What percentage of your GA Collection is Raw/Slabbed?

[jim1968]

I only even have a few books to sell that are slabbed. They are mostly "Mile Highs" that I bought slabbed. But I can see the point as far as 3rd party identification of restoration, pro or amatuer. People like that when they are buying on Ebay.

[dgillock]

Currently, 1 slabbed book out of approximately 750 GAs. About 5 others that were purchased slabbed and quickly cracked (lower to mid-grade CGG/PGX). I've owned a few others, but I'm mostly in the "slab to sell" camp. There are a few books on my purchasing horizon that I defintely plan on buying slabbed (resto check), but I will quickly be cracking those too. Maybe this time I'll actually keep the labels...

[PovertyRow]

........"Ecetera, ecetera, ecetera!" - Yule Brenner "The King & I"

 

Eck-etera? I believe Yul would soundly scold you and remind you it is ET-CETERA...from the Latin : et, and + cetera (the rest, neuter pl. of ceterus).

 

Now to get to the question: 100% of my GA are unslabbed. I hd two slabbed: A THING 16 9.2 and a Mister Mystery 13 5.5. Both have been deslabbed. Why? I do want to read the books. the price of reader copies can be pricey - I mean even $10-15 for each reader (and they would be really low grade overall) seems wasteful. Not to mention the difficutly of even FINDING readers for books I may have had slabbed. So for GA - no contest.

 

I also have confidence in my storage and know will be able to maintain the many higher grade pre-code horror I have been getting lately.

[Apotheosis]

The point is this:There's probably a lot of Golden Age collectors who;

 

A) Like to read their books.

B) Don't feel a need to slab their books.

C) May not want to pay the expense to have gradded.

D) May not like the concept of third party grading.

E) Feel they already know the grade, what's the point.

 

F) Don't want to be separated from their babies for the 4 month grading process

[CentaurMan]

I've never gotten a comic slabbed, and probably never will. I refuse on general principle to pay the "percent of fair value" tax on my best books, which would end up costing me $hundreds more for a process that's the same amount of work for CGC as grading cheaper GA books is.

 

I do own slabbed books, mostly bought from Heritage or occasionally eBay. I've cracked a few of those slabs and will probably crack more over time.

 

If I ever wanted to sell my expensive stuff, I'd probably consign it to Metro or something like that.

[skybolt]

I've never gotten a comic slabbed, and probably never will. I refuse on general principle to pay the "percent of fair value" tax on my best books, which would end up costing me $hundreds more for a process that's the same amount of work for CGC as grading cheaper GA books is.

 

I do own slabbed books, mostly bought from Heritage or occasionally eBay. I've cracked a few of those slabs and will probably crack more over time.

 

If I ever wanted to sell my expensive stuff, I'd probably consign it to Metro or something like that.

 

Very good point. Most of my expensive GA or SA books were bought slabbed. However, if I owned a $10,000 raw book, I certainly wouldn't want to pay the fair market value to have it graded and slabbed.

 

Even though I do slab most of my semi-expensive collection (> $200), I do appreciate the fact that many GA collectors love to read their books over and over again, and prefer to have them raw. I also love hearing stories where for instance the Dentist wouldn't part with his Church Action #1 for any amount of money. I'd much rather see these rare collections in the hands of true comic fans, than someone who just cares about their market value.

 

I'm still in my infancy as a GA collector, but thus far I've enjoyed the ride.

[jbcomicbox]

None of my books are slabbed. If i buy a slabbed book, i crack it open.

 

I suppose when the day comes to sell that CGC appreciates the de-slabbing habits of us dinosaurs, since to maximize the buck it may be the way to go.....Jon

[143ksk]

I have 10 GA books that are slabbed and are part of my personal collection (ie don't plan to sell) so that's less than 1%. I would think that most people with extensive GA collections would have very few slabbed books. Of course, in my case most of my books aren't worth slabbing in the first place...

[bobpfef]

I only have one slabbed GA book, and probably will unslab it one day. The vast majority of my GA is too low grade to make sense to slab. When I do buy slabbed books I tend to leave them there, not really sure why?

