• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

high grade is not fun anymore

Started by FlComicFan,

157 posts in this topic

FlComicFan

FlComicFan

Posted
Posted

I've come to my personal conclusion that collecting high grade is just not fun anymore. I just dont enjoy the thrill of the hunt as much as I used to. Owning them is no longer fun when you either cant read and enjoy them because they are slabbed or you are to worried you might reduce a probable 9.4 to a 9.0 by some small handling blunder. I collected most of what I have pre CGC and I guess it was always tough to pay what the books bring since CGC shook things up. But the biggest thing is that I still really enjoy reading the books so I'll fill my runs with whatever is available at a decent price. I'll buy the rest of what I want in TPB's, Essentials. To fill that "collectors" hunger for hunting stuff down I'll continue to search for Golden Age books (I always collected just sold copies with nice paper) I can find at bargain prices and to fill my addiction for spending more than I should I'll buy the occasional piece of original art. What it really boils down to is when one becomes more worried about a number on a label on a plastic case than whats inside that well its time for me to go onto other things. See you at Wizard L.A. I'll be digging for lots of reading pleasure! Chet grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
garthgantu

garthgantu

Posted
Posted

Sorry to hear that you feel this way...but I have to admit to sharing your sentiment to a degree...

 

How much is the sense of accomplishment diminished when you know that others are obtaining similarly high grade copies of books, simply be cleaning and pressing them? Definitely reduces that part of the 'attraction' for me...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
Posted

I'm surprised we haven't seen more action on this thread because I feel exactly the same way. there's very few books that I even care to own in high grade anymore. Personally, if it is high grade, I usually will have a slab, and the only reason I want it is because the cover looks great (cause that's the only part of it I'll look at).

 

With Archives and Masterworks and the heavy reprints and trades put out, there's little that isn't eventually reproduced. Although I enjoy having the books, HG looks to me to be needlessly expensive and an end of the market fast being consumed by grade. An area of interest not shared or done with the mid/low grade market.

 

The thrill of hunting down high grade is significantly lessened for me... as my enjoyment for many comics in general. I like owning the keys as originals, because it's a piece of history... otherwise, I'm going the trade route and finishing a very small number of runs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sfilosa

sfilosa

Posted
Posted

I always have and probably always will be a high-grade collector.

 

But I notice that I spend more time looking at my unslabbed books than my CGC'd books (even though 70% of my collections value is CGC'd).

 

Simply because:

 

1) I can play the grading game on unslabbed books. I can hope that it's a 9.2 or 9.4, where as my CGC books are the grade on the label.

 

2) I miss the most, holding a 30 or 40 year old book up to the light and seeing the cover colors and gloss just shine of the book. And opening the pages to see nice crisp pages is also a thrill.

 

Of course, I still think CGC is the best thing that has happened to the hobby.

thumbsup2.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGuy

OldGuy

Posted
Posted
1) I can play the grading game on unslabbed books. I can hope that it's a 9.2 or 9.4, where as my CGC books are the grade on the label.

 

You can play the 9.2 9.4 game with CGCed books also! thumbsup2.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shiverbones

shiverbones

Posted
Posted

i personally have always been happy with nice looking VFs, but i do on occasion want perfect examples of my favorite books that can still be found perfect. I never really spent too much extra on high grade, so i don't feel much of a loss. Of course, if 9.4's actually sold for around guide on most of the books i want, i would probably buy more high grade. confused-smiley-013.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
THE_BEYONDER

THE_BEYONDER

Posted
Posted

Lately, I've really started to enjoy collecting comics again. Instead of spending $100+ on a single slab...I take a small % of that cash to my LCS, and get a dozen or so reading copies of some of the Byrne books I'm missing.

 

I have at least 100 NM or better books in my collection that I have never read....only because I don't want to injure them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rob

Rob

Posted
Posted

This was kind of the reason behind my post for the mid-grade forum/website. I think alot of us feel this way, and this may not be the best place to congregate. I've been buying reprints lately, but there's something missing about reading the same material on 2004 paper. I do enjoy that comic smell and the old advertisements. Slabbed comics are more of a commodity. Not meant to be enjoyed. But I'm torn, because I do like collecting and flipping CGC books too. I guess there's no reason to decide on one over the other.

 

Great discussion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shiverbones

shiverbones

Posted
Posted

While i am not a high grade nut, i don't think cgc books are just a commodity. I have about 20 cgc books, and thousands of raw. I do like having a 9.4 Marvel team up#3 for instance in a slab, becasue it makes a nice presentation of a cover i love. I also have a vg copy so i can enjoy the story, but i don't see the graded one as merely a commodity. For me its a nice presentation of something i enjoy. I also love looking at my VG older books, i really do enjoy it all. I just wanted to point out my feelings on the graded books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BigMan

BigMan

Posted
Posted

Like Kevin Smith said in Comic Book the Movie. You have to get out of the comic book collector mentality. To Paraphrase: Enjoy the comic for what it is and when your done reading and looking at it tear it in half..... 27_laughing.gif

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though I would have to admit I do not think he does this since he owns a comic shop and would be bad for business.and his bottom line tongue.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
goldust40

goldust40

Posted
Posted

High grade comics are commodities depending on their owners. Apart from investment, an HG copy of a book, with its' fully glossed, unblemished cover, is an accurate representation of the way the book was originally meant to look. It's a sharper, clearer image.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldGuy

OldGuy

Posted
Posted
i don't think cgc books are just a commodity.

 

In my case they are for sure not a commodity. Most of the CGC books I've bought have been cracked out of the slab. The ones that haven't are still not worth much money, even in the slab.

 

But, I just can't see a comic that's in a hard plastic case and sells for thousands and thousands of dollars as anything but a commodity, and a volatile one at that.

 

I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. I guess for the guys that are spending as much on one comic as I make in a year it's a different story. Like when a multi-million dollar athlete gets a $10,000 fine....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
garthgantu

garthgantu

Posted
Posted
i don't think cgc books are just a commodity.

I guess for the guys that are spending as much on one comic as I make in a year it's a different story. Like when a multi-million dollar athlete gets a $10,000 fine....

 

So they're not commodities, they're afterthoughts? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LucyBop

LucyBop

Posted
Posted

I love both worlds ComicCat....

 

I love my High Grade Archies that I am persoanly submitting to CGC....

 

I do love reading them....

 

so I often hunt the bargian bins for the good ol restroom readers.......

 

and I can still have my high end GEMs professionaly graded....

 

I'm in the clouds Daddy-o! Ascending to the Heavens!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jbud73

jbud73

Posted
Posted

I will say that the slabs do make nice presentation pieces and with this in mind I have selected 10 late BA, early moderns for encapsulation - these will be going to CGG however, because they are for my collection, not for flipping, CGG is faster and cheaper and after seeing a few CGG's and observing Smoking Hawk's experience the holder's the same - in this case its a no brainer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
drice6900

drice6900

Posted
Posted

High grades to collect, reader copies to... read makepoint.gif

 

The whole "I won't buy a slabbed book because I want to read it" doesn't make much sense to me. Readers are cheap (minus a handful of certain keys), and they are readily available on Ebay and most finer LCS.

 

Sometimes you even get a surprise. I just finished reading some Byrne Avengers readers I picked up on Ebay, and found that three of them were autographed by him! thumbsup2.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted

I haven't officially left the "high grade club", but my membership is an extremely limited one. Other than 70's Byrne books and Miller DD's, I have really no future interest in a CGC copy, when a nice VF to VF/NM raw copy is available for much less.

 

Plus, I really need to follow in the Forum Legend's footsteps and do an inventory count to see what I actually need. confused.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing