Is Good/VG worth it?

[minutekev@50]

Recently purchased a copy of ASM #16 in good to vg shape. The cost was $60 and I got it from a dealer. My question is: what rate of return can I expect? In other words, 30 years from now, will this book be worth more?

Like many 'lost' collectors, the movie Spider-Man brought me back. I left the hobby in the early 90s and I've been buying back issues and such for the past year and a half now...mostly silver age Spidey's, Neil Adams' Batmans, and the occasional Avengers, FF. I'm no near mint junkie and fine/VF usually suits me...well...just fine. Due to the substantial cost differences between fine/good, my thinking is to purchase VG copies of most books in a run and go for fine or above on the Key issues (death of Gobby, death of Gwendolyn, etc.)

I'd like to know what strategies other collectors use, especially those like myself who are on a limited budget. Will VG/G books from the Silver Age pull a substantial amount of money in the future? I look at GA Batman and Superman comics and see them worth hundreds, and in some case thousands...can we expect prices like this from the Silver Age?

Thanks

[tod09]

In my opinion g/vg silver books should really be purchased for only "reader copy" purposes. You should be able to sell them for a profit many years down the road as long as you pay a fair price for them now. Your best bet would be to buy VF or higher copies in the silver age to better your odds of a quicker and shorter wait for any possible profits.

 

Tod

[ninanina]

Comics in better condition do go up in value at a higher percentage than their lower grade counter-parts. So, your comic should be worth a lot more in 30 years.

 

If you take a Conan 1, for example, in the last 2 years "good" prices have increased 14% while VF prices have gone up 19%. Near Mint has gone up 35%.

 

Likewise, your Spiderman 16 had an increase from $61.50 to $70.50 in G/VG (15%) while the NM went up from $500.00 to $700.00, a whopping 40%.

 

So, yeah - it's worth it. But as long as you realize the better stuff goes up at a faster rate. And all this is assuming the condition does not deteriorate, which may or may not be more difficult depending on how much it's handled.

 

(Wow, comics have sure gone up quite a bit in a couple years.)

[dam60]

I like VG-F for my early SA Batman books cause I can't afford the better copies. I would recommend that you collect what you enjoy and if one day it is worth a lot of money all the better!

 

As far as investment goes, my thoughts are these:

-G to VG will always retain value as there will always be a completionist out there

-a top graded or very HG book will always be valuable as there will always be a perfectionist out there

 

With that being said, I think that a detective 27 with no cover and a detached centerfold isn't worth $9K. I also don't think that a Hulk 181cgc 9.8 is worth $18K either. Pay close attention to what you pay for your books and only invest what you can afford to lose.

 

Best of luck with your collecting goals,

 

DAM

[hammer-migration]

DAM,

That Det.27 coverless would be CHEAP at TWICE the BIN if he sent it to CGC for grading and fair due payment of royalties. It would be transformed from a relatively worthless coverless to a highly prized and invaluable coverless, once a restoration check were sensibly performed on what remains of the original book. Then, it could be cracked out of the CGC holder to be enjoyed as a reader with the understanding that the owner resubmit the coverless no less than twice yearly to keep the royalties current and up to date on that book.

[garthgantu]

Great question, MinuteKev, and you've gotten some solid answers already. To the comments above, I would add this anecdotal data: I talk to a fair number of comic book dealers, both eBay-based and real-world retailers. I consistently hear "Well, we can move high-grade stuff quickly, and we can usually move low-grade stuff quickly, but the mid-grade books (and they're referring to SA and GA) are harder to move, so we don't buy them as often and don't pay as much when we do."

 

I'm hopeful that this will change over time, since I have a lot of FN-to-VF material myself I think it's realistic to expect that at some point, GA and SA books in this mid-grade range will enjoy more significant increases in price, as a higher and higher % of collectors and even investors are priced out of the truly high-grade market, and as more people realize that the difference between Smash Comics #54 or Tales To Astonish #44 in FN-VF and the same comic(s) in VF+/NM- is actually pretty slim.

 

I would add that, if you're going to buy SA books in G-VG, I would definitely stick to the major titles (like the ones you mentioned); second-tier books from the same era in lower grade are even harder to move...

 

Garthgantu

[dam60]

Hammer, thank you. That's exactly what I meant to say!

 

Laughing out loud,

 

DAM

[Warlord]

ninanina wrote:

If you take a Conan 1, for example, in the last 2 years "good" prices have increased 14% while VF prices have gone up 19%. Near Mint has gone up 35%.

 

Likewise, your Spiderman 16 had an increase from $61.50 to $70.50 in G/VG (15%) while the NM went up from $500.00 to $700.00, a whopping 40%.

 

Don't forget one factor in the increase of prices for comics in the highest grades -- the tightening of grading standards.

 

In the 2 year period you cited this may not have been much of an issue. However, if you look at grading standards from a decade ago vs today you'll see that stricter grading guidelines exist now vs then. Given that the NM of today is much more clearly defined and very limited in having any flaws it makes sense to me that it would be worth more than the average NM comic of the early 90's.

 

The strict grading issue is even greater over a much longer timeframe, for instance if you looked at grading standards from the early 80's.

 

Given that the grading standards of today are fairly strict, I don't think that the trend towards increasing strictness has much more room to play out over the next two decades. So the shift in grading standards will have less room to impact prices going forward.

 

 

[BachelorOfComix]

DAM,

That Det.27 coverless would be CHEAP at TWICE the BIN if he sent it to CGC for grading and fair due payment of royalties. It would be transformed from a relatively worthless coverless to a highly prized and invaluable coverless, once a restoration check were sensibly performed on what remains of the original book. Then, it could be cracked out of the CGC holder to be enjoyed as a reader with the understanding that the owner resubmit the coverless no less than twice yearly to keep the royalties current and up to date on that book.

Come again?

[ninanina]

Just say yes Hammer. (You're not supposed to understand it.)

[aardvark88]

Hammer is implying that comic/coin collectors are like sheep. They need to be told by a 3rd party grading system that a collectible has no resto & is TRULY coverless in case they doubt their own eyes.

[Aman619]

ammer is implying that comic/coin collectors are like sheep. They need to be told by a 3rd party grading system that a collectible has no resto & is TRULY coverless in case they doubt their own eyes.

 

and he keeps implying it over and over and over.....Enough already, Its not funny, we get the point. Just buy ungraded books art whatever grade the seller gives it...like the good old days when noone ever bought an overgraded book or an undisclosed restored book from a top dealer.

 

I dont mind CGC grading books. What I dont like is this recent maniacal buying at ridiculous prices BECAUSE a book grades extremely high. And CGC's inconsistent grading. The concept is fine. The payments arent TRIBUTES. They're more like ADMISSION tickets to the land of Selling Comics for far more than they are worth now or in the future. But thats the BUYER'S fault---not CGCs!!!