Slabbed books takes the fun out of comics for me. I started collecting in the early 80s and there is nothing like the smell of newsprint and learning to carefully turn pages to read something from another era. It's all part of the experience.
These folks are genuine. You can tell their passion and corizon for comics. Also, they talk to us, the watchers. They don't talk down to the watcher, or scream like a Grifter /Carnival Barker. They are the "Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" of Comics. You feel they are part of your family.
Hi Dave and Rachel. I noticed you said you use multiple bags and boards to protect your really high grade books. Could you do a video showing the different products and how you use them step by step? I'm sure people buying your books would be reassured knowing how well they are protected. Have a great day!
I have been buying raw comics and double boarding the ones I feel are in mint condition. I don’t need some grading company to tell me the grade of a book to justify paying a tremendously high price for a slabbed book when I can get the same book raw at way less the price. A lot of modern books that are slabbed are going to take a major nose dive in value just like the examples you and Rachel shown. I enjoy the content btw! 👍
I am very new to the hobby. I got the 4 issues of that Deadpool series for 70 CAD sometime ago (all direct editions). When I received I scanned them with my untrained eyes and really thought they were flawless, but I was still a bit nervous, knowing I am still lacking the experience to really judge it. I decided to risk everything and sent them to CGC (My first submission ever). They all came 9.8s!. all four of them! My god that is an amazing start to my Personal Collection.
Great video as usual. It’s always nice to see Richard Corben work and some of those odd gems you show. I’ve always tried to find those beautiful painted covers from Dell and Gold Key as well. Thanks for your tip on how you bag your nice beer and mints!
You guys are right....Great Lakes Avengers is a $5-10 book, all day long ! ( oops I forgot...that's My opinion )😎 plus...I'm from Michigan, I enjoy the content...thanks 👍
Great video with great insights. I have been selling my late uncle’s remaining comic collection which includes some underground comix I haven’t even begun to think about selling yet. It turned out my Aunt (widow) had some fantastic comics we slabbed just in time for the boom. (First Hawkeye, first Black Widow, first Hella, origin of Dr Strange) She went on a nice vacation with the proceeds! Please continue to do what y’all are doing‘cause it’s fantastic!
Regarding your conversation around 33:00, I feel like that was always supposed to be the intention of getting a book graded. It was meant for special, vintage books. I'd like to see the hobby get back to that, as far as slabbing is concerned. Just my opinion.
I worked at 7-11 in the 90s...and if I didn't get to the comics as soon as they came in, they were destroyed by kids, customers, etc. Lots of spine damage where the spinner rack held them. Keep up the great work!
Excellent video! Lots of interesting talk. With underground comics back in the 70s, I remember that Fat Freddy's Cat and The Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. were really popular. Or maybe the owner of my LCS in Vancouver was just a fan who brought them in. Good memories, in any case. Thanks for all the work you do putting these videos together. I really look forward to them.
Great show! I always look forward to seeing what you're going to showcase and then hearing what you think about different comic topics. Arguably my favourite comic program on RUclips.🖖
After listening, CGC gradong seemsnto be like PSA in carss today. The possibility of questions could be more like, did the grader: have a good day, just paid his taxes, going through a divorce?, et al. ;) The whole subjectivity of the grader make it a crapshoot, especially with the way in which you all have expressed with the changing of the new grading guard. Funny, it seems so much more organic to see if two people negotiate a price and a condition.
That Peacemaker is very interesting. I picked a Charlton version up about a year ago and I don't have the heart to sell it. It is true to form, Charlton really did not care about quality back then. the cover looks about the same as newsprint with more ink on it.
Great stuff Dave and Rachel. I don't slab very many books, but I do buy CGC slabs of Fantastic Four for the run I'm working on. I've only had a handful graded myself... with stunningly inconsistent results.
I often vacillate between raw and slab On the one hand, I love the purity of the hobby. I love flipping through and reading the book as it was originally published (no digital recoloring and remastering). On the other hand, the hobby always incorporated trading and selling and speculation. Professional grading improves and preserves these books and, yes, increases the value in the secondary market. So, I own and buy both…raw reader copies and high grade slabbed books for either preservation or for selling/trading.
I think the market is slowly changing. From what I've seen in the past year, vendors and dealers are getting more vocal against getting books professionally graded. They realize the turnover on graded comics now is low compared to regular books. Plus CGC has been exposed for being inconsistent with their grading, and returning people the wrong books.
