How Do You Preserve Your Collectible Comic Hardcovers? 1 1

[Martin Sinescu]

8 hours ago, F For Fake said:

There are several Omnis that sell in the $300-$500 range. Particularly the variant covers of out of print volumes. X-Men Omni 1, Lee/Claremont X-men volumes, Eternals, Miller Wolverine, Hickman FF, and on and on. 

Of course, the problem with collecting them is if you pay out big money for an OOP Omni, you never know when Marvel may choose to go back to press. I sold my Howard the Duck Omni when it went out of print and started selling for $250+. Then they went back to press. You can still find copies for $40. The Bendis DD volumes were selling at nice prices, and just last week they announced a reprint. To be fair, sometimes it is a LOOOONG gap between printings, like 10+ years. And in many cases, there is no reprint at all (Captain Britain, Immortal Iron Fist, Ghost Rider by Aaron, etc).  The moral: they can be a nice investment, but I wouldn't buy OOP volumes at OOP prices.

True. I had to shell out a bit of money to get the ASM Omnis I missed out on (which haven't gone back in print so far), but, for the ones that have variant covers, they've only been reprinting with one cover (typically not the one designated as the variant), so there is still one version exclusive to the original printing (like the Ross cover on ASM Vol 1 or the Miller covers on the DD Omnis). If they're ones I think they won't re-use for later printings, I keep those sealed and buy an extra copy to read. Hopefully on these variants that are selling out in a day or within a few hours they'll keep their value as I've done okay snagging those off IST.

[F For Fake]

14 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

True. I had to shell out a bit of money to get the ASM Omnis I missed out on (which haven't gone back in print so far), but, for the ones that have variant covers, they've only been reprinting with one cover (typically not the one designated as the variant), so there is still one version exclusive to the original printing (like the Ross cover on ASM Vol 1 or the Miller covers on the DD Omnis). If they're ones I think they won't re-use for later printings, I keep those sealed and buy an extra copy to read. Hopefully on these variants that are selling out in a day or within a few hours they'll keep their value as I've done okay snagging those off IST.

I think  that's a good plan, and I've been doing the same. Also, anymore it seems like they use the classic art as the variant, and commission newer artists to do the "main" covers, so the variants are what I'd prefer anyway. Like the recent ASM 4 Omni. I don't know who would want the Cho cover, which may be why the Romita version seemed to sell out extra fast.

[picon3]

On 6/18/2019 at 7:52 AM, Martin Sinescu said:

I usually re-use the bags I get from my InStockTrades orders to keep my hardcovers protected. Many of my older tpb's from the early 90's have yellowed with age, so I'm trying to minimize exposure to air. I just tape the bags snugly around the books so it doesn't look sloppy on the shelf. I'm guessing these bags aren't archival, but keeping air and dust out while having the books in a dark, temperature-stable environment is hopefully going to preserve them better in the long run. Another thing I do for the omnis is cut some archival matt board (I have lots of this stuff sitting around) as a shim on the bottom to fill the gap between the pages and the shelf. I've seen people complaining that the weight of the omnibus set makes the pages sag if they're set normally on a shelf with nothing to support the pages. 

The term in the book world for the sag is "gravity sway".  BTW, I really like your idea of placing a shim between the text block and the shelf.  I'm going to give that a try myself.  Thanks, Paul~

[theCapraAegagrus]

I'm guessing that gilding protects pages from the aging process?

I never really considered that. I just notice that my Encyclopedia Britannica/Great Books/etc (from 1995) all appear ageless.

Gild your omnibuses, hardcovers, and TPBs!

[Martin Sinescu]

1 hour ago, TwoPiece said:

I'm guessing that gilding protects pages from the aging process?

I never really considered that. I just notice that my Encyclopedia Britannica/Great Books/etc (from 1995) all appear ageless.

Gild your omnibuses, hardcovers, and TPBs!

