CKinTO

Thanks for posting - interesting that a couple of them went up in grade! I'm actually quite relieved to see that - makes me believe their grading process is legitimate (and blind to book's previous grade, or even that it's a cross-over book at all). I was worried that the graders may know (one way or another) that a book is a cross-over book, and so would grade more harshly (to try and avoid having books go up in grade).

I have a few Voldy books that I got at good prices that I've been thinking of submitting, but haven't as of yet. This may push me to do so.  

Think he means the new Die series by Kieron Gillen. I enjoyed the first issue as well - kinda like a Jumanji type fantasy book. I’ll keep checking out the next few issues.

6 hours ago, divad said:

Indeed, except that YTLM and Preacher are great series, regardless of value.

I dare you to read one and not read them ALL. 

 

I remember Preacher being hot in the 90s, but I was just a kid, so meant nothing to me. Recently got the whole series on a great Comixology sale and binged it all over a month, reading a few issues per day. Awesome series and something I can definitely appreciate now. Have since gotten all of Ennis’ Punisher Max run also and it’s also been fantastic. 

11 hours ago, ygogolak said:

Teen Titans 12 has seen a bump.

The new series is selling for cover or less.

Yep, saw 9.8’s back in the $325-350 range again. Will be interesting to see where Snyder takes the BWL. In continuity story and has been setting up the story in his Justice League run as well. 

1 hour ago, Jay1721 said:

It may be the best but it is outdated. I could not find half the books I was looking for. It would just show the first issue and nothing else. It just seems like it could be more organized than it is. I am not sure if I will go back to it. It was a little off-putting. I also did not play around with it that much.

Agree with others, GPA is the market standard (for popular books, quoting "90-day GPA" is pretty much the starting point). But it definitely has a very old, clunky interface which is in need of a big UI overhaul.

After you search for a title, the hard part is finding which volume your book was from. For example, if you search for "X-Men", you'll get 100s of results. If you're looking for the original series (what became "Uncanny X-men"), you have to click on "X-Men, The (1963-1981)". Then, that only goes until #141, because after that the title is officially "Uncanny X-Men, The (1981)"... For your popular titles, once you find the right one, you should "Add this Title to My Titles" so you can easily access it again without having to re-search. 

If you only saw a #1, most likely, you had the wrong volume of the book, and you need to click a different one. Remember, the (year) in parens is the year the volume started, not the year your book came out. Sometimes, if I'm having trouble, I'll use the CGC Census to help find the book / right volume. 

If your'e sure you have the right volume, and your issue # isn't there, then that means there've been no graded sales for that issue in any of the venues that GPA tracks. 

53 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

The whole series is great.

51 minutes ago, musicmeta said:

Good to know..Thanks!

Agreed - over the last few months, I binged the entire series digitally after some really good Comixology sales. I may buy a Saga #1 9.8 for long-term if I can find a good price / motivated seller over the next year while it's on hiatus.

On 12/1/2018 at 12:04 PM, rogue14 said:

Question, is it possible to have feedback but not a feedback percentage? I’ve come across a few sellers on eBay where this is the case. I clicked on their feedback and there were no notes.

Dont get how that’s possible, maybe fake accounts? Picture enclosed of one.

Think the % is calculated only on feedback from either last 6 months or last 12 months only. So if they don't have any feedback recently, percentage will be 0%, but you can still look through their past feedback

On 11/24/2018 at 10:58 PM, Ride the Tiger said:

I've been working on acquiring some BA x-men in higher grades. I've been outbid on many copies so far on ebay and i'd say my bids have been generous. Someone outbids me by 1 dollar every time I try to score an X-Men #141 aaarrrgggg.

I know this isn't the point of this thread, but I can't help but ask - you understand how the bidding system works on Feebay right? (ie. it's not like a standard auction, but uses a system where the bidder with the highest "max bid" wins, and the price paid isn't necessarily his max bid, but "one increment" higher than the 2nd highest bid?)

Whenever I read things like "I keep getting outbid by a $1"... it's often someone who doesn't understand that Feebay does that automatically, if that other bidder put a higher max bid than you. It's not supposed to be the kind of auction that most people see in the movies (where competitors keep out-bidding each other back and forth...) 

This isn't the right thread to go into it more, but if it is a misunderstanding on your part, I'd do a little digging on basic Feebay bidding tactics. Would pain me to see a fellow boardie consistently losing auctions because of that misunderstanding... 

Back to the thread, I also love this run of X-Men. Have it in trade, and a couple of the keys slabbed. Truly a classic with so many of the best storylines having come from!

17 hours ago, Not A Clone said:

I gotta check this out, cuz Cates can do no wrong right now

Yah it's a good fun series. Somewhat different take on the "Vampire" story which many have done - more personal, character-driven, with just a bit of the typical Donny Cates "silliness" that he has in most of his books. 

I know this is more about vinyl specifically, but before I got back into comics in a big way, I developed a mini-audiophile habit, but made the intentional choice to go all-digital. It may be a generational thing (in my mid-30s), but growing up in the mp3 era, don’t have the same nostalgia for vinyl. 

