Somebody likes it RAW

When you collect comics or you just decide to buy some comics as investment, you will at a point wonder if it will be better to own "raw" comics or "graded" comics.

"RAW" is the term to refer to comics as these are published by companies and sold by comic shop. It is an obvious synonymous of "UNGRADED".

"GRADED" is the term to refer to comics which are submitted to a "grading company" and, after being examined by professional grader employed by the company, receive a "grading point" and get encapsulated.

Especially for newbies who are not expert graded, buying and selling graded comics it's an obvious advantage because it is the only possible way to be absolutely sure about the real state of conservation of the comic, indicated by the "grading point".

Another important aspect of the graded comics is the "holder" which helps to preserve the actual state of conservation of the comic.
We are going to take a look to the plastic holder used by CGC, the worldwide leading "grading company", based in Florida, USA.

The following, is a picture of an empty CGC holder!

A comic book was inside the holder but we have opened it and removed the comic. It is made using a resistant and thick plastic and has fixing point on each corner and a long welding on the side.

As you can clearly see, it is very depth and there is absolutely enough space for the comic. It was not easy to open it!

It is not enough! At CGC really care about the safety of your comics, and every single comic get sealed inside a rigid plastic bag where it is conserved in vacuum.

This is an important precaution to preserve the comic from the corrosive action of oxigen, from the dust and, if you are a smoker, to avoid that the paper absorb the smell of cigarettes. Anyway it is ever better to keep your comic in a safe place, away from direct source of smoke, light and humidity, because if the CGC holder cannot protect from these two last menaces...

Take a look at the empty plastic bag.

The bag is made using a really thin, elastic but hard plastic, and it is the exact size of the comic. In this way the comic will be kept clean and pressed and, if one day it will be pulled off, it will absolutely be in the same state of the day in which it was graded.

So, we have seen that there are different reason to decide to preserve the comics graded. It is not just about authenticity and grading but mainly it is all about conservation, and a comic perfectly conserved is a comic which increase in value!

You wonder how to get you own comics graded by CGC if you live in UK? It is very simple! Just contact us!

Comics Vs. Gold

Comics Vs. Gold, the battle is live in the investing arena!

Gold is the most common precious metal when we speak about investing money, but it is really a good investment?

Buying gold WAS a good investment, cannot deny it, but was a good investment 10 years ago, when the price was less than £14 per gram, so, face it, we lost the train! Today, with the 24ct gold price at more than £31 per gram, probably now it's time to sell! And you can make good money easily just selling your scrap gold!

As we said, today the current price of 24ct gold is at least £31, ten years ago was less than £14, so who purchased ten years ago and sell today profit easily £16 per each gram of 24ct gold, no bad! And if the investor sold his gold in 2011, when we notice that the gold did reach his highest peak of the last 10 years at £37 per gram, the profit was £23 per gram! And if we go farther back in time, it was even better:

Come on, why we are here wasting our time and money with comics? Let's invest in gold!

Don't hurry, it is not exactly the pot under the rainbow...

If you was crazy enough to buy at £37 in 2011, today you simply lost £7 per gram, (it means, on 1 kg bullion, a deficit of £7000), and in the last 18 months the value is almost stationary, so no profit for your investment.

What about comics?

Without going back in the time, (for now), analysing very rare comics which, to be purchased, require a big financial effort by the investor, we want to consider a couple of recent books.

The 1st if from the end of 2013, it is Harley Quinn #1 1:25 Variant Cover.

Years ago, when the book was to be released, it was possible to get a copy in pre-order, signed be the creators and the cover artist and graded by CGC with a 9.8 grading, for probably less than $250. The last 9.8 copy sold on eBay on May 22, 2018, sold at $1125, and we bring this example taken from eBay because it is easy verifiable by anyone. 

The 2nd book is really recent, just from August 2017, less than 1 year ago, it is Totally Awesome Hulk #22, with the 1st full appearance of a new character named "Weapon H".

Now you know about the chance to get a comic in pre-order, so, same again. It was possible to get a copy graded 9.8 by CGC for $60. The last verifiable sale was an auction on eBay, ended on May 20, 2018, at $160. At least a gross profit of +160% in just 10 months!

At the end of the matter, I am not telling you to sell your house to buy comics, I am just telling you about a different opportunity of investment which is not proposed everyday by your bank. Of course, investing in comics is not ever like this, it is not ever about double your money in a few months, we are not magicians and if someone offers you to double your money too rapidly, it is better doubt about him... but the truth is that is very very rare that good comics decrease in value if purchased at the right moment, especially nowadays, when we see a lot of superheroes movies in our cinemas, (we will talking about that soon), and comics are coming out to be noticed by a wider audience of people and possible buyers.

Anyway, if you decide to invest in comics, ever ask to a pro who can maybe not guarantee the profit of your investment, but surely guarantee that you will pay a honest price and that you will receive the item you paid for without bad surprises.  

What we do?

HTF Collectables is just a European branch sited in United Kingdom of our larger company with headquarter in the United States.
What we do is basically the importation and distribution of graded comics from the US, but we also offer a facilitating service to all our customers who want to get their own comics signed by their favourite artists & creators and graded by CGC.

Finally, practice is better than theory and an image could be simpler than thousands words to clearly understand our job.
So, if you are here, I suppose you know what is a comic book but maybe you don't know what is a graded comic book or a signed & graded comic book. To make it easy, take a look at the pictures below.
What we have is a "raw" or ungraded comic book, followed by a graded and a signed & graded copy of the same comic.
On both the graded copies you will notice a small white rectangular on the label, this doesn't appear obviously but I have cancelled the serial number for the privacy of the owner.

Who we are...?

Hello there!
That's Alessio, and I will be the writer of all the posts you will read on this blog!

I am a staff member of HTF Collectables and I have decided to start a blog to publish some information about the "Comics Industry" and give some tips to newbie collectors, investors or wanna-be-investors.