Saw a guy at my local shop in Portland pull the same X-Men issue I was buying and he bought it just to slab it
I was at Cosmic Monkey Comics on NE Sandy last Saturday and watched a guy pay $40 for a mid-grade copy of Uncanny X-Men #266, then tell the clerk he was sending it straight to CGC to flip. Part of me gets it, grading is a real market now, but is it bad for the hobby when half the wall copies never get read? Do flippers help keep shops open or just price out the folks who actually read them?
Man, I feel you on this one. I've been collecting for like 15 years and it bums me out every time I see someone grab a book just to ship it off and never crack it open. That #266 is Gambit's first full appearance, it's a fun read, and now it's gonna sit in a plastic case forever so somebody can make a quick buck lol. Like I get that shops need money to stay open, but when the flippers clear out the wall before the actual readers even get a shot, that's what kills the hobby for the next generation. I don't blame the shop, they gotta sell what people buy, I just wish there was room for both. You're not wrong to feel weird about it, I would've felt the same way standing there.