THE AMAZING FANTASY #15 CLUB 39 39

[Scott51515]

I’m the new guy that picked up the af15 3.0 on CL.  I was thinking i got a fair deal.  I too was surprised by the 5 and 3.5.   I was also the guy who pished the price on the 3.5 to 20k something.....it could have gone for less.  Imho, i dont think there were bidders.......... i’ll send picks when i recv the book.  Still a little sad I didn’t het the 3.5.  But 3 looks nice.  Hate the tape, but you guys think its a fair deal?  Btw,  i dont intend on ever selling anyway.  Its the best of my small collection.

[Dark Knight]

3 hours ago, Scott51515 said:

I’m the new guy that picked up the af15 3.0 on CL.  I was thinking i got a fair deal.  I too was surprised by the 5 and 3.5.   I was also the guy who pished the price on the 3.5 to 20k something.....it could have gone for less.  Imho, i dont think there were bidders.......... i’ll send picks when i recv the book.  Still a little sad I didn’t het the 3.5.  But 3 looks nice.  Hate the tape, but you guys think its a fair deal?  Btw,  i dont intend on ever selling anyway.  Its the best of my small collection.

Welcome to the boards!  Congrats on the nice pickup!  I think you did very well.

[Grant Turner]

I have a fairly low grade AF 15. Probably a 1.5. Is it worth it to have it slabbed?  It’s complete, secured at all the staples, but missing a corner at the bottom of the book. No art is affected by the cut

Edited December 3, 2018 by Grant Turner
It’s not it

[peewee22]

1 hour ago, Grant Turner said:

I have a fairly low grade AF 15. Probably a 1.5. Is it worth it to have it slabbed?  It’s complete, secured at all the staples, but missing a corner at the bottom of the book. No art is affected by the cut

Give me the Hulk 1 and I'll give you free advice. .

I would keep the books raw with no slab unless you need the cash. Enjoy them!  

 

[SECollector]

2 hours ago, Grant Turner said:

I have a fairly low grade AF 15. Probably a 1.5. Is it worth it to have it slabbed?  It’s complete, secured at all the staples, but missing a corner at the bottom of the book. No art is affected by the cut

If you are planning to keep it on your wall and enjoy it, do just that. Keep it on your wall and enjoy it - it is as cool as it can get. 

If you -on the other hand- have plans to sell it, it would be probably best both for you and the future buyer to have it slabbed and have a widely respected certified opinion about the grade or potential restoration.

[Grant Turner]

Here are some better pictures. I bought it for $460 in ‘97 I believe. At the time, that was a pretty big hit to my bank account!

[jason4]

1 hour ago, Grant Turner said:

Here are some better pictures. I bought it for $460 in ‘97 I believe. At the time, that was a pretty big hit to my bank account!

SLab this bad boy. Cooler in the slab and better protection. High value book. Preserve it. In fact I would slab everything in that picture you have. Nice books

[peewee22]

Don't slab it. It will preserve well in a mylar sleeve and you can slide it out to enjoy. Only slab it if you need to sell it. Trust me on this one.

You may need a wider mylar due to the back cover pages fanning out.

 

[gadzukes]

Don't slab it but find someone near you to take that spine roll out.  It will present so much better once it's straightened out.

Congrats on your $460 investment.  It's worth over $10,000 now.

Edited December 4, 2018 by gadzukes

[360racer]

 

Too excited to bring these two together.

 

[jason4]

On 12/3/2018 at 10:22 PM, peewee22 said:

Don't slab it. It will preserve well in a mylar sleeve and you can slide it out to enjoy. Only slab it if you need to sell it. Trust me on this one.

You may need a wider mylar due to the back cover pages fanning out.

 

Why would you slide out a 10,000+ comic book to enjoy (and handle and possibly crease) when you could simply get a reprint or read amazing fantasy 15 on YouTube? I don’t even like handling my 100$ books if I don’t have to.

Ccs press and cgc slab imo. 

[bronzilla]

I'm seeing a couple coverless AF-15 up on Fee-Bay, the slabbed copy is at 6000.00, the raw copy at 8000.00.

Any guesses if those will sell at those prices?

[peewee22]

8 hours ago, jason4 said:

Why would you slide out a 10,000+ comic book to enjoy (and handle and possibly crease) when you could simply get a reprint or read amazing fantasy 15 on YouTube? I don’t even like handling my 100$ books if I don’t have to.

Ccs press and cgc slab imo. 

It's a rare opportunity to continue to keep a book unslabbed and enjoy it. I don't think you can damage this book any further if you are very careful. 

I busted open a 7.5 many years ago to enjoy it (when prices were low of course). 

[SECollector]

44 minutes ago, peewee22 said:

It's a rare opportunity to continue to keep a book unslabbed and enjoy it. I don't think you can damage this book any further if you are very careful. 

I busted open a 7.5 many years ago to enjoy it (when prices were low of course). 