I like slabbed books because in the olden days I ended up with a bunch of restored books which I had to replace. Easier to sell blue labels. AND when I’m gone it will be easier for my family to liquidate.
Keep us posted on how selling raw goes. I'm not a fan of slabbed books unless I have a concern over restoration or it is a high value book. It's getting harder to find some books to complete runs because I'm not paying slabbed prices, and, most of the older books I try to find are over-inflated because dealers are slab-happy to try and squeeze every dollar out of a book. Raw silver/golden age are getting impossible to find, and at a decent price because most sellers (eBay/etc) are already estimating CGC grading without the slab. Very frustrating and a reason I feel most people are holding off on spending a lot of money. Waiting to see how much lower things can go. Enjoy the channel! West Coast Avengers is a fun read, a little too much focus on Tigra IMO, and not enough on Moon Knight.
I enjoy the channel. Agree totally the slabs are so out of hand. I’m a huge collector of the 60s and 70s, 80s Marvel mags. Epic illustrated. Creepy. Eerie. Conan. Planet of the apes. Dracula lives. Almost all the titles. I have over a 1000 different ones in pretty high grade. Everyone says they are hard to store and I don’t get that. I bag and board them as I do all my comics and they fit on shelves fine. They just take up a little more space. 😀
WHERE you buy raw is the biggest factor for me. Do I trust my dealer? I’ve bought and sold to Dave and Rachael and would do so again any day of the week and would recommend them to any who wish to sell or buy. High character dealers with not just knowledge but integrity.
Let's face it, digital copies of conics has led to this "grading age." Facsimiles to a lesser extent. Back in the day, yeah, we took care of our important keys but we had to either have an extra reader copy OR open and handle said books to enjoy the story. These days, collectors can go all slabs and still have access to the stories. Personally, when grading interest began to grow, I made the decision that I'd rather be able to hold, feel, smell etc. my books, no matter the grade/value. I own one slab, which happens to be MY only grail, Marvel Spotlight #2. 🤷🏽♂️
I had a local UK comic shop back in the 1980s/90s who did a pull box. I flat out refused that service. I would only buy a comic from them if I could pick personally from the 5 or 6 copies that were on the actual shelf. The slightest bend or blunt cover or fingerprint grease then I would run a mile and go to another city's store to find the better copy. Fussy? Maybe. But why should I buy comics that were mistreated...especially by the comic store itself.
I don't have anything graded unless it increases the value of my book, now I'm sure there's people that have there books slabbed for display on there walls etc and care less if it increases the value of their book I get if your running a business buying and selling comic books, that you would have to be 100 percent sure its profitable to slab any book from any era any genre, or you won't stay in business losing money.
I’ve had an experience with wanna be online sellers that invite sellers to sell books and their grading is terrible and off. I’ll never go back. It’s true that I tend to go to sellers that I know their grading is good.
I have a question but the new modern way of collecting I see is from Beckett and upper deck that the books come uncirculated and in soft slabs is that maybe a better way to get higher grades books and easier to pull box it so that way your books always come as mint as can be. What do you think?
I agree that a $100 "slabbed sale history" book doesn't need to be slabbed but i dont think i would buy it sight unseen over the internet unless it was priced way cheaper
Curious if you guys have seen the Comic Capsules? They're very well made and maybe another path of securing a worthy book. (Not a fan of their shipping, though!)
I have a question; isn’t Modern Comics a part of Charlton? I remember hearing that at one point. It would make sense because all of their reprints are of earlier Charlton books.
Maybe I'm a bit off base, but I recall that Modern Comics took over Charlton in the same sense that Gold Key took over Dell. Neither move was an improvement.
I don’t live any place close to an LCS.. I need a 3rd party system when I spend big bucks online for a golden age book… “ trust me bro” is a line every dealer will tell you then you find out it’s color touched or trimmed ya know 🤷🏽♂️
That makes sense. I certainly think there are books that slabs make sense in. There are tons that they don’t make sense in as well. Golden age at a level does make sense to me. Still some good deals out there if you are patient.
Slabbing definitely has its place in the hobby. The problem is rampant movie speculation and non-key books being designated as keys (like the character Nimrod, who cares about that guy?!?!). Great info, keep making videos and I’ll keep watching them. Thanks.
