mrmitchgro

GAtor, When was the last time a thread got locked in Gold? I come here to avoid the shenanigans!

I bid $1050 and was considering going higher, but the baby started crying with about 2 minutes to go. I never got back to it :shrug:

$2200 for the CLink 6.5. Thoughts?

Damn talk about a big sales day for you!

Yowza. Congrats on the sale! http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?back=%2Fsubsection%2Easp%3Fid%3D1060%26FROM%3D%26TO%3D%26f1%3Di%2ELastUpdate%26ODire1%3DDESC&id=972221

Something I've been wondering about that I'd like to get you guys's take on... the prices for this book in the 6.0-8.5 range have seemingly been on fire lately, but I haven't seen it translate into increases on the HG copies. As an example, the CLink 8.0 PLOD that sold for $1956 in their recent featured auction seems like a huge increase in perceived value vs the 9.6 that sold for $8k in their Feb auction, which I believe is relatively flat to sales in the last year. Is this just a matter of smaller sample sizes on the HG front? I'm curious if anyone else sees this trend, or if I'm just having a case of the Silly Fridays? :shrug:

thanks again Mike! I'm now the proud owner of 0.1% of the entire 1st print run

Super easy to deal with on my TOS 39 purchase. Dave kept me in the loop through the entire process while we waited for my check to clear. Thanks again!

I've had this one a while - finally uploaded a scan:

Anyone score the 8.0?

Thanks! Yeah no big shocker that those increases didn't budge TAT

+1 +1 They already raised rates. Their horrific turnaround times (intentional or unintentional) have forced a large number of Fast Track submissions. Without even saying a word people have hungrily started paying 30-60% more per book with a smile on their faces. Bend over, take it and like it. Don't forget that CGC actually raised rates and started charging for graders' notes. It wasn't just the de facto increase to get your books back in less than 6 months. The actual rate increase on 1/1/12 had ZERO impact to TATs. But the increases DID have an impact on TATs..... They INCREASED! I agree with all of this. Who would have thought that demand for comic grading was so inelastic? My guess is that it would take a 30-50% increase to truly get turnaround times under control. Does anyone remember was the % increase was last time?

+1

If anything their prices are too low. At the current rates, there's clearly more demand than they have the capacity to satisfy. From an economics perspective, they should raise prices and let the number of submissions decline on their own. At least then turnaround times would get back to a reasonable level. From a long term business perspective, it's likely to do significant damage to future prospects, but at the end of the day they've proven either unable or unwilling to significantly increase their capacity anyway. So why not milk it for all it's worth? While reasonable, as you point out that strategy is not in their long term interests. Capital investment would be, as in more graders and another encapsulation machine or two. If TATs dropped I think it could be argued that they would make enough additional scratch to cover the costs, especially long term with the new equipment. Plenty of folks around here say they have either quit subbing books because of the long TATs, will quit, or would sub more if TATs were near historic advertised rates. I fall into this last group. TATs don't impact my SS collecting, as I will get signatures regardless of the wait (though raising the prices would impact how I collect them), but I have plenty of books I would sub under the Economy tier for blue labels that I am holding off on because of the crazy 6-7 month TAT. CGC would get more of my business if they went back to a 3 month TAT on Economy, and I imagine others would follow suit if they could get their act together. Totally agree with where you're coming from. The problem is that TAT have been this way for literally years at this point, so it's not as if this is a new problem for them. So why haven't they increased capacity? The only two options are that they are: 1. Unable to (due to the lack of qualified graders perhaps), in which case they should raise prices to decrease TAT and improve satisfaction among the remaining customer base, since capacity won't be going up and they actually need a reduction in demand. 2. Unwilling to (maybe the NPV of new slabbing machines doesn't match up favorably with other investment opportunities in sister companies), in which case they should still raise prices to increase the value (i.e. the future revenue streams) to the company of those capital investments. Now obviously I don't have access to any financial results or projections, so I could be totally off base. But from an outsider's view, it seems pretty clear cut to me.

If anything their prices are too low. At the current rates, there's clearly more demand than they have the capacity to satisfy. From an economics perspective, they should raise prices and let the number of submissions decline on their own. At least then turnaround times would get back to a reasonable level. From a long term business perspective, it's likely to do significant damage to future prospects, but at the end of the day they've proven either unable or unwilling to significantly increase their capacity anyway. So why not milk it for all it's worth?

Which grading tier? I've got a 15 day coupon submission received 1/31 that was graded last week but has yet to ship.

tree fiddy

800 for a 4.5 and 1k for a 5.0 sound pretty much in the same ballpark. Every book has a FMV range rather than a hard number, especially when PQ and eye-appeal are added in. I'm guessing a solid 6.0 might sell for between 1200- 1500, but could go higher in a particularly insane auction. As big as the demand is for this book, it's not that hard to find and is still probably cheaper than FAC #20 Those were just the 2 higher prices I quoted. I was referring more to the 5.5 that sold for 450 in '11 in comparison... Seems to be in early 2011 that this book took a big climb in price... I thought I paid a lot for my 6.0 when I bought it. I'm glad I paid what I did now looking back. That's my copy. FWIW, it was a BIN that I saw and bought in the first 20 minutes it was listed. The prices had already started to jump at that point, so I was ecstatic to get it!

Speculation on what it will go for? There doesn't appear to be a recent sale above 8.0 on GPA. An 8.5 went for $6300 on CLink in August.

I posted this one a while back, but my photobucket link is dead on that old post.

A pre-code fan that's afraid of the dark...

Just awesome Brian. It's a helluva way to make a first impression around here! Thanks for sharing!

Pedigree book will actually get done too?

CLink's 4.5 copy went for $605 in September. Based on that I'd think the current price is about right. But HA always seems to get a premium, so even a number at the top of Speedy's range wouldn't shock me.

Heritage has a 5.0 copy ending tonight that's currently sitting at $777 w/ BP.