Starting my CGC collection. Should I go after slabs or raw?

[botolo]

Quick question. I would like to start my CGC collection. I currently have only ASM #318 9.4. I would like to continue collecting ASM. Does it make sense to just go after slabs or should I look for raws and then have them certified by CGC?

[Dr. Balls]

Depends on how you like to collect. For me, I didn't like waiting for my stuff to come back, so I went out and bought slabbed books that I wanted. Plus, I had the option of shopping for the book I wanted, instead of slabbing the book that I had - if that makes sense. A little costlier in the long run, but that's the way I collected.

 

But, everyone's different.

[DavidTheDavid]

Hey there. That's a difficult question to answer, and it depends on why you are wanting them slabbed.

 

What you're paying for in a slabbed comic is a book that has been checked for restoration and assigned a (somewhat) standardized grade by, we like to think, trained and knowledgeable professionals. You're also getting a book that you won't read unless you crack it.

 

If you want to read them, by them or raw or purchase a trade paperback where you can enjoy the stories.

 

If the grade on the slab matters to you, you either need to be a skilled grader yourself if you plan on submitting books, or you just need to buy them slabbed. Even skilled, practiced hobbyists sometimes don't get the grade they think they will.

 

One thing about slabbing, should you ever decide to sell your books, you will lose money on many comics. There is no relationship between slabbing a book and a guaranteed increase in value, especially for Copper and Modern books. In that sense, it's better to buy a slabbed book as someone else has taken the loss on the slab, though sellers are going to try and recapture that cost in my circumstances. And for certain books, none of this matters because the slabbing can help fetch a premium, but if you're looking at NMish ASM's in the 300+ range, paying to slab your own might not be worth it.

[romanheart]

Depends how many books you want in your collection and what era.

 

If you're a modern collector and don't want that many books in your collection you will be happier with slabs. If you want to collect a run/series or expensive older books, then I would go for raw books to save yourself a lot of money.

[Buzzetta]

If you are looking for ultra high grade in that McFarlane run it may be cheaper to buy them already slabbed in the exact grade you want.

 

If chasing silver it is sometimes best to sub your own. My collection pre-100 is a mix of submitted books and books that were bought already slabbed. Everything past that from 101-current, with the exception of my 121, 122 and 129 (which I submitted myself) were purchased slabbed.

[Mark 1]

If you aren't great at grading like CGC does then I would stick to buying graded books. I learned the hard way by subbing some books I owned that I thought for sure were nice...until I got the grades back.

 

It's a lot easier to buy the books already in grade that you want if you don't have the grading eye.

 

If you do, then try to find raw books for bargains and then sub them.

 

Good luck!

[bababooey]

Buy them raw and buy some of the key books already slabbed...fine tune your grading a bit by scrutinizing the slabbed books and then submit some for grading to see how you make out.

 

[loadstone]

Put the CGC form down and back away slowly. There is a house down in Sarasota, FL they call the Rising Sun -if you catch my drift.

 

Before buying anymore CGC comics or sending any in to get graded, do yourself a favor and define a couple of things to yourself:

1. Define why you want to start a collection of graded comics: Preservation? Cool Display? Resale (flip now or in the future)? Investment? etc.

2. Define your specific collecting focus/goal: Specific Era: Moderns, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Copper Age? Specific story arc? Artist? Issue run? etc.

 

There are many reasons to have your comics slabbed and there are no wrong reasons as long as you are happy with them. However, if your goal is resale for profit or investment then there is much reading for you to do on here and a lot to learn before diving in.

 

If you will be primarily focusing on ASM from the 90's to present (i.e. moderns) and are not specifically looking for grades of 9.8 or above then you can probably find most 9.6 and 9.4 graded moderns for under $30 and even under $20 unless they are rare variants or modern key issues. You'll probably pay half on shipping alone so another option is to try and find someone selling a whole collection of ASM 90's issues raw. McFarlane issues in VF to NM are pretty easy to find raw and in bulk. Many on here will argue moderns are only worth slabbing if they receive a grade of 9.8 or above. Others will argue there's no reason to slab a modern but they are primarily speaking from an investment or resale point of view.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong here guys but slabbing a modern can run you at least $35 per issue when factoring in shipping, insurance, and grading fees. If you pay for a membership you'll get 4 coupons for free submissions but you don't need a membership to take advantage of the 10% grading discount.

