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Post by supercat on Sept 7, 2024 20:20:16 GMT -5
I personally have no interest in a slabbed comic.. I buy comics because I want to read them,.. and slabbed comics are extra expensive and can't be read.
Yes they can, the slab can be opened for that purpose. The only thing that gets voided is the grade.
I know people who buy slabbed books graded 4.0 - 4.5 (VG grades) just to ensure the book wasn't tampered with (colour touch and trimming being the main points of contention). And then, they open the slab, bag and board the book and put it in the longbox. Slabs aren't a finality.
I've actually thought about this as well, maybe I need to break down and learn how to break books out of their slabs safely. If I could do that confidently, it might open the door for me to some of those rarer books that are more difficult to find raw.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 7, 2024 20:21:03 GMT -5
I suppose that's true... seems like paying extra money for nothing, but I guess when you're talking about online purchases it gives a certainly when buying from an essentially anonymous seller. I'll be honest, I to this day don't understand what the grades mean(my grades are 'looks new', 'looks old', and 'falling apart'), so I'm not the target audience, but if you know about and care about such things I get it .
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 7, 2024 20:25:31 GMT -5
I buy reprint collections because I am more interested in the story and art than the physicality of a fragile individual 22 page comic, a format originally designed for single-use reading followed by discard and destruction. When I want a related collectible, I buy and preserve original art pages. Same. Unless a single specific issue in the collection really grabs me to the point where I absolutely need to have it (happened with several issues of Gerber's Man-Thing tenure), I'm fine with reprints
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Post by Rags on Sept 7, 2024 20:30:38 GMT -5
I've actually thought about this as well, maybe I need to break down and learn how to break books out of their slabs safely.
Youtube has a lot on it.
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Post by spoon on Sept 7, 2024 20:42:11 GMT -5
I buy reprint collections because I am more interested in the story and art than the physicality of a fragile individual 22 page comic, a format originally designed for single-use reading followed by discard and destruction. When I want a related collectible, I buy and preserve original art pages. There have been many times recently when I've read a newsprint floppy comic and lamented imperfections in the printing then read an Epic Collection from around the same time period and enjoyed how clear and crisp the art looks.
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Post by supercat on Sept 7, 2024 20:42:21 GMT -5
I've actually thought about this as well, maybe I need to break down and learn how to break books out of their slabs safely.
Youtube has a lot on it. Thanks! I just watched that video, and I feel like I could actually handle that pretty safely. Appreciate the information sharing!
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Sept 8, 2024 0:11:23 GMT -5
Every couple of years this topic rears up its ugly head here, every couple of years there are those who like it and those who don't. Every couple of years hundreds if not thousands of words of verbiage is thrown around about the topic without one person rethinking or changing their mind about the issue. Every couple of years the discourse of this eventually becomes filled with rancor on one side or the other and we end up losing someone from our community because they're tired of that kind rancor in these types of endlessly futile discussions. It's a topic we just need to retire because nothing good ever comes of discussing it here. No one is going to change their mind, nothing is added to our community by it, and more often than not something (or someone) is subtracted from our community because of it. There are endless possibilities of topics for discussion about comics, let's move on form this one please before the cycle perpetuates itself. I disagree. I think the community here has matured considerably on this point. I think there's a much more tolerant attitude overall between pro-slabbers and anti-slabbers in this forum. It is not the hot, divisive topic that it was in days of yore. There's a much friendlier "live and let live" attitude these days, I believe. Also, for the record, I don't recall anyone ever permanently deleting their account over a row about slabbing. I might be forgetting something, but it's really not a hot button topic in the way politics is, for example.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 8, 2024 0:26:08 GMT -5
