It’s funny sometimes how certain items that find their way through our doors at our shop Conquest Comics, seem to last mere minutes. Countless times, we’ve acquired collections, or in this case…get a CGC order in with something specific, & something immediately gets claimed and plucked before it even has a chance to make it on the sales floor. Not that I’m complaining, as it’s a pretty cool problem to have.
The example today is from a batch of long overdue graded books. We recently got in a few low grade, yet big keys that we sent away to CGG, and 3 of the 6 are already gone with 2 of those 3 never even getting the chance to hit the sales floor. Take this classic gem for instance…
While this timeframe of Iron Man from the 60’s is relatively tame and affordable given it’s age, issue number #55 stands out in a sea of mediocrity. For ya see, this beauty of a book contains not one…but 2 major Marvel first appearances in Drax and big MCU baddie…Thanos!
This specific copy came from a collection that contained some real juicy gems in Tomb of Dracula #10 (1st Blade), Marvel Spotlight #5 (1st Ghost Rider), Amazing Spider-Man #129 ( 1st Punisher), and Amazing Spider-Man #121 (Death of Gwen Stacy). The downside is it looked like the previous owner stored these books in dook water for a couple of decades. Yeah, there’s ton of staining and other flaws throughout each of them, but in a sense, low grade keys are often a tad easier to move due to the fact that they are simply more affordable for most folks.
That is why Scott here claimed that Iron Man as soon as we knew the grade, which is a highly respectable 4.0. What makes moving graded books easier than their raw counterparts, is there’s really no room for interpretation. If you subscribe to the notion of CGC books, you can easily look to see what a 4.0 fetches which in this case is around $450 on the nose. Actually the past 2 copies holding the same grade sold for $440 & $450. So when Scott expressed his undying interest, we agreed upon that easy number of $450. He came in within hours of it arriving and lo and behold, Scotty had a new addition to add to his ever growing stockpile of delicious Silver Age keys.
Since he was a bit high on the Mad Titan, we gave him a good deal on this copy of Captain Marvel #26 in a 6.0 as it features a Thanos appearance as well. All in all, he went home a happy camper. While I’d love to have had the Iron Man sitting and getting gawked at for a bit as it’s a great book, I’m also happy I can help add something positive to Scott’s comic investment portfolio.
I know Scott will get a kick out of reading this, so cheers to you homie. Now go house 4 bun-less Hot Dogs and buy some Bitcoin, ya big dope!!! 😝
Blewitt
Nice! Never really been a fan of graded books but seems to be the way to go these days. Wonder sometimes if I should start submitting my collection. Or even just the keys. I collected the entire run of volume 1 of Iron Man a while back. Besides getting my big 3 grails, FF 5, Tales of Suspense 39, and Daredevil 1, it was probably my biggest achievement in collecting. 😅 Also quite expensive overall haha.
Those are fantastic books! One of our customers just landed a FF 5. That’s one I do NOT have in my collection sadly.
I’d say if you plan on moving em…get em graded and pressed. If it does with you then keep ‘em raw.
I've considered selling them (all of my comics at once mostly.) My wife won't let me for some reason haha. At one point I really wanted to trade my entire collection for the highest grade I could get of Daredevil #1. Was thinking 9.0 or higher would be a pretty even trade. But I never really looked too hard. 😅
In the end I'd probably be that sentimental guy that doesn't really want to get rid of any of them though.
I’m struggling with these thoughts as well on my personal collection. I’ve didn’t the past year going through all my personal books (over 250 long boxes!!!), and paired it down to about 50 long boxes. The rest I’m going to offload at shows for a buck a piece. Might even try some package sales on Hive.
Out of those 50, it’s just big keys and smaller keys. Cool variants and popular titles that always sell for decent cash. I want to thin that down even more.
I think I only really want to keep my ASM’s and some big keys. The rest…can all go.
Find a nice Amazing Fantasy 15! 😁
My personal Holy Grail book. One day…