Comic Book Collecting

[Rex fury]

Geezer, that's a great collection! Thanks for the info on the masks, I didn't know about the Gargoyle version. I have The Satana Mask in one of my comics. I didn't find it very impressive, but other folks may like it. Ah, the Ghost Rider Mask... seems he's always the most difficult to track down. I've spent years looking for the original ( western)  Ghost Rider mask that M. E. Advertised in their comics from the 1950's. I kinda doubt I'll put much energy into finding the 90's mask though.
I hope your current monster rooms are cool! At the moment most of my old toys, models, etc. are sitting in boxes in my garage from a move I made a couple of years back.
RF

[Rex fury]

Drawn To Comics is a Store to visit!
Just wanted to give a great big shout out to this comic store  which I visited today. I'm spending a little time in Phoenix Arizona this week and decided to go comic shopping. Initially I'd planed to go to All About Comics, a Store I'd visited before and enjoyed immensely. To my dismay I learned they've closed their brick and mortar operation. I happened upon a review for Drawn To Comics and decided to visit.
I was immediately impressed when the store's co-proprietor met me at the door and introduced herself. The place was well stocked with modern material, but I was after more esoteric comics ( Lash Larue anyone?). So, she introduced me to her husband who helped me search the appropriate long boxes. I found several cool comics ( including Lash Larue 70, and Black Magic 31) at a fair price.
Living where I do in the wilds of North Idaho it's a rare treat to find an awesome comic store and meet enthusiastic people who love the hobby as much as me. I highly recommend a visit to Drawn To Comics if you are in the Phoenix local.
RF

[geezer butler]

Drawn To Comics is a Store to visit!
Just wanted to give a great big shout out to this comic store  which I visited today. I'm spending a little time in Phoenix Arizona this week and decided to go comic shopping. Initially I'd planed to go to All About Comics, a Store I'd visited before and enjoyed immensely. To my dismay I learned they've closed their brick and mortar operation. I happened upon a review for Drawn To Comics and decided to visit.
I was immediately impressed when the store's co-proprietor met me at the door and introduced herself. The place was well stocked with modern material, but I was after more esoteric comics ( Lash Larue anyone?). So, she introduced me to her husband who helped me search the appropriate long boxes. I found several cool comics ( including Lash Larue 70, and Black Magic 31) at a fair price.
Living where I do in the wilds of North Idaho it's a rare treat to find an awesome comic store and meet enthusiastic people who love the hobby as much as me. I highly recommend a visit to Drawn To Comics if you are in the Phoenix local.
RF

Thanks, I'll check that out next time i'm in town. We lived in AZ for a few yrs. For some reason I never heard of that place. Although, we spent our time on the other side of town. So I went to comic book shops in Mesa, Tempe, and Scottsdale for the most part. Anyhow, we still have friends in AZ, closer to Glendale actually. So next time i'm in the area, I'll hit that place for sure.

[horrorhunter]

I have some questions for the comic book collectors out there. I wanna see what others think.

Who can afford some of the prices out there for premium issues? I'm getting close to completing my Marvel 70s horror collection. I only need Werewolf by Night 32 and Tomb of Dracula 10.  All us monster/comic book nerds know the significance of those books.  Look up the prices on those books. If you can find a shoddy copy, you're still paying $300-$400.

So first of all, what's so significant about the first appearances of Blade and Moon Knight, respectively? I mean, as a monster nerd, I totally dig those characters, but let's me honest---we're not talking about first appearances of Captain American or Wolverine.

Second, again I ask who can afford to drop $700-$2500 on a single comic book? To be honest, I probably could afford that, but it wouldn't be responsible with our budget. And it's just the point. I understand supply and demand, and these are rare issues blah blah blah. I still think it's gouging.

Thanks for allowing me to rant. 

Hey, GB. I decided to check out UMA after 6 months hiatus and I'm a little surprised to see this thread still rollin'. Anyway, I thought to respond to your post above.

