It's tough to find valuable collectables these days, but a genuine Superman is worth a lot of money even with heavy wear and tear.
Panel from page 3 of The Adventures of Superman Issue 426
Recently it's been quiet on my comic quest because I've been having trouble finding AC#421 at an eBay price that I like. So instead, I tried my luck once again at my LCS (that's Local Comic Shop for those of you not in the know). Also, it seemed like a good time to try my hand at trading in some of the comics I bought that were a throw-in for a lot that had something else I really wanted. It didn't work so well the last time I tried, and it turns out once again my new set of comics are of little trade in value to my LCS. The guy behind the counter's exact words were "We have thousands like these in the dollar bin." Oh well. I may try to find them a good home online, but that is a job for another day.
As I walked away from the shop, I was so overcome with the news that my 40 year old comics were worthless that I forgot to check their inventory of Action Comics. It'd didn't hit me until I got back to my car. I almost drove away out of spite, but cooler heads prevailed and I went back in. It turns out they had a solid portion of the comics that I needed starting in the high 400 issue numbers, but they were all in the $5 range. If they had AC#421 I probably would have put down the cash for it, but for the most part I'm trying to collect more of a high quality "readers" grade of comics. My current goal is $3 or less in the 400 issue numbers. I was out of options until I remembered the clerk's painful words that they're supposed to have thousands of comics similar to mine in the dollar bin. I took him up on his challenge and it turned out they actually had two on my list: 449 and 492!
As you can see, the one cover has a nice ".29" written in thick black marker on the front. As a result the price value drops by like 80%. But to me a GIANT Issue from 1975 with minor cover wear is a steal at $1. The little scribble on the front is a non-factor. In fact it kinda gives the book some character. I wonder what the .29 was for? The price at a garage sale? An accidental run off of math homework? A quick calibration note for the perfect model airplane engine? I wonder... The whole situation made me want to scour through the bargin bins to find the other discarded comics that had been left for dead. There's a cool Adventure Comics featuring Superboy over there! Ooo what's this Aquaman! Hey, I've always wanted to read a Dial H for Hero! Fortunately my proclaimed goal to collect bronze age Action Comics helped me narrow my search and stop me from grabbing any comics that didn't fit that criteria otherwise I may have stepped off the edge of "collecting" down into the abyss of border-line hoarding.
Which reminds me...(says the man who's about to go on a wild tangent)...my wife an I got sucked into a Hoarders marathon on A&E. It was interesting to see the difference between a collector and a hoarder. Something that stuck out to me was that one of the main symptoms of a hoarder is that they collect lots of items that the average person would consider not useful or valuable. The big example that stuck out to me was the enormous collection of broken things that the hoarder intended to fix or upcycle someday. Of course it was very clear to everyone watching that this day would never come. Seeing these extreme character traits, my wife and I began to talk about the spiritual implications of hoarding. What is the underlying need that person is trying to fulfill? What is it about garbage that makes them feel secure? Part way through the conversation I blurted out, "Well, according to the definition, isn't God a hoarder?" Think about it...if one of the symptoms of hoarding is collecting broken things, isn't that what God "collects"? For example, Mark 2:7 (NIV) "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." ...or... Psalms 51:17 (The Voice) says "What sacrifice I can offer You is my broken spirit because a broken spirit, O God, a heart that honestly regrets the past, You won’t detest." I can almost visualize God sitting in a dirty, broken reclining chair in a cramped, run down house stacked from floor to ceiling with broken junk, each piece of junk representing a person with a broken heart, or a broken body, or a broken spirit. Each busted item looks useless, but God hangs on to the junk anyway, unwilling to throw them away. It's like he has an overly optimistic view of these people who are-quiet frankly-horrible. Let's stop here because there is a problem with this metaphor. It can be difficult for us to see spiritual value. We look at a homeless man and say that he doesn't have value because he's not contributing to society. Or maybe we look at a single Mom raising two kids by herself and we say she is incredibly valuable because of how much she does with so little. But spiritual value isn't based on what you do, what you have done, or what you can do. Spiritual value is based on who you are in Christ. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Check this out from the Mayo Clinic: It's important to note that hoarding is different from collecting. People who have collections ... deliberately search out specific items for their collections. Collectors often categorize their items and carefully display them. Hoarders, on the other hand, will save random items they encounter in their daily life and store them haphazardly in their homes or surrounding areas. So perhaps God is a collector after all? Psalm 139:16 (The Message) "Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day."
Whoa. What just happened? I remember thinking about grabbing a comic from the bargin bin and then something about Hoarders and the next thing I knew I fell down this rabbit hole of thinking and passed out...