FN-2199

This is what I do. My formula leans towards the raw value plus the cost of shipping and slabbing. I don't assume a final graded value.

Hello and welcome to the boards! 1) I started on another site at first because there was so much content here, I was a little overwhelmed. Once that site died, I came here and am keeping up fine. I think that this forum is fine for the casual collector as long as you realize most casual collectors aren't posting but just watching. Also realize some of the members here who talk the most have small collections compared many others and some don't even collect slabbed books. 2) It sounds like you are really interested in the stories. This is refreshing to hear because many in this forum get lost in the $$ of comics over the stories. I'm sure many would appreciate your voice when threads get derailed by talk of $$ instead of content. 3) Give us a little more about what you are interested in. I'm sure lots of guys will tell you "Just read 1950s westerns" and others will say that you have to read a bunch of manga titles.

I've bought several lots (short boxes) of moderns from them and they are a favorite seller of mine for those types of auctions. Their "average grade" assigned to the lot has been accurate. I also wish some other dealers would ship the way they do. I don't worry about how Sparkle City ships shorts and longs. Lately, I've seen raw singles up for auction that I'm interested in but the condition looks to be exaggerated and there is tough competition in bidding so I stay away. I would love to see some more of their bulk auctions.

I checked both previews before the auctions began. C-Link had the specific book/grade I had been looking for during the past few months. I placed a bid with 3 1/2 hours remaining and went back to fixing my fence. During the February auction, I think the same thing happened. I ended up buying the copy of the book/grade I wanted off C-Link which had OW/W pages whereas the one on CC had White pages and sold for about 10% more, which was why I targeted the C-Link sale (for the OW/W discount).

Yes, the locals are not your average breed. Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. I wouldn't mind going down there for a Cheeseburger in Paradise. We'll see, Come Monday it will be alright. We shouldn't be Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season.

Good luck on the repairs and recovery. I'm sore all over from the repairs to my fence and debris clean up over the last two days. We had Cat 1 winds here and they snapped 4x4 wooden posts that held up fence panels. All I heard yesterday were chainsaws cutting up palm trees and giant 50+ year old trees in the road. Today i heard all the hammering from people fixing fences.

Don't know any boardies down there but our offices in Marathon are still closed. We should start getting news since they just opened Monroe County back up today. *stay off I-95 south if you can. Palm Beach county is still under curfew. Power is hit and miss but I was lucky. Hope things get better soon in Miami.

When I started looking for NM comics on eBay, I used to look at the VFs too because I thought some sellers might be stingy graders or I thought I could press to NM. Let's just say that now I don't even bother with the VF/NM listings and if it says 9.4, I'll assume its 9.0-9.2, maybe. I look for those raw "9.6s" and "9.8s" if I want a 9.2/4 and bid accordingly.

I wanted to issue a partial refund yesterday to meet the buyer's price. He came back and said, "But I only have $XX in my account." We made it work but there is always some excuse why it has to get done their way.

I hear you. I have a generator but bought a window unit AC this morning and will likely have to recover in just one room of the house. My co-workers from our office in the Keys have parked the fleet vehicles at our building and have evacuated.

This one is stronger than Andrew and is scheduled to go straight up the peninsula like you said. Less than 10 inches of rain predicted and they drained Lake Okeechobee a few feet so not concerned with flooding inland, just at the beaches from storm surge. The wind is a concern. My house was built before Andrew and is still standing. It's also up to the new codes. My rotten picket fence will likely be a missile hazard. Right now it looks like Miami will take the punch first so it's a Cat 3 when it hits me. Home Depot was worse than Black Friday at 0615 this morning. I'm most worried about when I get power back so I can take care of my infant. They'll likely shut off power before the worst hits us as a preventative measure. Good luck.

If you have two raw, 9.2 copies of a regular book for sale, one with a signature and one without a signature and they are both the same price, the one with the signature will likely sell first or at a slight (10%) premium. If you have a book signed by a creator or artist that has nothing to do with the book (i.e. Stan Lee on moderns), I will not buy it.

Ultimate Fallout 4?

I have something like 1500 positives this year and 538 lifetime positive feedback. 1 book purchased by a unique user for $250 = 1 positive FB 50 books purchased by a unique user during multiple $0.99 auctions and invoiced together = 1 positive FB People who buy feedback have racked up tons of $0.02 sales in the past few weeks.

Hit them on their 5 star ratings if you don't want to give a negative or neutral FB. This is horrible shipping.

Finally pulled it and scanned it:

Doesn't the Post Office, UPS, FedEx, etc. do this all the time when shipping via ground transportation. I imagine that when shipping comics from coast to coast packages will stay in a truck for 2-3 days when travelling from hub to hub. What about overnight packages? Can you tell me that air cargo is climate controlled? How cold does it get back there when shipping air mail? Hot to cold to hot in the same day is not good but we don't seem to notice. I'm just hoping my packages are dry.

Answered in Comics General. Link here:

You need a light box and other lighting equipment. I have a set up for non-comic eBay items. If you are photographing glass or a slab of a black comic (i.e. ASM vol. 2 #36) you need something like black paper to deflect the glare (actually reflect the color of the paper). I stopped short of this. I enjoy amateur photography but you really need a good set up for photographing reflective still life. You'll also have to play with the features of your camera in manual mode to find the best setting for your lighting. Best to look up blogs or YouTube tutorials for reflective photography. Even though I have all of the photography equipment, I use a legal size scanner for slabs.

Was that motor oil or did someone use it as a tray for McDonald's?

If you're on the fence about whether or not a specific issue is worth getting graded, take a front and back scan and post it on the "Please Grade Me" part of the forum. There, you will get a ballpark estimate of the grade and can decide if the costs of grading that book are worth it to you. If you have a lot of filler (>$5) issues, you can sell in bulk in the Marketplace section of the forum (or just message me to unload all/some of the Amazing Spider-Man).

Nice book. I'm actually looking to make a complete ASM McFarlane run with ball point pen signatures on the splash page. Anyway to your question, you will get the CGC Universal (blue) label with an annotation about writing on the splash page and this should not impact the grade. Unwitnessed signatures on the cover get the Qualified (green) label.

So I have some slabs that I priced high; above market value but not in another stratosphere. I didn't care, I was willing to wait for the market to come up so I could sell at the price I wanted. I had the additional listings so I didn't care when they sold. Fast forward 18 months and they are now close to market price and setting the ceiling for recently sold issues. After 18 months of being listed, no nibbles and few watchers. Now that they are the lowest BIN, I get all kinds of low-ball offers on listings without Best Offer options from low feedback buyers. At first I began explaining that this was the lowest price 8.0 (or whatever) on ebay, CL, CC, and MCS. Now I just say "Sorry, it's already the lowest price on the internet" without doing any more research. I don't know if that is condescending but I get tired of getting asked to sell a key book at less than auction prices. Where were these guys when these books were 30% above FMV?

Yes, the "Will you take $XXX for this? I'm a serious buyer." on an item without best offer. I figure OK and use the "Send Offer" feature and send the offer for $XXX. No response only to have someone else come in and buy it now at full price. This has happened a few times.