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BobBretall wrote:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Trev wrote: 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.

Lowest I've ever bought is VG- (3.5)...... Maybe something technically 3.0 that looks much better.

BobBretall wrote:

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.

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.

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.

I have the exact mindset as you do as far as silver age and grade. I generally stick to a minimum of VG (unless it's a key book which I will accept in a lower grade to save money). I find most times VG books are pretty acceptable for my tastes. VG tends to still retain the physical integrity of the book with acceptable losses in cover gloss, chips, tears, etc...
You start getting into G or Fair books and you may have to deal with loose covers and stains and tears that may be substantial.

Excuse the angled photos, but I'm often too lazy to use the scanner, so on these I snap a pic with my phone (I need to angle it to get rid of glare) and then do a quick upload to photobucket from the phone.

On these 3 they were all advertised as VG. 2 of them were solid VG books, but the 3rd (Superboy #101 w/ Krypto transformed into a collie) was more like G+/VG-. But, it was only $4, so I'm not going to complain.

Just got some lots I won in a recent heritage auction. Lots of silver DC and one FF

Trev and Bob,

Those are awesome books!! It makes me what to start buying old silver/bronze age comics.

I was top bidder on these in the MyComicShop April auction. I got both for ~50% guide.

2nd appearance of Bat-Mite:


1st appearance of the Sea Devils:

I love the Sea Devils and cannot wait for the collected edition Showcase Presents out this summer. I may need to start checking out the auctions at mycomicshop.com. Seems some good deals can be had.

Got this one from MyComicShop.com (I Spy #5):

I've only read one comic with Bat-Mite (It was the one in John Byrne's Generations book) but I loved the character. That cover with him is beautiful. Congratulations.

Here's My Major Snag's from this past year

























This was the first Avengers book I ever bought off the spinner rack. Glad I got it back

I LOVED I Spy growing up, not sure why I never had any issues of the comic before now, it only ran 6 issues.......

Picked up #5 (above), now got #1, 2, & 3. Pretty decent stories, actually, likenesses of Culp & Cosby are on sometime & off sometimes, but the plots feel like the TV show, though a bit lighter.

Great Action cover:

Almost done with the first 13 caps

rzing20480_2000 wrote:Almost done with the first 13 caps

Are you going to go after his appearances in Tales of Suspense (#58-99) next?