I need advice

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Enjoying this thread. We all dream of finding great books and many of us have memories of our childhood collecting comics.

Once again, I'd encourage you to keep a few of your favorites, Toss them in a cheap frame or whatever and keep that link to your past.

I'll put up a pic of the 121 as soon as I have the backing boards which come today. I made a mistake in the last post and really meant the #121 in it.I know the 122 is not as fine. I did have 121 out for 45 seconds this morning and it would do well with a press. The cover has these tiny ripples in the lower right corner and are hard to perceive. They don't show in the mylar at all. On the back cover, there is a tiny gouge near the bottom center, maybe 1/4 inch long and shallow. The pages are very close to snow white. I was disappointed in the tiny gouge. Even with it, It's going to be premium. Nice book.

 

I'm becoming my own troll.

Man, your books are awesome. Many of us would love to find books like yours and have a hard time letting them go if we found them in our dad's attic.

However, when it comes to condition and pricing, this hobby is among the most anal and OCD and CGC has set the bar high forcing seasoned dealers and graders to adjust their grading standards. With grades like Near Mint Plus 9.6, Near Mint/Mint 9.8, Mint 9.9, and Gem Mint 10.0 allowing only the most minute amount of defects often barely visible to the untrained eye, books with grades previously thought of as NM and VF have been pushed further down the grade scale.

You say you're becoming your own troll but actually you're beginning to recognize defects that impact the grade and improving your grading skills. While no doubt those are great books and in pretty decent shape for the years and storage, we have all been through our own trials and years of tediously analyzing grades to the point where it has become second nature to callously assign a strict grade to our books since that's what it takes to buy and sell comics in this day and age. So I commend you for being receptive and learning the system as you should take the comments on the grades as very helpful starting points for setting expectations.

You want to see harsh, check out the Please Grade My (PGM) book section and see what grading enthusiasts assign to books that other boardies post for advice. It definitely helps save us $$ when deciding whether to have a book graded or just keep raw.

I try to keep a light tone when I talk about my trolling. This book was a gift to a kid essentially and the kid had the sense to not just cash it in for beer. Now, I'm on the back nine part of life and passing it along seems right. When I think of things I might want to spend loot on, there really aren't any items I desperately want and neither does my sweetie of 40 years.

I am inclined to make a point though. I've been putting books in mylite 2's this afternoon with the backing boards which I have recognized takes enormous care. I started on low grade books. SInce CGC wants them "just so" in the mylar, the lower right hand corner needs extreme caution getting it bagged. BUT, once it's bagged, it just looks fabulous and that's how most of you have ever seen an AF15 I'll wager. What you saw here was an ungraded dirty book with a single chip on a surface know for chipping.. Once I have it ready, I'll send it in here again thanks to my skilled friend with the photos and lets see if it looks quite so bad.

I have owned old English sports cars for much of my life ( I'm really stupid that way), from an MG TF, an MGA and two MGB's. Those cars , off the showroom floor had dents in them. The B models cost about 2K in 1965. I used to buy Porsche speedsters for 200 dollars each, rebuild them and sell them for $800 dollars. I did that with Mercedes as well all in my driveway. The porsches had dents too. At this point I think I'm drifting off to yelling that kids need to get off my lawn and that's not quite my intent. In 1968 or the years around, no one talked about grading much at all. It was just love. It wasn't really until the mile high collection hit that the realization hit that oxygen is not fun stuff. It gives life and death.

What I can't quite get a handle on yet is whether there's a realization that the printing techniques today are really vastly superior to the color separation guys back then. Holding each era to the same standard of perfection doesn't work. Do t to Gutenberg and give him a 3.2. So, what do we see? Trimmed books, inked books, pressed books. Grab the dollar at the same time everyone says "Don't restore it!" This one has none of that. It's an old lady half gone to seed but she still has pride. I think she;ll grade better than many here think, It's just they've not seen one in its bathrobe looking for the gin bottle at 10:00AM.

Time will tell. CGC can't ever be wrong. They all want their percentage of the sale. So do the pressers. So do the auction houses. Barnacles on the hull.

Not many people can tell my story.It could not have happened yet you all dream it is possible and here it is in the flesh.and I'm fairly sure there' are still comics in a box and there's a 300SL roadster in a barn in Utah. I'm content, however this goes. More is better than less but there's no anger about it. It wouldn't change a thing.

