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A-1 Designated Restored Key Comics: To Buy or Not to Buy? That is the question.
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5 posts in this topic

Hello everyone!

I'm new here and love reading all the expertise/opinions/debates on this forum. I haven't post much, but I thought of this forum when I ran into a predicament that I hope you can help me with.

The past few years I've been able to cobble up a small sum of cash that I've set aside from X-Mas bonuses, tax refunds, etc that I've set aside as "comics money for that big long term investment". Now, I can either buy:

1) one lower grade blue label (0.5-2.0) Silver Age key book

2) or one mid/high grade restored purple (A-1 status @ 7.5-8.5) key book  **This is the one I'm on the fence on but really leaning toward**

3) or skip Silver Age altogether and buy 1, 2 or even 3 high grade blue label (9.6-9.8) Bronze Age key books. 

Not interested in a Copper or Modern at the moment; except for a few keys, supply is still huge in those eras. Why I'm even considering a restored book (aside from the discounted price tag) is that obtaining a higher grade blue label is just not going to happen for me. Cobbling up this cash has taking me longer than I'd hoped for and prices are rising faster than I can save. If I wait and save any longer all tiers (low grade, high grade, blue, purple) will rise out of my reach. I'd be playing catch up to no avail. Now, I've always been on the fence on the purple label debate, but starting to realize supply of high grade raw Silver Age books are getting harder to find in the wild at affordable prices and no guarantee that they haven't been restored themselves. Also, my theory is that if demand/prices of blue label high grade keys rise in the long term, shouldn't high grade restored purple (A-1 designated) labels rise as well?

Sorry for the long back story, but I want to lay out the details for you guys. So, which of the three scenarios above would you consider or not consider and why?

Thanks!

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If I had to do it all over again from the start, I would have bought nothing but high grade keys. For purely speculation, those tend to go up the most. But then, I wouldn't have been able to have ready all those great runs from the Silver and Bronze age...which to me was more important at the time and still is. I'd stay away from restored if you're interest is pure price escalation.

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On 8/27/2019 at 10:44 AM, comixry said:

my theory is that if demand/prices of blue label high grade keys rise in the long term, shouldn't high grade restored purple (A-1 designated) labels rise as well?

This hypothesis has been stated by many, many others in the past, and, with some exceptions[as is 'generally' the case], the 'market' has already supported the phenomena...and the increase has not been soley restricted to those classified as 'A-1'...

Have you considered the 'value' of acquiring 'Conserved' examples? For example, a 'Key' Silver-Age book in mid to high grade with merely a cleaned cover & cover reinforcement...

Edited by First Upgrade
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I believe the 'A rising tide lifts all boats' idea becomes more compelling as this hobby really starts to mature as global participants begin to really partake now that comic book movies are becoming more mainstream. Now, I'm not saying all moviegoers will become collectors but you just need a small percentage to join the hobby to ignite it. Although, I do hope the hobby doesn't turn out to be the sport card hobby of the 90's where I doubt all card collectors were fans of whatever sport first then became collectors.

As for 'Restored' vs 'Conserved', this is an aspect that I don't have a clear understanding. I've seen more restored than conserved books in the Silver Age era for sure than say, Golden Age where condition of raw books in that era takes a deep dive the older the books get. In terms of 'value', are conserved a better option than restored? Isn't a cover reinforcement mean an additive like paper or tape that would be more obvious to the touch than say color touch?

In the end, I'd be looking for yes, the value to rise as an investment but also a very presentable book that doesn't appear to be an overly restored book that was resurrected from a 6.0 to a 9.0 (just an exaggerated example) due to way too much restoration. I guess my other question is how much is too much in terms of restoration for a Silver Age book where comic collecting and properly storing books really started to take off? Everyone has their opinion but there's got to be a general consensus, right?

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There's nothing wrong with adding nice presenting pro-restored books in categories A and B, especially with the way prices have exploded and have become prohibitive on many (really most) Silver keys. It's the next best option if a mangled low grade universal book isn't your thing. I would avoid category C though for heavy resto. 

Edited by Keep_It_Clunky
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