How do you feel about buying “ Conserved and Qualified “ Golden age books. 3 3

[action1kid]

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Edited August 12, 2023 by action1kid
Mistake

[action1kid]

Yeah, I know, if at the right price, but beyond that, your thoughts?

[Mr. Lady Luck]

Restored, qualified, conserved... it's all the same to me. I wouldn't knowingly buy one unless it was only going to be used as a reader.

[badback83]

I don’t have a problem with it.  Being that I’m working with a limited budget, it usually allows me to buy books that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford blue labels of.  I’ll buy restored as well.  Except for trimming.

[Funnybooks]

Conserved copies are very much a viable option to universal copies. I would have no issues with owning conserved or restored books in my collection. 

[action1kid]

Let’s use an example. The Allentown copy of Wonder 1 which is conserved. 

[Robot Man]

For the right price on the right book, wouldn’t bother me at all as long as I know it. But I also have everything from coverless/incomplete to Mile High books in my collection. 

[Courageous Cat]

not a fan of cleaned covers...sorry, but you just can't undo that..otherwise, no problemo

[IngelsFan]

My preference goes: Unrestored>Conserved>Restored. That having been said, there is some Resto that is the kiss of death for me; trimming and reglossing come to mind. Since GA prices are moving toward those of fine art, with my budget I’ve become a lot less picky. Conserved hits that sweet spot of not really having any negatives for me, as long as the PQ is good. I’ll take a white page Conserved before a Brittle Blue any day!

[Robot Man]

Books that are brittle, excessive tape, big pieces missing or mold are a strict no no for me. Anything else is on a case by case basis. Rarity and price is the most important.

[Cat-Man_America]

Three separate tiers of value/interest, as far as Im concerned. I have absolutely no personal problem owning encapsulated books in apparent high grade that are restored, better yet conserved.

OTOH, I'm less enthusiastic about the qualified designation, except perhaps for the rare green label with replaced staples which used to receive the Qualified designation.  What would turn me off with Qualified is trimming, missing pages, missing coupons, etc., if that's how it's designated. Also, too much restoration might drive me away from a book regardless of how it's priced, but that's definitely on a case by case basis.

Bottom line, I think Conserved and Restored books are going to become more important to the hobby as time goes on and rarer books are obtainable or affordable in no other way. Collecting GA requires strategizing given the deep pocket demand, IMO. 

I'm also an advocate of filler books ...basically photocopy reproductions... to stand in for books that aren't easily acquirable.  While filler copies have no demonstrable value in the collector marketplace, they serve as reading copies and to fill-in in runs that are all but impossible to complete.  There are times when it's preferable to have a nice non-encapsulated reading copy that isn't as fragile as a lower grade well worn original.

My , no extra charge for the caffeine!   

[707comics]

Buy what you like and can afford.

Many books I would otherwise not have in my collection were acquired with purple / green labels.

As a matter of fact, I love finding collectors who have the "PLOD" mentality and some books to sell. Quite often a good deal to be had IMO 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by 707comics
added green

[october]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:03 AM, DocHoppus182 said:

I don’t have a problem with it.  Being that I’m working with a limited budget, it usually allows me to buy books that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford blue labels of.  I’ll buy restored as well.  Except for trimming.

This exactly. No trimming and I really try to avoid incomplete. Everything else is on the table when a nice blue label is out of reach. 

Edited August 12, 2023 by october

[D84]

On 8/12/2023 at 12:39 PM, 707comics said:

Buy what you like and can afford.

Many books I would otherwise not have in my collection were acquired with purple / green labels.

As a matter of fact, I love finding collectors who have the "PLOD" mentality and some books to sell. Quite often a good deal to be had IMO 

 

This...

The only thing I avoid is obvious trimming. If a book says trimmed and I look at it and still can't tell, I'll buy it.

[atomised]

I only buy blue (or yellow) label and never books with brittle pages.  If the book is really tough, like a Mystery Men Comics #7, I may break my rules and pick up a conserved, restored etc.  To each their own, not sure it matters.

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

I look at all of it as damage and try to disregard whether the damage made it prettier. 

I wouldn't care a bit whether the damage was done intentionally or unintentionally, but I know that makes a massive difference to people, so -- 

I would not pay more than the market bears for something even if I think the market is behaving irrationally. 

But if I want to keep something, or I think the market may behave more rationally in the future, I will seek out things that have been damaged intentionally if it's clear they are selling for much less than they should be, compared to things that have sustained much more damage but are currently considered far more valuable because the damage is considered unintentional or otherwise acceptable. 

 

 

[Professor K]

Good question. My . I have never owned a Green label. Usually there is something missing from the book. Parts married don't bother me much but still I wouldn't wan't one, or to spend money on one.

Conserved and Restored- Sure why not. My personal rule is restored books can not have more than moderate restoration. B-3 is my limit. No trimmed.   My circumstances have a lot to do with why I don't mind conserved or restored Golden Age books. I was strictly a 1961 to 1974 guy until around 2017 , got my first GA in 2018. I had thousands of books, many full runs,  and a few hundred graded keys (spent nearly 10 years selling about 98% of them). So by time I got hooked on the splendor of GA books most of the prices of the books I wanted were really high,  now insanely high for many of them. This is why I don't mind adding nicely restored books to my collection. 

Had I been getting these books 10, 20 or 30 years ago like I wish I had then at this point I wouldn't have to go after conserved/restored stuff..... but it's a good way to get books you love. I wouldn't hate them but I probably wouldn't want to own any other than like an AC 7, Tec 31 or books like those. Another good thing especially with high demand books that are conserved/restored is that although they will always sell for less than Blue labels as time goes by and Blue label copies become available less I believe more people will look to conserved/restored copies to fill that hole in their lives ( not only because they're cheaper but because ya get sick of waiting). Maybe over time conserved/restored copies especially of high demand books will sell for maybe even 50% of what Blue labels sell for. I'd say at this point the average figure for conserved/restored books is around 25% of what Blue labels sell for. 

A couple examples of books I really wanted that if they were Blue in the same grades I would not have, or if I did they'd be very low grade. Which kind of leads to another question. Better to get a presentable mid or high grade restored (other than extensive and/or trimmed) or a low grade Blue copy (like .5 to 1.8ish)? For me it's conserved/restored only for appearance sake, but most likely low grade Blues will increase in value at a higher rate than conserve/restored copies will.

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Professor K
spelling correction

[Professor K]

And coming soon........Yeah I bought it (not on e bay). I figure a 6.0 Blue at this point would go for around 21 to 25k. And I don't have 25,000 to spend on a comic. But without a Mask 2 my life was incomplete.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Professor K

[comicjack]

On 8/12/2023 at 4:41 PM, Professor K said:

And coming soon........Yeah I bought it. I figure a 6.0 Blue at this point would go for around 21 to 25k. And I don't have 25,000 to spend on a comic. 

Be happy you have a great looking copy with nice pq 

[Professor K]

On 8/12/2023 at 4:49 PM, comicjack said:

Be happy you have a great looking copy with nice pq 

Thanks Jack. I am sir, I am. Happy and Peppy and Bursting with Love