I prefer slabbed. The first big comic book I bought back during my teen years in the 90s was ASM #300. The LCS Owner was literally a real life iteration of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Heavy set, goatee, ratty pony-tail, and a very condescending attitude. Told me the price was so high on that book was because of its great condition. Finally bought it and years later I got it graded and it came back with the dreaded purple label. I know he was trying to make money but I don't have it in me to pull off such sleaze-bag moves. That day I learned two things. 1. I got ripped off and 2. This kind of crap wouldn't have happen to me with a graded book. Yes, I know of the current scandal and slabbed books are a pain in the neck to store but the chances of something wrong with a raw book is far higher than slabbed.
Slabbed books takes the fun out of comics for me. I started collecting in the early 80s and there is nothing like the smell of newsprint and learning to carefully turn pages to read something from another era. It's all part of the experience.
This is the most fun and useful comic channel out there. Thanks for all of the hard work and time you put into these videos.
💯
These folks are genuine. You can tell their passion and corizon for comics. Also, they talk to us, the watchers. They don't talk down to the watcher, or scream like a Grifter /Carnival Barker. They are the "Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" of Comics. You feel they are part of your family.
Hi Dave and Rachel. I noticed you said you use multiple bags and boards to protect your really high grade books. Could you do a video showing the different products and how you use them step by step? I'm sure people buying your books would be reassured knowing how well they are protected. Have a great day!
I have been buying raw comics and double boarding the ones I feel are in mint condition. I don’t need some grading company to tell me the grade of a book to justify paying a tremendously high price for a slabbed book when I can get the same book raw at way less the price. A lot of modern books that are slabbed are going to take a major nose dive in value just like the examples you and Rachel shown. I enjoy the content btw! 👍
Raw for me unless it really means something to me. To me buying nothing but slabbed is just overpaying for plastic.
My favourite comics related youtube channel. Very likeable folks with sincere opinions and excellent chemistry. Always enjoy watching your videos.
Everytime I watch your channel it makes me want to go out and purchase back issues ....great channel ...thanks guys
I am very new to the hobby. I got the 4 issues of that Deadpool series for 70 CAD sometime ago (all direct editions). When I received I scanned them with my untrained eyes and really thought they were flawless, but I was still a bit nervous, knowing I am still lacking the experience to really judge it. I decided to risk everything and sent them to CGC (My first submission ever). They all came 9.8s!. all four of them! My god that is an amazing start to my Personal Collection.
Great video as usual. It’s always nice to see Richard Corben work and some of those odd gems you show. I’ve always tried to find those beautiful painted covers from Dell and Gold Key as well. Thanks for your tip on how you bag your nice beer and mints!
Charming, heart-warming, informative as ever. You guys have a great channel to dip into for reaffirming the reasons to collect and enjoy comic books!
Another fun video and the information is always appreciated. You two are great and the things discussed were very interesting.
You guys are right....Great Lakes Avengers is a $5-10 book, all day long ! ( oops I forgot...that's My opinion )😎 plus...I'm from Michigan, I enjoy the content...thanks 👍
Great video with great insights. I have been selling my late uncle’s remaining comic collection which includes some underground comix I haven’t even begun to think about selling yet. It turned out my Aunt (widow) had some fantastic comics we slabbed just in time for the boom. (First Hawkeye, first Black Widow, first Hella, origin of Dr Strange) She went on a nice vacation with the proceeds! Please continue to do what y’all are doing‘cause it’s fantastic!
Good info again. You all keep my mind from clutter. Just have a good view on things.
Regarding your conversation around 33:00, I feel like that was always supposed to be the intention of getting a book graded. It was meant for special, vintage books. I'd like to see the hobby get back to that, as far as slabbing is concerned. Just my opinion.
Love your vids! Always interesting. Always great perspective. ❤
Consistent concise info every time please keep up the good work
I worked at 7-11 in the 90s...and if I didn't get to the comics as soon as they came in, they were destroyed by kids, customers, etc. Lots of spine damage where the spinner rack held them. Keep up the great work!
Excellent video! Lots of interesting talk. With underground comics back in the 70s, I remember that Fat Freddy's Cat and The Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. were really popular. Or maybe the owner of my LCS in Vancouver was just a fan who brought them in. Good memories, in any case. Thanks for all the work you do putting these videos together. I really look forward to them.
As always you guys are fun and informative.
You two are the best.
