blazingbob

Probably nobody responded because you didn't offer a price you would pay.

There are a lot of ebbs and flows to why graded books come to the market 1). It was done before so there was already a business model. Graded coins and Graded cards. 2). Mail order suffered a high amount of returns. 3). Auction houses before Heritage sold most comics in huge lots. However they did pioneer "grading by committee" since most lots had 3-4 graders who graded it. Sotheby's lots were graded by Payette, Dan Greenhaugh of Showcase, Borock might have done some. I am not sure who else graded the lots. Auction houses did not allow returns so in those days you traveled before the auction and graded the lots yourself. Enter CGC graded books and all that preliminary what is the grade work goes away. Now it is replaced by the guys looking for upgrades. 4). Undisclosed restoration. All you have to look at is the census on some keys and see how many restored copies have been graded. Imagine that probably 75% and I may be low were being sold as unrestored. Honesty is not always the first adjective coming out of buyers mouths when describing the selling community. 5). I'll say again, no formal grading training. If a buyer is honest that they can't grade which I've heard more then once they are at the mercy of the guy in front of them selling the book. How else would they know to challenge the seller who they assume knows what he is doing? Which for me is laying a lot of trust into that sellers lap. And having traveled to a lot of shows and bought and graded a lot of books I'm not exactly sure that trust is deserved. 6). Books would not sell for a million dollars based on one sellers "opinion". The idea of impartial grading by committee has created an acceptance in the hobby that is rewarded by buyers stepping up and paying more for books then they would have before. Having GPA trackable sales has also helped give a stock market feel to the comic market. CGC registry sets have created the EGO driven need to have the best out there.

There there is no formal grading training. Does CGC solve that problem? All it does is add to it since more and more collectors can't grade. But then again from a business model that forces more and more buyers and sellers to buy/sell graded books.

Will take Hulk #181 CGC 9.2 white pages per PM.

The whole hobby appears shady? How did other dealers get sucked into this? Guilt by association?

Well to the GPA less 10% retail customer devotee $4250 is unrealistic.

My response was more based on this "The Seller would of course love to sell the key books but to part with the eye candy they want a premium price". If I wanted to bring books to shows for "showings" I would basically setup as a museum and charge admission. I would probably make more money at a show if I just charged customers that are just curious a fee for taking pictures of the book. I'm there to sell books, unfortunately as I've said before I don't know what each person's idea of "unrealistic" is. Could be I'm priced over OSPG. Could be I'm way over GPA. Could be I don't use 90-120 day GPA pricing. Unless buyers and sellers communicate it is not that easy to come up with a person's expectations. I'll use an example of what people might consider unrealistic. If I put a price of $4250 on a House of Secrets #92 9.0 with offwhite/white pages or better and nice registeration am I unrealistic? Last sale was $3750. Before you reply I was asked for this book 5-10 times the FIRST day.

I'll take the 32

I'll take the FF #31

Because I don't want to live behind a keyboard relying on forum posts proclaiming the end of shows, what is hot, who is not.

Yeah, I have this same tactic. Its called a website and I love nothing more then pulling books off the wall when they sell in front of guys who have to think about it.

I believe that is called the Baltimore spring fling

Hmmm, Oregon. Have setup at Portland shows and don't do them any more. Alaska? Not happening. New Hampshire - Not exactly another location I'll be setting up anytime soon.

Puerto Rico?

So what state doesn't have a sales tax?

Depends if he is wearing his hat facing forward or backwards.

Clearly Jim feels that he is the pretty boy of the team.

Guardian Comics and I own a few collections together. But we are always willing to work together to help you find something you need.

If you are doing business with Guardian Comics you would have access to a lot of keys.

$20 for a show with no guests or attractions seems lame. How about the dealers are the attraction since I've been subsidizing those lame guests for YEARS.

Umm, I will have my full stock so please speak for yourself.

I second that, you are awesome.

Does anybody want to sell me a AF #15 6.5 with offwhite or better pages no chipping for $55K?

I agree with this. I find the boards are a very good cross section to get website feedback from since they are shopping and looking a multiple sales channels. While not all of it can be cost justified you do get a lot of valuable information. Is there another thread this should be in?