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To crack or not to crack - what is your opinion on cracking slabs?

Started by alecholland,

77 posts in this topic

VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted
If you are never in a position where you want to resell then crack it out. There's more to a comic than just the cover. I want to crack all my GA books but am afraid that if I need to sell in a pinch (and I have lots of those, believe you me) It may hinder their ability to sell. On the other hand I have a few books that where cracked before I bought them and I do enjoy them every chance I get!

 

R.

 

 

GA is a little different because usually the book in question is a low or mid-grade and since reprints are not as readily available, you'd have to crack many GA books if you wanted to see what was in them.

 

If you're collecting SA Marvels in higher grades you have options in terms of reprints as well as cheap reader copies, so there's really no good logical reason to crack those books outside of what Grails mentioned.

 

Except the GA books that I own that have been cracked are mostly higher grade books between (6.0 and 9.0). Like Chromium said, it's all about seeing, smelling and touching the paper. He put it so well. That to me is what comics is all about. It's incredible to touch and smell soemthing that is older than most people.

 

I wanted to add that if I was more financially stable I would have no problem cracking even an uber hi grade book out. Unfortunately I can't offer myself that liberty at this time.

 

Another terrific reason to crack a slab is to save on shipping. I picked up a bronze book for a great price and had a UK boardie crack the slab for me to save on shipping cost (less weight and size)

 

(thumbs u

 

 

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General Zod

General Zod

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Posted

I'll word this a bit differently as I've seen this question in somewhat same form already:

 

With the high prices some of you guys pay for HG books, why would you crack them out and not just track down a reprint, reader copy or a trade containing the story of the comic you bought?

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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Did you read this post? This is what comic collecting is all about and Allen summed it up better than I ever could have.

 

I've cracked over 250 slabs and will continue cracking till I die... I buy the books to read.

 

I don't want read reprints, HCs or TPBs...I want to read, and equally important smell, the original book. Nothing beats the feeling of reading a book that was printed over years ago and thinking about the little kid that picked it up with his 10 or 12 cents and was blown away for a little while.

 

I love the feel of the old paper, the battle scars showing what the book has been through, reading the old letters, Stan's Soapbox, the editorial comments, the wishy-washy explanations why they had to use a reprint story last month or why they'll have to raise the cover price etc etc...

 

Plus the books look a lot better in a nice mylar than they'll ever do in a clunky slab.

 

The financial aspect mentioned isn't really that important to me, not only because I only buy what I want (to keep) but also because I have no market or avenue to sell.

I mainly buy mid-grade books and with a little effort I hardly ever pay a premium for a CGC book. If the book I'm looking for can be bought for the same price slabbed or raw (which is often the case for books in the 3.0 - 6.0 range) I'll get the slabbed book every time.

Mainly because of the resto check, but also because I'll know the book has no hidden defects and is (close to) the grade given. Because of my geographical "problems" I never get to inspect a book in hand before I buy it, so CGC has been a godsend as they basically perform these tasks for me.

 

I'm not interested in buying high grade books, basically because I don't consider them books anymore, but collectibles or even investments (not that there's anything wrong with that) and it would serve no purpose reading these books, let alone crack them out of the slab.

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Guest

Guest

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Posted

Since my interests are in the SA, it was easy for me to pick up midgrade reader copies of most of my 9.8 slabbed books.

I can definitely understand the appeal of cracking a GA book where the readers may be difficult to find.

I probably wouldn't crack a pedigree since it may be difficult to get that ped label notation should I choose to sell.

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