This article in the L.A. Times is all about the "slabbing" of comic books…sealing old issues in plastic so that their condition will not go down and their value will go up. Within the hobby, it's a controversial endeavor, though the "con" side seems to not go much past the notion that if something is designed to be read, it's a shame to render it unreadable. Maybe so. But if I owned a pristine Action Comics #1 and I had a sudden yearning to read it, I don't think I'd go pawing through that copy. I think I'd make do with a reprint.
What I think bothers some about slabbing is that it really institutionalizes the idea that rising back issue prices are mostly smoke 'n' mirrors. If you pay a thousand dollars for an old comic — let alone tens or hundreds of thousands — it's already not a reading experience. It's an investment experience predicated on the hope/knowledge that someone else will pay more some day for your copy. Ever since a mint condition Superman #1 topped a hundred bucks and we all marvelled at anyone paying even that much for one, that's what that part of collecting has been all about. Slabbing merely means we have to admit it.
Though why anyone would ever slab a copy of Groo the Wanderer is beyond me.