 

For the more rare or key modern issues, it can actually be cheaper for you to find them raw and then submit them yourself as you're often paying a premium on a graded comic that is in demand as someone has already done the looking for you and taken the risk on the submission. But to do this you need to know the difference between NM and VF grades with raw comics and what the market value for those comics are. The Overstreet Guide is a start but often out of date the moment it is printed and useless for graded comics. Use ebay "sold" listings, get a subscription to http://comics.gpanalysis.com, and sign up for an account on www.ha.com and search past auction listings for the graded or raw book you're looking to buy.

 

In the end, if you're just collecting for yourself no one else's opinion matters. It's only when you want to sell that other's opinions will matter more.

[miraclemet]

just echoing some others comments.

 

If you arent desperate to have 9.8 books then buying 9.4s and 9.6s is a good strategy. They'll mostly be "mistake" submissions by people who thought they were subbing high grade 9.8s, but got lesser grades and are just looking to recoup some cash, knowing they're already to take a loss.

 

just know that reselling them down the road (should you change your focus) will mean selling them cheap since there are few non-9.8 collectors for the late copper top modern era...

[CBT]

Quick question. I would like to start my CGC collection. I currently have only ASM #318 9.4. I would like to continue collecting ASM. Does it make sense to just go after slabs or should I look for raws and then have them certified by CGC?

 

If you are happy with 9.4 as the threshold for your books, instead of 9.8. You can definitely slab them yourself and save a lot of money. Also, you'd likely end up hitting 9.6s and 9.8s along the way. I would definitely do it myself.

 

If you are looking to have only 9.8s, it becomes expensive if they are books that you cant sell your "misses" (9.6s, etc) for break even, or a lot of fees for a pre-screen if you arent good at knowing what you should or shouldnt submit.

 

if going for 9.4 and up, DEFINITELY slab yourself

 

if going for 9.8 and up, Mix of already slabbed and slab yourself.

 

my

[ForlornOutcast]

Why not buy some slabs you want, and in the mean time, get like 10-15 raw books to choose from.

 

3-5 of those, you plan to grade and submit. Compare your grade to CGC, and decide which road you'd rather curve towards.

[botolo]

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions. You gave me a lot to think about.

 

I am still trying to figure out my collecting behavior. I have read comic books for 25 years now. I have avidly collected comics and then periodically sold them during all these years. I lived through periods of huge passion and periods of super boredom for this hobby.

 

The result is that my current collection seems to be done by a crazy and erratic guy. I have roughly seven short boxes at home back in my country (Italy) of modern stuff and one short box here in the US, where I live now. My passion has always been Marvel and Spider-Man in particular. Here at home, I have roughly 100 ASM, mostly modern with few of them copper. I also have some FF, Ultimate Spider-Man and some other random titles. I also have about 50 HCs and TPBs, result of times when I thought that collecting collected editions would have been the best thing to do.

 

I stopped buying new comics more than a year ago, as I was tired about all the 0.1, 0.2 issues, new issues 1s, crazy and confusing titles (Uncanny Avengers, All New X-Men, X-Men, etc.) It seems like the passion for comic books is recently coming back, as I need my dose of ASM. But this time, I would like to do things in order. I am tired to erratically buy and sell comics and end up with nothing. If I think about all the comic books I have bought in the past, including some top value comic books such as The Walking Dead 1, many silver age ASM (medium grading) and that I today I just have a bunch of modern comics. This drives me crazy.

 

My goal is to create a nice collection that should be focused, enjoyable and that could be considered somehow an investment. When I say "investment", I mean that I would love to think that in case of need, my collection will be there to help me financially. If I spend $10,000 in comics, I would like to be able to recoup this money instead of thinking that I threw out everything.

 

I have started few subscriptions at my LCS, roughly 5/7 Marvel titles. This should be sufficient to satisfy my need to keep myself updated with the way comics are evolving. I am buying ASM, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, Sabrina and Afterlife with Archie. I may expand this list in the near future, but I want to go slow and avoid falling into the erratic and impulsive buying again.

