Does Anybody Here Collect [Graded] Comic Books As Well?

JackWESQ

Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if anybody here collects comics (graded or otherwise) in addition to cards.

When I was a kid, all my friends collected comics; X-Men was our favorite, but we could never afford any of the pricey ones. Now that I'm "all grown up" and a few extra dollars, I'm thinking of picking up some of the comics that I could never afford.

/s/ JackWESQ

VitoCo1972

I sent a comic to C.G.C. a while ago. Comic are different than cards in that once they're slabbed, you can't enjoy them anymore (obviously because you can't flip through them). When I'm rich and famous (laughing hard at that one) I'm dying to pick up an Avengers #4 - when they rescue Captain America after years of being out of the comics world. I think Captain America comics #1 would be a little out of reach even if I was doing really well.

WarHoundR69

I collect Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandos Comics.

Out of the original run (1963 to 1978) I have 117 different so far.

Goes along with my war card collection.

I don't like slabbed comics - you cann't read them.

I do have Sgt. Fury No. 13 - the second Silver Age appearance of Capt. America.

Avengers No. 4 was the first.

fuj

<< <i>Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if anybody here collects comics (graded or otherwise) in addition to cards.

When I was a kid, all my friends collected comics; X-Men was our favorite, but we could never afford any of the pricey ones. Now that I'm "all grown up" and a few extra dollars, I'm thinking of picking up some of the comics that I could never afford.

/s/ JackWESQ >>



I used to collect X-Men too but stopped when I didn't have time to read them anymore. Which comics were you thinking of getting?

StopYurWhining

i like to read em, not slab em.

x-men and daredevil are two of my faves. cant see i keep current with them, but more so when Frank Miller was scripting things for DD and Chris Claremont and the crew were running the show at X-men.

I am currently reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer, as it continues from where the TV show left off.

Morgoth

Looking at CGC comics from my favorite period (1985 and later), they do very well at the higher grades. I would rather have key issues CGC graded not enitre runs. Some runs or comics I want to have or have started working on.

Animal Man- Grant Morrison issues (I have about 6 issues)
Batman- Death in the Family
Doom Patrol- Grant Morrison run (I have about 20 issues)
Daredevil- Frank Miller's 1st run (I have about 15 issues)
Watchmen- I have the TPB
Amazing Spiderman- Issue 300 and 301 graded and any issues before McFarlane left the series.
Incredible Hulk- 141 (I think, 1st Wolverine)
X-Men- 94
Giant Size X-Men
Harbinger- Valiant
Mage- Comico
Grendel- Comico
Elementals- Comico
Fables- Vertigo
Y the Last Man- Vertigo
Sandman- Vertigo
Starman- James Robinsons
JLI- I have about 50%

CGC graded comics with great covers are great for display like Frank Miller's Daredevil "No More Mr. Nice Guy" or his "Electra's Grave" covers are very frame worthy.

neenish

<< <i>Looking at CGC comics from my favorite period (1985 and later), they do very well at the higher grades. I would rather have key issues CGC graded not enitre runs. Some runs or comics I want to have or have started working on.

Animal Man- Grant Morrison issues (I have about 6 issues)
Batman- Death in the Family
Doom Patrol- Grant Morrison run (I have about 20 issues)
Daredevil- Frank Miller's 1st run (I have about 15 issues)
Watchmen- I have the TPB
Amazing Spiderman- Issue 300 and 301 graded and any issues before McFarlane left the series.
Incredible Hulk- 141 (I think, 1st Wolverine)
X-Men- 94
Giant Size X-Men
Harbinger- Valiant
Mage- Comico
Grendel- Comico
Elementals- Comico
Fables- Vertigo
Y the Last Man- Vertigo
Sandman- Vertigo
Starman- James Robinsons
JLI- I have about 50%

CGC graded comics with great covers are great for display like Frank Miller's Daredevil "No More Mr. Nice Guy" or his "Electra's Grave" covers are very frame worthy.

Great taste in comics. I just picked up Grendel 1-3 and Primer #2 all in CGC 9.6 and I picked up and extra Primer #2 in CGC 9.8 (only 8 graded this high and none higher). I have about 200 slabs right now. I'm concentrating on CGC SS slabs. This is CGC's authenticated signed series (an actual witness from CGC has to view the signing before the comic gets slabbed). I'm starting to buy back some ray Golden Age comics that I had stolen back in Feb. The next comic on my list is All Select #1, but the price is $11k for a CGC 8.0 (which is a grade better than the one I lost).