Excellent take on CGC
Great show! I always look forward to seeing what you're going to showcase and then hearing what you think about different comic topics. Arguably my favourite comic program on RUclips.🖖
After listening, CGC gradong seemsnto be like PSA in carss today. The possibility of questions could be more like, did the grader: have a good day, just paid his taxes, going through a divorce?, et al. ;)
The whole subjectivity of the grader make it a crapshoot, especially with the way in which you all have expressed with the changing of the new grading guard. Funny, it seems so much more organic to see if two people negotiate a price and a condition.
That Peacemaker is very interesting. I picked a Charlton version up about a year ago and I don't have the heart to sell it. It is true to form, Charlton really did not care about quality back then. the cover looks about the same as newsprint with more ink on it.
Great stuff Dave and Rachel. I don't slab very many books, but I do buy CGC slabs of Fantastic Four for the run I'm working on. I've only had a handful graded myself... with stunningly inconsistent results.
My favorite RUclips comic channel❤
Love West Coast Avengers during the Byrne run. I don’t slab it either.
I often vacillate between raw and slab
On the one hand, I love the purity of the hobby. I love flipping through and reading the book as it was originally published (no digital recoloring and remastering). On the other hand, the hobby always incorporated trading and selling and speculation. Professional grading improves and preserves these books and, yes, increases the value in the secondary market. So, I own and buy both…raw reader copies and high grade slabbed books for either preservation or for selling/trading.
Me too. I do prefer to have a raw book in my hand.
I think the market is slowly changing. From what I've seen in the past year, vendors and dealers are getting more vocal against getting books professionally graded. They realize the turnover on graded comics now is low compared to regular books. Plus CGC has been exposed for being inconsistent with their grading, and returning people the wrong books.
Very good show thanks for sharing 👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Love the channel, keep up the good work !
I like slabbed books because in the olden days I ended up with a bunch of restored books which I had to replace. Easier to sell blue labels. AND when I’m gone it will be easier for my family to liquidate.
I've been collecting comics for over 30 years and 99% of my books are raw. It will cost me a fortune just to get the keys graded.
Keep us posted on how selling raw goes.
I'm not a fan of slabbed books unless I have a concern over restoration or it is a high value book. It's getting harder to find some books to complete runs because I'm not paying slabbed prices, and, most of the older books I try to find are over-inflated because dealers are slab-happy to try and squeeze every dollar out of a book. Raw silver/golden age are getting impossible to find, and at a decent price because most sellers (eBay/etc) are already estimating CGC grading without the slab. Very frustrating and a reason I feel most people are holding off on spending a lot of money. Waiting to see how much lower things can go.
Enjoy the channel!
West Coast Avengers is a fun read, a little too much focus on Tigra IMO, and not enough on Moon Knight.
I’ve pressed those punch covers using boards behind the front and back cover doing one side at a time
I enjoy the channel. Agree totally the slabs are so out of hand. I’m a huge collector of the 60s and 70s, 80s Marvel mags. Epic illustrated. Creepy. Eerie. Conan. Planet of the apes. Dracula lives. Almost all the titles. I have over a 1000 different ones in pretty high grade. Everyone says they are hard to store and I don’t get that. I bag and board them as I do all my comics and they fit on shelves fine. They just take up a little more space. 😀
WHERE you buy raw is the biggest factor for me. Do I trust my dealer? I’ve bought and sold to Dave and Rachael and would do so again any day of the week and would recommend them to any who wish to sell or buy. High character dealers with not just knowledge but integrity.
Hello im very curious on how you bag and board your books for long term storage can you show me your process on a future video please
Let's face it, digital copies of conics has led to this "grading age." Facsimiles to a lesser extent. Back in the day, yeah, we took care of our important keys but we had to either have an extra reader copy OR open and handle said books to enjoy the story. These days, collectors can go all slabs and still have access to the stories.
Personally, when grading interest began to grow, I made the decision that I'd rather be able to hold, feel, smell etc. my books, no matter the grade/value. I own one slab, which happens to be MY only grail, Marvel Spotlight #2. 🤷🏽♂️
I agree part of collecting is reading and the smell of pulp in comicbooks
I had a local UK comic shop back in the 1980s/90s who did a pull box. I flat out refused that service. I would only buy a comic from them if I could pick personally from the 5 or 6 copies that were on the actual shelf. The slightest bend or blunt cover or fingerprint grease then I would run a mile and go to another city's store to find the better copy. Fussy? Maybe. But why should I buy comics that were mistreated...especially by the comic store itself.
That’s awesome, and I can relate!
Look for the Don rosa uncle scrooge movie where he show you his comic collection at the end. In the comic vault he had batman 1 on.
