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How important are the following factors to you when choosing which book to buy?
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Started by Kripsys99,

49 posts in this topic

Point Five

Point Five

Posted
Posted
On 3/8/2022 at 11:19 PM, piper said:

It also depends on scarcity and cost of the book. I’m more flexible on items like registry, PQ, grade, etc. for a rare GA book than I am for a Hulk 181.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. For almost any GA book I really really want, I'm lucky to have *one or two shots a year* at it. Whereas you SA/BA age folks have hundreds of copies to choose from, and your pickiness has had ample opportunity to blossom and flourish. ;) 

 

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rjpb

rjpb

Posted
Posted
On 3/9/2022 at 10:40 AM, Kripsys99 said:

Nobody like brittle pages - not surprised. Wrap seems to be a 75/25 split in favor of wrap making a difference - seems in line with the previous thread. Surprised that everyone ranks pedigree dead last - I like the story/lineage that comes with pedigree books, and - while I won't go out of my way to grab a pedigree book - would take a pedigree label over a blue label given the choice.

Interesting takes all around!

I appreciate the appeal of pedigree books, and understand why people will pay more (with some exceptions), but for me personally it's never been a consideration. Which is why I don't currently own any I guess. 

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rjpb

rjpb

Posted
Posted
On 3/9/2022 at 10:42 AM, Point Five said:

Yeah, I was thinking the same. For almost any GA book I really really want, I'm lucky to have *one or two shots a year* at it. Whereas you SA/BA age folks have hundreds of copies to choose from, and your pickiness has had ample opportunity to blossom and flourish. ;) 

 

Return wise over the years, chasing high grade has been the way to go with Silver and Bronze, but if I found myself suddenly wealthy and with the room to store everything, and decided to collect (in many cases once again) the various Silver and Bronze books I've enjoyed over the years, I think I'd still just look for raw 8.0-9.0 copies with nice page quality. I realize with most of the keys you are not going to find 8.0s raw any longer, but that still is effectively the top grade that I would feel compelled to own, regardless of resources.I like books I can take out of the sleeve/bag and look through without having to worry that I might reduce the value by 50% or more doing so. 

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Funnybooks

Funnybooks

Posted
Posted (edited)

A. Grade; Presentation in grade is the biggest factor of all

B. Page color; OW-W for anything Silver+ /// Cream/OW Golden age is AoK /// Slightly Brittle ok if truly rare

C. Wrap; very important...symmetry is important...dislike fanning

D. Pedigree; somewhat important

E. Holder (old, oldest, new, custom); I'm a new holder wh0re...no custom...puke

F. Previous pressing; good either way

G. Holder condition; i'll reholder often if case bothers me

Are there other factors you consider? smell...the golden agier the better :cheers:

Are any of the factors deal breakers for you? a spine that looks like it went though the shredder

 

Order of importance based on your criteria:

A

C

B

D

F

G

E

 

Edited by Funnybooks
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MattTheDuck

MattTheDuck

Posted
Posted

These are good questions, and there are no wrong answers as far as I'm concerned.  Everyone has to build the collection that pleases them.  Note I am heavily a Silver Age Marvel collector, and have some different standards for younger books which I won't bother to list, or for Golden Age.  Note also, I'm primarily a raw book buyer, but do pick up slabs when they close a hole in my collection or if they are an upgrade of a low grade book I have.  I hate not being able to read the books, though.

A. Grade; - I'm at minimum 8.5/VF+, BUT skew higher whenever possible.  I'll accept slightly lower graded Golden Age books and it looks like I'm going to be forced to accept lower grade Silver Age keys if my Lottery tickets keep coming up as busts.

B. Page color; - WP whenever possible, nothing below OW/W

C. Wrap; - Trying not to buy arvel omics roup books. One of the real services this site provides is when people show pictures/discuss the kinds of things that can be wrong with a wrap on a particular book so you know there are better ones out there if you can be patient.

D. Pedigree; - like the idea in general, have only one.  Would be cool to have one from each major pedigree

E. Holder (old, oldest, new, custom); - don't care really, but think it's cool to find the older ones.  I like the custom labels, but don't have any

F. Previous pressing; - not a fan, but not adamantly opposed.  

G. Holder condition; - Doesn't matter, up to a point.  A crack in a corner?  No problem.  Major problems or damage that hurts the book's appearance?  Probably a pass.

Are there other factors you consider? - on the Boards, there are some sellers I won't buy from and some I look forward to seeing sales threads from.

Are any of the factors deal breakers for you? - Anything in A, B or C that's below the stated standard, unless I am just getting myself a "reader" so the standards don't really apply.  

