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[OtherEric]

Make Big Bucks by Slabbing your Comics:  A Case Study.

The following sales are all of the same copy of Peter Wheat #33 on Heritage.  The book is a NM 9.6; guide in NM 9.2 is $70.

7/9/2006: $64.53
10/26/2008: $37.00
12/6/2009: $26.00

Please note that prices include Buyer's premium; for the 12/6/09 sale it was $14.

See how much Slabbing helps your investment!
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Seriously, I'm looking forward to freeing the book from the slab and sharing it with everybody.  And the numbers are somewhat skewed on this issue due to a find of file copies; there are 11 (soon to be 10) slabbed copies of this issue.  There are only 17 other slabbed Peter Wheat issues total; with no single issue having more than two.

[Yoc]

Congrats Eric!

[John C]

See how much Slabbing helps your investment!

First, as Yoc said, congratulations.  That's either a bargain or the end of a bubble.  Either way...

Second, if we're coming to the end of slabbing utility, I see only one possible move:  We need to start a collectibles market for the slabs themselves, and fast.  I envision grading the plastic and then manufacturing a kind of "metaslab," where we encase the plastic case in plastic to preserve its (dubious) value.

But yeah, it goes to show that buying things for investment purposes, rather than for the enjoyment of the thing, is just gambling with gratification/payout deferred while tying up space.

[bchat]

I said it before and I'll say it again:  "Slabbed Comics" keep sellers honest.  A buyer doesn't have to guess or hope that an online seller is being honest or knows what they're doing, because the grading of the comic has been done by a (hopefully unbiased) 3rd Party.  As long as comics are sold online, there will be a place for CGC & the like. 

Keep in mind that while I endorse the process of "professional grading", I don't support the outlandish prices those books eventually command.  $30 for a book that just hit the shelves?  I don't think so!

[OtherEric]

Oh, I agree that professional grading does have a place, particularly in online sales.  But this book went through at least two owners who never read the book, and that seems wrong to me. 

[Yoc]

I'd respect the CGC a lot more if they also offered scanning services so you could get a disk with scans on it as well as the slabbed book.  I know legally it's impossible but heck, why not collect stamps if you're never going to open the slabs?  If you are allowed to copy a DVD as long as you own the original shouldn't you be able to scan a current Marvel as long as it's in your collection and you don't sell or share them?

Thinking out loud here.

[bchat]

I'd respect the CGC a lot more if they also offered scanning services so you could get a disk with scans on it as well as the slabbed book.  I know legally it's impossible but heck, why not collect stamps if you're never going to open the slabs?  If you are allowed to copy a DVD as long as you own the original shouldn't you be able to scan a current Marvel as long as it's in your collection and you don't sell or share them?

Thinking out loud here.

I think, technically, you can make a "back-up copy" of something you purchase in order to preserve your purchase against theft or damage, you'ld just run into trouble if you tried to do something with that "back-up".

[Yoc]

Right.  So if CGC is going to entomb my 'priceless' Spawn meets The Flintstones #1 and they provided a c2c scan of said book I think it would be about the only way I could see them providing a service that also doesn't include undermining the entire point of buying a comic.  To Read Them!
But yes, for a buyer and seller I can see their service being useful.  To use that service to artificially drive up the price of a readily available book for strictly speculation reasons - the idea turns my stomach.

-Yoc

[bchat]

Spawn meets The Flintstones #1

Ha! That's funny ... where can I get my copy?

To use that service to artificially drive up the price of a readily available book for strictly speculation reasons - the idea turns my stomach.

Unfortunately, it seems there will always be people involved in the hobby that only see dollar signs instead of entertainment.  Ideally, good comic book dealers can see both or else they shouldn't be in business very long.  I just think back to the day years ago when I overheard two guys talking about how many copies of Lady Death # 1 they had & how much it was "worth", and I chuckle to myself now, wondering  "how much are they worth TODAY?  Less than what you paid?  Awww, that's a shame."

[narfstar]

If someone is dumb enough to pay for new books slabbed then I see no problem in someone being smart enough to sell it to them. The books will never be worth just the cost of slabbing let alone added premium. Slabbing is worthwhile for books in fine or better books or books of high value in lower grade to insure grading.

[Yoc]

Hey, did we forget to mention the whole brouhaha over CGC owning a company that 'restore comics'?
Didn't that raise a lot of hackles not that long ago?

-Yoc

[OtherEric]

Just a quick note for myself, making sure I have all the Peter Wheat books (as opposed to other items) figured out:

Adventures of Peter Wheat: 66 issues, first 35 have Kelly art.

Peter Wheat News: At least 61 issues; probably not more that 111 at absolute most; and no idea where the cutoff is other than it's somewhat more likely than not to be a multiple of 3.  Through 36 believed to have Kelly art.

Peter Wheat 4-in-1 Fun Pac: At least 4 issues; all known issues contain edited Kelly reprints.

Presumed one-shot items:  Fun Book, Coloring Book, Puzzle Book, Artist's Workbook.  Despite reports otherwise the two we've seen have Kelly swipes but no original or reprint art by him other than possible stock images.

Anybody recall any books I missed?

[OtherEric]

I finally got the Peter Wheat 33 today.  I will say this:  A 9.6 File Copy is a beautiful book to behold.  And even after the slight damage scanning causes, an 8.5 or so File Copy is still a beautiful book.  (The glued spine makes it impossible to scan without adding a slight crease or I could have kept it in even better shape.) Even more beautiful, because I know it's PD and I can share it with a lot of people.  I would rather have a lower grade book everybody can enjoy rather than a 9.6 even I can't enjoy.

It will be a few days before I post the book here; I promised somebody they could debut it on their blog.  Once it shows up there I'll post it to GAC.

[OtherEric]

And, on an unrelated note:  I found a reference to another one of the character posters I mentioned earlier; this time of Dragonel.  No image to go with it, sadly.

[Yoc]

Congrats on the file copy Eric.
If you wanted to pass along the url for the blog that would be fine.

-Yoc

[OtherEric]

And yet another minor note for myself on the series:  The last page of Adventures being half story, half ad continued until at least issue 40; full page ads on the back cover started with 42 at the latest.  So the page count didn't change exactly when Kelly left; 41 is either the first issue with a full page ad or the last with the half.