Who cares about grading if you're gonna read it anyways, you'd be surprised at how careful you can be reading a comic, and to have it slide down the grading scale...
The biggest joke is the company that actually grades and seals them now, they charge a fair bit, and your comics can be damaged in the post on the way in..., then they come back (sure sealed nice n pretty) and unless you're lucky, or just buying EVERYTHING, especially these days, you'll find there was little point in doing all this. (Although I do envy anyone who got this done with the "wolverine: origin" series, anyone aware of current pricing will know why)

I say the best way to keep an actual comic and enjoy it, is to either buy double copies, or read once and then seal yourself. You can vac-seal em, or simply put them in your plastic sleeves, either with backing, or on a solid surface (pile them tail to top), should be fine...of course after all this effort, collecting comics simply is seldom worth it anymore.
Prices going up, values going down.
This is why I download.
Superior selection, won't fall apart, no ridiculous price attatched.

I've collected comics, haven't been on the pirate side the whole time...but I've been there and done that, and something I read changed my mind, can't remember exactly how it went, but the message was, the only way to REALLY enjoy a comic as it should be enjoyed = get it, read it, then fold the sucker in half and shove it in your back pocket, condition be damned...this way you can re-read/relive the comic again and again, simply put, this is how comics used to be, and how they should be. Lying in treasure piles to dive through anytime you like.

Yeah, I like 'em kinda worn, myself...a reader copy is fine most of the time. Sometimes I like a finer grade if I want to admire the cover art. This one in particular has a nice painting. But I do like to pull these things out and read them, use them. Seems kooky to buy them and keep them sealed in plastic the whole time.

Agreed...in this day and age there's just no way of knowing the potential future value. Like EVERYONE started collecting comics like that around 10 years ago...kinda threw the whole collector value for a loop...so yeah unless you're really lucky or as I said buying every single thing out there, chances are you'd be wasting your time.
I've got my "box" of sealed comics, but that's as far as it goes, there's about 200, out of which only 30 have risen in value since purchase, and only about 10 of them greatly so...all the same, I've got downloaded duplicates of them all anyhow...
Agreed on the cover art, sometimes I think it would be cool if there was a company that had access to all the marvel/dc/image/WS/...all those covers, to put into poster form, now that would be cool.

My "collection" (if you can call it that) is even more miniscule...maybe forty or fifty assorted issues of this or that. Some comic books, some magazines. When I read one through and find it bores me, I try to trade it for something else, or sell it to get money to buy something else.

But I really do love these things, though. I even love trading them away, because I know they're going out there "into the world" to make someone else a little bit happier. There is a weird kinship between book collectors, have you noticed that? They share the same geekdom or something. And if there's one thing that makes me happy, even more than hips, lips, and finger-tips, it's being a GEEK for dumb stuff like comic books. There is something really satisfying about it.

i felt that way when i was selling books on ebay (regular books)
I felt like a broker, marrying books to eager owners ..

a lot of people gushed over how happy they were to find the book ..


i'll dig out my warren rags and post a list for the hell of it ..
none of mine are sealed - i bought them at a goodwill in a big lot - bought them to read them..

Now, that's my dream reality right there...going to the thrift store and finding a big bunch of Warren publications for 25 cents apiece...but I think that doesn't happen any more because of Ebay.

this wasnt too long ago - and it was a fluke ..

there must be 30 - 40 of them including Conan, Vampirella, Creepy, etc
also another 30 or so Epic and HEavy Metal mags
i got them all for 8$

and ... i almost didnt get it .. someone had them put aside .. but they never came back to get them.

sometimes i'm lucky - othertimes ... eh, not so lucky.

Aye....sure'n it's the same the world over...

kind of a 50/50 thing, eh?

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