I tend to collect 4-7.5 with occasional books higher and lower. I almost never buy anything below a 3 unless it is a killer deal or part of a larger lot.BobBretall wrote:I buy mostly in VG & F, but you need to be very careful in VG as it's open to extremely wide interpretation. You can get that Our Love Story which is VG+ and has what I'd call "great eye appeal" then there are other sellers that grade stuff as VG that look as if they were used to wipe up kitchen spills.Perseus wrote:That Romita cover is stunning. What grades do you all look for in your older comic back issue purchases? I'm looking to start getting some older Supergirl and Aquaman. Also All Star Western and DC war comics.
That FF book is VG and looks very nice (to me). Again, good eye appeal.
High-grade silver is significantly more expensive to collect than mid-grade. If you are collecting as an investment, go with higher grades VF. If you are collecting for yourself (like I do) then being very selective about your mid-grade purchases is a good way to go.
It is pretty tough to find affordable silver in the higher grades and I'm pretty selective about what I buy at the top end.
The great thing about lower grade stuff is that there is soo much of it. You can usually find it at 50% guide or less. Sometimes in single price bins. I would probably rarely pay more than 50% guide for most non-key lower grade silver out there. Unless it's a light or very dark cover.
I'm usually collecting runs with a primary and secondary focus. Secondary stuff I only buy cheap if I see it and need it. Primary stuff I'm actively looking for and will pay more. Eventually as I fill primaries the secondaries move up.
Often I'll to pair in a larger deal with a dealer. Try to get a secondary book thrown in essentially or build my offer based on the books I really want. This is also a good way to get upgrades.
For example, my main focus right now is early FF. I'm actively looking for that. In the background I've been building asm and adventure runs. I only buy spidey opportunistically and never pay anything close to guide. The FFs I'm looking for I will pay much closer to guide if it's one I actually need and I really like the book.
Or I recently bid on an adventure lot at heritage but when I built my bid I did it based only on the ones I need. I'll use the dupes as upgrades and sell or trade the undergrades to fund another book I really need.
I also have started trading books more. I always have all the books I don't want anymore cataloged at mycomicshop. Then I send those in for trade credit and use the credit to fill holes in runs. The legion books I posted were every mid grade or better they had that I needed and I bought them primarily with trade credit.