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Qalyar

Qalyar

Posted
Posted

In descending order of importance:

  1. Being the book I'm looking for. I'm mostly a Bronze/Modern collector, but my collection skews weird, and some of the pieces I have (and many I'm still looking for) are books with 200, 100, 50, or fewer copies known (or in some cases even produced). As with GA books, sometimes the search is everything. If I run across some promo item that's only had two recorded sales in the entire internet era, then the flaws are whatever they are, you know?
  2. Price. While I'm willing to aggressively overpay for some rarities, sometimes people have insane ideas about what books are worth. That's especially true hunting for newsstand copies of otherwise dollar-bin titles. I just today tried (and failed) to explain to someone that I was willing to pay $20 for the newsstand printing of a specific book that is otherwise worth less than a buck, but that literally no human on the planet would pay his $125 ask. Good luck to him, I guess.
  3. Grade / condition. Modern stuff just really isn't allowed to have significant defects unless it's something extremely unusual. Because my interests are recent, page quality is rarely an issue, but I'd be extremely unlikely to pick up a Modern anything that wasn't "white pages" (except for a handful of self-published grails I'm chasing, which I would take literally regardless of condition at this point). However, I do not collect yellow label books; I'm not interested in aftermarket modifications. Green labels are acceptable for books that were distributed signed from the start; otherwise, blue or go home.
  4. Wrap. Perfect centering is nice, and I'd of course take a better-presenting book over the alternative, but I generally would rather have a technically sound copy than a slightly mis-aligned one with a physical defect.
  5. Holder / holder condition. I am not bothered by Newton rings, nor minor scratches within reason. Holders that are significantly damaged are another story, because I'll have to reholder them eventually and -- cost aside -- that's its own bucket of drama. Plus, abused slabs raise the risk of post-slabbing damage. Meanwhile, all else being equal, I prefer the new CGC slabs over the old ones (or the oldest ones), but it's not like I'm going to turn down a book on those grounds. I very well might turn down a book if it had a custom label though. No love at all.

I press relatively few of my books, and probably should press more of them. I've got a few 9.6s that likely could have been 9.8s otherwise. But I fence-sit gloriously on the topic of systematic pressing. Accordingly, I'm pretty agnostic about whether my books are previously pressed. It is what it is.

I do not collect books that qualify for pedigrees, and wouldn't really care if I did. Technically, I have a book that was pedigreed when it was in a CBCS holder, but not anymore now that it has been moved to a CGC slab (and the CBCS pedigree doesn't qualify as a "pedigree" here). I kept note of the original certification and such, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing of value was lost by the reholder.

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Funnybooks

Funnybooks

Posted
Posted
On 3/9/2022 at 4:33 PM, valiantman said:

Yep.  A beautiful CGC 6.5 is completely acceptable, while an ugly CGC 9.8 is easy to pass.

:cheers:

I'll take the value of an exceptional presenting lower grade copy over an over-valued slightly higher grade copy of the same book any day 

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valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted
On 3/9/2022 at 3:38 PM, Funnybooks said:
On 3/9/2022 at 3:33 PM, valiantman said:

Yep.  A beautiful CGC 6.5 is completely acceptable, while an ugly CGC 9.8 is easy to pass.

:cheers:

I'll take the value of an exceptional presenting lower grade copy over an over-valued slightly higher grade copy of the same book any day 

This cost significantly less than a CGC 8.0 with the common miswrap that makes the bottom left say KILL PIDER-MAN!

1020187594_1274544001_12001.jpg.f67f504720bd5d3e79a769bca1603793.jpg

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Kripsys99

Kripsys99

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 3/9/2022 at 4:33 PM, Qalyar said:

However, I do not collect yellow label books; I'm not interested in aftermarket modifications. Green labels are acceptable for books that were distributed signed from the start; otherwise, blue or go home.

Yeah, I should have included label type on my list. I agree about yellow labels - I don't own any, and go out of my way to avoid them. I understand the appeal for others - they're just not for me.

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southern cross

southern cross

Posted
Posted

Price, Price, Price!

Pedigrees from silver and bronze age don't go for a premium so I buy them.

If I buy a book at auction and it's a 9.0 or above I'll only buy white pages. If I'm paying FMV for a silver/bronze book it has to have white pages, perfect wrap and nice colors.

Here's an example. Paid FMV over 12 years ago so has to have a nice wrap, nice colors and white pages.

Screenshot_20220309-160240.thumb.png.1d3ed341cfcbc03ab888730cbe43c052.png

If it's cheap then I don't care.

Value for money is where I'm about.

I did but a golden age book 3 weeks ago with slightly brittle pages and once again I picked it up at a very nice price below what FMV would be if there were a lot out there.

A Detective comics 14 cgc 1.0

Once again PRICE!

Love old school cgc labels. Never know for sure but one could bet those were never pressed.

How's this book for a bad wrap.

Once again PRICE, bought it a few years ago back in Australia at a lcs price $20 U.S. My thoughts were I'm paying for the grading and the book inside is free.

 

Screenshot_20220309-155148.thumb.png.1866c91b15f296adaf13de3feee65307.png

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