Bound comics

[John Grumbledook]

Are comics that are bound together in hard cover volumes worth anything? Is there value diminshed a lot, or is it dependent on comics in question?

Can they be removed and restored to unbound condition?

Same question applies to comics that are in 3 ring binders, with holes punched through them.

Sometimes I come across volumes of good silver age or golden age comics in this state, dont know how I should price them though when thinking of what to offer.

 

[Ogami]

They have lost most of their collecting value to most collectors.

[Ogami]

Having said that, I am seriously considering binding about a thousand comic books.

[mackenzie999]

Look on Ebay, you see bound collections come up a lot...some are unbelievably cool, like the first ten Batman comics, owned by Bob Kane....there is a Fantatstic Four bound set out there too, the first year I believe, signed by Lee & Kirby...very cool collections, but the market for them is small. They are usually trimmed, plus the damage you mentioned already. Still, a cool item if you like them, but I wouldn't bank on resale.

[dupont2005]

It depends on a bunch of things. Some bound comics are only sewn through the staple holes, but I don't think that's a common way to bind comics these days. Probably more so if they are vintage binds though

 

And I've seen bound collections sell for good money on eBay, but yeah they do drop in value significantly if they are collectible comics, so don't bind your good stuff

[lotemo]

I agree with the other posters, value significaly drops but resale is better on rare comics that in high demand, especially GA.

 

Also, publisher bound file copies tend to have more market appeal than comics bound by an individual collector.

 

A couple other points. They're easier to read without damage but impossible to display.

 

I've collected many bound publisher volumes and I love them. Often the covers and inner pages are extremely pristine but they are trimmed upon binding.

 

I'd prefer to have the same flawless books in their unbound state but the fact that they were bound made them more affordable for me.

[lb jefferies]

I have the entire Miracleman run bound up in one hardcover. Pretty worthless to collectors but absolute perfection for me.

 

 

[Kenners]

Yup, Priceless to me, but probably worthless to anyone else. It really depends what you want Bound (most of my Modern's are), and I started having my 'Avengers' run Bound from #20 up. It's a "horses for courses" situation really .. Some collectors swear by having their books Bound .. Some swear if you even mention you own some

 

Feel free to checkout my signature ..

[miraclemet]

I have the entire Miracleman run bound up in one hardcover. Pretty worthless to collectors but absolute perfection for me.

 

 

I dont know, if I remember right the first few bound collections of Miracleman (custom binds) went for over a grand on ebay a few years ago.... of course that led to many people doing that and prices dropping... but still...

[miraclemet]

I swear there was a HA auction in the last year of maybe a Detective 27 (or another super early 'tec) that came out of a bound collection (you could see all the pinholes from the swen binding process).

 

It still went for decent money, but who knows if the seller recouped the cost of the purchase of the original bind.

 

most modern binds seem to sell for $50-70 depending on the subject matter. More popular titles go for more, less popular titles go for less.

 

I love my dozen binds. And I've even bought some binds from other collectors and then created dustjackets for them for sake of my own OCD uniformity needs.

[PovertyRow]

Another problem with bound copies is they usually seem to be trimmed a fair bit. To me that is worse than the stitching holes. Never understood that. They should have used larger boards and left them untrimmed.

[Anfield Fox]

With most stuff now available in beautiful glossy coffee table style Masterworks or Archives most people have no use for these. Even more so now with digital copies on ipads.

 

Just a shame all those books got ruined

[InvstmntComcSuply]

Another problem with bound copies is they usually seem to be trimmed a fair bit. To me that is worse than the stitching holes. Never understood that. They should have used larger boards and left them untrimmed.

 

When they are all trimmed consistently it makes for a much nicer looking bind.

It doesn't even look like a "book", when all the pages stick out at various random depths.

 

Additionally when you trim them, you can use what others consider "worthless": corner dinged, edge torn, chipped or restored books, that don't look much different from the high grades once they have been trimmed.

[lotemo]

Another problem with bound copies is they usually seem to be trimmed a fair bit. To me that is worse than the stitching holes. Never understood that. They should have used larger boards and left them untrimmed.

 

I have one late 1950's bound volume from Archie comics. It has about 8 books that were not trimmed. The condition of the books is awful compared to the other trimmed volumes due to some books having more page overhang than others. I really wish it had been trimmed. Instead there are ragged edges on all sides from being used. It really makes for an ugly volume.

 

I have some trimmed volumes where you can compare an untrimmed book to the bound copy and the impact is minimal. It probably just depends on the skills of the bindery and the size consistency of the separate comics being bound.

[1st-and-keys]

Only bound voulume I've owned was a Sgt. Fury issues #1 to #18 . Nice little set which sold for some decent coin on ebay. As with most of these volumes, as mentioned earlier, the issues were trimmed when bound.

[Mark 1]

I saw a bound version of Superman 1-12 on the last Heritage big auction. It went for over $12,000. Of course we are talking serious books. I was a buyer for under 1k....but I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a bound version.

 

 

[PovertyRow]

Another problem with bound copies is they usually seem to be trimmed a fair bit. To me that is worse than the stitching holes. Never understood that. They should have used larger boards and left them untrimmed.

 

When they are all trimmed consistently it makes for a much nicer looking bind.

It doesn't even look like a "book", when all the pages stick out at various random depths.

 

Additionally when you trim them, you can use what others consider "worthless": corner dinged, edge torn, chipped or restored books, that don't look much different from the high grades once they have been trimmed.

 

Tastes differ. To my taste trimming is about the worst thing you can do to a comic.

 

Oh yeah, did you ever notice in many older books the edges are not sharp but slightly dissimilar? That is because for a long time books often had unopened or uncut pages, where two pages were joined. As you read the book you would use a book knife to slice open the next few pages to continue reading. And this was going on even during the GA of comic books.

[InvstmntComcSuply]

Another problem with bound copies is they usually seem to be trimmed a fair bit. To me that is worse than the stitching holes. Never understood that. They should have used larger boards and left them untrimmed.

 

When they are all trimmed consistently it makes for a much nicer looking bind.

It doesn't even look like a "book", when all the pages stick out at various random depths.

 

Additionally when you trim them, you can use what others consider "worthless": corner dinged, edge torn, chipped or restored books, that don't look much different from the high grades once they have been trimmed.

 

Tastes differ. To my taste trimming is about the worst thing you can do to a comic.

 

Agree wholeheartedly, when talking about a single comic.

 

But once you are going through with the process of sewing the books together, cutting off the spines (depending on the process), gluing the resulting edges into the book spine (depending on the process) I am not to worried about trimming all of the other edges for uniformity.

[Sardo Numspar]

I love Bound books.

 

 

 

 

[oakman29]

My momma told me if I can't say anything nice,don't say it at all.