Number 6

I actually don't have very fond memories of this book. Keep in mind: I checked this book out when I was like 5 or 6 years old so at that point I was probably looking at the pictures more than anything. My mom always encouraged reading and would read to us before we would go to bed. One night I asked my dad to read me my story before bed and I handed him this book. You have to understand that my dad had absolutely no knowledge or interest in comic books and thought all the science fiction and superhero stuff I was into was dumb. So he starts reading the Green Lantern story and when he "becomes" Green Lantern I start objecting that that's not right because that's not Green Lantern...because he doesn't look what I knew Green Lantern looked like and because the origin wasn't right either. And my dad argues that it IS Green Lantern because that's clearly what the book says. We go back and forth until my dad loses patience and I'm in tears. My mom had to intercede and that's the only time I checked that book out from the library. My dad didn't know enough about comic books to explain the difference between Golden Age and Silver Age DC characters and I was too young to articulate what the problem was. What's interesting to me is how I had such a clear idea at that age of what Green Lantern's origin should be. The different look is obvious, but I can't think of how I knew Hal Jordon's origin at that point. I know that there was the Challenge of the Super Friends episode that got into some of their origins, but that also has the villains interjecting themselves into the heroes' origins and I probably saw that episode only once (if it even had aired at that point) so I'm not sure if Hal's origin would imprint on me that strongly from just that exposure. Was there one of these reprint books that had the Silver Age origins of the DC characters?

Just checked eBay, yeah I think that might be it. I was about 5-6 years old when I checked it out so my memory is hazy. The 30's to 70's books I had the benefit of checking out multiple times growing up so my recollection on those is better. Thanks!

Growing up in the 70's I would check out the comic book reprint books that my local library had. There was the Marvel Fireside stuff, and were a few DC books as well. There was the Baman and Superman From the 30's to the 70's books, I believe first issued by Crown and then reissued from Bonanza. Later there was a Shazam From the 40's to the 70's book issued by Harmony. I'm kind of assuming that Crown/Bonanza/Harmony are all actually the same publisher, just changing their name for some reason. Anyway, I also distinctly remember checking out a book that reprinted the origins of the Golden Age DC heroes, but I don't remember what it's called. I would think it was published by the same company as the books above but I don't know that. Any idea what the title for that book from that era might be? Thanks in advance for the help.

I got my submission for this year back this week. The Modern portion (5 books) showed up a few weeks ago. One slab had a very small piece of whatever that black stuff is that’s going into people’s slabs in the back of the slab. Another slab had a slight scuff on the back of slab. To me that stuff is minor and not worth the risk of CGC really doing some damage on an ME fix. So I got the Vintage portion (6 books) this week. Three slabs had slight scuffs on the outside on the backs. But two of the slabs had that small crack on the side of the slab that looks like it’s on the inside of the slab. And when you look at the slab head-on it looks like there’s shatter cracking in the seam like when you try and crack a slab. I think the integrity of the slab is secure but it does have the appearance of someone trying to mess with the slab. Probably going to be a problem if/when I sell them. So only one submission in a year and only 11 books totally. Not a great ratio. And no indication on the invoice of which “quality excellence specialist” or whatever inspected this before being shipped out. Guess they gave up on that pretense.

The answer to your question depends on what you paid for the book(s), what they sell for raw, what grade they are, and the books in question. If you’re cracking out say a Miller Daredevil issues in 9.8 than yes you will “losing” money if you decide to sell it. But if the same issue in 9.6? You’ll take a bit of a hit maybe but probably won’t be missing out on much if you sell it with the label. Again, a lot of it is going to depend what you paid to the book relative to what a comparable book sells for raw from a reputable dealer. Just because a book is slabbed doesn’t automatically mean there’s a premium built into it. Every month there’s a bunch of books on ComicLink that sell for less than the cost of slabbing or for the same price as what a raw copy sells for from a reputable dealer. If the buyers crack those books out they’re really not “losing” anything as they didn’t pay a premium to begin with. Another factor to consider (unfortunately) is whether CGC was going through one of its sloppy “loose” periods when the book was graded. If the book looks like a “soft” grade (or just straight-up overgraded) and you paid the going rate for whatever the grade is then it may be better to keep the book slabbed. Keeping the label with the raw book won’t help you there. From my personal experience selling raw books that were cracked out and still include the label: While I don’t don’t often get the same amount as what I would have if the book was still slabbed, I am usually able to get more than if I was selling the book raw with just my opinion of what the book is. I also have found that books with the label sell faster for me than ones without - even if I state that I think CGC’s grade was soft for a particular book. Yes, I understand the whole “cracking the slab voids the grade” argument, but this has been my experience selling books with labels. I can only guess that buyers feel that while grade isn’t “guaranteed” they have a better shot at getting a book close to the stated grade on the label than if it was just my opinion alone of the book. But if you ever do sell books that you cracked out with the label, be prepared to get scolded for why you would do such a thing or why include the label when the grade has been “voided”. You’ll get a bit of that.

