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(Capital Comics photo)
I was looking through my Wizard Magazines again today and found the “Grade Comics Guide”. This is always an interesting part of the magazine, because it follows all of the price guide stuff.
Now, I’m not as concerned with the prices of the comic books, as I am with the importance of the comic book. The higher the price goes up, the more important the comic book is to the stories that matter. I also enjoy looking at it, as a new collector, to see what everybody who knows what they are doing are buying. With this said, it is nice to see my collection price go up–so I watch these prices regularly. However, when I turn the page to the Graded Comics Guide–I just don’t get it.
Why would anyone want to package their comics in a package and bar code it? Now, understand that I’m not that ignorant that I don’t understand the money end of it and the people that trading IS their hobby–I really do. But, what is the point of COLLECTING comic books, if you aren’t going to READ them?
Sometimes we miss so much in life because we want to keep things because they are “Valuable”. When comic books are stored because they are valuable, when toys are not played with because they are “worth money”, haven’t we missed the point? We miss the enjoyment of entertaining ourselves with the comics because we want to one day make money on the books. Let’s keep this hobby in perspective.Â
Do we need to protect the books with plastic and backing boards? Yes, that’s how we preserve it for the next generation. Do we necessarily have to package them in hard plastic cases, so they are never seen again? No, it is a waste of a good comic book.
[…] post is a fresh rewrite of a post titled “Graded Comics, What’s the Point?” from July […]