Check this out -

[heinlein99]

 

http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/1532-Fa...550213474QQrdZ1

 

Predictions on final value?

 

How'd you like to stumble across THIS at a yard sale?

[fast94cobra-migration]

I'm also curious. I saw a bound volume of early ASMs and Silver Surfers on ebay over the last month, they both went for what i thought were pretty low prices. Does anyone know anything about this practice of binding books like that?

[the blob]

people used to have them bound, you still can. often people in the industry bound their file copies. aside from them being glued or stitched into the binding, the comics are also often trimmed to fit the binding.

 

i've bought some bound golden age sets as interesting novelties. not for much money, probably for their value in "fair" or "fair/good" as a set if the bound copies looked really nice. it's nice that the books are often in apparent incredible shape. on the other hand, they're trimmed, so it's easier for them to look nice.

[swordsandrockets]

Current bid on HCA site is $4312 with buyers premium, which to me is kind of high. Even if you had them removed - nice that they are not trimmed - it would still cost a fair price and they would be restored. With that in mind it looks like the winner is going to be paying over guide for restored books by the time it is all said and done.

[the blob]

why would they be restored? i don't know how they're bound in, but if stitched, that could be removed, or if glued, the glue can stay on the comic. they wouldn't be restored, they'd just be messed up.

 

of course, we don't know what happened to the spines in the binding process. how does heritage know the spines weren't sliced off? and how can they be sure these aren't trimmed a little given that they can't see where the spine starts without dismantling it?

 

anyway, compare the image of the bound copy to this one:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fantastic-Four-Comic...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

the bound copy could certainly be trimmed a little on the side (the little guys leg is cropped compared to the likely untrimmed copy and the untrimmed shows a bit more of the building) and the top of the comic seems to have less space above the title than on the likely untrimmed title (you can't see the word "Ind" because that might be obscured by the binding). of course, these differences could be due to printing variations, not necessarily trimming.

[Elvis]

I dont know. I think if i paid alot for a bound volume like this, it would bother me every time i looked at it. Most of the reason I buy comics is for the covers, especially those great Kirby covers in the early FF's. I am definitely ok with purchasing low grade (especially if it displays well) but not this.

 

Elvis

[Point Five]

I'm with Elvis here... those bound volumes just depress the heck out of me, and I'd pay almost nothing for one... in fact, I'd rather have a low-grade copy of ONE of the individual books in question than this entire volume.

[Aman619]

me too.

Id take one for free for reading, but never pay for one.