What's the lowest acceptable collecting grade for you?

[143ksk]

It's easiest for me to tell you what I won't collect:

 

Books with brittle pages

Books with significant parts missing (coupons, pages, covers)

Books that are heavily water damaged or heavily soiled.

Books the cat peed on

 

Otherwise, it's just a matter of what's available and what I can afford.

[nik]

GA (ECs mainly) : 9.2 or better

SA (pre 65) : 9.2

SA (65-70) : 9.4 - Key books or covers that rock 9.2 min.

BA : 9.4 or better - Keys 9.2 min.

Pedigree books 9.2 or better.

 

Everything else 9.6 or better.

[Zonker]

Well, I'm the board's resident condition-slut!

 

For Golden Age, I'm happy to take a Good- if it is a Raboy cover, or a WWII Action or Captain Marvel Adventures cover, or one of those thick World's Finest, Comic Cavalcade, America's Greatest, or contains a Jerry Robinson, Alex Toth, or Simon & Kirby art job. What I don't want is tape on the book (can't stand the thought of the paper deteriorating while it's just sitting there in the box!) Restored books bother me not at all, amateur, professional whatever, just no scotch tape please. (Also, no brittle, flaking pages )

 

For early Silver Age, I'm actively upgrading most of my Good/Very Good copies of the less expensive titles like Adventure, post-120 Flash, post-20 Green Lantern, Star-Spangled War, etc.. For the key Showcase books, I'm happy to stand firm on my Good/Good+ readers. In this period, I start to filter out books with significant foxing or water damage.

 

For later Silver Age (beginning of the Neal Adams era), then it is Fine.

 

For Bronze Age, Fine unless it is a particular book or run that means a lot to me personally (books by Adams, Wrightson, Kaluta, Marshall Rogers, Mike Golden or Kirby's 4th World), in which case I'll look to upgrade to Very Fine/Near Mint.

 

[WiseGuyX]

VG Rules !

 

As long as the book is complete and not seperated from the cover, I'm happy.

 

If I can read it where I want (bed, in the bath, in the garden,in the car...) without destroying the book I'm there.

 

I might be one of the few people on the boards that actually trades DOWN books...

Last year I bought a mystery batch of Bronze Spideys, and all were VF+ to NM (MUCH to my surprise), so I sold all of them and bought the same books again in Fine and another 30 books with the profit.

 

Main reason I stay away from high grade books is that I read every book I get cover to cover and I don't want to spend $$$$ on a 9.4 and then have it lose $100 value because I read it and made a little corner dent

 

Aman

 

I love buying ASM in big lots just to read. I buy them in VG condition because their cheap and pretty much intact. This way I don't spend 50.00 - 150.00 just to read a comic and my money goes futher. The only difference is I don't sell any of my books unless it's some other titles that came with the lot. Actually my auction ( 22 mix of Nova, Mater of Kung Fu etc) I got up on ebay is the first time I've ever tryed to sell one of my comic since I started back in the late 80's.

[shrunkenhead]

I think 143's got the right idea. I also avoid books with rat chew. Yuck. Rats. Yuck.

[stynxno]

Let me try this again: What is the lowest acceptable grade you collect in?

 

"What's wrong with a kiss, boy?" Monty Python in "The Meaning of Life"

 

Good (mostly because I'm poor). But really, all I ask is for a clean cover and some gloss. That's what makes me happy.

[Larryw7]

I'll take GA in almost any condition, provided the book isn't brittle and both covers are present. For an ultra key, I'll take a laserjet xerox cover if I have to, just because I wouldn't be able to afford something like SUPERMAN #1 otherwise.

 

 

On SA, I generally prefer High Grade, but if I just want to read the book, Very Good to Fine is ok. I'm not really much of a Silver Age collector(except for Batman and Detective), so most of what I have is mid grade.

 

I've never been a condition freak. I just want to own the books I like at a price I can afford.

[12c_Comic]

GA: FN

SA: VF

BA:NM-

MA: toss 'em

 

 

Ditto, but graded copys not raw...

[uclapeterg]

early SA: F+ or better

later SA: 8.0 or better

early Bronze: 9.0 and better

later Bronze to Modern: 9.4 or better

 

Hi Uclapeterg!

 

The question has to be asked:

 

Early Silver Age F+ or better?

 

A Fantastic Four # 1 or Amazing Fantasy # 15 would only be acceptable for you in Fine + or better?

 

I think you would "prefer" them to be Fine+ or better, but you would collect them in condition less than Fine+ (or am I wrong on this?)

 

What's the least acceptable collectible condition?

