oldmilwaukee6er

This cover has a way of hiding small creases (at least 3?) but I agree with the above. A must press

A few thoughts... IF you are already overwhelmed, THEN you should look up the comic book shops in your local area and sell them all there. This will result probably the lowest price realized but the books will go to a local business at a crucial time and they need to make a profit. Maybe you have nothing into them and they are a burden to you? IF you want to do a little more... Take a few photos with your phone, advertise it on Craigslist and entertain multiple callers / visitors. You will draw not only the local shops but also local dealers who may offer you more than the local shop. Use caution to not let any one buyer cherry-pick the best issues. Maybe 15% of any one collection will result in 90% of the value, so if you sell this way it is best to go bulk. IF you want to do a little more... Price / grade them individually. Bring them to a local comic book show or a flea market and set up at a table. Then you can sell to local dealers AND collectors directly and earn even more. Educate yourself enough to not let any one buyer cherry-pick the best issues. Finally it's eBay... Killer photos, accurate descriptions, bomb-proof shipping, Paypal chargebacks. Whew. Now that's working. Also, I'll Venmo you $100 right now for Amazing Spider-Man #129

Q1- Hmmmm... lots of people prefer a slabbed book, esp if the price is right. Especially on this chat forum. That said, I would argue that majority of comics collectors prefer raw books. There are sooo many pitfalls to buying books sight-unseen (e.g. eBay) that CGC books can fetch a premium (sometimes up to 5 - 10 times guide!). You have to educate yourself on values enough to know which books it makes economical sense to grade because it is expensive to grade lots of books. You write "pretty nice" ... but EVERYone learns the disappointing lession that Overstreet age 'pretty nice' is not a CGC 9.4+ (the general premium levels). Q2- Yes. Comic collectors d*cker about 2 things - condition and price. Argually the slab takes condition off the table. Plus it gives piece of mind to the buyer RE unforeseen risk. But you have to run a quick cost - benefit.

You already have a sense for this just based on the books you mentioned in your OP. You touched on one very collectible artist (Lau), and one hot newly released book (Bats Punchline variant). The ability to time the market is one of the great joys and frustrations of spec'ing comics! So IF your just spec'ing, THEN sell at a decent profit and flip that money back into new flips and do the same. Flippers with this strategy argue that even if they leave money on the table in the mid-term by not holding out for a higher price, the smaller increments they made on the multiple flips SINCE will make up for it. Also this article: https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg07.html

To the original poster... You gotta understand we get a hundred of these type of questions per year. Information can come at a premium and old school collectors and dealers have paid for this education with lots of time and money. We are wont to simply give it away. And yet we do... All the time... If you take a few moments to read through the message boards.

CST on a Sunday, after a 10 day auction starting on a Thurs. Early enough to get the west coast, but not too too late for east coast buyers

Tape is a little tricky tho, right!? Old tape to seal tears can still be considered resto whereas an otherwise separated cover attached via new piece can still earn a blue label VG. I've seen it go both ways and if I were intent on subbing a taped book I'd get a 2nd / 3rd opinion or try and talk to CGC ahead of time (say at a Con). As described I'm thinking GD 2.0, not much better than if the cover were just detached

ing great book! These nice mid-grades are where it's at for me. They can be handled and enjoyed and still maintain the grade. On overall eye appeal I'll wager this one gets the SA boost to 6.0+ OWW I don't see the dust shadow holding this one back

Spine roll from reading led to slight overhang of cover and to almost pre-Marvel chipping? Still ok in the 6s I would guess

8.5 Both marks would be allowable at this grade I think the marker on the cover and overall read/handled condition of this one copy keeps these books out of the 9s I would guess that an unobtrusive store stamp inside could be allowable up to NM 9.4

I agree with 4.0 assessment. I think the front spine probably holds it back from 4.5 even though the b/c looks sturdier Was worried about possible CT on f/c but appears to be some ink transfer (and found at least 2 other examples of it in blue label).

