the authority

On 6/11/2022 at 9:32 AM, JB123 said:

What kind of percentages we talking?

Nominal or half off?

Some are huge, some not there yet. Anecdotally,  I've purchased UF#4 for almost 40% less than I sold them for last year. While we may not be at the bottom of pricing, the odds were good enough to pick up a few.

Some things have just tanked. For example, Eternals #2 in CGC 9.8 was selling for more in mid 2018 than 3 of them have sold for since 3/20/22. last sale on GPA is about 28% of 2021 GPA averages. While the movie didn't help things, a 40 plus year old book with a pretty significant first appearance seems somewhat less expensive than it should be imo. 

Personally just trying to buy between the cracks. There are a good 50 or more books on my target sheet. Unfortunately, there are books that would surprise me if they recovered to last year's highs for year if ever. There was just so much cash being spent last year.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:53 PM, Lpgk said:

 

Of his Marvel offerings, the only one that sorta fizzled out was GoTG. But he had three solid hits: Thor/ Black Winter might be a solid double, but Venom and Thanos were walk off home runs. Knull and Cosmic GR are here to stay and I am going long on both. They fact that they are making toys and merchandise for those characters tells me they have long term plans to grow and promote them. 

I agree. Venom #3 is one of the very few modern books that I've decided not to sell anytime soon. Knull would fit well in the MCU and would be a great counter to many of Marvel's heroes.

On 4/25/2022 at 1:52 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I remember coming back to collecting and being "new", and I stood next to IIM #7&9 and picked up Michael Turner Batman rebirth instead, if memory serves 

 I now own both #7&9, but I never got the memo on which was the most sought after, was there a decision made?

Haha. Don’t know about the memo but I got a lot more for my 9s than my 7s. Wish I had one of each now but man, they brought so much so soon that it was too tempting not to sell. 

On 4/20/2022 at 5:32 PM, Lpgk said:

I don't think we can compare Iron Man 7 or 9 to Hulk. Iron Man wasn't a hyped up book at the time and it took some time for the character to take off. I remember going around to stores and finding these months after release. 

Also, IM didn't have hype man Cates tweeting about it months before FOC. THere's going to be tons of 6 out there including store exclusives. To me, only Hulk 3 will be worth getting. It's not even really a cameo as he appears in several panels and speaks. 

There were multiple printings of Iron Man #7 and a lot of discussion between which of the 2 Riri books would be THE book. That seemed to last quite some time. You're right about Cates being an absolute hype machine. There is no doubt that the Hulk had considerably more hype surrounding it than the Iron Man series.

There are currently hundreds upon hundreds of both Hulk #3 and #6 available and at this point I don't believe I was very wise buying either of them. The story was a very messy letdown. If Titan ever makes another appearance, I won't be buying. 

I'm a fan of a lot of Cates' work but he seems to be mailing it in on this story. Maybe he can pull it back together with the Thor vs Hulk storyline. Here is to hoping but I'll wait for the positive reviews before I take another chance on him on the Hulk.

Reminds me a little of Invincible Iron Man #7 vs Invincible Iron Man #9. A good number of people pushed for both comics to be the one. That’ll probably happen here as it’s likely a lot of dough has been spent on both copies. 

Took a while for that issue to resolve in the market. This one will too. The thing is that we don’t know what’s in #6. There’s not a lot of risk taking a chance on #6 imo. 
 

The bigger question to me would be which cover should we be looking to buy. 

Of the 2 choices, I prefer UF4 over MS5 for potential growth. One character is far more relatable to the average person than the other imo. That said, I wouldn’t see fault in choosing either as MS5 is so tough to get in higher grade relative to UF4.

Having been on the UF4 bandwagon for far longer than I care to mention, there is a great deal of bias in the pick. 

The book that has most caught my attention recently is Batman Beyond 1 retail then the direct version. These books both seem to be growing and don’t seem to be plentiful in 9.8 in spite of their current market value. 
 

Other than that, you can never go wrong with IH 180 and 181. This character always remains popular and the books are always on demand. Every year you’ll hear that they’ve peaked or are currently overpriced. Most years, that proves to be an incorrect analysis. Wolverine/Logan is the single most blue chip character since Spider-Man/Peter Parker. 
 

May have already been discussed and I missed it but has anyone else had issues with the cover of Black Panther #3 2nd print ? Purchased from 2 very reliable sellers, each issue received has some kind of blunting on the right side of the book. Thanks

Just finished episode 1 and enjoyed it. Was it perfect ? No but I’m not looking for flaws. Watched it with my wife and one of my sons and they liked it too. 
 

All of these years later, still love the comic series. One of the greatest twist of all time IMO. Not hoping for perfection with the series, just a good telling of the original. Looking forward to episode 2 tomorrow 😊

2 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

I figured  no worries,  I'm just kinda trying to lighten the mood, I'm doing poor with the ribbing that's my bad

You do have a point, i think back to every other year when the bottleneck due to cons seems to get worked through. The biggest thing that sucks is this seems that they've hired and done mor than ever, yet the bottleneck doesn't seem to have a silver lining or light at the end

Hence my poor attempt at putting out a fuze, but we all are hoping for something to tat, just need assurance from somewhere 

 

I need to use more emojis. 😊 
 

I was having a little fun too but the words always seem less happy without a smiley face attached too them. Haha

I’m not at all upset with CGC. I was just hoping to get these books mailed off and back before 8/21. I figured it was going to be close but with the new TaT and a couple of holidays between now and then, I don’t think there’s a chance to have them back by then.

The good news is that I’ve sold raw copies for a very long time. I’m still going to have 350 or so graded books at the event. 
 