ElectricPrune

<< <i>
Incredible Hulk- 141 (I think, 1st Wolverine)


CGC graded comics with great covers are great for display like Frank Miller's Daredevil "No More Mr. Nice Guy" or his "Electra's Grave" covers are very frame worthy.


>>

Hulk 181

My favorite Miller...



Here's a tough one I just picked up...





First Silver Age Riddler



This has been asked before, and one guy came in with some sweet raw Golden Age books, including some very early Bat Man TECs.

Jack, what X-Men are you looking for?

MeteoriteGuy

I never have collected graded comics, but I was into X-Men pretty big and use to own a closet full of long boxes. I started collecting around Marvel's Secret Wars (the first) and quit in the early 90s about the time I started college. I actually sold most of my comics to purchase my text books. I kept the Uncanny X-Men's a little longer but sold them years ago as well. Somewhere I have a Stan Lee signed Captain America and I have a bunch of Valiant comics signed by the Superman artist, whos name escapes me. For a while I was into original art, but I think I sold all of those pages...however I do have a dozen or so Cracked and Mad Magazine original art pages. I also hired a Mad Magazine artist a few years ago and did a satire one panel comic series with him in the meteorite field that got me sued by a suburb of Chicago, pissed off a bunch of Canadians and a few other people. (Some people can't take a joke or understand satire).

artistlost

I use to be big time into comics. I sold my collection a few years back and have since shifted my collecting of comics to Hardcover collections such as DC's Absolute editions and Marvel's Omnibus books. They have all my favourite work in oversized productions and look great on a bookshelf. Some of them also are fairly rare and out of print and command a premium.

mathew

MeteoriteGuy

(Decided it was best to remove my comments/comic as I don't want to wind up in a Chicago courtroom).

StopYurWhining

so, you got shot at by gang bangers and Robbed by the Po Po's?

oh snap!

Morgoth

neenish, thanks. I do collect some ongoings today but not much, I do think the writing today is much better as a whole than at anytime. However, the industry relies to heavily on huge crossover events and killing and resurrecting characters for my taste (bring back Ted Kord your bastiches). I like Geoff Johns and Ed Brubaker. Also Scalped is a good series. And if you like to see your heroes skewered in a lewed way try The Boys.

Those Comico primers are very rare indeed. Justice Machine was another good title. You never see original Comico art anymore, I wonder who has it and can they even sell it?

ElectricPrune the first DD Miller is classic. I also like his "Just Leave Me Alone" whiteout cover as well. Miller stylistically was a visionary in my book. Anyone blaming him for the "grim" new superheroe genre never really read his stuff and paid attention to his minor character development.

It seems graded comics are just like graded baseball cards pre 70s are worth a ton more than post 70s.

Fun factoid the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were written as a parody of Frank Millers run on Daredevil and Ronin.

rube26105

1st graded comincs ive ever saw, i suppose places will grade anything now lol-when you grade em, you cant get back into em can ya, thta would stink

julen23

u can actually find pretty low prices on comic book lots on e-bay.

i have been trying to pick up thor #126 for a moment honestly...

J

julen23

red hulk rules also....

storm888

<< <i>1st graded comincs ive ever saw, i suppose places will grade anything now lol-when you grade em, you cant get back into em can ya, thta would stink >>



/////////////////

Many serious folks keep a matching inferior copy - or a reprint - ungraded so they can read it.

....

They do look very nice in their slabs.

Gonblott

Yes, I do collect comics, mostly just Silver Age comics like Amazing Spiderman.

rube26105

They do look very nice in their slabs

yes they do, im impressed

Morgoth

Red Hulk you mean Rulk? He is as classic as Clor (Thor Clone from Civil War). Aww nothing like a cloned norse god shooting lightning through one of Marvels only black heroes just because he wouldn't register with the government.

neenish

Here's one of mine that I'm waiting to get back. It was signed by the late Michael Turner last year and signed by Mike Zeck this past weekend. It was authenticated by CGC for both signatures.
I'm also waiting to get back my Daredevil #158 Pence edition (made for England) which is the highest graded to date at CGC 9.0

Morgoth

Very cool RIP Michael Turner. There has been alot of talent dieing recently in comicdom.

MeteoriteGuy

I enjoyed the Civil War storyline Morgoth. Before someone made me the Steve Young banner I was thinking of using the Captain America image below...

My dad's hobby is downloading everything in the world and buying externals to store them on, because of this I have a few 100,000 digital comics and keep up with everything decently well.

