A grail on Tuesday: For sale on Friday

[KingOfRulers]

Looking on the CGC boards for non-collector/dealers will be tough though. Many sell books to earn money to fund the purchase of other books.

 

The problem with this, or at least what I percieve to be the problem with this, is that there's always something else to buy. If your budget is limited and your tastes are expensive, selling books to buy more books isn't conducive to building a collection; if you lose on a flip, you're ultimately weakening your collection, and if you make profit, you set a dangerous precedent.

 

Some people don't want to build a collection. Some people want a small number of books of different titles, from different publishers from different eras. Perhaps a Tec' #27 or a Cap #1, and to buy it, enjoy it for 7 or 8 minutes and then head off to the post office to send it out to the next person. Not necessarily a collection of numerically sequenced publications. That doesn't appeal to everyone.

[TheShadowKnows]

Many of the books in my collection were bought 20 years ago.

[namisgr]

I think many in this thread are underestimating the number of collectors. Simply seeing a handful of books (in the grander scheme of things, it's only a very small number after all) change hands repeatedly is not a good indicator. Simply seeing alot of board members sell books in the Forum is not a good indicator.

 

There are collectors who accumulate books for the long-term and are members of the Collectors Society whom you may not know about, because they post either infrequently or not at all. I know I've sold books to more than a few collectors of this type. Check out the top one hundred names on the CGC Registry for total registry points, and you'll find lots of people who don't sell books at all or do so only infrequently, but prefer to buy and hold. Then there are boardies like me who, after buying and holding comics for nearly 40 years, are finally parting with a fraction of their collection to provide money for retirement or to get away from the commoditization of the hobby. Finally, there are many collectors who buy predominantly or exclusively unslabbed comics, and so fall outside the recognition of participants on these boards.

[COI]

Then why not just buy what you can afford

 

Why do most collector's scale their grade standards based on price? In other words, why does a collector who wouldn't settle for anything less than a 9.6 for his ASM 75-150 run, perfectly willing to "settle" for an ASM 1 in 4.0? Why not buy everything in 8.0? Only baby Jesus knows.

[conditionfreak]

I, as strange as it sounds, am a collector and not a dealer nor flipper.

 

However. I have stated many times that I collect comic books for future value. They are an investment. Perhaps a bad investment, but diffinitely a "hobby investment". So, really I am an investor and not a collector.

 

A hobby investor may be a new category to most. It is where I invest in something that I enjoy owning, but always with an eye on what it will be worth in the future. If I lose money, oh well. I had fun attempting to make money. Money is just not that important to me though. It really takes very little money to get by if you just control yourself of those "unnecessary must haves", like fancy cars, big screen TV's or vacations.

 

Of the thousands of books I have purchased, only a hand full were purchased just because it was a book I just wanted, without an eye on investment.

 

I do not buy on Tuesday and sell on Friday. Heck, I don't even buy last year and sell next year. I don't let my books go unless I own several copies. Even then, I only respond to "want to buy" ads, to help out fellow boardies.

 

hmmm...........................am I a "closet collector"?

 

It does interest me when I check the Heritage auction history section and see the same primo book being sold over and over again. Many times the last sale being a lot less money than any of the previous sales.

 

Same here on these boards. You often see someone selling a book that they have in their description something like "bought this from so and so last year and it is offered here for less than I paid for it".

 

Now I understand periodic financial needs and I understand getting tired of what you have (that is why married people cheat!). But when I am hard up for money. I do not sell my books to get through the crisis. I instead will take out a loan or work a part time job. Or just do without whatever it is that I want (fancy rims for my car, or whatever). My books are the last thing to go.

 

hmmm.........yep, I'm a closet collector. Dang it!

 

But I do plan on selling everything I own sometime in the next six years or so. I have always planned on leaving them for my grandson, but have changed my mind and will leave him the cash from them instead. I can get more for them than he can.

 

Plus, I can decide where my babies (books) go. My grandson might sell the whole kit and kaboodle to some dealer for ten cents on the dollar. I've seen that happen many times. I remember Nelson offering me 3 grand for my collection, back in about 1987. He came to my home and went through my books and made the offer.

 

I laughed and picked up a hand full of the twenty thousand books I owned and went through them. AF #15. ASM 1 through 10. I said that I wouldn't sell him this handful for his offer, let alone the other books with them. He replied that "sure, those are desirable books, but these others are not worth anything." In my estimation at that time, my collection was worth approximately 60K or more.