The LCS near me just had a 91 year old man, who lives within 2 miles of the shop, bring in some old books. Batman 2 but the big book was Batman Detective 31 & 33, looking 6.5-7.0, so yes they are still out there. That was this week.

I love it. Right now? I'm bagging 24 "Spidey goes mad"

I see where I've moved up to a hobbyist. I can't wait to become a Cretin.

I love it. Right now? I'm bagging 24 "Spidey goes mad"

 

I see where I've moved up to a hobbyist. I can't wait to become a Cretin.

I'll warn you now, you're on a slippery slope. Every book you look at and bag and board is a danger, every one is a gateway drug, and every one is a link to your past. Lock them up, run far away, count backwards from 232,003 or soon you'll be selling your tractors to buy silly comics. Be very afraid.....

I think with all great advise he's been getting nobody noticed his biggest mistake.........wanting a john deere. Get rid of the green and get a nice red IH.

If I get another Deere all the implements fit both machines.

But, you're cruel and you know it.

I'm planning to ask to be tied to the mast as we sail by the method of sale, just like Ulysses did.

Letting go is becoming a very hard reality. Reading the ones with no covers may not be enough. I feel like a robot in Westworld. All these memories...

You could get marvel unlimited on your smart phone/tablet. They have a very large collection of old marvel back issues you can download and read. It's not the same as reading a real comic but it might scratch the itch for you.

Glassman10, your comics and discussion around them and other topics is quite entertaining. If I didn't know better I'd say you were related to Mitch Mehdy ? A lot of facts, some innocent misinformation and shotgun approach. Congratulations, I hope you do as well as you hope with the cgc train. Comics are fun

wow 3 major discoveries in CG in just a couple weeks!

Ironical like.

I had no idea who Mitch Mehdy was. It's a neat thread but I have to confess I've only gotten about six pages into it. It is not what I would want to do.

When I posted the initial request for advice, I had no idea that this group of books would really attract any attention. I still don't think its any big deal, really more like some obsessive compulsive behavior that I got over eventually. That did not take into account my hoarding capacities.

I have been an artist my whole adult life with an interesting trip down the alley because I was good at managing Emergency services. That's a trade for young men. It's just so full of heartbreak.

But now, putting these in mylite2's on a backer is not something I ever thought I would do. They have already slipped away from me in a sense that I am reticent to take them in and out of the bags. Slabbing will be infinitely worse. They certainly look beautiful in the bags but also unattainable. So, I have real mixed feelings. From the point of view of what an inheritance does, giving my kids a jump start has always been a goal. If this comes off, then I get to see some of that realized and don't have to be dead to see it happen. That and far better if I don't have to see the house sold to do it. . It's hard to see when you're dead. Watching grandchildren grow up is more like what it should be.

I never viewed these things as a commodity. That's fast what they're becoming. People did that with my artwork too, calling up to see what the latest selling prices were to check their insurance values. No more discussion of beauty, color and form. Just people looking for tiny surface flaws in a nine micron polish. I thought Mehdy's take on Overstreet manipulating the market were really interesting. He had quite the vision. I can already see that occurring here as well.

Some scans/photos from Mr. Glassman10

Some more scans from Mr. Glassman

Not NM but great books nonetheless

Not NM but great books nonetheless

Yep I'd put that ASM 31 more in the VF+ range

Sure, sure..make fun of it. It was , as I recall in the famous "School bus Collection". It was in that box with an x men 6 and 7 and 40 , an Avengers 4,7,8,12,14, 15 a ASM 14 and this funny AF15. The Avengers 7 is really in remarkable condition as well. We'll get a scan of it. The other's , not so much particularly the ASM 14 with a torn cover but I'll still bet you would have been happy if you had found that box. I can't even remember what else was in there, stuff from the fifties etc. It keeps popping up here as I get this stuff on boards. I'm taking a bunch to Ihaveneatstuff later in the week to look at and help me get a sense of grade. Then we decide what goes to Sarasota. Keep in mind this entire collection was bought by a nineteen year old kid. I was blown away by that box. Now, I'm checking the coverless ones I also had and never really looked at.

Upload the X-mens!

I always love to see those!

Pleaaaaaaaaaase?