Morgoth

Meterorite, Civil War had a great premise and I did like how it set up their universe for further stories. I also like Secret Invasion as it has a very 70s kinda smash em up feel.

What I didn't like about it was how it turned a funny goofy guy like Speedball into a sado masichist Pennance. I also didn't like how they kept blaming the heroes when it was a villian that acutally "killed" all those children. That said the Pennance mini recently was awesome. I hope one day Speedball returns. Also killing of Captain America was also a good finish to the series and Ed Brubaker's run would make an awesome movie as its very James Bond like in the use of it's villains.

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

neenish- Nice G.I. Joe cover

Did you know they (VGA) also slab unopened Nes video games? Crazy. Some go for a few hundred to $1000+ If I rememebr right, in Brians Toys catalog, they were buying the Flintstones, #2 maybe? unopened for $1200 !!

Guru

Anyone read Batman: Lovers and Madmen yet? I'm reading that and 52 vol. 2 right now. Just finished reading Batman: The Killing Joke.

Morgoth

Not yet Guru but its on the list. I have acopy of CGN's 50 greatest batman Graphic Novels and picking them off one at a time. I just got done re-reading Ten Nights of the Beast, I had copies as a kid but my parents dumped my comic collection once I got to college.

52 was one of the great series I think in the last 20 years. Not only was it weekly but it covered TONS of ground. From Isis, Supernova to Super Chief it is all good. I have every issue, takes up a short box by itself. It also reminds me how crappy Countdown was, boooooooooo,

fur72

I had to consolidate a few years ago and got rid of all my comics, mad magazines and nascar diecasts. Kinda wish I would have kept a few they were dated late 60's

Sgt Fury and the Howoling commandos
Super Boy
Lois Lane
A bunch of movie ones.

Mad magazines ranging from 65 - 68 inclusing a couple special issues.

originalisbest

Yep. Mostly, '50's pre-code horror stuff with a smattering of the '60's superheros and '70's mystery titles.

julen23

cheq this out...

JIM #83 1st Thor

j

neenish

All the key silver age stuff is going for crazy money. I think a restored 9.4 JIM #83 sold for over $12k recently. Don't even look at the Amazing Fantasy #15's (1st Spidey). Crappy low grades (1.0, 2.0, etc) are going for even crazier money.

bobbyw8469

I collected Richie Rich Jack.......when I was growing up, I bought them everywhere......now I have over 4,000

fuj

I've got a question for the comic collectors: What do you think is the long term outlook for the value of comics as a collectible? While it seems like a lot of us grew up reading X-Men and other titles, I don't think the kids of today are into comics to the same degree as past generations.

This question has been asked to varying degrees about sports cards in general as well as for certain players, time periods etc. but I think as long as the popularity of sports stays high, there will always be a market for sports cards and memorabilia. I'm not sure if comics has the same staying power. I hope I'm wrong but I wanted to see what others thought.

speeder

Fuj, oh yes, there will always collectors for comics. But like cards, the vintage stuff will be the real money makers (investment wise)

I spent a couple yrs. putting together the original Star Trek (61 issue run by Goldkey) 07/1967 thru 03/1979

A handful are graded, mostly in the first 10 issues.

Here is issue #1 graded 7.5 (very fine -) back cover varient



Sorry about the scan, item is larger than my scanner face.

Lee

nascar20

anybody have these
1. Spawn-need to fill in my run 1-100
2. Star wars #1
3. Godzilla
4. Master of kung-fu #1
5. Raiders of the lost ark #1

also anyone need these X-men
1.X-men deluxe-generation next #1
2.X-men deluxe-factor X #1
3X-men -alpha #1
thanks
jeff

Morgoth

In regards to value, Silver Age comics and key #1 issues are going out of sight right now. Grading has started to take hold in Comics and it took alot longer to get popular and is more expensive. Comics are just like cards, in the late 70s and into the 80s a boom started and alot of shops were opened and so did the presses. It will be really hard for any comics from present day to get to the level of Silver Age and Golden Age books due to the amount printed.

As an industry Comics nearly had its #1 guy Marvel go bankrupt in the 90s. Stories sucked, everything was about variant covers and art was horrendous. Speculators killed off many small presses, even the good ones like Valiant. The fact it has rebounded today is remarkable.

Comics have a great future today there are more great writers and artists then ever. Many established Hollywood writers or novelists are writing comics. Art has gotten much better and there is much more creativity than before. I think right now more kids are buying then ever before due to the cool movies that have come out for Spiderman, Batman, Hulk and Iron Man. Also Sin City, 300, 30 Days of Night, V is for Vendetta, History of Violence and the upcoming Watchmen are all based on comic books/graphic novels. DC is selling more Watchmen books than at any time and it came out 23 years ago!