 

The others included about fifty Gerber 7's and 8's, as well as many top graded (later when CGC came about) books. Plus a whole lot of golden age books that are highly collectible. The newer stuff had never been read and are many of the books that are now sought after.

 

I don't begrudge his offer, but I did laugh and say no thank you. I just don't want my grandson to have to deal with that kind of thing.

 

Imagine. Several copies of Hulk 102 and Cap 100, JIM 84, and hundreds of books like that, not being "worth anything". Even in 1987.

 

Yep. Gonna sell someday............................or not

[etanick]

I've been saying it for a while now. Seems like everyone, (at least on these boards) are want to be dealers.

 

From my own personal experience on this board, i see a lot of impulse buying and quick sale later at a loss by quite a few people. For those that can flip books for profit...all power to you. I have my first sale this week ever to get rid of all the X-men duplicates I had for decade(s) and I thought it was way more work than I expected. I was inspired by Foolkiller big sale and then scanning 70 plus books made me realized how much work is needed to appreciate what he or others with big sale thread had to do as far as organizing.

 

Thank god, they are gone and all I have left is stuff that no one wants

 

[catrick339]

Now that I have the GA bug I buy books that I really can't afford to keep forever. I have a core collection (Superman 2-150, several SA Marvel titles, Cerebus, the occasional early Action, a few others) that tends to stay right where it is, but I'm endlessly fascinated by other Golden Age titles.

 

That means that I buy them when I get a killer deal (Thanks Brent!) and read them, enjoy owning them for a while, and then I pass them on to other folks to enjoy.

 

Right now I'm three issues away from a complete pre-JLA Brave and Bold set, nearly all of which I've picked up right here. I've enjoyed them all, but when I finish the last three issues and have read them a couple times, and luxuriated in the tremendous Kubert and Heath art, and studied the killer greytone covers, out they will go, and I'll start looking at other characters, or titles, or particular runs.

 

I guess you could describe me as a serial collector. Maybe next I'll put together a Timely run, Subby looks doable, or start on another DC title (Comic Cavalcade is fun, and the hero run is short) or pick something from Quality. Military/Modern Comics is chock full of beautiful art, maybe it's time for a Reed Crandall indulgence! I have 5 issues of Black Magic I picked up here a couple months ago, mebbe it's time for a big ol' pile of Simon and Kirby.

 

The only surefire answer is that I'll be collecting and enjoying something different in a couple years, and lots of my current possessions will be circulating again.

[nearmint]

I keep the books that are the core of my collection. Several of my Golden Age Actions have been in my collection for many years. It's when I stray beyond my focus that I find myself not holding onto books. I have a little extra money and there are no nice Actions available, so I pick up a nice Fawcett. A month later a great Action comes along, I need $$, so I sell the Fawcett, usually for the same price that I paid for it.

 

I used to buy books to flip, but it's rare for me to do that these days. Meaning I don't seek bargains out, but if one falls in my lap, I'll buy it. Heck, I'm even thinking of getting rid of my website, as most of my selling these days is either here or on CL.

[COI]

Thing is if you can't afford everything then you have to prioritize.

 

Right, but buying something you've wanted for years, holding it for 5 mintues, then selling it for something else isn't prioritizing. Prioritizing is saying, for example, that as cool as that Batman book looks to me right now, I'm in this hobby because of my love for Cherry Poptart, so I'm going to pass on that book for now and keep my Poptart run intact.

 

I think people are always using certain books, runs or "grails" as step ladders or land marks on their way up the hierarchy. Much as they do in the real world with homes.

 

It's a grail for many to own their own home, but for many their first is not their last.

 

In that case, isn't the final book on the top of the pyramid the only true "grail"?

 

Man, "Grail" has got to be one of the most misused words ever, right up there with "commodity".

[cheetah]

I qualify as an 'end user.' I'm the end repository for all. Sorts of books that have been passed around for years. On the few ocassions I've tried to sell off a few undercopies, it been more work than I really wanted.

 

Now I've got a small number of undercopies that are rare and in demand that I reaaly ought to sell just so other collectors can have a chance to enjoy them.

 

Still don't like the thought of selling them, though.

[conditionfreak]

IMO, there can only be one "grail". The rest are non-grails.

 

For sure, the number one grail for almost all of us, is Action #1. But yet, I suspect that some of the owners of the primo collections here on these boards, would not trade their entire collection for the highest graded Action #1.

