Opinions wanted: Value of low-grade JIM 83

[smithdatura]

Hi everyone,

 

My LCS has a beater copy of JIM 83 and I'm considering it only as a potential reader and for its obvious historic significance - certainly not to slab. I'm pretty sure it's overpriced, but I'd like to get your take based on description only:

 

- Back cover missing

- Most of front cover there but obvious chips and bits around edges gone

- Water damage in the form of a setting-sun (or rising sun, depending on your outlook! ) along the lower 1/4th or 1/5th of book, more or less spanning side to side, that goes through most of the pages

 

What would you say is a "fair" price for something like this?

 

Thanks for the fb.

[tortoise]

I'd say $300 max imo

[mysterio]

I'm more of a cheapskate, I'd go $100 for the type of damage you're describing (it is nearly coverless) and without a photo to go off of.

[smithdatura]

Thanks guys. I'm right in there with you... I was actually thinking $200-$250 myself, but it's currently priced at about double that, so it looks like a pass for me.

[ChasingKingKirby]

I'd say 300 was about right. I sold a couple 1.0s with complete covers for about 700. What you're talking about is a .5 and a ugly one at that. IF the pages aren't waterlogged as well as the cover, then 300. If it's water damaged throughout, then more like 150 to 200.

[smithdatura]

I'd say 300 was about right. I sold a couple 1.0s with complete covers for about 700. What you're talking about is a .5 and a ugly one at that. IF the pages aren't waterlogged as well as the cover, then 300. If it's water damaged throughout, then more like 150 to 200.

 

Yeah, stained all the way through interior pages on that crescent spanning the base of the book. LCS was asking $500 but said they could do $400 at best (without me asking).

 

[tortoise]

I'd say 300 was about right. I sold a couple 1.0s with complete covers for about 700. What you're talking about is a .5 and a ugly one at that. IF the pages aren't waterlogged as well as the cover, then 300. If it's water damaged throughout, then more like 150 to 200.

 

Yeah, stained all the way through interior pages on that crescent spanning the base of the book. LCS was asking $500 but said they could do $400 at best (without me asking).

 

Yeah, I'd either offer them $250 cash and see what come or just forget about it.

[Thor Odinson-1970]

Thanks guys. I'm right in there with you... I was actually thinking $200-$250 myself, but it's currently priced at about double that, so it looks like a pass for me.

In that case, don't bother getting it. I personally never buy poor grade books. The copy you described in your OP is simply a non-starter for just about any amount of dough.

If you just want to read, then buy a reprint in whatever format (a whole lot cheaper!), although it likely won't have the two back-up stories.

However, if you must have the original issue, then for a book as important as JIM#83, try to save up enough money in order to afford at least a 1.0 to 1.5 copy. Good luck!

 

[smithdatura]

The sad thing is, my uncle had a copy that probably would have graded out at around 4.5 or 5.0 as part of his own OO collection of books he picked up in the '62-'65 era. He proceeded to sell off just about all of it in the early '90s at the urging of my aunt to a random shop at probably a fraction of guide to fund a kitchen renovation.

[Junkdrawer]

If you invest on , 20 yrs from now it will still be . I'd pass on this book

[Thor Odinson-1970]

If you invest on , 20 yrs from now it will still be . I'd pass on this book

Well said! Although I'd go further and say that will always be !