I'm a Grader at Heritage, and I can say that we use every single resource that you mention here, outside of the eBay research tool. Our own archives of past sales are a very good resource as well, but there may be a bit of bias in that, so take it as you will. I always enjoy your videos, and I always look for them when I check my subscriptions. Keep up the great work!
Even after almost 50 years of collecting I love watching videos like this and usually pick up interesting new ideas to help my collecting experience..Thank you very much Ryan.
Good job Ryan and very informative. Wanted to point out a couple of things. First in reference to Canadian versions. Golden Age books you will sometimes see CDL or CDN on the cover. DC vintage Canadian editions have "Tops" on the back cover and should be 16 pages, not 24. Also, you can usually tell vintage Canadian versions with the ads, which will be in Canada, not the US. As for 1980s Marvel Canadians, they all have a barcode and the cover prices are slightly higher than the US. As for the Grand Comics Database, there are a couple of things to note. The page count is the amount of sides of a comic book including the cover. So an 8 wrap book will show 36 pages, 10 wraps or 12-8 will be 44, 12 wraps will be 52, 16-12 will be 60, 16 wrap will be 64, etc. You mentioned Four Color 113 with Popeye. A good way to look up what you are looking for to verify the book would be to type in the date. In this case, you can type "Popeye 113 1946" and you'll see Four Color 113 come up in the search. As for married contents, there are some tricks to try and spot them. For covers, you mentioned extra staple holes different from where the staples are. You should also look for overhangs that are a bit large. Look at defects like spine dings on the cover should also be on the first wrap, possible tears, and also if you see stains on the cover that bleed through to the inside pages. What you should do is look at the centerfold to see if the staple prongs look to have been opened. Make sure the page quality is consistent. If a page/wrap looks lighter or darker than the rest of the book, then most likely it will be married. Look for the extra staple holes on wraps and look to see if a single page has been taped or glued back in. If a cover is fully split, you need to check the back cover to make sure it belongs to that book. If you go to Heritage and see past sales, you'll usually find examples where you can see the scans of front and back covers. Using blue label CGC scans are best as you know that is a legit back cover, especially if it's not completely split. There will be cases where many issues will have used the same back cover as for many Marvel Silver Age titles. So you may have married back covers and technically not even know it. I'm a big indy collector. Sometimes very small press and obscure titles. GCD and mycomicshop are great for pretty much all major titles and companies but may lack in the indy dept. GCD is also great for many foreign comics, but that is a whole 'nother subject. For trying to see how many issues came out in a title for independents and very small press, I like to use atomicavenue.com. One last thing that is on my mind. If you want to make sure your interior is correct with the cover (this goes for Golden Age books where the indicia is not on the pages but rather on the inside front cover), go back to GCD and search by story titles. The easiest would be to look for a text story as those usually will have more uncommon titles, but any story should suffice. If pages are missing in your comic, GCD will usually have most of the books in story order. On occasion, there will be stories listed out of order or ads not noted in the listing. Hope this helps out the fellow collectors. Feel free to ask questions to me and I'll try to give answers.
Great information as always. I had noticed you using GPA in the past on videos, but I hadn't really looked into that site at all. You've really done your homework on how to value comics and I appreciate you passing on that information in your videos.
You are one of the few that I like watching concerning comics. You seem to be rather levelheaded in your approach to comic collecting. Although I do not always agree with what you are saying but I feel like it is coming from your heart.
I recently decided to pick up a Planet Comics 1. Luckily I noticed that some have bad registration with the blue or red. I chose a 9.0 with crisp aligned colors over a 9.4 with skewed blues (and rusty staples). First time I’ve ever dealt with this issue, so glad I noticed it before I spent hundreds of dollars!
Most current comics are 28 pages. (32 if you include both sides of front/back cover). Marvel reduced their standard page count around 2012, it looks like. ASM #691 from October 2012 is 28 pages, where #690 is 32 pages.
If the signature is either witnessed or verified as real, it will not impact the grade. If it’s not verified as real then it does impact the grade. It’s treated like writing on the cover.
Two quick questions: First- I'm new to buying comics on eBay, how long should I wait for a book that shipped without tracking before contacting the seller? (I'm in Canada but I feel Canada Post and USPS have similar shipping tiers and delivery windows) Second- I bought a golden age Superman comic without a back cover, Overstreet says it can still get a 1.0 Fair but from what I could gather on the internet CGC and CBCS would both give it a 0.5 Poor, I don't plan on slabbing it but given that these two authorities differ on grade, how am I supposed to know which it is? Thanks for all the hard work you put into your videos. Thanks in advance, from Canada!
If you’re missing the back cover it’ll get a 0.5 from CGC and cbcs. I always grade per CGC because that’s what 99% of buyers expect. Overstreet isn’t really relevant anymore for grading. They’re a good point of reference, but that’s it. I can’t really speak to the shipping in Canada. In the U.S. usually people ship comics first class or priority. Both of which have tracking and take typically 2-4 days to be delivered. Some people ship them media mail, which is super slow (can be weeks).
I'm a Grader at Heritage, and I can say that we use every single resource that you mention here, outside of the eBay research tool. Our own archives of past sales are a very good resource as well, but there may be a bit of bias in that, so take it as you will. I always enjoy your videos, and I always look for them when I check my subscriptions. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for watching 👍. I have recommended heritage for people learning to grade. Lots of great high def images to review.