I understand your frustration regarding the pricing on WBN #32 and TOD #10. As we know, the significance of those two issues is the popularity of Moon Knight and Blade, and the accepted importance of first appearances in today's comic book marketplace. Both issues are very plentiful but were considered more and more "demand-scarce" over the years which steadily drove up prices. As with many comics they were expensive before, but in this time of MCU hype with Dr. Strange, Multiverse Of Madness looming in the future threatening to loose the supernatural dark side of the Marvel Universe on the MCU (and TV show rumblings), the prices on those two books are getting more ridiculous all the time. If I didn't already have them I would be satisfied with reprints to fill those holes in the respective runs. No, I wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars for low-mid grade copies, nor thousands for high grade copies. I know it seems like price gouging but it's really just the free marketplace in action. A few people will pay those crazy prices so it doesn't matter if most of us can't, or won't. The books still command those values in the public mind and that's what sets fair market prices. Still, I agree with you, as much as I love both characters I think the books are way overpriced.

I check eBay periodically to get a gauge of current comic values and I've noticed a trend towards very low grade copies of key books for sale for much more than ever before. Books in FAIR and even POOR and incomplete are getting priced at near GOOD and sometimes even more. It's as if demand for any copy of certain books, regardless of condition, has risen to the point that sellers are placing previously unheard of prices on really crappy copies. Maybe those ultra low grade copies are selling at a premium because some collectors will pay a huge amount just to have a copy, ANY copy, of that issue in their collection. I find this very peculiar since for decades FAIR copies were valued at around 1/2 of GOOD, and a POOR copy would be considered virtually worthless unless it was a mega-key, and even then might just sell for a small percentage of what a GOOD copy would bring.

Getting back to your original post about pricing, I focus most on less expensive comics these days. I had much rather get several mid (or even low) grade issues I need to complete a run than one or two high grade issues. I go after what I like that isn't "hot" these days so I avoid the Marvel keys with the MCU stirring up the marketplace. Recently I've been getting good deals on books like DC War comics (SSWS #138-149, 1st Enemy Ace), Space Ghost #1 (Gold Key), and Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes #s 1-7 (complete run). Thankfully, I've completed most of the Bronze Horror titles by the big 2, as well as most monster mag titles, so now I'm working on Charlton and Gold Key Horror as well as titles like Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (have #1-13, need 14-16). Also, I'm constantly on the hunt for different Monster and Halloween items when a good deal presents itself (toys, masks, posters, games, etc.). So, to sum up, my days of dropping big bucks on single comics have ground to a halt... too much other cool stuff out there that's very affordable.

[Hepcat]

I decided to check out UMA after 6 months hiatus and I'm a little surprised to see this thread still rollin'.

Still rollin'?! I'm only halfway through posting my multi-part epic on how I got into comics!

I understand your frustration regarding the pricing on WBN #32 and TOD #10. As we know, the significance of those two issues is the popularity of Moon Knight and Blade, and the accepted importance of first appearances in today's comic book marketplace. Both issues are very plentiful but were considered more and more "demand-scarce" over the years which steadily drove up prices.

That's the primary reason why I've always opted to pursue comics other than Marvel. I hate paying for (someone else's) high demand.

Also, I'm constantly on the hunt for different Monster and Halloween items when a good deal presents itself (toys, masks, posters, games, etc.). So, to sum up, my days of dropping big bucks on single comics have ground to a halt... too much other cool stuff out there that's very affordable.

Precisely. The escalation in the price for these high demand (primarily Marvel "key") comics has made toys and other collectibles look relatively affordable.

[marsattacks666]

Finally! Years of hunting for these issues of Archie's Madhose. I have them in my possession. 👹🤘🏼

[horrorhunter]

That's the primary reason why I've always opted to pursue comics other than Marvel. I hate paying for (someone else's) high demand.

