still have the book.

And with that, I think I'm done posting. At least until I acquire another book. And as I'm not actively collecting anymore, that might be awhile. But you never know. Going through my old stuff has brought back a lot of memories, and I can't deny feeling a teeny tiny itch there. Think I might still hang around the forums though. I'm enjoying it so far. And if I do get any of these books I've been posting CGC graded, I will definitely update! Thanks again very much to everyone who took the time to give my books a look and give an opinion!

Last one. This copy isn't quite as nice as my other one, so I wouldn't normally have put it up, except for what I found inside it. I met Walter Simonson at a convention in 1985. He was great. Got a Thor sketch from him which I still have (and, yes, I know he's done thousands of these over the years, but mine is still totally amazing). I remember that vividly. What I did NOT remember was having him sign this book. So it was quite the surprise for me opening it up to take these pictures and seeing it there. Man, memories. Ironically, correct me if I'm wrong, but having that sig. there, which predates the existence of CGC, actually lowers the value of the book today, because it's not a "verified" sig. and if I submitted this it could get one of those "qualified" Green labels people don't like? Or I think I've seen Blue labels with unverified sigs that just note "someone wrote in this" on the label, or something like that, lol. Anyway, I thought it was cool, so, here it is. There's a blue dot on the cover that might be a manufacturing thing? And the back bottom R corner has a small scuff of some kind. Otherwise though, it's also not too bad!

Well, I’m certainly prepared to acknowledge that gocollect isn’t the final authority on what something is worth, but I think the underlying point remains.

So, if I understand this: These guys own a Journey into Mystery 83 in grade 9.4. Which gocollect currently says has a fair market value of 140,000.00. And they are selling it for $215,000. By breaking the price up and selling to a bunch of people "fractionally." And when they do this they also get to keep it and display it in their "showroom" at the same time. Seems like a good deal.

Coming to the end, I think, of the books I'm going to post up here. Basically I've been going through the ones I own with the highest "theoretical" values, even knowing that none of them were mint. Just to try and get a sense of where they were, which I now have. It's been super fun. I could keep going for a long time, with similar quality books, but enough is probably enough. I think I'll finish with my two copies of Thor 337. That'll make an even 10. The is the first. Maybe a little yellow, as per a lot of my books, but otherwise, not too bad! (also, pls check out the other one when I post it - probably tomorrow - for a fun surprise! Well, fun for me)

Ha, I have one of these too. I think mine could be a 9.2, and it's not quite as nice as this one. I think you could still get a 9.6 with that bottom L corner scuff. And maybe even with the top R corner that looks maybe a little "soft," as they say, but if there's anything else we can't see it would probably be lower? And this is one of those books where the value really tanks under 9.6, so it's probably something of a gamble. (also, looks like you posted this book twice)