Wow, I would almost do that. Speaking of gilded pages, I pulled out my Stacked Deck - Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told last week to take to HeroesCon for some sigs and realized the glued binding is coming apart. Ugh. It wasn't really worth anything, just thought it would be cool to get Neal, Garcia-Lopez and maybe Sienkiewicz to sketch in it, but not if it's falling apart. That's another thing to take into consideration with the Marvel omnis is that, I believe, the earlier ones used glued binding and they later went to stitched so you have to be extra careful taking care of anything with glued pages.

[Karl Liebl]

I don't think there is much of a market as a collectible but if it makes you feel good do it hehe.  You have EC artist signed books brand new in the box original price 150 now 90 buck, never even opened.  It is kind of sad actually...

[theCapraAegagrus]

4 minutes ago, Karl Liebl said:

I don't think there is much of a market as a collectible but if it makes you feel good do it hehe.  You have EC artist signed books brand new in the box original price 150 now 90 buck, never even opened.  It is kind of sad actually...

There is definitely a market for collected editions.

Prices ebb and flow, as with all things, but people are buying them all the time.

Omnibuses and Absolute Editions are regularly sold above MSRP. Slipcase sets, too.

[Karl Liebl]

9 minutes ago, TwoPiece said:

There is definitely a market for collected editions.

Prices ebb and flow, as with all things, but people are buying them all the time.

Omnibuses and Absolute Editions are regularly sold above MSRP. Slipcase sets, too.

Sure...  I will play...  I have original edition first printing Russ Cochran Tales from the Crypt.  Original price 75 buck, current price 300 used maybe... who cares!  Counting inflation its probably gone down.

[F For Fake]

1 hour ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Wow, I would almost do that. Speaking of gilded pages, I pulled out my Stacked Deck - Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told last week to take to HeroesCon for some sigs and realized the glued binding is coming apart. Ugh. It wasn't really worth anything, just thought it would be cool to get Neal, Garcia-Lopez and maybe Sienkiewicz to sketch in it, but not if it's falling apart. That's another thing to take into consideration with the Marvel omnis is that, I believe, the earlier ones used glued binding and they later went to stitched so you have to be extra careful taking care of anything with glued pages.

I know I recently talked about the Complete Frank Miller Batman, which was the volume that preceded the Stacked Deck collection. It hasn't exactly started falling apart yet, but it is a little creaky. I don't open it often, I'm trying to keep it intact, as it was my first comic book HC and the one that kicked all of this off for me. Beautiful volumes, but not really built to last, I'm afraid.

[theCapraAegagrus]

1 minute ago, Karl Liebl said:

Sure...  I will play...  I have original edition first printing Russ Cochran Tales from the Crypt.  Original price 75 buck, current price 300 used maybe... who cares!  Counting inflation its probably gone down.

I was just correcting your misinformation. There's a big collected editions market.

[F For Fake]

1 hour ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Wow, I would almost do that. Speaking of gilded pages, I pulled out my Stacked Deck - Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told last week to take to HeroesCon for some sigs and realized the glued binding is coming apart. Ugh. It wasn't really worth anything, just thought it would be cool to get Neal, Garcia-Lopez and maybe Sienkiewicz to sketch in it, but not if it's falling apart. That's another thing to take into consideration with the Marvel omnis is that, I believe, the earlier ones used glued binding and they later went to stitched so you have to be extra careful taking care of anything with glued pages.

Also, my understanding is that even today, while some Omnis are stitched, others are still glued. It depends on which factory they come out of, and the cover price, I believe. This info is over on the Masterworks board somewhere...or it may have been the CBR Collected Editions forum. Or maybe I made it up! But I'm pretty sure I read that was the case. 

[Martin Sinescu]

2 hours ago, F For Fake said:

Also, my understanding is that even today, while some Omnis are stitched, others are still glued. It depends on which factory they come out of, and the cover price, I believe. This info is over on the Masterworks board somewhere...or it may have been the CBR Collected Editions forum. Or maybe I made it up! But I'm pretty sure I read that was the case. 

Yeah, you're correct. I haunt both of those forums as well and remember them stressing about a recent omni and trying to figure out whether it would come glued or sewn. Anyone reading this thread should check those two sites out if you haven't already as there are some very knowledgeable folks on there in regards to collected editions as well as custom binds. That's where I got the idea about shims I mentioned earlier.