I agree in general with this, but not specifically to exclude Marvel. I grew up reading Marvel comics in the mid '60s and have very fond memories of enjoying Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, and Avengers issues from that period. One of the earliest comics I remember buying was Fantastic Four #35. I read that copy until it was literally in FAIR condition, even though the cover was still holding on. I enjoyed many other books back then too... Turok, Star Spangled War Stories (War That Time Forgot), Tomahawk, Metal Men, etc., but I liked Marvel Superhero books much better than DC. I have a few DC Superhero comics in my collection, mostly for Adams art (and a little Wrightson), but for me Marvel blew DC away when it came to Superheroes. Later on, in the early Bronze Age, the Marvel Monster titles hit and I loved those issues (still do), as well as many of the Marvel Superhero titles. So, no way I'm going to exclude Marvel from my collection. I'm just glad I picked up most of the ones I really want back when they were cheap.

These days I'd have to pass on some of the Marvel keys and settle for reprints, but I would still go after the run fillers if I didn't have them. To me the run fillers are undervalued while the keys are overvalued. My Werewolf By Night #32 is in VF/NM (9.0) condition, and my Tomb Of Dracula #10 is in FN+ (6.5) condition. I bought both of those books out of dealers long boxes back in the late '70s/early '80s for arounds $2 each. And, the reason I bought them was to complete the RUNS. I'm glad I was thorough back then and went after the runs because I would have to pass on them now.

The crazy thing is I don't think some of those keys will ever go down again the way the market used to fluctuate. The '90s crash made comic book back issues prices drop in general. I remember in late '90s buying my FF #48 for $75, and Special Marvel Edition #15 (1st Master Of Kung Fu in high grade) for $15. When the first Iron Man movie started the MCU in 2008 it changed the game for back issue pricing on certain books. Comic book collecting was more of a niche thing for decades, the MCU made it mainstream, along with some TV shows and big cons like San Diego, and You Tube, of course. The crazy prices are ingrained in the collective psyche, and every time there's hype about the next big MCU thing it increases demand and the prices keep getting crazier. Most already loved Marvel characters in general from the classic comics in the Silver and Bronze Ages, and most of the MCU movies are so good it just made so many people go nuts with such high demand for certain books. I don't see prices on older Marvel keys ever dropping. Newer books will still fluctuate, though. I know very little about books the last 20 years since I don't collect them and I think cover prices are ridiculous on current books, especially the WAY overvalued cover variants. I couldn't imagine dropping big bucks on new comics with so many legit older comics so undervalued. Anyway, I'm hanging on to my older books, keys and all. If I ever sold the keys I'd never get them back.

[Rex fury]

One thing that I keep in mind with the current market is the number of years that have passed on the stuff I took for granted as a kid. I've amassed and sold several collections of Marvel books over the years. Usually this was to pay for honeymoons or house investments. However sometimes I sold those books to raise money to buy books that were " older" at the time. For instance, I think I sold a Hulk 181 for ten bucks or less  around 1980 so I'd have enough money to buy a copy of Captain America Comics 75. I never dreamed I'd see the value of that Hulk issue overtake the value of the Cap. Likewise, I always took for granted that 60's and 70's comics were cheap and plentiful, easy to amass collections again and again. The other day I picked up a Women Outlaws (no #issue) for a reasonable price. Since it wasn't part of the regular run- I'm not even sure Fox published it- I did some research on it. It was published in 1948. It sort of jarred me to think the comic is over 70 years old!
In terms of age, just think what young collectors must consider 60's Marvels? For them Fifty years ago must seem like forever. I liken their purchases of this material  to me buying Timelys in the 1970's and 80's. I'm sort of rambling here, but my point is that perhaps some of the high prices we see on material that we were buying as kids would seem less crazy if we were those young collectors.  For those kids 80's and 90's stuff remains cheap and plentiful while 60's comics seem expensive . Thoughts?
RF

[horrorhunter]

In terms of age, just think what young collectors must consider 60's Marvels? For them Fifty years ago must seem like forever. I liken their purchases of this material  to me buying Timelys in the 1970's and 80's. I'm sort of rambling here, but my point is that perhaps some of the high prices we see on material that we were buying as kids would seem less crazy if we were those young collectors.  For those kids 80's and 90's stuff remains cheap and plentiful while 60's comics seem expensive . Thoughts?