 

As for back issues, I would like to start focusing on ASM. As I said, I have roughly 100 raw issues, most of them modern and about 10 copper. I am far from being an expert of grading but I think these comics should all be within the VF and NM-. As for deciding what to do, whether I should buy slabs or raw...when I think about slabs, I think about preservation and clear grading. If I buy slabs and if I get my current raws certified, I will have a collection that I can play with (for example, selling <9.8 and gradually upgrading each issue) and I can somehow think that the collection will be easier to sell if someday I will suddenly need money. At the same time, every time I see a comic in the slab (like my only slab, ASM 318) I so much want to flip through the pages of that comic book and enjoy the story.

 

I really don't know what to do :-(

[Jking3437]

buy slabs until you are confident in buying raws and grading them yourself,

 

raws will be cheaper

[Gem_Mint]

Personally, I like to buy raw and slab them. Seems less expensive and there's more fun to it.

 

Itt's funny. I would never buy a 9.2... but if I send a book it and that's what it gets, I don't mind so much.

[miraclemet]

if you are able to buy raw books in person then go for raws (if you think your grading skills are good), but if you are buying online prepare to buy a lot of books described as "NM" that once they arrive are more like VF at best, and then you're dealing with returns and refunds... if you're ok with that then go for it.

[Gunnz]

I have a list of books that I want and I try to find the best raw copies I can to grading, but if I find a CGC copy for a good price, or a SS book that's between 9.6/9.8, then i'll get that.

 

But everyone is right. It completely depends on your tastes. I once met a guy who ONLY collected 9.2's. It was weird, but He had a lot of keys because of how cheap a 9.2 can be.

 

Either way, Good luck!!!!

 

Justin

[botolo]

Thanks again, guys! I have decided to start collecting ASM 9.8 White copies. Of course, due to my limited budged, I will start getting the latest issues. I love mycomicshop.com, do you think their auctions offer fair prices?

[cloud cloddie]

I'll echo some of what's been said. For modern stuff, it'll probably be cheaper to buy the moderns already slabbed. For older, buy it slabbed if you can get it at a good price. Otherwise, search for raws and slab them yourself. It'll generally be cheaper, and if at some point you upgrade copies and sell off the unders, you'll probably make some profit that you can reinvest into the collection.

 

As for ASM, if that's your passion go for it. But it's easy to get burnt out on a set that big. It's almost never ending. I'd recommend starting on a smaller and cheaper set of something. It'll give you an idea of what it takes to complete even a small set. And if you're submitting some on your own, it'll help you compare what you think a grade is and what CGC does. A surprise lower grade is a lot easier to swallow on a cheaper book. It'll save you some headaches down the road when you start sending $1000+ raws.

 

[Gabagool]

i think buying comics already graded is the way to go !!! it beats waiting 3 months to get them back, that is unless you want to spend the extra couple bucks and get them express graded.

 

as for what everyone has posted, if your not that great of a grader yourself, then maybe you should not try grading your own books. getting your own graded can sometimes hurt feelings and leave you disappointed it did to me when i got my batman adventures #12 graded.

 

good luck and keep us updated.

 

 

[Buzzetta]

I'll echo some of what's been said. For modern stuff, it'll probably be cheaper to buy the moderns already slabbed. For older, buy it slabbed if you can get it at a good price. Otherwise, search for raws and slab them yourself. It'll generally be cheaper, and if at some point you upgrade copies and sell off the unders, you'll probably make some profit that you can reinvest into the collection.

 

As for ASM, if that's your passion go for it. But it's easy to get burnt out on a set that big. It's almost never ending. I'd recommend starting on a smaller and cheaper set of something. It'll give you an idea of what it takes to complete even a small set. And if you're submitting some on your own, it'll help you compare what you think a grade is and what CGC does. A surprise lower grade is a lot easier to swallow on a cheaper book. It'll save you some headaches down the road when you start sending $1000+ raws.

 

 

Speaking of btw...

This thread made me look at what I have... and I have all the keys in high grade... 74 books to go for 101-200... I think I might accept that challenge...

 

1-200 would be nice.

 

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