This interest in comics will only funnel peoples interest in the original comics. Spiderman #300 took a huge leap in price when SM 3 came out. A decent copy of Iron Man #1 is now close to $1000. It may take awhile but Watchmen #1 will go way up in price compared to todays levels. Remember this, comics are much more fragile than cards. High grade versions are much harder to track down so that will also fuel interest.

rube26105

<Sgt Fury and the Howoling commandos>
sgt fury was cool
and all the war comic from back in the 70s or so about ww2,there were a bunch
i used to have all the nam comics when they came out , but i have no idea where they went to?

metalmike

Showcase sealers have not been made for years, slabbing comics is strange to me. At least with cards you can READ them----ooo pretty cover.

rube26105

hi mike

Morgoth

I agree with the grading comics doesn't allow you to enjoy them. Most people buy 1 readers copy and 1 graded copy to put back. Slabbing them makes more sense than cards if you just look at condition and how easy it is to damage a comic vs a card.

Rube, I read the Nam comics and it was very high quality. On the secondary market there is demand for it graded. Also, mid 80s (1985 was considered the start of another golden age of comcs, Watchmen, Dark Knight etc) comics are becoming hot. Transformers and GI Joe have become very hot but only in very high grade. I bet a CGC 9.8 Nam #1 would sell pretty good in a few years.

Thulnanth

Wow, awesome stuff - thanks for sharing!!!

I collected years ago and sold off most of my books when I left for college (common story, I know). I did keep some of my favorites at least (Star Wars, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Green Lantern). For years I had wanted to get an Iron Man #1, as it was pretty cheap for a vintage #1 (around $150-200, if I remember correctly)... looks like I missed that boat

I would love to get back into comics, as the few I pick up and look at have great stories and art (that GI Joe cover is fantastic), but the price just kills me!!!

... not to mention that if I start another collection my wife will kill me

Take it easy,
Jared

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

I dont collect comics. Read a few as a kid. I was at the Goodwill about 5 years ago and there was 2 huge boxes of them. The long ones dealers have at shows. The boxes were about 4 ft long if I remember right. It said .25 ea. or make offer.

I grabbed Care Bears #1 (for my Grandma who collects bears) M.A.S.K. as I used to watch that and a G.I. Joe with some new character introduced. I then was trying to talk my wife into buying them all. Right as she was saying yes I overheard another couple saying they just bought them all. I think it was lke $20. Ugh.

Few years back my brother gave me 3 he got from a buddy. 2 SpiderMan from the 60's or 70's and a old western one. The Spiderman was selling for around $5-10 so I kept them to give to my boys later in life.

julen23

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

lol I dont know what that cover implies but to me that's funny. " Not again..."

Morgoth

There are some great Batman covers in the 60s that show Robin usually in the lower right corner cowering with some silly expression





Robin in the corner article

julen23

ElectricPrune

Ok, you guys asked for it. Here's one of the campiest covers ever, and the fiorst appearance of the second greatest comic book character ever.

jswieton

<< <i>anybody have these
1. Spawn-need to fill in my run 1-100
2. Star wars #1
3. Godzilla
4. Master of kung-fu #1
5. Raiders of the lost ark #1

also anyone need these X-men
1.X-men deluxe-generation next #1
2.X-men deluxe-factor X #1
3X-men -alpha #1
thanks
jeff >>



Which Spawn do you need? I have a ton of spawn comics.

jswieton

I used to collect comics in the late 80's and early 90's. I would like to start collecting some #1's from the 60's, 70's, 80"s. What are some nice #1's from that erra that won't kill the bank account?

Morgoth

Some easy to get number 1's that will go up (maybe) from the 70s till now.

Watchmen #1
Moonknight #1
New Warriors #1
X-Factor #1
Power Pack #1
Fables #1
Y-The Last Man #1
Sandman #1
Silver Surfer #1
Swamp Thing #1
Iron Fist #1
Booster Gold #1

jswieton

oh no. I feel the itch coming on to start collecting comic books again. I don't need this right now. I remember a few years back when I got back into sports cards I told my self I was just going to pick up a few key rookie cards for my collection. That was 5 years ago and $20k later. I havn't collected comics since I was like 15 years old. It be pretty sweet to pick up the comics I really wanted as a kid but couldn't afford.