Last week I happened to trade up for a high grade copy of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27. I'll keep it, I reckon, and sell off my lower grade copy.
What the heck. Might as well.
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| Out with the old... |
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| In with the new. |
Musings on genre writing, waterfall wandering, and peak bagging in the South's wilderness areas.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Out With the Old...
I don't normally collect high-grade books for my collection. Sometimes I will upgrade from a poor condition copy to one in good to very good condition. One reason I don't generally buy them in high grade is that I like to read my old comics. I enjoy taking them out and handling them. Unlike the anal retentive types who box them permanently in plastic slabs where they can never be touched. Nevernevernever.
Last week I happened to trade up for a high grade copy of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27. I'll keep it, I reckon, and sell off my lower grade copy.
What the heck. Might as well.
Last week I happened to trade up for a high grade copy of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27. I'll keep it, I reckon, and sell off my lower grade copy.
What the heck. Might as well.
Given the condition of the older cover, it was a no-brainer. Still, I admire the idea of having comics for reading. I got into comics in the 1980s via guys who kept their comics boxed, but not bagged. I'm talking Dark Phoenix saga _X-Men_, Englehart Joker-fish _Batman_-era books. The stuff you want to read...when I asked why they didn't bag and board 'em, they said, "So they can be read and loved like they're supposed to." I suspect my experience would have been much different if I'd had to sweat taking every issue out of a bag, watching that the tape didn't catch the cover, etc. Nope, I just read 'em and enjoyed 'em. And with further enjoyment in mind, I sought out more from there....
ReplyDeleteAnyway, congrats on the sweet upgrade. Reading copies are great, but they don't have to be dog-eared halfway down the cover with ink-marks!
At first I ignored comics in totality after I got out of retail. Then the old bug bit me when I kept visiting old friends who were still buying and selling them. But what I wanted was to read the damned things...and not reprints. So I started by buying only low-grade old comics by Kirby and Ditko with no real thought toward anything but owning and reading them. It's surprisingly affordable when you get the books in lower grade.
ReplyDelete"and not reprints"
ReplyDeleteEspecially with 60's Marvels. Marvel's reprints have NOTORIOUSLY bad line reproduction, often looking like a 3rd-generation copy. It's no wonder the originals cost so much.
10-15 years back, I got some great deals on some SUB-MARINER issues. I remember one with Sal Buscema art, the cover was in such HORRIFIC shape, I only paid $2 for it. Took a LOT of hours, but when I was done, I'd managed to use Photoshop to make an image of that cover look brand-new-- or better.
Yes, I know... strange ideas about "fun".
I've never been happy with the reprints. And not just because the printing quality leaves much to be desired. I just lose a lot of the nostalgia value when the reprints are in book form on slick paper. It just ain't the same.
ReplyDelete