2 hours ago, F For Fake said:

I know I recently talked about the Complete Frank Miller Batman, which was the volume that preceded the Stacked Deck collection. It hasn't exactly started falling apart yet, but it is a little creaky. I don't open it often, I'm trying to keep it intact, as it was my first comic bookHC and the one that kicked all of this off for me. Beautiful volumes, but not really built to last, I'm afraid.

My copy is signed from when I saw Miller at a convention in the mid-90's. I had a custom acrylic case made to protect it, which looks sexy, but ended up being maybe a bit too tight. The boards won't have room to come apart, but I don't know if I can pull it out of there 

 

[Ken Aldred]

On 6/17/2019 at 8:55 PM, batmiesta said:

Because I want to. 

Yup.  As another stubborn northerner, I have to concur.

Edited June 19, 2019 by Ken Aldred

[batmiesta]

42 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

Yup.  As another stubborn northerner, I have to concur.

Seriously though, if you drop a HC annual on it's corner, the book is fooked, so the idea is that the FB board would take the full impact if dropped, I have not tested it to see if my theory will be correct. 

[dupont2005]

There’s definitely a market for certain hardcovers

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F333183379484

 

 

[Cat]

I use Brodarts. Best thing since sliced bread, and also better than whatever was the best thing before sliced bread took that title. 

Older prints are definitely collectible. I've mentioned before how I sold my ASM vol 1 omni for over $700AU, before the reprint was announced. I've also paid something like $300 (sorry the figures aren't exact, my brain is cloudy today, and this was awhile ago) for a beautiful mint copy of the silver age X-Men vol 1 omnibus. I did so fully aware it could be reprinted at any time, but it was the last X-omni I needed at the time, and the gaping hole in my collection was too much for my collector-OCD to take. I don't think it's been reprinted to this day, so it was a decent enough move. 

[theCapraAegagrus]

8 hours ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

I use Brodarts. Best thing since sliced bread, and also better than whatever was the best thing before sliced bread took that title. 

Older prints are definitely collectible. I've mentioned before how I sold my ASM vol 1 omni for over $700AU, before the reprint was announced. I've also paid something like $300 (sorry the figures aren't exact, my brain is cloudy today, and this was awhile ago) for a beautiful mint copy of the silver age X-Men vol 1 omnibus. I did so fully aware it could be reprinted at any time, but it was the last X-omni I needed at the time, and the gaping hole in my collection was too much for my collector-OCD to take. I don't think it's been reprinted to this day, so it was a decent enough move. 

Is sliced bread really all that great..?

[F For Fake]

15 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Yeah, you're correct. I haunt both of those forums as well and remember them stressing about a recent omni and trying to figure out whether it would come glued or sewn. Anyone reading this thread should check those two sites out if you haven't already as there are some very knowledgeable folks on there in regards to collected editions as well as custom binds. That's where I got the idea about shims I mentioned earlier.

My copy is signed from when I saw Miller at a convention in the mid-90's. I had a custom acrylic case made to protect it, which looks sexy, but ended up being maybe a bit too tight. The boards won't have room to come apart, but I don't know if I can pull it out of there 

 

Yikes, well I certainly wish you luck with that! My Complete Miller volume is definitely a little loose, because I read it over and over and over again when I was a kid. My checked my copy of Stacked Deck last night, and it is holding up well, but I don't think I ever read it more than once. Still, they're both lovely books.Even if you can't open your Miller volume, you can dig that snazzy cover!

[Cat]

2 hours ago, TwoPiece said:

Is sliced bread really all that great..?

It wouldn't even in be in my top 10 of great things, but apparently sliced bread continues to impress, year after year, for the majority of people. 

Maybe we're just difficult to impress? 

[theCapraAegagrus]

3 minutes ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

It wouldn't even in be in my top 10 of great things, but apparently sliced bread continues to impress, year after year, for the majority of people. 

Maybe we're just difficult to impress? 

Meh. With the right knife, you can slice a loaf of bread into 100 pieces, without sacrificing the structural integrity.

Sliced break can suck it.