6.0... I like 6.5 but think the foxing on front and back cover holds it down

5.5 with no discount for signature (which def looks legit) Maybe touches 6.0 with right clean / press I struggle a little at these mid-grades

Assuming no foxing along bottom back cover... I could see this book touching 8.5 with a press. But if that's light foxing I see it languishing in the 7s

9.0 - 9.2; assuming ~3 color breaking creases I think the top edge wear probably holds it back from 9.4 At first I was worried it was trimmed but I did find examples that show a similiar misalignment

7.5, Outside shot at 8.0? A great grade for that book IMHO, can be read and handled without declining

My LCS has this at $15 I noticed on my last pass through... FWIW

Seller. Return it. SCS happens.

I haven't quite seen a book shift like this.... Are you sure the book, in some cases, was not manufactured with a little overhang (are there other examples on eBay)? Was the book pressed? Even normal pressing can cause the pages to overhang slightly from the cover. In rare cases, sudden shifting in a slab can cause damage to a book (SCS or shaken comic syndrome, there are whole threads over decades dedicated to the topic). In rare cases, internal pressure from the well, along with violent movement can cause a cover to pop staples and separate (look closely for damage / separation at the staples).

"844 copies with 9.8 and 1,308 with 9.6 and counting" A few things are working here (obv Harley is a very popular character)... namely that for comics, condition and price are intimately connected (^ condition, ^ worth) Most all collectors view 9.8 as 'investment grade' and for many Modern Age collector-investors it is 9.8 or bust The math (above): Of 2150+ copies that looked near perfect*, nearly 0 imperceptible defects to the average eye, <40% of those submissions earned investment grade. Which means in practice... if you were to buy raw off eBay... you would have to buy ~3 NM/MT copies with nearly 0 imperceptible defects to the average eye, spend the money to ship / insure / certify them to earn one 9.8. I like to say things like "I can buy 5 books advertised at NM on eBay before I get one that is actually NM" OR "If you have ten copies of a new comic on the rack and you select THE BEST of the ten copies, you are only guaranteed a 9.6." This has generally led to a situtation where IF a modern raw NM/MT comic is $X, THEN a CGC 9.2 is 0.5-1.0 * $X, a 9.4 is 1.0-1.5 * $X, a 9.6 is 1.5-3.0 * $X, and a 9.8 is 3.0-5.0 * $X. Regardless off how the math actually works in any one case, after some observation you can begin to make your own conclusions. And there is a website that tracks movement on CGC books: GPAnalysis. It can be a valuable service to know how these prices compare to 9 mos ago, a year, 5 years. I would hypothesize that after her latest box office performance, Harley is perhaps trending down? "if there are more and more copies coming to the market with high grades, why not wait and buy for less. But I guess it’s the concern that also all the held back books might not meet the demand." *You are right to view this as 'a lot' of copies. It is. It reflects both her popularity and the goldrush to grade to reflect demand from Suicide Squad. It does not mean another 2000+ copies are forthcoming soon or over time (they may not make the grade as you say or oodles of collectors still go for raw). This (in part) and the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) represent part of the illogical side of the market (incl non-comic buyer behavior, movie hype, speculator pressure, artibrage in distribution, psychology of pricing). There is no guarantee that more copies are available, collectors get FOMO, and prices rise. Yes they can fall, and to the extent you can resist FOMO it will benefit your collecting.

$1 is the first printing, as the 75c cover does not exist.

$30 floppies (this is already happening w/ the Kickstarter model) Chips ... whole catalogs of works downloaded into your brain / device (whatever THAT looks like in 20 years) Impulse pricing on backissues... the more you want it and/or the more money you have and/or it's 'worth'... the more it costs! And the price is adjusted in real-time, by the millisecond

I wrote about the future of comics about 5yrs ago... My thoughts (click 'replied to topic' to go directly to the post)... And the 2nd posting...