If I ever manage to get really old, I will probably open my AF15 and some others of my slabs, enjoy them while eating pizza (ok, maybe not)  and put them back in the box. My kids will be happy anyway to get them. Then if they want to get all geeky and start grading them by themselves again, good for them and their pockets .

Edited December 5, 2018 by SECollector
Typo, sorry!

[Bomber-Bob]

On 12/3/2018 at 9:40 PM, gadzukes said:

Don't slab it but find someone near you to take that spine roll out.  It will present so much better once it's straightened out.

Congrats on your $460 investment.  It's worth over $10,000 now.

I would not risk it on this book, it looks too fragile. The top staple is already detached. Losing the bottom staple would hurt the grade and value.  In any case, for 460.00, he can't lose any money !

[VintageComics]

10 hours ago, jason4 said:

Why would you slide out a 10,000+ comic book to enjoy (and handle and possibly crease) when you could simply get a reprint or read amazing fantasy 15 on YouTube? I don’t even like handling my 100$ books if I don’t have to.

Ccs press and cgc slab imo. 

Because some people like actually collecting the comic books themselves and not plastic cases with comics inside of them.

There is no comparison to handling a decades old artifact compared to reading a cheap reprint.

 

[jason4]

2 hours ago, VintageComics said:

Because some people like actually collecting the comic books themselves and not plastic cases with comics inside of them.

There is no comparison to handling a decades old artifact compared to reading a cheap reprint.

 

So if you had a 9.0 action #1 you would take it out of the slab and read it? I’m not sure I get what makes people happier by handling an old comic book vs. collecting and protecting them?

I look at my comics everyday and the case gives me piece of mind that I’m not damaging them by doing so. You don’t need to touch something directly to appreciate it. I love collecting comics and reading comics but I draw the line at handling them if they are worth a lot of money. 

[peewee22]

13 minutes ago, jason4 said:

So if you had a 9.0 action #1 you would take it out of the slab and read it? I’m not sure I get what makes people happier by handling an old comic book vs. collecting and protecting them?

I look at my comics everyday and the case gives me piece of mind that I’m not damaging them by doing so. You don’t need to touch something directly to appreciate it. I love collecting comics and reading comics but I draw the line at handling them if they are worth a lot of money. 

That Action #1 was probably 9.0 unslabbed for many decades and it was obviously well taken care of. I bet the owner from time to time looked (drooled) at it. Slabs have not been here forever. And comparing a 9.0 Action 1 to a low grade AF15 is probably not a good comparison. 

[VintageComics]

10 minutes ago, jason4 said:

I’m not sure I get what makes people happier by handling an old comic book vs. collecting and protecting them?

You know, maybe even as recently as 15 years ago NOBODY would think this way.

The entire point of the experience is to experience it. Collectors were always readers first, so the joy of reading, of touching, of smelling, of holding and handling was always more important than just seeing something at a distance.

It's like owning a '59 Eldorado Biarritz or a Ferrari GTO but happy to just luck at it through a showroom. No way. The joy is in driving it.

And that is something that most people from recent generations don't understand (I'm going to assume you're younger because of your thinking on collecting) unless they actually have a vested interest in something other than just the value.

They will never understand the appeal of actually doing something rather than owning it because they purchase the history of something without actually living through it first.

14 minutes ago, jason4 said:

So if you had a 9.0 action #1 you would take it out of the slab and read it?

I was a Timely collector and owned many rare and expensive books when I collected. I cracked most of them out of the case to handle them. The only one book I was afraid to was because I wanted it to stay liquid in case I needed to sell it.

My favorite books were Marvel Comics #1 (bought unslabbed) and a Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly #1 (bought slabbed that I cracked out). The MPFW #1 is probably the single rarest GA key of them all (1st Subby appearance predating Marvel #1) as there are only 10 or 11 existing copies.

If I had the money to afford an Action #1 9.0, yes I would probably crack it out and handle it. Not every day, but wouldn't want to own it without flipping through the pages at least once in a while.

Most old school serious collectors do handle their books from time to time. The fact that you can is really the point of it all. The point is not to look at pictures of your books.

You CAN handle comics without damaging them. Collectors have been doing it for decades.

[Sweet Lou 14]

I've read the full runs of all the titles I collect, though I admit for most silver age titles I read reprints, not the real thing.  (I keep a small vial of ground-up old comic books that I periodically smell to make the experience more authentic.)

But all kidding aside, even just from the standpoint of content, quite a lot is lost in the reprinting -- the colors aren't right and you don't have any of the ads or other non-story pages.  If it's a book like, say, Tales of Suspense #39, you only get the story with the superhero in it and you don't get the rest of the material.

Plus I totally get the appeal of handling a raw book -- it's an amazing experience for all the reasons stated above.

With all that said, every time you handle a valuable book you're taking a risk.  I think of myself as one of the most careful people around, and the stupid things I've done (or come extremely close to doing) while handling my books can't easily be counted or catalogued.