Age does factor in, but I think a much larger factor is the ever increasing demand for key issues. There are still many Silver Age Marvels that can be bought in decent grade for less than $20, and some for less than $10. For example, I bought an eBay lot of over 300 War comics a couple of years ago for what turned out to be 92 cents each factoring in shipping cost, and there were several Sgt Fury issues in that lot from the early/mid '60s. It also contained many Silver Age DCs (love the SSWS and GI Combat titles). You can also find low/mid grade Silver Age Marvel Superhero books for $10-$20 pretty easily. But, seemingly any Silver Age key costs several times what the non-keys sell for in the same grade. And, as I mentioned in an above post, even ultra low grade keys seem to be selling for percentages that G and VG copies used to bring, or at least those seem to be the common asking prices on eBay. Of course more and more different issues are steadily becoming keys as more movies and TV shows feature more characters. So, over time, older books as a whole will climb in value. Just wait until the MCU and TV shows start featuring the Marvel supernatural characters from the Bronze Age- Moon Knight, Blade, Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night, Dracula, Brother Voodoo, Man-Thing, Simon Garth, the Frankenstein Monster, etc. If those movies/shows are as good as the Avengers/Captain America/Iron Man movies then the crazy prices some of those Bronze Horror keys are selling for now will look like bargains.

[Hepcat]

Finally! Years of hunting for these issues of Archie's Madhose. I have them in my possession. 👹🤘🏼

Archie's Madhouse comics are boss!

[Mike...In 3-D!]

Age does factor in, but I think a much larger factor is the ever increasing demand for key issues. There are still many Silver Age Marvels that can be bought in decent grade for less than $20, and some for less than $10.

I second this. I was working in the comic book retail industry when the MCU and all that was taking off and gaining steam. It put more eyes on the products and we saw speculators returning to the comic game in droves. It didn't spike everything, mainly key issues and the surrounding issues at first. Then it started to affect whole runs, but not with that great of impact. I had actually noticed a dip in other titles because of this. While the Iron Man issues of Tales of Suspense and the subsequent Iron Man series were taking off, as a Sub-Mariner guy I was cleaning up on Tales to Astonish issues for $5-10 a piece in pretty nice shape, along with the Sub-Mariner solo series that followed.

[horrorhunter]

While the Iron Man issues of Tales of Suspense and the subsequent Iron Man series were taking off, as a Sub-Mariner guy I was cleaning up on Tales to Astonish issues for $5-10 a piece in pretty nice shape, along with the Sub-Mariner solo series that followed.

I was always more of a Sub-Mariner guy as well. I finished the '70s Subby series decades ago. Never did finish the IM series, and since the MCU those prices got jacked up past the point of what I want to give for them. Now it looks like Namor is MCU bound and the prices for Sub-Mariner books are seeing steep increases so we're fortunate we grabbed those back in the day.

That brings up another point. I know people collect very differently, as some folks try to finish title runs or runs of certain storylines or artists, while other collectors are obsessive about certain characters and try to get every appearance (that they can afford anyway). I try to avoid really pricey back issues and concentrate my comic money on more affordable books that I like personally but might not be as popular. I intend to keep the books I have, only selling duplicates, and not overspend on books that sell for more than they are worth to me personally (like the aforementioned Iron Man issues, even though I have much of the run). What about you guys? Do you draw the line at certain price points and just not plan on getting that issue unless an unbelievably good deal presents itself, or do you budget and save and sell other things to get really expensive issues? Also, what price points give you pause, $100, $200, $500, $1K? For me it must be a book I want very badly to spend over $100 on a single comic, and $200 is just about a hard line for me anymore unless I'm getting a killer deal. I'm just curious how other collectors deal with the extreme prices in the market these days.

[horrorhunter]

FYI- If you have slabs over 10 years old you may want to crack 'em out and take that micro chamber paper out and toss it. After so many years it fills up with contaminates and needs to be removed. You can type in the slab number on CGC's website to find out when it was slabbed. I don't think CBCS even uses micro chamber paper since they have an inner well using archival plastic.

