spreads

Exactly, and again these are general estimates. I would think the higher the number of estimated days, the higher the variation in how long the service might actually take.

It's possible they don't have a lot of extra copies around relative to who wants one. It's better business for them to be able to have sales of 3 books to 3 customers than to 1 customers. I'm sure they have their reasons.

Do you have a sub there? Regular customers sure, casual flippers that don't buy anything other than the latest hot book....

I had a huge run of TWD I listed on ebay by auction last month. This is something I would almost never do, but I wanted to get it sold and shipped before I took off on a trip (this was from a large collection of 10k comics purchased a few months ago, I continue to sort through this large collection but wanted to get some money back very quickly). The results were so %*&$@ I'm too embarrassed to post them here, but at the end of the day they're out of the house. What my auction told me is that these TWD comics, especially big runs and especially when you get past issue 20, is quickly on the decline in demand. If you want to sell your collection, or any TWD books, don't wait any longer to do so! #1 will always be valuable, but I sense a slow gradual decline in price before it bottoms out somewhere.....

When was this? I'm thinking the ASM pop is fairly recent, less than a year? I remember being shocked, it seemed to have gone from a $15/20 book to a very quick $75, with a brief pit stop at $50. It wasn't a more organic price trend, that's for sure.....but hey what comics are nowadays in the speculator world.

Hey no judgement here at all, you are great at this! I was merely pointing out that the OP was looking for hot books and while the ASM 300 and SSM 64 are definitely popular books, they are down a bit off their recent highs (ebb and flows of comic markets).

There is exit strategy (purpose anymore)!

Grading is like the candy bar market, if you wanted to create a chocolate bar you could do so there's low barriers to entry but the big players are so entrenched they own the market. I mean, look at this chat board? This is part of the CGC umbrella, there have been 6 figured sales of comics here - for an internet chat board - that is unbelievable. I have nothing against CBCS, but I think anyone going up against CGC has a much bigger uphill battle than they realize.

They are niche, but again, if they are very high grade it is worth having them slabbed.

Sitting on the couch in your underwear reading strawberry shortcake comics while eating pastries?

It will more than likely be worth less a year from now and definitely five years from now (TWD is on a downward trajectory).

Is that what you were submitting? If you try and sell them with CBCS you'll find out how they'll do....they will also take longer to sell which you should be factoring in the sale - time value of money.

I can agree with that, especially as someone that's done small shows where there are regular buyers not looking to spend a ton of money (a $100 budget for that type of show is more feasible for a lot of people than $300). It's just odd how much ASM 316 has gone up so much while 300 was dropping in price. Perhaps there's also a lag, when 300 was hitting its highs 2 years ago, 316 should have been going up at the same time.

These books have peeled off quite a bit off their recent highs, eh?

ASM 316 completed ebay sale would have told you that. But it's a polarizing trend because ASM 300 has been on the downtrend for what, a year, 1.5 years? There seems to be a negative correlation with those two books right now that doesn't make a lot of sense. Regardless, you would have to look at ebay completed sales because if you read that ASM 300 was hot 2-3 years ago, you wouldn't be able to attain that same sale today.

Great insight, thanks for this transparency Donut! And Simpsons #1.....I had no idea....

And keep a jug close by. You don't want to breakup a productive rhythm.

I think reimbursing people would be top-notch quality service, but how realistic is that? How many retail companies hand out freebies or steep discounts to poor service - few to none. I don't think taking a few extra business days is a clear underhanded way to be scummy (their operations could be a bit better), I think we need to really take the published times on their service with a grain of salt. What would CGC do if they removed the estimated times? Would people stop submitting? No, probably not. We would be forced to go by anecdotal evidence such as this thread for guidelines which would be even more inaccurate. At the end of the day, people can submit wherever they want - but if your goal is maximizing resale - which is the primary reason for submitting for most - then it's better to just take a few lousy experiences with the good. Stopping your feet on the ground and going to another provider (CBCS) is only hurting you. And what happens if you sell a CBCS book that's a good 30% lower than it's CGC equivalent? That buyer might just flip it straight to CGC from cross-over service....

I'm sorry you feel that way, maybe chalk it up to a one-off. I would strongly recommend against submitting to CBCS in spite of CGC, you're better off just keeping them raw if you really don't want to use CGC's service.

I'm not sure why (OP's son) the first instinct is to use FB to sell? The fees of having a real ecommerce platform like ebay to me is negligible instead of having to deal with the counter party risk/time & effort on Facebook.

Alright, alright settle down I'll stop. Hold onto your blood pressure.

That's a lot better than it is here!

50 cents on parking? I've never heard of rates so low...

High grade Star comics are impossible to find! Although I don't consider them to be moderns...

How many retailers are able to participate in IPOs? Let alone knowing a solid investment in one during a time when thousands of similar companies were making their way to the primary market. It would have been a much clearer choice, and realistic possible investment to pickup the surviving tech stocks post crash.