Lived in condos / apts for most of my post-school life so mostly gone with headphones vs speaker setup. Have a huge digital lossless and high-res collection (all FLAC, lots of 24bit/192khz). Have a mid/high-end (think ~$1-2k DAC/AMP/Headphone each)  but not crazy-high end (like in the 2-channel world, it gets crazy expensive at the high end). 

When I talk to other vinyl enthusiasts, one similar experience we share is the process of intentionally choosing an album or what to play and actively listen (usually beginning to end, and not doing anything else, eg. not background music). While I enjoy the “Spotfiy Playlist” listening at certain times, I do love the experience of thinking about what to play and then just committing to an hour or two listening session. When you go digital, it’s easy to amass huge collections and so choosing what to play can be a legitimate hurdle. I use a program called Roon as my listening application - not cheap but a great program that greatly improved my digital listening experience. 

Loved it. This is one of the few books I picked up on Wednesdays, and as we were approaching the end, really looked forward to. I think Tom King and Mitch Gerads really pulled off another great one, and I put this up there with King's Vision run in terms of showcasing what can be done with the comic book medium at the highest level. As King is great at, there was some great adult themes here on happiness, deriving meaning from life, family vs worldly responsibilities, just fantastic stuff.

I'll be honest, the first time I read #12, I wasn't sure I really understood what the "real story" was, and I re-read #11 and #12 again a few days later. I have all the single issues, and at some point, I'll re-read them all again binge-mode and see if I can take more in. But here's my take...

On 11/2/2018 at 12:57 PM, Broke as a Joke said:

No, I refuse to pay the $1000 plus for a #120 in 9.8.  So it will never be a full run in 9.8.

I always thought this was odd. I have #121 in 9.8 (technically the "1st Full App", at least according to CGC), and #120 is worth more than twice #121 in 9.8. I assume it's the tough black cover that makes it really tough to get in 9.8 (only 64 copies of #120 on the census vs 267 copies of #121), but I'm also fine never owning #120 in 9.8...

It could be, it's all speculation. A "grail" is a bit of a stretch though... there's lots of modern comic keys worth a lot more than UF4 (eg. BA12 and NYX3, both had much lower print runs, with Harley Quinn and X-23 already having been established in the movies - Harley with additional movies coming out, and X-23 also likely to have one after her success in Logan). This is a book from 2011 after all... 

Miles Morales has potential, and who knows what could happen if the movie is really popular (especially with kids). I saw the trailer for the movie in Venom - it was alright, an animated movie like this isn't really up my alley though I'm probably not the target demographic. The book is in its typical hype phase post-trailer and before the movie drops - it all depends how the movie does. 

Yes, that's a bit of a different conversation... I imagine the discussion on EOSV2 was that Spider-Gwen the character wasn't going anywhere, so her 1st app wouldn't be worth that much. Obviously there's tons of 1st apps that don't amount to much (usually because the character doesn't amount to anything but obviously supply as well), and so speculation on whether any given character will become big (or get a movie) and thus their 1st app will become valuable is all too-frequent. 

On 11/4/2018 at 9:20 PM, Wolverinex said:

Great summary... so what should pick up then?  stay out of every modern now?

On 11/4/2018 at 11:55 PM, camera73 said:

The real winners tend to be keys (events, 1st apps, storylines, revolutionary concepts) that are discovered over time and see gradual price increases - very similar to a stock chart. Of course, there are (sometimes permanent) downturns, but that is how you know that the collecting masses are solidly behind a book.

Quick increases in a newer issue may indicate a flood of money into initial purchases, but does nothing to confirm that the price point is sustainable.

Yes, I agree with this. Obviously everyone is welcome to buy what they like, but for me, I generally stay away from books where the "rarity" is the driving force of the price appreciation. So that's eg. high incentive ratio variants (1:100, 1:500, 1:1000) of otherwise non-key books. This Spider-Gwen Ghost Spider variant is a good example for what I personally avoid. I agree what keeps a book valuable longer term is 1st appearances of characters that have long-term staying power, and so I generally channel my larger dollar purchases to those. Maybe that means you miss out on something that could've gone up in price, but I'm primarily a collector (and reader of new comics) and rarely sell, so I'm ok missing out on those potential opportunities. I think long-term, you'll have a lot more "losses" than "wins" if you chase the volatile spec. 

21 hours ago, BriD. said:

I asked about this after I got the email with the grade predictions. I was told the graders don't have any of the old slab info, similar to the way they get pressed books from ccs but aren't made aware that they were pressed. I guess they compare the grades after they're done. 

Thanks for the info. I would hope that's the case to maintain the integrity of the grading process, to not have any pre-conceptions / goalposts to start from. That's good to know.

Does anyone have more info around the CrossOver service in terms of whether the graders (who actually grade the book) will know the previous grade (and from which service that grade is from) or even that it is a "CrossOver" book at all? Obviously the "pre-graders" look at the book beforehand in the case to estimate the grade and ask for confirmation, so they'll know, but I'm really curious if after that point, once it's confirmed to be graded, whether those graders will have access to that info. I would hope that at that point, it enters the queue like any other book, and graders have no pre-existing information to start from... I have a few higher value Voldy books that I think are fairly graded (or maybe even have upgrade potential) that would be a no-brainer to send for CrossOver, but makes a difference to me if graders will have any pre-existing info in advance or not.

