Daredevil [Glow-in-the-Dark] #321 (1993) CGC Graded 9.2

You look at this slab and you see the number 9.2. In the world of 1990s comic collecting, a 9.2 is the grade given to a book that was loved, but not obsessively loved. It means the original owner bought it, carefully placed it in a bag, but perhaps breathed on it too heavily once during the Clinton administration. It is "Near Mint Minus," a grade that essentially says, "You tried, but you didn't try hard enough."

This is Daredevil #321, the issue where Matt Murdock decides that red spandex is too subtle and upgrades to a suit of bio-mechanical armor that looks like it was designed by a committee of teenagers. The cover is glow-in-the-dark, a feature that requires you to hold the book directly under a 60-watt bulb for five minutes before running into a closet.

But here lies the irony: You cannot do that. This book is sealed inside a hard plastic case. If you try to charge the glow, the glare from the plastic will blind you. If you take it into a closet, the plastic will reflect the little light you managed to absorb. You have paid a premium to preserve a gimmick that is rendered completely non-functional by the preservation itself.

You are buying a flashlight with no batteries that you are not allowed to open. It is a pristine, museum-quality example of a bad idea.