Even after almost 50 years of collecting I love watching videos like this and usually pick up interesting new ideas to help my collecting experience..Thank you very much Ryan.
Good job Ryan and very informative. Wanted to point out a couple of things.
First in reference to Canadian versions. Golden Age books you will sometimes see CDL or CDN on the cover. DC vintage Canadian editions have "Tops" on the back cover and should be 16 pages, not 24. Also, you can usually tell vintage Canadian versions with the ads, which will be in Canada, not the US. As for 1980s Marvel Canadians, they all have a barcode and the cover prices are slightly higher than the US.
As for the Grand Comics Database, there are a couple of things to note. The page count is the amount of sides of a comic book including the cover. So an 8 wrap book will show 36 pages, 10 wraps or 12-8 will be 44, 12 wraps will be 52, 16-12 will be 60, 16 wrap will be 64, etc. You mentioned Four Color 113 with Popeye. A good way to look up what you are looking for to verify the book would be to type in the date. In this case, you can type "Popeye 113 1946" and you'll see Four Color 113 come up in the search.
As for married contents, there are some tricks to try and spot them. For covers, you mentioned extra staple holes different from where the staples are. You should also look for overhangs that are a bit large. Look at defects like spine dings on the cover should also be on the first wrap, possible tears, and also if you see stains on the cover that bleed through to the inside pages. What you should do is look at the centerfold to see if the staple prongs look to have been opened. Make sure the page quality is consistent. If a page/wrap looks lighter or darker than the rest of the book, then most likely it will be married. Look for the extra staple holes on wraps and look to see if a single page has been taped or glued back in. If a cover is fully split, you need to check the back cover to make sure it belongs to that book. If you go to Heritage and see past sales, you'll usually find examples where you can see the scans of front and back covers. Using blue label CGC scans are best as you know that is a legit back cover, especially if it's not completely split. There will be cases where many issues will have used the same back cover as for many Marvel Silver Age titles. So you may have married back covers and technically not even know it.
I'm a big indy collector. Sometimes very small press and obscure titles. GCD and mycomicshop are great for pretty much all major titles and companies but may lack in the indy dept. GCD is also great for many foreign comics, but that is a whole 'nother subject. For trying to see how many issues came out in a title for independents and very small press, I like to use atomicavenue.com.
One last thing that is on my mind. If you want to make sure your interior is correct with the cover (this goes for Golden Age books where the indicia is not on the pages but rather on the inside front cover), go back to GCD and search by story titles. The easiest would be to look for a text story as those usually will have more uncommon titles, but any story should suffice. If pages are missing in your comic, GCD will usually have most of the books in story order. On occasion, there will be stories listed out of order or ads not noted in the listing.
Hope this helps out the fellow collectors. Feel free to ask questions to me and I'll try to give answers.
Great information as always. I had noticed you using GPA in the past on videos, but I hadn't really looked into that site at all. You've really done your homework on how to value comics and I appreciate you passing on that information in your videos.
Great advice and information! Thank you for the video =)
You are one of the few that I like watching concerning comics. You seem to be rather levelheaded in your approach to comic collecting. Although I do not always agree with what you are saying but I feel like it is coming from your heart.
Appreciate it, thanks for watching. And for sure, everyone doesn’t have to agree with each other on every topic 👍
Good info about eBay.
I recently decided to pick up a Planet Comics 1. Luckily I noticed that some have bad registration with the blue or red. I chose a 9.0 with crisp aligned colors over a 9.4 with skewed blues (and rusty staples). First time I’ve ever dealt with this issue, so glad I noticed it before I spent hundreds of dollars!
Thank you. Very educational and helpful.
Great examples!
Great tips!
Informative vid. Ty 😊
Most current comics are 28 pages. (32 if you include both sides of front/back cover). Marvel reduced their standard page count around 2012, it looks like. ASM #691 from October 2012 is 28 pages, where #690 is 32 pages.
Where do you go for raw sales only?
I'm curious to know if a comic loses value if it is signed by the writer or artist? I've heard it will lose a grade when sent in for grading.
If the signature is either witnessed or verified as real, it will not impact the grade.
If it’s not verified as real then it does impact the grade. It’s treated like writing on the cover.
Do you think the Overstreet Price Guide undervalues books? Overvalues? Just wildly off in both directions?
It depends on the book. But keys it generally undervalues a lot. Run filler it generally overvalues. Golden age it massively undervalues.
Two quick questions: First- I'm new to buying comics on eBay, how long should I wait for a book that shipped without tracking before contacting the seller? (I'm in Canada but I feel Canada Post and USPS have similar shipping tiers and delivery windows) Second- I bought a golden age Superman comic without a back cover, Overstreet says it can still get a 1.0 Fair but from what I could gather on the internet CGC and CBCS would both give it a 0.5 Poor, I don't plan on slabbing it but given that these two authorities differ on grade, how am I supposed to know which it is? Thanks for all the hard work you put into your videos. Thanks in advance, from Canada!
If you’re missing the back cover it’ll get a 0.5 from CGC and cbcs. I always grade per CGC because that’s what 99% of buyers expect. Overstreet isn’t really relevant anymore for grading. They’re a good point of reference, but that’s it.
I can’t really speak to the shipping in Canada. In the U.S. usually people ship comics first class or priority. Both of which have tracking and take typically 2-4 days to be delivered. Some people ship them media mail, which is super slow (can be weeks).