Every couple of years this topic rears up its ugly head here, every couple of years there are those who like it and those who don't. Every couple of years hundreds if not thousands of words of verbiage is thrown around about the topic without one person rethinking or changing their mind about the issue. Every couple of years the discourse of this eventually becomes filled with rancor on one side or the other and we end up losing someone from our community because they're tired of that kind rancor in these types of endlessly futile discussions. It's a topic we just need to retire because nothing good ever comes of discussing it here. No one is going to change their mind, nothing is added to our community by it, and more often than not something (or someone) is subtracted from our community because of it. There are endless possibilities of topics for discussion about comics, let's move on form this one please before the cycle perpetuates itself. I disagree. I think the community here has matured considerably on this point. I think there's a much more tolerant attitude overall between pro-slabbers and anti-slabbers in this forum. It is not the hot, divisive topic that it was in days of yore. There's a much friendlier "live and let live" attitude these days, I believe. Also, for the record, I don't recall anyone ever permanently deleting their account over a row about slabbing. I might be forgetting something, but it's really not a hot button topic in the way politics is, for example. It falls into the Lee-Kirby credit debates territory, the same people saying the same things, over and over ad nauseum with no impact on how either side thinks and when it runs long enough devolves into ad hominem personal attacks the eventually require moderators to step in as in the Lee Kirby debates. From my time as co-admin, I know of at least 3 regulars or semi-regulars who messaged me they were leaving because of such discussions. It's been a while, but I only think one deleted their account, the others just stopped coming to the forums o posting, a sort of quiet quitting for the forums. But if you all want the can of worms opened, it's your call. I won't speak offer another word on the topic. -M
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Post by Rags on Sept 8, 2024 1:41:38 GMT -5
My 0.02c on the CGC topic has been spent....I'll just add a slab every now and then in the purchases thread
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rich
Full Member
Posts: 334
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Post by rich on Sept 8, 2024 1:49:26 GMT -5
Slabbed comics suck. I would not buy a comic just to sit in a box and never be read. What's the point?!?
Who knows? Maybe I just have a fetish. I own almost 285 of them.
Does it suck to me? Nope. I don't tell others what to do with their comics, and really couldn't care less what they think of me or mine.
Do you display them in some way? Do you ever crack some open to read? I'm curious. Never suggested the people that own said comics suck, by the way. Each to their own! Regarding the specific comic you shared- a perfect condition modern comic which doesn't have any comic art on the cover- is that just slabbed for future sale value?
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rich
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Post by rich on Sept 8, 2024 2:05:07 GMT -5
I don't mind people doing whatever they want with their money, it's theirs. If it means something to you personally, go ahead and slab it! I don't judge. From my point of view it's just made collecting classic comics more expensive. If people had just stuck to slabbing high grade classics that would have been one thing, but even single pages with crayon all over them get slabbed now! Look at mycomicshop and search for Amazing Spiderman 1 for some examples of 0.1 graded single pages. I've purchased a couple of slabbed comics and cracked them open, which felt like I was burning my own money, even though I only got them at low prices. CGC grading can also be very very wonky...
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rich
Full Member
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Post by rich on Sept 8, 2024 2:08:21 GMT -5
I disagree. I think the community here has matured considerably on this point. I think there's a much more tolerant attitude overall between pro-slabbers and anti-slabbers in this forum. It is not the hot, divisive topic that it was in days of yore. There's a much friendlier "live and let live" attitude these days, I believe. Also, for the record, I don't recall anyone ever permanently deleting their account over a row about slabbing. I might be forgetting something, but it's really not a hot button topic in the way politics is, for example. It falls into the Lee-Kirby credit debates territory, the same people saying the same things, over and over ad nauseum with no impact on how either side thinks and when it runs long enough devolves into ad hominem personal attacks the eventually require moderators to step in as in the Lee Kirby debates. From my time as co-admin, I know of at least 3 regulars or semi-regulars who messaged me they were leaving because of such discussions. It's been a while, but I only think one deleted their account, the others just stopped coming to the forums o posting, a sort of quiet quitting for the forums. But if you all want the can of worms opened, it's your call. I won't speak offer another word on the topic. -M Just reading these posts now. Didn't realise I was opening an emotive can of worms! 🤯 Maybe I shouldn't next mention my dislike of pressing old comics, or how CGC ignore the flaws it commonly creates because they profit from encouraging it.