BTW, have always enjoyed your input on the boards. You’re definitely a big contributor here and a positive person. Keep on posting  😊

@ADAMANTIUM my confusion is directed at the increase in rates that they stated was to hire more and better people. I expected a cut in TaT not an increase. Their choice, but it caused me not to ship a 400 book order I was working on the last 2 weeks. Was hoping to have them back in time for a local con. 
 

I’m thankful that they posted this prior to my submission. 👍🏻

On 4/8/2021 at 10:20 AM, jsilverjanet said:

it appears they've reset their grading a bit to be not as tight. I think several people started to call and complain. Hopefully it's move back to where it was before

I sent 400 or so books in from various years. My grades have been better than expected on newer ( last 10 years or so ) books, about what I expected on Bronze age stuff, and lower than expected on Silver age books. I missed the grades on 3 Silver Age books by at least 1 full grade. Probably 40% have been graded to this point so its a very small sample size. 

I did send in over 40 copies of Avengers Annual #10. They got separated into 2 different orders. The grades were fairly consistent but the page quality was over 90% White pages in one order and slightly over 50% White Pages in the second order. I would have bet on all White but it is what it is. 

4 minutes ago, X_Phile said:

I am seeing 3 weeks with my stuff. 

Same here. I have 200 or so that were delivered 3/18/21 not marked received yet.  They seem to move well once they mark them and it appears that someone is working Saturdays. At least based on notifications I've received on earlier shipments.

25 COMICS

MODERN

Received 03/15/21

Scheduled for grading 04/01/21

Grading/QC 4/5/21

Graded/shipped 4/6/21

21 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

I might have mentioned this before, but did you write fast track on the box when shipping? I have a Fast Track delivered April 1st, and I'm just wondering if it will still be a 3 week wait?

If that helps, I'd like to know too. I have another shipment going next week.

On 3/17/2021 at 12:15 PM, the authority said:

I'm not sure why they're separated the way the are by CGC. It is the same number of comics I sent but the invoice looks slightly different. Ahh, who cares.

 

These were delivered and signed for on 2/23/21

 

1.

3 COMICS

FAST TRACK VALUE

Received 3/15/21

Scheduled for Grading 3/17/21

Grading/QC 4/2/21

 

2.

25 COMICS

MODERN

Fast Track

Received 3/15/21

Scheduled for grading 4/3/21

Grading/QC 4/5/21

 

3.

25 COMICS

MODERN

Fast Track

Received 3/15/21

Scheduled for grading 04/01/21

Grading/QC 4/5/21

 

4.

25 COMICS

MODERN

Received 03/15/21

Scheduled for grading 04/01/21

Grading/QC 4/5/21

 

5.

25 COMICS

MODERN

Fast Track

Received 03/15/21

Scheduled for grading 4/1/21

Grading/QC 4/3/21

 

6.

19 COMICS

MODERN

Fast Track

Received 3/15/21

Scheduled for grading 4/1/21

Grading/QC 4/5/21

 

7.

25 COMICS

VALUE

Received 3/15/21

 

8.

15 COMICS

VALUE

Received 3/15/21

 

4 hours ago, NewWorldOrder said:

I am in the same boat as you with same received date of 2/23/21 for my 100 books.  More likely its going to be a full month from the time PO received it from being uploaded to your account.  I am assuming some where around 3/23/21, so the real CGC TaT for modern slow-track is over 3 months (67 business days) not 47 business days when you factor in waiting for the books to upload to their network system.

Mine were marked received a couple of days ago and my fast track value books are scheduled for grading. Three months sounds more accurate than 47 business days because of when the clock starts but it’s all good. Still rather use CGC than any other company. Luckily, mosT books are on the way up and not the down. Good luck with your books 👍🏻

164 comics of varying types. I’ll break it down as they go. 
Delivered 2/23/21

received 3/15/21

Spoke with a very helpful person at CGC yesterday. I sent in over 180 comics that were delivered on 2/23/21. She advised me that the books currently being received were from the week of 2/15/21. She said my books should be marked received sometime next week. Comforting to have some idea even if it’s not a specific time.

17 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

Yes, that is ideal. I think most are saying they don't have the time to do that.

I’m going to see my accountant in a few weeks. I hope he has answers to these questions. There have been years that were good and years I’ve lost my tail in comics transactions. 
 

I’ve been trying to come up with ways to count the costs outside of a ledger and times where I’ve pulled more than a $1000 in cash for these types of purchases. Having the same bank account for 30 years should help. I have years of purchases on statements from Midtown and other shops. I have roughly 3000 separate purchases, many were collections, on eBay the last 20 years. I’m wondering if there is a way to pull these purchases and sales transactions. 
 

I started to laugh over a group of trades that went from trading old football cards for the original Star Wars 12 back action figures that were still carded. Traded those for a 65 Mustang and cash. Traded that Mustang for a huge amount of comics. I can’t remember what I paid for the football cards nor which comics I ended up with. This will be an interesting journey to say the least.

9 hours ago, ygogolak said:

How did they do it before computers and credit?

Ledgers

25 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Get a signed receipt or make a notation on the bank form when you take out the cash..  Even if you pay them in cash, write a check to yourself for the amount and note the purpose on the check, then cash it and pay the people.

 

When I buy a book for more than a few dollars, it gets a small sticker that has when I bought it, where I bought it, the condition I graded it and how much I paid for it. 

I do have the same bank for the last 30 years and I only pull cash for purchases like these comics. Hopefully that helps. I see my accountant in April and I do have an LLC that has nothing to do with my hobby. May have to incorporate these books into the business. Something to look forward to hahahaha