🔥💙🔥 Yay ! Come back soon.💔
I don't have anything graded unless it increases the value of my book, now I'm sure there's people that have there books slabbed for display on there walls etc and care less if it increases the value of their book I get if your running a business buying and selling comic books, that you would have to be 100 percent sure its profitable to slab any book from any era any genre, or you won't stay in business losing money.
I’ve had an experience with wanna be online sellers that invite sellers to sell books and their grading is terrible and off. I’ll never go back. It’s true that I tend to go to sellers that I know their grading is good.
Yes. If there the older cases. Older cases contain natural or survivors books as that's what they will soon be called
‘Survivor books’ : Are you referring to comics that have NEVER
been pressed and cleaned ?
Great stuff, love your take on things.
PS..Any chance your claim sales could be a bit more UK time friendly please 😊
I have a question but the new modern way of collecting I see is from Beckett and upper deck that the books come uncirculated and in soft slabs is that maybe a better way to get higher grades books and easier to pull box it so that way your books always come as mint as can be. What do you think?
I think there are a lot of scammers out there. Haven’t seen anything that can’t be faked.
I love that krull book I watched that movie 1 million times as kid . What is a selling price for something like that
They aren’t expensive. $5-$10 in mid grade.
@@futurepastvintagecollectables if u have a high grade or get a hold of 1 pls lmk
Curious......Do you dabble in Mad/Cracked Magazines?
I sure do!
Great info. 🔥🔥🔥
Great video.
I agree that a $100 "slabbed sale history" book doesn't need to be slabbed but i dont think i would buy it sight unseen over the internet unless it was priced way cheaper
Curious if you guys have seen the Comic Capsules? They're very well made and maybe another path of securing a worthy book. (Not a fan of their shipping, though!)
Pull box anxiety is real 😂
Saving enough to buy fantastic four #80 very fine raw 8.0 $80.00 Canadian. Put $15.00 in trade to help pay it off.
I have a question; isn’t Modern Comics a part of Charlton? I remember hearing that at one point. It would make sense because all of their reprints are of earlier Charlton books.
It may be. I’ll have to look in to that.
Maybe I'm a bit off base, but I recall that Modern Comics took over Charlton in the same sense that Gold Key took over Dell. Neither move was an improvement.
Like Sports cards, it seems comics has ebtered the "Junk Slab" era. A buyers market.
I don’t live any place close to an LCS.. I need a 3rd party system when I spend big bucks online for a golden age book… “ trust me bro” is a line every dealer will tell you then you find out it’s color touched or trimmed ya know 🤷🏽♂️
Not that slabbed can’t be messed up either but hey it’s a good place to start it’s up to you to investigate
That makes sense. I certainly think there are books that slabs make sense in. There are tons that they don’t make sense in as well. Golden age at a level does make sense to me. Still some good deals out there if you are patient.
Last I checked there is 38 9.8 dp I own 2 of them .. sell u 1
in the long run-no-sooner or later those books are going to have to come out of those coffins-maybe not in ur lifetime but they will have to come out
Guess I’m not going to get rich off my 20 Rom slabs. However, I was never going to sell them anyways!
You specialize in high grade books. What do with low grade books you buy in collections?
Slabbing definitely has its place in the hobby. The problem is rampant movie speculation and non-key books being designated as keys (like the character Nimrod, who cares about that guy?!?!). Great info, keep making videos and I’ll keep watching them. Thanks.
the slabbed money is vanishing and may never come back . buy a slabbed at the same price of a raw in the future . we haven't hit bottom yet !
A 9.9 on the Deadpool sold for 6k on Heritage
I prefer slabbed. The first big comic book I bought back during my teen years in the 90s was ASM #300. The LCS Owner was literally a real life iteration of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Heavy set, goatee, ratty pony-tail, and a very condescending attitude. Told me the price was so high on that book was because of its great condition. Finally bought it and years later I got it graded and it came back with the dreaded purple label. I know he was trying to make money but I don't have it in me to pull off such sleaze-bag moves. That day I learned two things. 1. I got ripped off and 2. This kind of crap wouldn't have happen to me with a graded book.
Yes, I know of the current scandal and slabbed books are a pain in the neck to store but the chances of something wrong with a raw book is far higher than slabbed.
Only if they are CGC. I like to think of CGC as the NIKE of the comic book world. Nobody really likes Addias, aka cbcs.