[batman_fan]

[the blob]

About 10% of my GA collection is slabbed. About 25 out of 250-300 books.

 

About 1% of my SA collection is slabbed. About 20 out of 2000-3000 books.

 

5 of my 5500-6500 BA books are slabbed.

 

I own 2 slabbed copper/moderns out of another 2500-3000 of those books.

 

I don't have it in me to drop a couple of grand to slab the 150 so books that probably deserve to be slabbed.

 

As for the others, I have a tough time contemplating slabbing a gorgeous non-key Marvel or DC BA book. The risk of flushing money down the toilet if I get back a 9.4 or 9.2, dpending on the book, is too much.

 

Ditto on SA books that could just as easily come back an 8.5 as a 9.0/9.2 or better. 4 times out of 5 getting back an 8.5 is wasting money on a slab.

[Silver Surfer]

What only 12,000 books, ha. When are you going to get serious about the hobby.

[the blob]

I have a storage room (which is pretty far from where I live because I don't want to spend NYC storage prices).. I'm only able to keep about 2,000 in my closets in my apartment, which consists of my better stuff (heaven forbid the storage compound burns down) and stuff I'm probably going to sell on ebay. That's about all my wife will allow in the house at any given time. It's very distressing not being able to play with my toys when I want.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about my 500-700 or so comic magazines (Warrens, Marvels, etc.) None are slabbed. I really miss having those around.

 

I've probably unloaded about 250-300 comics on ebay in the last couple of months, freeing up a couple of short boxes. Alas, I've probably acquired 500-600 in that time. It just gets worse and worse.

 

Uhg, I don't even want to think about how much space it would take up if I slabbed all the books that may warrant a slab.

[PUNYHUMAN]

I own roughly 7000 comics in my collection ,3 were slabbed that i bought & broken free !!! Most of that collection is moderns,& some bronze. the rest is a near complete Marvel silver age collection. FF #1 to 101, Spidey # 1 to 100, Tales to Astonish # 35 to 101, JIM # 83 to 200 , you get the idea!!! Also DC keys & runs i've been working on!! The rest 300 ,Golden Age,Fox, Centaur, Timely, Quality; ETC............ I myself won't slab unless i'm going to sell in the future & that is only the Keys & high grade!! Until then I'm a Dinosaur!!

[Silver Surfer]

Well those collections put my 1200-1500 books to shame.

[esquirecomics]

Well those collections put my 1200-1500 books to shame.

 

Don't let them get you down. Not necessarily size that matters!

[esquirecomics]

[Silver Surfer]

Well those collections put my 1200-1500 books to shame.

 

Don't let them get you down. Not necessarily size that matters!

 

I walked ito that one.

[the blob]

I have a lot of inexpensive stuff in those 12,000 or so books. I've gotten rid of most of my crappiest of crappy late 80s/early 90s books though. But for most of the BA books and low grade SA and 50s stuff, I just can't resist an alleged bargain.

 

The completionist in me is torn though, not that I'm particularly close to completing anything. Take, for example, maybe I have 80-90% of the Thors, Cap'n Americas and Iron Mans from 1980 - 1994. They're not on my A-list of Marvel books, but to the extent possible, it would be nice to try and have a run. I'm actually not too far off on a complete (from the 60s) Thor set (my JIM 83 is coverless though, but otherwise I have most of the expensive books) and pretty close on Cap and Iron Man too, (I figure 1994 to the end of that series ought to be easy enough to pluck out of quarter bins if I want to knock those off too.) But generally speaking, certainly the late 80s - 94 is not an era I'm into collecting. Half of me just wants to clear them out and make room and the other half wants me to at least keep on high grade copy of each for posterity.

[Silver Surfer]

I recently bought a ton of stuff from the 90's, FF, Thor, Avengers for the same reason(s), wanted to complete long runs of these but unfortunantely for the most part it was uninspired junk (especially the FF after Byrne, what a drop off). It does take up a lot of space and I found myself just flipping through them before bagging them and throwing them in a box. I almost hate having to spend money on backing boards because so much of it is garbage. Started to buy low grade SA issues of various books I have never owned or had a chance to read. I thought about some of the masterworks but I rather have an old ratty comic to read.