That con in Portland taught me real collectors don't care about grades

I was at the Portland Comic Con last summer and watched this guy flip through a beat-up copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 with a coffee ring on it and offer $400 cash on the spot. The seller was bragging about his 9.8 slab and the collector just laughed and said 'I read my books.' Made me realize I've been obsessing over plastic cases while missing the whole point. Anyone else stop grading after a moment like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

garcia.charles1mo ago

Used to think slabs were the only way to go, but stories like this totally flipped my view. Now I get why people love a beat up book that's actually been read a few times.

karen_sanchez101mo ago

That story hits close to home for me. Last year at a small convention in Seattle, I saw a kid trading a pristine slabbed book for a ragged copy of X-Men #1 just because he wanted one he could actually flip through. The dealer running the booth just shrugged and said 'comics are meant to be handled.' It really made me rethink everything about my own collection. Graded books are nice but they sit in a box and never get to live. Now I only keep slabs for my absolute grails and read everything else by myself or with my students. The joy is in the stories, not the plastic coffins they come in.