Opinions on Restored SA Keys

[piper]

It won't be long before I start thinking about doing time payments on my two grails (ASM1 and AF15). My ASM collection is strictly low to mid grade, so the thought of restored books might make the above proposition more affordable.

 

The question is, should I go for a restored copy or buy the lowest grade copies that I can stand looking at?

 

While I have never viewed my hobby as an investment, I would be foolish not to view purchasing $1k + books as such.

 

Thanks in advance for your input,

[mar-vell]

My only advice is if you decide to go restored try to be patient and buy Slight(P) or slight(A) only! I think you will be much happier with books that have minmal work done on them as books heavily and moderately color touched don't look as nice up close!

[Filter81]

Every comic in this picture combined cost me less than what one unrestored VF AF 15 would go for. And other than the ToS 39, every one of them is F/VF or better.

 

Sometimes restored SA books can be a nice bargain.

 

 

I don't think restored SA books are necessarily great investments the way restored GA books can be.. (There are too many unrestored SA books out there) But I don't think you can ever go wrong buying something when you spot a good value.

 

[trevorlsmith]

Every comic in this picture combined cost me less than what one unrestored VF AF 15 would go for. And other than the ToS 39, every one of them is F/VF or better.

 

Sometimes restored SA books can be a nice bargain.

 

 

I don't think restored SA books are necessarily great investments the way restored GA books can be.. (There are too many unrestored SA books out there) But I don't think you can ever go wrong buying something when you spot a good value.

 

 

That's a nice looking set of books!

[Mr. Zipper]

My only advice is if you decide to go restored try to be patient and buy Slight(P) or slight(A) only! I think you will be much happier with books that have minmal work done on them as books heavily and moderately color touched don't look as nice up close!

 

Agreed.

 

IMO, I'd rather have a slightly restored 6.0 FF 1 for the same price as an unrestored 2.0. I'd rather look at a book with nice eye appeal and a few dots of color touch than a book that looks like it's been through a shredder.

 

As long as you stick with slight restoration and high priced keys, there will be demand. And as books like AF 15 and FF 1 continue to rise into the stratosphere, I suspect that more and more collectors will be forced to find slight resto on these books "acceptable"... and the wide price gulf between PLOD and blue will decrease accordingly. In fact, slightly restored keys may be a smart buy at this time. The pendulum will eventually swing back from the extreme position it's in now.

[ft88]

Slightly restored are actually pretty pricey given their PLOD status. Even raw fully disclosed they are getting 40-50% of unrestored value. CGC'd slightly more. For the mega keys like AF15 the percentages are much less for restored. A combination rich people with money to burn and mega keys usually having quite a few restored copies out there. This is true for both SA and GA. I think the amateur color touch is more common in the SA. Nothing wrong with that giventhe discount and how much it is.

 

Stay away (or heavily discount) trimming or pieces added. I also stay way from cover cleaning but I don't know much about it so maybe it doesn't affect the book all that much.

[brasseye]

Slightly restored are actually pretty pricey given their PLOD status. Even raw fully disclosed they are getting 40-50% of unrestored value. CGC'd slightly more. For the mega keys like AF15 the percentages are much less for restored. A combination rich people with money to burn and mega keys usually having quite a few restored copies out there. This is true for both SA and GA. I think the amateur color touch is more common in the SA. Nothing wrong with that giventhe discount and how much it is.

 

Stay away (or heavily discount) trimming or pieces added. I also stay way from cover cleaning but I don't know much about it so maybe it doesn't affect the book all that much.

 

Sage advice.

[Comicdey]

 

ASM 1, AF 15 and FF 1 in lower grade aren't going to be much different with slight restoration or unrestored, as there are too many people chasing the books on any given day. When you get up into the mid range restored, they too seem to be somewhat more reasonable, and the obviously restored high grade are still an extreme discount to the nosebleed unrestored copies out there.

 

GA restoration (slight P) is my favorite, as for the most part, very little to nothing has been done, and the books are not that easy to come by anyway, so I'm always pleased picking up a nice GA book at a deep discount to the overstreed raw unrestored variety.

 

With that said, I think the raw GA unrestored will be the nosebleed down the road and the restored will always follow a distant second.

 

In my opinion, due to the vast availability, restored SA books are not the way to go unless you are getting them for fractions of guide IMO as an investment. For reading, they're just as good though. Keys are the exception to the rule.

[evilsly]

I'd buy plods like filter81's all day long.

 

superb eye appeal

[heinlein99]

If it's for your own enjoyment, go for it. A lot of these guys on this board can drop ~$10,000 for a funnybook, but for the rest of us it's just not in the cards.

 

Lightly restored books can be a much more economical way of getting the chance to own books which you've lusted after for years.

 

I eventually think the investment community will lighten up slightly about restoration, but that's far from certain, and is a totally separate issue from whether you're looking at a book for your own personal collection.

[Stronguy]

My AF15, Hulk 1 and one of my X-Men 1s all have resto. Like Filter, I paid less for all of them (including the resto) than an unrestored 4.0 AF15.

[mar-vell]

this is a good example of a big discount on a slightly restored key:

 

JIM 83

[djpinkpanther67]

I guess I would rather have restored & raw if it wasn't that much, & use it for display or something...For slabbing I would want unrestored

[Guardian Comics]

I am currently in the market for PLOD's of many of the Marvel Keys, the problem is they rarely show up in the parameters I am looking for. 8.0 and above, moderate pro resto or better, no trimming and off white pages or better. In six months I've only been able to secure an FF #1 that meets my personal requirements. Currently on CL there is an unrestored 8.0 that has a bid price of 20k, I paid less than 15% of that for a book that visually looks more appealing. I'll buy and recommend that to anyone all day long. I don't even collect FF...it's just been a book that I have always ogled and wanted ever since I was a young lad, and PLOD's help service that need for a book that would be otherwise unobtainable for me.

 

Jim

[KingOfRulers]

I think in the end it comes down to your budget, and if you intend to resell.

 

On a personal level, I would rather not have any of my books restored. But since I am not rich, I will of course except restoration on books such as Cap #1 and others like it. Fortunately I am not so pressed that I cannot afford SA keys unrestored, so currently all of my SA keys are unrestored. But if all you can afford is an X-men #1 S(P), and you want to complete the set then maybe its worth it to just get it. The X-men #1 will probably have little resale value, but if that wasn;t your objective in the first place, then who cares?

 

Buy what you like, at the prices you can afford, and complete the goal that gives you the maximum satisfaction with the least amount of money spent.