JazzMan

All great opinions. Thanks!

Looking for the board's opinion on a situation I've been pondering regarding a key SA comic. I'm weighing a couple of options - a) A solid Universal 4.0 OWW for $13K b) A restored 7.0 Moderate (B-3) OWW for $9.7K - color touch, pieces added, tear seals, cleaned, reinforced, re-glossed. Top edge of cover trimmed. It's not a trivial difference (one is 30% more than the other) and the restored book looks nice. However, I can't get past the top trim, it bothers me and I suspect that if I ever want to dump the book it would be challenging. If you had a choice, which option would you choose and why?

You guys know this is a 3 month old thread, right?

If I recall, Howard thought tape on the cover was perfectly fine to keep the grade.

I watched Picard. It was not good.

Crazy how AF 15 was cheaper than ASM 1.

I had to do the math. Looks like you're ahead at the moment.

So many words. I don't think you've written this much since 2002.

Where's that dude who traded his TOS 39 for a set of rims?

Here's a few of my regrets: Hulk 181 - I bought two raw from Mile High (I know!). Thankfully they were undergraded, yet over priced and they graded 8.0. I sold one shortly after and made some pocket change. Sold the second one 5 years ago for 1,700. I thought that was a good return over 3x original investment. Last one sold for 7K. Ugh. I held it for about 10 years and got 3x and then in 5 years it goes for an additional 4x. ASM 1 - I bought a 6.5 from Metro back in 2008 for 6,500. Sold it in 2016 for 8,750. Not bad on a high dollar book - but to be honest I was disappointed at the final hammer. Last 6.5 sold for 23K in Nov so the current market price is probably around 25K or more. That one hurts. DD 1 - I had 3 of these at one time. I've always said this was the most affordable key that was on the market. I never held them for long so they didn't have much of an attachment to me but now the DD 1 market is HOT. Then again, there's the ones I've kept that continue to rise. Bottom line, like Frank used to say... Regrets, I've had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption

You win some. You lose some. Sure I get annoyed - I recently purchased a couple of ASMs for about $2k. 10 years back I could have bought them both for $500 and I recall I sold them for not much more. Do some keys that I sold off seem further out of reach? Yup. But I also look at my collection and I'm glad I didn't dump more stuff than I did. I've come to realize that I am a collector, not a seller.

PCH undervalued? Nope, just look at EC pre-code offering. Atlas PCH and some others like Harvey's Black Cat Mystery are in the top tier and garner a premium. Second rate PCH being undervalued is slightly more debatable, but let's face it, it's second rate.

Honestly, I don't think so. The collectibles market is hot and folks that were kids in the 1970s are now finding themselves with nostalgia, disposable income, and lots more time to search the internet. Pare that with the stimulus, in some cases, and you have a phenomena that rekindles the 90s publishers rush to tap a new market that ultimately fizzled. Here, we are talking about a somewhat limited supply, yet plentiful keys are going for ridiculous prices due to movie hype. In conclusion, the movies contribute, but is one of many factors.

BTW - that's the Skrull variant.

Are you putting that one up for sale? I may be interested.

Yeah, this is the real mistake that slipped through CGC QA, if it's real.

I think this one is correct - there is supposed to be a cover on this book. What we see is the first page.

Just solve for tau. Works all the time.

I also use the magazine boxes and prefer the Ikea magazine boxes. They're sturdy, look clean and there's a place for labels that I create and print.

This guy does great work. https://www.behance.net/butcherbilly

I'm never offended by art.