Ira K

I have bought a few books off of Ebay recently, some via auction and some via BIN. Here's what I have learned:
1) If a seller has a BIN book, always start by contacting him/her with an offer of 15% - 20% below his/her asking price. If the book has been for sale for quite some time, I start with a 20% below offer. Do I ever get the book sold to me at my offer? No, but I usually end up with a 10% discount. YMMV, of course.
2) If you are bidding in a traditional auction, just put in your bid the absolute maximum you're willing to pay, then set it and forget it. The worst thing you can do (IMHO) is to watch the book as the timer counts down. You can get caught up in the bidding frenzy and end up paying much more than you had originally planned. Most of the auctions I have participated in have an ending time of 10:00 PM Eastern, or 9:00 PM my time. I usually start getting ready for bed around 8:30 PM (I get up at 5:00 AM), so I consciously make myself wait to check out the results the next morning. If I have won the book, then great. If I didn't win the book, I'm OK with that as it sold for a price I was not willing to pay.
 
Joe

18 book Modern Signature Series (not FT)
Submitted 5/5/19 at Fan Expo Dallas
Received 5/11/19
Scheduled for Grading 5/31/19
Grading/Quality Control 6/4/19
Finalized/Imaged/Shipped 6/7/19
 
Not counting Memorial Day or the Friday of Megacon as business days, 17 business days by my count, so a little bit faster than the current estimated TAT.  But estimated TATs are a little misleading right now because of the delay between delivery and "received/scheduled for grading."

And the king of all BA Spidey covers imho, Spidey #129.  One of the greatest and most iconic BA covers ever (I am a little biased)!
Although the following issue we get the Spider-Mobile  

The font had always caught my eye, but I had never really concentrated on it. Cool catch!
I think I'm just a Romita nut. 122 and 136 were so beautiful, but the Goblin's face on 137, and the glass shattering still in the air even though he has fired a web in the room, it just did nothing for me.
The cover for 98 was just awesome tho, I like it better than 97.
A couple of recent additions....
 
 
 
 
 

Nice!! 

I ran across this beautiful piece of machinery at a local arcade. I’ll be back to play some more rounds

OK, I'm going to post my recent submissions here since they are all Punisher titles, hoping to boost more activity in this thread...
First my failures, knowing there were some flaws, but still gave them a 50/50 chance at 9.8 grades (I know better, but almost desperately want to complete The Punisher 1987 set.. )

Just three books away from a full 9.8 Punisher Armory run.  I had a #9 that was going to be great candidate but since the seller didn’t know how too ship it’s trashed.  I paid a premium for the number 1, at the time there was only two on the census.

Frank takes the beating, not fighting back. The respect he has for Captain America. 💀👍

Amazing!! Congrats 

I traded a pretty penny for this, I'm satisfied
 

Another I was not expecting at the least to get done until the end of the month.
Dropped off at Fan Expo Dallas - 5/4/2019
Received - 5/13/2019
Scheduled for Grading - 6/3/2019
Gradinig/QC - 6/5/2019
Finalized - 6/7/2019
Shipping - 6/7/2019
This was a 3 book Modern SS sub that didn't have a facilitator involved (the previous one had a facilitator involved for one of the signatures).
Still have 4 more submissions out there, only 1 of them doesn't have CCS services linked to it, it is a Magazine Modern SS.  Other three I am not expecting before like October.  

My first slab! 
 

Sold my #10.... it was only a 3.5
I picked up a #12 in 9.6......with an old old generation label...
Probably should have picked up a higher grade #13, but  I'm ok...
Still have my reader copy #12 & #13 so it's all good
 

Seems a lotta love for GSX1 so I'm going to give some love for X-men94 it's starting to feel left out...

Really happy to have just completed a little Spidey trilogy with some great covers that I've always admired:

This would have been a year or two ago. I don't think there's any way to search that board. The reason it struck me was because they used the same language as the seller does here. It had to be explained that no, that's not a sharpie line drawn through the UPC...it was printed that way. 
I imagine people have been wondering that since the books came out 40 years ago.

Got a shipment this week. I don't understand the UF4 grade. I thought it was a 9.8 candidate, and I could understand a 9.6, but I just don't see anything that drops it to a 9.4. And there are no grader notes to tell me why, either... 
 
I've had this 361 since I was a kid. Happy with this one 😊 
 
The only AF15 I'll ever be able to own:
  
The bottom right corner of this one was definitely not folded before I sent it in (also no notes):
 
Another one I've had since I was a kid. I have no idea how 10 year old me took such good care of this one:
 
Last one. 
 

Ace Continuado sketch cover: Watch out for Zombie Hulk, Frank!!!

Did anyone else here like The Punisher:2099 Series here? I did back then, I’m gonna refresh my memory, and reread the series this weekend. 👍

Those of use that have been around long enough to remember the first few years of CGC are not really phased by the multiples people are currently paying for 9.8 vs 9.6 vs 9.4.  Right after CGC started it was a mad dash to get the single highest 9.8 and people paid nose bleed prices at the time.  People will always compete for the highest or ultra high grade copies especially if they are registry competitors.  The current market is crazy for a ton of other reasons but paying nose bleed prices for 9.8s is definitely not new.  I personally don't see the sense in it and I'm a bit worried if the future will bode well for those stockpiling 9.8 books at premium pries but everyone is free to buy what they like and people will continue to grade books in hopes of filling that niche.