This is a tale of greed and grit. It starts with two very enterprising small business owners Tom and Christina. They were in the title business and decided to move into collectibles based on the claims of their favorite nephew. This nephew was more of an investor with a tinge of speculation in his buying. Tom and Christina followed their nephew's happy comic book hunting trail to his favorite local comic shop (LCS). What they found would rival any garage sale, any flee market anywhere in the country, and most especially any other LCS.
LCS with Integrity
This particular LCS had integrity in its business dealings. It only bought the best books and had huge inventory spikes quite frequently from unwitting sellers. This provided above-average quality comic books for reasonable market values. The LCS had been in business since the 80s and had a huge customer base. Many of whom resold the comics back to the store occasionally, adding to inventory. The bottom line, their inventory was filled with near mint to mint books.
Frenzied Buying
Our entrepreneurs went wild and started buying everything they could get their hands on in this store. They went from zero inventory to over 10,000 books in just one year. By the time they were done, Tom and Christina had cleaned out most of the current inventory of resellable books at this particular LCS at that time.
Once satiated only then did they spend the next year or so creating an e-inventory and started to sell online. Tom and Christina utilized CGC. They also relied on the experience of a knowledgeable local collector to sift the nuggets out of the standard comic book inventory. This double cover was one of those nuggets.
What are double covers? What cover does CGC grade? Finally, what kind of profit margin are we talking about with a double cover?
Double Covers Uncovered
Double covers are a rare find indeed, they "occur due to a factory binding mishap where two or more covers are rolled together and stapled with the rest of the book" (Source: Eric Bradley. Heritage Auctions. 2017). This will lead inexorably to your next question, "Are there more than double covers?" The answer is yes, I have heard of as many as five covers.
CGC Grading Process
What do Double Covers look like in a CGC Slab? Below is the double cover comic book that Tom and Christina found and sold. This Marvel Team-Up #20 had a 9.6 outer cover and a 9.8 inner cover considering it was from 1974 that was one heckuva find. See below...
Marvel Team-Up #20: This book was created in 1974 by Len Wein and Stan Lee on the script, with the art of Gil Kane and Sal Buscema. It is a non-key as far as I can tell. At that time the market had not gone supernova yet. It was probably the last gasp of the ordinary market for comic books. Books back then were still relatively cheap prior to the expansion of the online comic book market and values in early 2019.
Entrepreneurs Strike Mint!
This entrepreneurial team had three things going for them: First, neither really had learned to focus on keys at that point. So they were buying everything from the Bronze Age and Silver Age they could get their hands on. Second, they found a good source (at the time), and like 49ers during the Gold Rush, they mined that source until it was completely cleaned out. Finally, Tom and Christina had cash to spend on this endeavor and believed that pushing forward while the comics were available was the best way to be successful. They were right, it was a perfect time to jump into the market.
This all takes us full circle to their double cover find. Recently, they confirmed the success of their "buy 'em all" comic book purchasing mantra. For their efforts, multiple successes not the least of which was the double cover they only paid $1.50 for. Yep, a $1.50 that returned a grade 9.8 interior cover and 9.6 exterior covers, not bad and proof that greed and grit still rule in business check out their success here*.
"Buy 'em all!"
Conclusion
Though double covers are rare, there is a subset of comic book collectors that trade and collect them. In addition, the value of these comics is exceptional. After all, it is very hard to value a non-key book at over $100 let alone $399. This story of grit is anecdotal evidence of a successful start-up selling collectibles. Their business name is Summerscomics (the official business name of Tom and Christina's comic shop).
This team of entrepreneurs managed to grab 1000s of comic books just before a huge spike in price hit the market. Then, as they sort their score, they turn up double covers like the example above that they paid $1.50 for and turned into a $350 profit. For that individual book, there was no risk. I mean, who counts $1.50? You can't even buy a cup of Joe for that anymore. The rest was pure profit. Tom and Christina found all the gems in their haul, including the double cover. Now, can you find one like they did? Do you have true grit?