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rich
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Posts: 334
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Post by rich on Sept 8, 2024 2:31:16 GMT -5
I'll preface that I too believe people are free to spend their money how it makes them happy with comics. However, I do not look favorably upon slabbing myself. One reason is that I think it has encouraged an enormous surge in a speculative market that is founded in "numeric wins" with slabbing services versus a collector community that enjoys the hobby as more, well, a hobby in the traditional sense including learning how to grade comics to make informed purchases for themselves. I frequently read people gleefully post how they were able to keep resubmitting say a "9.2" book until they got a "9.6" and oh the money they will make out of it. But it feels like that's less caring about the book itself or what someone buying it down the road is really getting, and more about getting your number and working the market. I remember when slabbing was becoming a big deal in coin collecting 30 years ago, we had the cautionary phrase "buy the coin, not the number", and the same I think applies to comic books. If you don't assess the grading yourself, then all you have are "bragging rights" on the number you bought, but not necessarily an informed purchase. And again, if that brings you enjoyment (and I think it really does for many people), I'm not "judging it" in that I think people are wrong to do so despite what I said above, but it's not something I can relate to either. The other issue I have is as a collector of older comics, I want to read them. And the disproportionate number of harder to find back issues that are now slabbed have made the supply a fraction of what it used to be for prospective buyers like me. The Golden Age material is downright heartbreaking for me, these scarce books that can't be read in their original form. I want the original coloring, no restoration in a reprint, I want to savor history in my hands and see the ads and someone's name scribbled on the inside of the cover and all that jazz. Heck, I even want to smell the darn things. If you've already decided the book should be slabbed, you've taken that decision away from me. Also, I find a lot of the attempts to "improve books" like the horrible pressing jobs people keep doing are ruining the originality. Again, I'm not into the money side of this personally, I just buy books to read them. But that's me, I know others really do enjoy the wheeling and dealing. I just wish they would leave the books more original. I'm sure it's a topic that will continue to have very divided opinions! Very well said. It's a different hobby to ours, that unfortunately is harming/ruining our hobby. The speculation activity in the early 90s damn near nuked the whole industry, and now slabbing has damn near trashed the hobby of collecting old comics to read them without the modern atrocious re-colouring. Only 6 years ago I picked up some EC comics that would perhaps grade 6-7ish, for about $20 ish each on eBay. Poorer condition versions of the same comics have been selling for $400 recently- and all are slabbed/pressed. There are no reasonable condition unslabbed ones for sale and don't seem to have been for the last year. Some people are probably thinking "lucky you! Slab them and sell them and make thousands in profit!" but I'm just thinking it's a shame that I won't be able to expand my collection any more, because I don't intend to pay silly money thanks to speculators. 🤷🏼♂️😞
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rich
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Post by rich on Sept 8, 2024 2:37:41 GMT -5
if you're buying slabbed variant covers as a poster more or less, I can see it I once thought about framing some of my favourite 60s comics with iconic covers, but decided against it because it would fade them.
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rich
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Post by rich on Sept 8, 2024 2:45:45 GMT -5
. There's a much friendlier "live and let live" attitude these days, I believe. Probably because the war has already been fought and won- it's all done and dusted now. There's no point in the anti-slabbers getting angry about it, because nothing is going to change. I guess the victorious pro-slabbers could gloat about the price gains and that could frustrate a few people who value comics for their contents, but they don't seem to be doing that either here. Yesterday was the first time I ever mentioned my resentment of slabbing old comics to anyone, online or in person. The last comic forum I posted on would have been the Quesada forum back around about 2000. 😅 I've just been reading quite a lot online about classic comics the last month and felt like participating. For what it's worth, I doubt I'll ever sell my comics in this life, but my descendants will be free to slab away to monetise my collection when I'm gone.
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