High grade collectors: Why get excited with each new pedigree?

[COI]

How about the first copy of Journey Into Mystery #90 in 9.6?

 

Yes, but how many copies are there of JIM #90 sitting in a 9.2 or a 9.4 CGC slab? As you can tell, I am not really a label chaser and don't really see much of a difference between a 9.4 from a 9.6 or a 9.2 from a 9.4.

 

Especially when CGC itself does not appear to be that consistent when it comes to grading sometimes, as grading is still really more of an art as opposed to an actual science.

 

There's one JIM #90 sitting in a 9.4 slab. The comic is of the three toughest SA Marvel superhero comics to find in high grade. I'd say that any excitement over the offering of the first and only 9.6 copy is completely justified, no matter what the vagaries of the third party grading process. Indeed, in light of the general consensus that SA Marvels in ultra-high grade are a dime a dozen, this particular copy of this particular issue is especially worthy of excitement.

 

What are the other two? Is ST 103 one of them?

Hulk 1 for sure.

 

For keys yeah, but not for SA Marvels overall.

 

As far as I know, the toughest SA Marvels in 9.0+ are ST 103, JIM 84 and TTA 27. Hulk 1 is close though.

TTA 35.

 

There`s the Western Penn copy at 9.6, nothing in 9.4, 1 in 9.2 and 5 in 9.0. It is an incredibly underrated book, particularly considering it`s from 1962 and the "real" beginning of Ant-Man.

 

Yeah you're right, it's about equal to TTA 27 and ST 103 in terms of scarcity. All of them have only 6 copies in 9.0+.

 

JIM 84 has 2 in 9.0, 1 in 9.2, and 2 in 9.4, making it the scarcest of the bunch in 9.0+. But if we're talking strictly NM or better, TTA 35 is the toughest. Either way, all these books, including Hulk 1, are tougher than JIM 90.

 

I also agree that TTA 35 is really underrated as a key.

[fantastic_four]

That's something that would concern the investor/speculator crowd. Collectors aren't in it for the money.

 

I don't think it's that simple. I think most high grade collectors care about the money, at least to the extent that they don't want the value of their books to drop off significantly.

 

A dozen new pedigrees could come to market over the next five years and that wouldn't happen. If a dozen came out per year, maybe, but that hasn't ever been the case yet, although certainly the last year has been unusually good for material surfacing.