So based on these results, apparently “white pages” (which really can’t be appreciated in the slab) trumps super-fugly cover wrap (which can plainly be seen). I guess if you’re looking for a deal off-white to white is where you start.

If you're getting the title to read, during the 80's you have to buy both as a story will begin in one title and then conclude in the other title. My preference was always for Detective as I liked the anthology format, especially the large 48-page dollar issues in the late 70's early 80's, but during the late 80's that final got dropped and it just became "the other Batman comic".

The difference is that when you use a check or an ACH you’re not using that form of payment for something that it wasn’t intended and violating the issuing institution’s terms of service. PayPal’s F&F is not intended to purchase merchandise from an auction house and as such violates their terms. Just because they don’t physically stop people from using it this way doesn’t mean their ok with it. So on the one hand Collectors Comics expects users to abide by their terms of use but then when it comes to payment Collectors Comics gently nudges their users to violate another businesses' terms of service so they can reap a little extra financial benefit. I understand that there always has been and probably always will be an effort to equivocate using F&F this way with something that is acceptable, and as such this type of “principled” argument will probably fall on deaf ears for the most part. But to my eyes, it’s not a good look and raises the question: if they’ve going to play fast and loose with this, at what point will they decide to bend the rules again if it’s to their benefit and they think they can pull it off?

Clink will as well. As you say, the operative phrase is "where grading makes sense". Personally, if I'm sending raws to MCS it's because I didn't think the books were worth enough to justify slabbing in the first place, but I can see situations where that information would be useful.

Without completely derailing this thread, let me just add this: Just like which auction venue you choose depends on what kind of material you're offering, whether MCS is going to work for you depends on your circumstances and how you acquired the material you have. Based on my own experience combined with what I've seen written here on the Boards, my observation is this: IF you were/are a dealer, part-time dealer, flipper, etc. and you are in the habit of picking up large collections of books, pulling out the best candidates for 3rd party grading and (if you've done your buying right) those primo books are going to cover most if not all of your purchase cost, leaving you with books that, while not worth submitting, are worth something and are going to be almost all profit... yet are going to require a lot of work to grade, scan and list. or IF you purchased the bulk of your collection off the rack in the 70's and 80's and/or you bought a sizable portion of back issue Silver and Bronze during the late 80's and 90's when everyone was chasing Moderns or were in the habit of buying large amounts of books for pennies on the dollar AND you managed to keep the collection well-preserved all these decades. It seems to me that if you are in one of those categories above (generally speaking) then it seems MCS is going to work out well for you because even if you don't get top dollar, the amount of time and work that you're transferring to MCS verses what you actually have in the books is really going to make it worthwhile. If, on the other hand, you returned to collecting in the last 20-25 years and have acquired most of your collection on the secondary market, buying individual issues (not in bulk) and carefully curating what you have in your collection, even if you've tried really hard to acquire quality material in grade and getting discounts/deals whenever you can, chances are on average what you have in the collection is probably on the whole going to be closer to retail than wholesale. In that circumstance I think it becomes much harder (not saying it's impossible) to make MCS work to your benefit unless you're just absolutely trying to get rid of stuff and get something/anything for it. Just my

I've heard that line of reasoning before, that a person gets more even though it's graded lower, and in my personal experience I did not find that to be the case. I want to just leave it at that as this isn't really the thread to rehash that discussion.

Yes. Suffice to say, I won't send raws to MCS again.

Thanks for the responses. Yeah, I have a couple of books that would be in the $1000 range, maybe a handful in the $400-$500 range and the rest probably $100-$250 range. And none of it really the kind stuff that would make them jump and say ‘we want that in our auction’. Just to clarify: when I mentioned sending them to MCS, I meant sending them to be listed as BIN. I agree, I’d get slaughtered at auction there. It just seems like Clink has gotten back to where it was pre-pandemic: stuff picked up at decent prices and then flipped and sold on eBay for more. Great if your a buyer…though it never seems to work for me when I decide to bid on something.

No GA mostly BA with a couple of SA. Was thinking possibly sending to MCS but a few issues are Whitman. They have a search filter for Gold Key but not for Whitman and based on my (limited) past experience I feel like Whitmans can get overlooked in peoples searches. In total I can probably put 5 grand worth of stuff together but based on HAs historical data, like you said, may not be the best venue for SA/BA stuff I have. Do you happen to know if the $5,000 threshold is limited to just one category or can you get to that total combining categories, like comics and books?