I have an Incredible Hulk #102 (7.0) that I bought slabbed a couple of years ago and I checked the CGC website finding out it was slabbed in 2007, so I cracked that baby out and tossed the two pieces of micro chamber paper as soon as I saw Steve Borock (sp?) talking about this on a You Tube video. That was the only slab I had still so it was a pleasure get rid of that bulky thing and put the book in a 1 mil Mylar bag with acid-free backing board inside a Mylar Snug so it would fit in the acid free box with my other Hulk issues.

Here's another question. How do you guys store your comics? I use 1 mil Arklites (Mylar) from Bill Cole and double bag on each side of an acid-free board. For most books worth over $100 I bag them singly in the Arklite and put the bagged book in a Mylar Snug which has been trimmed at the top to easily fit inside comic boxes. I use acid-free corrugated boxes that hold a little over 100 comics each. This has probably been discussed before but I thought to ask it again so we can get several people answering in the same place. Hopefully, over time, a few people will chime in with their comic book storage methods.

[Mike...In 3-D!]

Do you draw the line at certain price points and just not plan on getting that issue unless an unbelievably good deal presents itself, or do you budget and save and sell other things to get really expensive issues? Also, what price points give you pause, $100, $200, $500, $1K? For me it must be a book I want very badly to spend over $100 on a single comic, and $200 is just about a hard line for me anymore unless I'm getting a killer deal. I'm just curious how other collectors deal with the extreme prices in the market these days.

I don't have a hard line, per se. I judge based on the book and situation. That being said, I don't think there's a book out there that I still want that would cost over $100 anyway. I got lucky in the sense that I was never really drawn to the big 'A' list characters. My big three would be Sub-Mariner, Adam Warlock and Nightwing, and I was lucky to get all the keys involving them that I wanted years ago and for reasonable prices. These days, I'm happy to pick up those super nice Epic Collections that Marvel is doing. When it comes to buying an expensive book, I just look at the price vs the use. Example: I could buy a low grade Fantastic Four #2 for $1,500 and carefully read it maybe a handful of times in my lifetime OR I could buy the Epic Collection for $40 and get full color reprints of the first 20 FF issues. Then the money I would have spent could be put toward something I'd get more use out of, say a nice blu-ray set or a run of comics.

FYI- If you have slabs over 10 years old you may want to crack 'em out and take that micro chamber paper out and toss it. After so many years it fills up with contaminates and needs to be removed. You can type in the slab number on CGC's website to find out when it was slabbed. I don't think CBCS even uses micro chamber paper since they have an inner well using archival plastic.

That is really great information, HH. Thanks for that. I have a handful of slabbed books that I put in frames and have them on the wall. I'll likely pull them down and crack them open now if they're old enough.

Here's another question. How do you guys store your comics? I use 1 mil Arklites (Mylar) from Bill Cole and double bag on each side of an acid-free board. For most books worth over $100 I bag them singly in the Arklite and put the bagged book in a Mylar Snug which has been trimmed at the top to easily fit inside comic boxes. I use acid-free corrugated boxes that hold a little over 100 comics each. This has probably been discussed before but I thought to ask it again so we can get several people answering in the same place. Hopefully, over time, a few people will chime in with their comic book storage methods.

Admittedly, I'm not a gleaming example of how to properly store comics for archival purposes. I use standard, acid free boards and Mylite 2 bags for everything. I have everything stored spine out (alternating the spines to prevent rolling) on bookshelves. All my boxes are broken down and stored in the basement for any future moves. I have the handful that are slabbed on the wall and a full spinner rack of books with cool looking covers.

[Rex fury]

Do the Epic collections contain the letter pages and ads too? I'm curious as I've never purchased any of those volumes. While I agree that reprints are a great way to get the original stories, there's something to be said about owning the original issue. For me, the comic is a time capsule or a window back to a different generation. That's why I'll never buy a slabbed comic (with the possible exception of Hulk 181 because of the MVS issue). I want to read and experience the comic, not place it in " the morgue ", as folks use to refer to slabs when they first became a thing.
I do own the Golden Age Masterworks, the EC boxed sets, and several issues of Flashback. But, as I've mentioned before, I'm not overly fond of facsimile issues. Anyways, I know folks collect for a lot of different reasons and that's a great thing about the hobby.
RF