Hey, slab crackers! At what price point does your book become too valuable to liberate from its plastic tomb? 1 1

[october]

On 9/25/2021 at 3:31 AM, Larryw7 said:

Why not? You only live once. And it's hard to get a readers copy of Detective 30 or an ultra rare Amazing Man.

Yeah, and resale value isn't nearly as impacted as it would be with cracking out a super high grade silver age book. 

[LowGradeBronze]

Even unslabbed, a book can be too nice to continually handle, leading to the reader copy route. I have a few in that category, but even so, I'll get the nice copy out from time to time. 

Edited September 25, 2021 by LowGradeBronze

[Vixom]

On 9/24/2021 at 8:22 PM, Axelrod said:

Why would you ever buy a slab with the intention of cracking it out?  Why don’t you just buy a nice unslabbed copy? Which is, incidentally, going to be a lot cheaper.

 I just don’t understand some things.  

I wouldn't pay more for a slab if raw was cheaper but often enough they are cheaper than raw. Many people still don't press before slabbing. Remove restoration. Add restoration. Can sell book for more raw. Lots of reasons to crack slab but I wouldn't do it unless it was financially beneficial. Would have no limit on cracking. If it's value can be increased then crack it. To crack it and decrease value just to touch and smell it, not for me. 

[Artboy99]

I purchase comics to read, I purchase comics to collect and sometimes it is raw sometimes it is slabbed. The more valuable the book the more likely I buy it slabbed.  If I want to read it I get an unslabbed or trade paperback.

My threshold depends what it is, I wont crack my valuable/sellable books. I wont crack my pedigrees. 

[Bird]

I was called a slab cracker back in the day but it wasn't my neighborhood so I had to shut up and take it 

wait, what are we talking about?  

[southern cross]

If I buy slabs I just buy a digital copy for my kindle to read.

Hey I bought a obscure Bill Battle 3 Crowley copy in 9.2 slab and was able to buy a digital copy on Amazon.

If you can buy that book digital you can buy everything else 👍

 

[october]

On 9/24/2021 at 7:22 PM, Axelrod said:

Why would you ever buy a slab with the intention of cracking it out?  Why don’t you just buy a nice unslabbed copy? Which is, incidentally, going to be a lot cheaper.

 I just don’t understand some things.  

Many of the Golden age comics I collect aren't readily available, one copy might come up for sale across all of the main venues once a year or less, so if a slab comes up I buy it. Raw copies are also usually not cheaper. 

[Lazyboy]

On 9/24/2021 at 8:50 PM, october said:

I've cracked out four and five figure books, but I am not a smart man.

I believe half of that.

[theCapraAegagrus]

$10k, I guess.

[batman_fan]

You can take them out of the slab?  Who knew?  Learn something new every day

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 9/27/2021 at 3:45 PM, batman_fan said:

You can take them out of the slab?  Who knew?  Learn something new every day

Lol you may take them out fine, but getting them back in would result in another trip to cgc or service

But taking them out all you want is possible!

[Namtak]

Answer:when they are signature series,thats the dead end. If not signed you can always crack them open all you want

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 9/27/2021 at 4:40 PM, Namtak said:

Answer:when they are signature series,thats the dead end. If not signed you can always crack them open all you want

True 'nuff!

Edited September 27, 2021 by ADAMANTIUM

[ttfitz]

On 9/24/2021 at 8:22 PM, Axelrod said:

Why would you ever buy a slab with the intention of cracking it out?  Why don’t you just buy a nice unslabbed copy? Which is, incidentally, going to be a lot cheaper.

 I just don’t understand some things.  

I have maybe a couple dozen slabbed books. I have never bought a book because it was slabbed; I have never paid more for a slabbed book than I would have paid for an unslabbed one. I guess I follow an extreme version of "Buy the book, not the label."

[oakman29]

On 9/24/2021 at 5:22 PM, Axelrod said:

Why would you ever buy a slab with the intention of cracking it out?  Why don’t you just buy a nice unslabbed copy? Which is, incidentally, going to be a lot cheaper.

 I just don’t understand some things.  

Its knowing your 50 thousand dollar comic book isn't restored. 

Edited September 28, 2021 by oakman29

[rexinnih]

On 9/27/2021 at 5:05 PM, oakman29 said:

Its knowing your 50 thousand dollar comic book isn't restored. 

That is the truth. I have bought raw and then CGC comes back as restored. Mostly minor that can be removed but one early Tales of Suspense came back trimmed and not much can be done. 

[profholt82]

Nothing unique here, but like some others, if it's a special book to me, I like to keep a nice slabbed copy and a second raw reader copy to enjoy. That works well for me, best of both worlds. 

[Wall-Crawler]

I have contemplated cracking some of my graded non ASM keys that I picked up randomly to put in mylites as part of my raw collection but definitely would not crack anything very valuable.

Interestingly (or weirdly) Paradise Comics on IG is selling some keys that have been cracked and they are displaying the label. I inquired why the slabs were cracked and apparently the original owner cracked them and kept the label. We are talking like FF #1 and bigger keys.

THAT to me, makes no sense why someone would crack that level of book and as a side note, personally, I would not be paying CGC graded prices for a cracked book as how do you know what has been done to it post cracking?

[Axelrod]

On 9/29/2021 at 11:35 AM, Wall-Crawler said:

Interestingly (or weirdly) Paradise Comics on IG is selling some keys that have been cracked and they are displaying the label. I inquired why the slabs were cracked and apparently the original owner cracked them and kept the label. We are talking like FF #1 and bigger keys.

THAT to me, makes no sense why someone would crack that level of book and as a side note, personally, I would not be paying CGC graded prices for a cracked book as how do you know what has been done to it post cracking?

Well, apparently, some people really want an unslabbed book, but at the same time also really, really want it to be "unrestored."  So they are willing to pay the CGC surtax to guarantee it's unrestored, and then just crack it out.  I guess they keep the label to "prove" to other people that it's really unrestored, but as you say, no one is going to just accept that this book is the one that went with that label, so if the idea is you are keeping the re-sale value intact I don't think that will happen.  

[lizards2]

On 9/29/2021 at 8:59 AM, Axelrod said:

On 9/29/2021 at 8:35 AM, Wall-Crawler said:

Interestingly (or weirdly) Paradise Comics on IG is selling some keys that have been cracked and they are displaying the label. I inquired why the slabs were cracked and apparently the original owner cracked them and kept the label. We are talking like FF #1 and bigger keys.

THAT to me, makes no sense why someone would crack that level of book and as a side note, personally, I would not be paying CGC graded prices for a cracked book as how do you know what has been done to it post cracking?

Well, apparently, some people really want an unslabbed book, but at the same time also really, really want it to be "unrestored."  So they are willing to pay the CGC surtax to guarantee it's unrestored, and then just crack it out.  I guess they keep the label to "prove" to other people that it's really unrestored, but as you say, no one is going to just accept that this book is the one that went with that label, so if the idea is you are keeping the re-sale value intact I don't think that will happen. 

You guys are over thinking this.

Some of us like comics.

Some of you like covers in plastic.

And, some of us are pretty darn good at restoration detection.

I'm not sure if slabs are even safe for long term storage, but I am willing to read whatever analysis is out there.

I really hate that the hobby has become all about the Benjamins.