What's your next best book? 4 4

[Crops068]

On 4/4/2022 at 7:16 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I've been espousing the 2nd and 3rd appearance for a long time, @Crops068 can confirm.

When I saw it happened with major silver age, I was sure it would spiral to other "ages!"

I'm not sure if it is just a slower build, due to the provenance that bronze hasn't the level or importance as silver. 

I can attest that Addy is (in my honest opinion) the king of 2nd and 3rd appearances.  That is normally my 1st question when he asks me if he should get this book or that book.

About the original topic, I have my grail, Iron Man 55 (CGC 6.0).  The next in line I will likely hunt is a decent copy of Marvel Graphic Novel, Death of Captain Marvel (1st Print).  I have a 9th print currently.  Or maybe a better copy, not water damaged, of Captain Marvel vol 1 #28.

[Brian48]

These. 

[Jesse-Lee]

My "next best" book is usually getting a lower grade entry level copy of various books I want and can afford vs buying one higher grade copy of a single book. I typically buy on opportunity, meaning if I find a good deal, that is better to me than putting all my resources in one main book I want. I know a lot of people don't love this approach, but it works for me. I'm happy to own copies of Batman 181, 189, 251, Tec 359, etc. instead of just having to pick owning one of those books in a higher grade. And I don't plan on these going anywhere anytime soon, so the "investment" part on these means less to me (insert DC collector joke here). I just love having these in the collection.

Edited to add - these six books cost me $2,500 total. Right now, I could own maybe a 6.5-7.5 Detective 359 for that price, or all of these books. I'll take all of these.

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Jesse-Lee

[KirbyJack]

Yessir! I, too, am living the low-grade lifestyle. I have no plans to stop.

[NP_Gresham]

My ‘next best’ is a restored Amazing Fantasy #15.

I had the blue label 5.5 but it got scary high and thought that would be too much for me too lose in a fire/ flood, theft , etc.

Bought a 1.8 restored and decided this would be my keeper. Bought during a lull with a Hulk #1 blue 2.0 in a ‘package deal’ I then sold the Hulk #1 to off set my AF #15 investment. So I think I paid less than $8k

I don’t have pictures right now, because the book is at Hero Restoration getting a ‘face lift’. I think restored is a reasonable replacement book for a grail that is too much to hold and insure.

At the end of the day I will have a great looking grail at a price I can afford to keep.

[southern cross]

I also buy bargain keys for trade later on. I keep the highest grade and will trade others towards a bigger book to ease the price.

 

 

these books cost me $300, I will keep the highest grade, probably a 7.0 and the rest I'll hold and trade in the future

[southern cross]

These three Superman over the years cost me $105.

Once again I'll keep the highest grade and possibly use the others for trade towards a bigger book.

[southern cross]

And I've done that with other books as well. I'll keep the highest grade and or the slab and the raw to be used for trade.

Easier to trade a minor key that a dealer doesn't have towards a bigger book.

But I only pick up the extras when they are priced as bargains under FMV to start with 👍

[Dick Pontoon]

Here's some of silver of mine from the neighboring suburbs:

 

 

[MattrixAlien]

On 4/2/2022 at 2:19 AM, LowGradeBronze said:

I've been getting a lot of value from the Classic X-Men title, specifically the Byrne/Austin issues. I love the fact that they are advert free for most of the Byrne run, then there's the sweet spot from 28 onward when they stopped putting stupid additional story pages into the reprint. They're ad-free right up to #44. Reprint quality is high, easily as good as the originals, (I've done many a comparison,) and they are easy to find with white pages. I've been converted to white pages by these reprints. Marvel changed their printing from #42 (Dec 1989) to a slightly crisper more modern method and even that doesn't spoil them. They cost almost nothing so you can flip through them without worrying about damage. My originals would be ruined if I looked at them as much as these reprints! (It's just sad that Steve Lightle died from covid in Jan 2021. His covers from 30 onward are fantastic.)

I eventually followed this & @grendelbo advise and picked up Classic X-men 1 which reprints my dream grail GSX1 and comes in this stunning Art Adam's cover which is probably my all time favourite team illustration of the X-men. I used to have it as a poster on my wall as a kid. This reprint actually has a little bit of value but I picked it up for a quarter in an auction no one was watching. 

 

[LowGradeBronze]

Well done, lots of X-Men fun for almost no outlay! For us Brits there were a few issues that were not distributed over here and the Classic title makes up for that. My only gripe is that the Classic run did not include the two Days of Future Past issues. Commercial reasons I suspect.

[Poekaymon]

[Conali]

Not my copy, but I picked up a low grade #4, because, at least it has the story of Samson fighting the robots! And finding a #3, let alone winning the bid is a minor miracle in itself.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Conali

[Buzzetta]

I knew that I was never going to get a Tec 27 so I bought a Batman 47

I knew that I was never going to get an Action 1 so I bought a Superman 53

 

[Dick Pontoon]

Thread necromancy!

Here's some more Silver of mine from the neighboring suburbs of best books.

[Lazyboy]

On 12/29/2022 at 1:41 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Well done, lots of X-Men fun for almost no outlay! For us Brits there were a few issues that were not distributed over here and the Classic title makes up for that. My only gripe is that the Classic run did not include the two Days of Future Past issues. Commercial reasons I suspect.

This is why.