 

ok, my signature gives me away it's good on the MAJOR keys (FF 1) .. I have a 2 in VG that i'm trying to upgrade to around fine or better. It's not acceptable to me anymore

[uclapeterg]

GA (ECs mainly) : 9.2 or better

SA (pre 65) : 9.2

SA (65-70) : 9.4 - Key books or covers that rock 9.2 min.

BA : 9.4 or better - Keys 9.2 min.

Pedigree books 9.2 or better.

 

Everything else 9.6 or better.

 

Pansy

[COI]

There's more than a few books I'd be happy to take a Poor copy!

 

I'd be happy to have an Action # 1 or a Marvel Comics # 1 in poor too!

 

I just feel like it's sometimes too "Grade driven" and we forget that we'd all be happy with books in lesser condition. Let's see where the debate goes.

 

Brace yourself........I actually don't want an Action 1 or a Marvel Comics 1.

 

My interest lies in SA and BA Marvel, particularly 69' - 73' right now, and because they're so common it dosen't interest me to buy fine or even VF copies because there's no challenge in it. I'm looking for 9.4 as an absolute minimum for my "keepers", and I may buy a few key 9.2's to use as trade for later purchases. But actually, I want as many 9.6's as I can get. It's not "grade driven", it's my favorite marvel era and I want the nicest copies I can get.

 

For mid-silver, I'm fine with 9.2, and for early Silver I like 9.0. If I collected low and mid grade books, I would be done with my goals in a few years, and have way too many low grade books. Unlike most collectors, I don't like quantity. The thought of having endless rows of long boxes makes me sick. And since I plan to be in the hobby for a long time, being done with my goals in 5 years dosen't appeal to me either.

[Norrin_Radd]

BTW... nice pickup.

 

FF52

 

FF52 is high on my list and they rarely come up for sale in high grade.

[fantastic_four]

• Pre-1964 -- 9.0 or better
• 1964-1966 -- 9.2 or better
• 1966-up -- 9.6 or better

Using these grade criteria, I barely buy anything these days...which is kinda how I like it! It makes the few books I do end up landing a more unique and special occasion once I get them in the mail...ah, the thrill of the HUNT! I will go down to 8.0 on early 1960s books if the price is irresistable.

[sfilosa]

The thought of having endless rows of long boxes makes me sick. And since I plan to be in the hobby for a long time, being done with my goals in 5 years dosen't appeal to me either.

 

Same here.

 

I have maybe 200 high grade CGC books and at the most, one long box of ungraded books (most which I would sell in a heart beat just to be rid of them).

 

I think it's great that people collect low and mid-grade books, but for me, I could probably put together a run of my favorite Silver-Age title in about a month if I bought VG's.

[nik]

Pansy

 

[COI]

BTW... nice pickup.

 

FF52

 

FF52 is high on my list and they rarely come up for sale in high grade.

 

Thanks. It was on my list for a long time also. Many of the copies I've seen for sale in the 9.2/9.4 range didn't have the "look" I wanted, and at least a couple of the 9.4's looked like "soft" NM's. I went after this copy specifically because it looks very sharp for a 9.2, as I remember seeing it on comiclink. My snipe was actually much higher than the winning bid, so I was pleased.

[Samurai-Bill]

I am at present collecting issues of Fantastic Four 1 - 102 in 9.0 / 9.2 CGC Slabbed .

 

I started to sell my raw FF'S on ebay in April this year and so far have only managed to get hold of 15 issues so still a long way to go ( mainly not willing to pay mad prices and also being fussy on centred copies ) .

 

As this is a expensive quest I have been keeping up my other silver age Marvel collection in 8.5 slabbed or raw .

 

On ebay I have to re-sell about half of what I buy because of over grading and have also been caught on CGC auctions due to the " small scan " scam .

[Silver Surfer]

I have some GA stuff that would be considered a 1.8 or worse but I don't care because the book is a classic.

[tth2]

• Pre-1964 -- 9.0 or better
• 1964-1966 -- 9.2 or better
• 1966-up -- 9.6 or better

 

I was curious if other people used dates, rather than eras, for their cut-offs. Mine are:

 

Pre-1965: 9.4 or better

1965 and later: 9.6 or better

The exceptions are non-mainstream books like DC war books, Duck books and Gold Keys, where I`ll go as late as 1966 in 9.4 or better, and then after that they have to be 9.6 or better.

[sfilosa]

was curious if other people used dates, rather than eras, for their cut-offs. Mine are:

 

Pre-1965: 9.4 or better

1965 and later: 9.6 or better

The exceptions are non-mainstream books like DC war books, Duck books and Gold Keys, where I`ll go as late as 1966 in 9.4 or better, and then after that they have to be 9.6 or better.

 

Those are some extremely strict grading requirements.

 

And as I said in mine, I do use dates rather than era's. My guess is most people do who collect SA as Pre-1965 are much tough in HG than post-1965.