Is October/November now back to again being a bad time to consign books to Clink and better to wait until February/March of next year? Or is it all just randomly bad now?

I've submitted at least 3 pedigree books for re-holder to get the new label, including one that I felt was overgraded by CGC. All came back with the same grade, including the one with the inflated grade. I imagine part of the reason CGC issued the new pedigree label is to induce people to do exactly what I did: pay for unnecessary re-holding. I guess a grade drop is a potential risk, but it seems like if CGC were to start slamming grades on these it would probably kill off the easy money on pedigree re-holders pretty quick.

At the risk of sounding like the angry old man yelling at a cloud… If that’s where things end up then I’ll abandon modern movies and TV altogether. Over the last couple of years I’ve been focused on building up my collection of movies and TV shows on physical media. Even stuff I haven’t seen and seems mildly interesting, if I can pick up for a good price I snag it. I’ve got a pretty good pile of stuff to watch that’ll keep me entertained for a long time without having to resort to entertainment generated by an AI.

Assuming you can expect to get roughly the same amount at auction, those fees are still less than ComicLink and MCS. I had contemplated consigning with CollectorsComics, not so much because of the 0% consignment fee (though that would have been nice) but because they are in the same state as I am and it would be a lot cheaper to ship them CGC books as opposed to shipping them across the country to Clink. Aside from the fact that they may not be established enough yet to get the same results as Clink, the whole asking for PayPal Friends & Family for payment really gives me pause. If they weren't charging fees on either end of the transaction (and weren't selling their own books) I could maybe see an argument that they're just as an intermediary between buyer and seller and aren't profiting off the sale at all as a justification for F&F. But if they're charging either a commission fee or buyers fee and/or offering their own books in the auction that payment option really needs to be dropped. It just comes off like a WhatNot seller trying to muscle in on the big boys.

Well, you see something similar in book collecting: “has defect x, y, z else Fine” So in other words the book is actually a Very Good to at best a Near Fine copy. I think the reason for it is (besides the salesmanship puffery of it) is because book grading terms are fairly broad. You can have one copy that is a VG copy and looks it because of a cumulative amount of small wear and another copy that at first glance looks like a FN condition but has a couple of defects the are pronounced enough to drop the technical grade. It’s their way of saying ‘presents like grade x but because of these defects drops it to grade y’. I think the problem with the example posted is that without the prominent cover tears and chipping it still wouldn’t look like a fine copy.

I know I'm being naive here but what if the "death of" issue is actually a good story? I'm thinking of stuff like Daredevil #181. I know I can't divine intent, but I think Miller intended the character to die from the time she was created, it was part of her and Matt's story arc, so I don't think it was intended as a gimmick. (if anything, bringing her back was more the gimmick, and a mistake IMHO). But regardless of the intent or the fact that bringing her back kind of undermines the impact of the death itself, the story is still really good. I'm sure there's other examples but of course the question is, who gets to determine which death issues are actually still good and which were just a cheap sales ploy.

I think you alluded to something like this in one of your earlier posts, it was likewise a bit vague and could use some clarification. Are you saying there are customers for whom you’ve completed the restoration work, sent the books to CGC as requested and paid for by the customer, and now the customer is demanding that (presumably because the books were submitted under your account) that you somehow have CGC stop the grading process, return their books ungraded and want a refund on what they paid for CGC grading?

I think this a key point: if customers only have access to your book inventory by walking through your door or the handful of shows you attend you’re going to miss a lot of the interest that’s out there. Dealers who have their own websites with searchable inventory, or at the very least, sell through sites like ABE or Biblio, seem to be doing fine. Auction sites like HA and PBA Galleries seem to get strong results. It wasn’t just comics, there was a bunch of quality book material that got snatched up during the lockdowns of ‘20/21. Books aren’t as sexy and pound for pound probably don’t get the same crazy money that comics are getting right now, but there still seems to be strong interest for now.

Why would a cease-and-desist order from HRComics.com have a paragraph about how CGC views copyright infringement? I made a joke about him doing a copy/paste of a CGC cease-and-desist, I think he may actually have went and did it.

The true first editions of Harry Potter books, particularly the earlier books in the series, have demand are worth money. I don’t want to get into a debate, especially since this doesn’t really seam to be the subject of the thread, but suffice to say I personally haven’t found the book collecting hobby to be in quite the dire situation that it’s being portrayed here.

Only if CGC/CCS has a cease-and-desist statement he can copy/paste from.