If they know the grade in advance, I would imagine on the margin, they'd be inclined to err on the lower side (to uphold belief that CGC is the tougher grader), and even if they know it's a CrossOver book (but not the grade), they may still err on the side of grading tougher than usual. 

@Brittany M. can you confirm that CGC has set up its CrossOver book grading logistics in a way where graders do not get to see what grade the book had previously from the other grading company? Is there any indication at all to the graders that the books are CrossOver books? You can imagine why this could be an important question for some of us as we think about submitting certain higher value books. Thanks

On 11/2/2018 at 8:25 PM, BriD. said:

I asked if the graders would have any of the old information when the books get to grading.

I was told that the graders will not have any of the old slab information when they get the books, similar to how they are supposedly unaware when pressed books come from CCS. I guess I'll take their word on that. I assume they will compare the grades at the end and charge accordingly. On the plus side, my order might be only $10 per book!  Now the waiting

This is a pretty important point, as I haven’t seen anywhere them mention this. Makes a big difference to me that they claim they’ll maintain grading integrity where graders won’t know what grade it received previously with the other guys... I agree if they do know, would bias them negatively to grade lower (IMO, despite getting a lower $10 fee, worth more of having the rep that they’re the tougher grading company). 

Oof, missed these... d’oh!

3 hours ago, jsilverjanet said:

I hear that a lot - that this behavior isn’t helping - can someone elaborate?

money and new collectors (investors I guess) in the hobby is better than less collectors and less money

everyone says it, so what’s the consequence?

Here's my view as a mid-30s collector who's in many ways the classic "rule of 25" buyer. Collected comics in late 80s/early 90s, stopped for 20 years, and over past few years with nostalgia as a driving force, picking up a lot of keys / 1st apps of characters I grew up with (X-Men, Spider-Man, etc.) I had no appreciation of the 90s crash while it was happening as a kid, but here's my view on how all the "new spec money" can hurt: 

- Spec money generally interested in flipping, not medium-long term holds, or for the PC. The influx of money brings about the expectation that prices will keep going up, and the FOMO aspect of not paying up for a book that it will cost more tomorrow
- For those selling, it's great. For buyers, prices get bid up hard. Prices go up for everyone. Even for the long-term collectors, they have to pay more and more money for books, competing against the spec buyer
- Something happens to trigger a correction (at this point, probably general economy related, recession, long sustained stock market correction etc.)
- Bottom falls out, no bids on books where prices have spiralled out of control, prices tank (especially for expensive books $1k+, $5k+, 10k+, $50k+ etc.). Dealers (and weekend warrior dealers) who are sitting on tons of $ of inventory run out of liquidity, need to sell asap, and it all piles on

Bottom line, imo the spec money while great on the way up, makes the crash that much harder / faster, and a lot of the market that had to buy on the way up are faced with the reality of the "market value" of their books dropping a lot from what they bought it at. Either they liquidate too (piling on to the influx of supply, contributing to more price drops) or they get so disillusioned that they get turned off of buying comics forever (or for a long time), which makes the recovery take longer too, as their bid is no longer in the market. 

For anyone who's lived in a city with a big real estate boom (especially one where there's a big foreign investment component, and real estate flippers in turn, which I liken to the "spec bid"), there are a lot of similarities. Great while it's going up (for homeowners especially who bought beforehand), but lots of new buyers get priced out or have to stretch in a rising price market, and then if/when correction comes, it's that much more painful. That's why governments try to curb these overly exuberant markets as the belief is that net-net, long-term, the market is healthier with slower rises and slower declines (than the hard run-up and crash). 

Was likely the case you bought these from the same LCS and the books they received either all, or a run of them, had this defect. Happens frequently even today.

You can obviously get slabbed whatever you want, for whatever reason. But if you're grading to sell, these books even in 9.8 aren't generally worth the cost of grading (especially if you're thinking about pressing first). It would be cheaper just to buy already graded 9.8s if that's what you're looking for... as you may know, Jim Lee's X-Men vol.2 #1 was the highest selling comic of all time, so unlikely will ever have real value! I have a yellow label #1 gatefold cover signed by Jim Lee just for my PC (personal collection) as it was such an iconic book from my childhood, but doubt it will ever be worth anything substantial given the print run. Again, ppl have different reasons for slabbing but thought worth mentioning. 

2 hours ago, BeachBum said:

Heroes in Crisis #1 NYCC Mattina Silver Foil (limited amount by per day, sold out quickly today - hot book of show)

(sealed polybagged - front cover presents NM+ or better)

$50 raw

(10 available) 6 LEFT!

 and sent PM re: shipping (with Torrey). Thanks Dre, and hoping for the best with your mother!

I have to think that CCS (and CGC when grading) as standard operating procedure wear gloves while working on and grading books... no?