 

Is there anyone here that would not make that trade (besides you guys that have small or mid-grade collections)?

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

In the vast majority of instances I purchase slabbed comic books in order to add them to my collection. Some, however, I purchase to sell as I only pay for comic books with "comic book money" and I generate this money from the sale of, you guessed it, comic books.

 

In yet other instances, I have sold books/am selling books in order to cover some expenses that I do not wish to cover with other funds. For example, I have sold and am selling some slabbed books that I have purchased on the boards in order to cover the cost of repairs to an automobile I restored to mint condition but which has sustained damage.

 

I have never sold or slabbed any book I purchased off the newstand. I imagine someday I will.

[seanfingh]

a G.I. Joe collectors edition blow up doll.

 

Is this some kind of weird Freudian slip, or a Christmas Exchange hint?

[VintageComics]

Thing is if you can't afford everything then you have to prioritize.

 

Right, but buying something you've wanted for years, holding it for 5 mintues, then selling it for something else isn't prioritizing. Prioritizing is saying, for example, that as cool as that Batman book looks to me right now, I'm in this hobby because of my love for Cherry Poptart, so I'm going to pass on that book for now and keep my Poptart run intact.

 

I think people are always using certain books, runs or "grails" as step ladders or land marks on their way up the hierarchy. Much as they do in the real world with homes.

 

It's a grail for many to own their own home, but for many their first is not their last.

 

In that case, isn't the final book on the top of the pyramid the only true "grail"?

 

Man, "Grail" has got to be one of the most misused words ever, right up there with "commodity".

 

Sure, there is only one ultimate grail. I also agree that the word is misused. That's why I put it in brackets.

 

The ultimate grail might be to live forever. That way anything else would be possible to accomplish.

 

As far as comic grails go, well, the thing is people change as they mature or get older (the two are not necessarily the same thing). Tastes change and what appeals may differ over time.

 

Young collectors are generally more short sighted and as people mature they develop a different appeal and maybe a deeper appreciation for culture or collectibles.

 

So what appears to be a grail (X-men #1 in high grade) from my teen years to my mid 30's, really was my "mini grail". I just didn't know it at the time. I couldn't see past it.

 

Why? Because at the time that was all I could see on the horizon.

 

In ancient Hebrew there is a word that is pronounced "olam". It basically means "into the vanishing point" or "into the horizon".

 

It's incorrectly translated in the Old Testament as "forever". So whenever you see the word forever, it's safe to assume that most of the time you are actually reading the word olam.

 

IMO the word was never meant to mean "forever" in ancient Hebrew. They couldn't understand that concept 5000 years ago. It only meant "as far as the eye could see".

 

Why am I going into this diatribe? To illustrate the point that our field of vision is always limited. Nobody has perfect perception.

 

As people mature, or get older (or taller in the case of children), their line if sight changes and things that were imperceptible or "impossible" to see all of a sudden come within view. We are constantly learning to see further and further ahead (and outwards).

 

As a child you can only see a few minutes ahead of you.

As a teen, maybe a few weeks.

As an adult, hopefully, years and decades in advance.

 

It's the natural way of things.

 

 

[KingOfRulers]

a G.I. Joe collectors edition blow up doll.

 

Is this some kind of weird Freudian slip, or a Christmas Exchange hint?

 

I am betting that either/or and both are all correct.

[VintageComics]

a G.I. Joe collectors edition blow up doll.

 

Is this some kind of weird Freudian slip, or a Christmas Exchange hint?

 

Well, it would go good next to my yogurt collection.

 

 

[COI]

Wait, you lost me. Are you saying that my 20 year obsession with ASM is suddenly going to end when I hit puberty?

[VintageComics]

Wait, you lost me. Are you saying that my 20 year obsession with ASM is suddenly going to end when I hit puberty?

 

I don't know where your obsession is going to end. Only you know.

 

Maybe you will eventually realize that brunettes are for the end user.

[COI]

Maybe you will eventually realize that brunettes are for the end user.

 

I'm dating a brunette now, but I'm definitely not going to be the end user.

[seanfingh]

Wait, you lost me. Are you saying that my 20 year obsession with ASM is suddenly going to end when I hit puberty?

 

More like when some brilliant hottie calls you on all your bullllcrap, you love her, get married, have to give up on hookers n' blow, and have only Peter Parker to allow you to relive your misspent youth.