GettingBackIntoComics

On 11/15/2019 at 4:57 PM, revat said:

I'm not going to go into the detail of your fees, but I would offer some general points and advice.

1. Nothing wrong with using "Ask CGC", and yes they do take some wait time before posting your question.  And nothing inherently wrong with asking the question here or the 'newbie' thread.  But you also might get a 'firmer' more definitive answer by emailing/calling CGC yourself.

2.  The CGC UK office is relatively new, and they only recently added in the "mail in" option, and others have complained that the CGC Submission Website is not up to date as of yet.  So it is possible that the prices have or will change since whenever the person you're talking to submitted.  Therefore specific direct contact might be a better option.

3.  In my experience with CGC (in America), CGC offers a cheaper submission option for MODERN comics under a certain value.  For the purpose of this MODERN tier, these are comics from 1975 or newer.  Looks like on the CGC UK website that is currently 24 pounds, but I haven't looked at the specific submission forms.  I think the Moon KNight book falls under the price limit unless you're absolutely sure its getting a CGC 9.8 or higher (CGC are typically A-holes about books on or near the border).  You can submit under the modern tier, and IF the book ends up being worth a lot more CGC can charge you the extra 16 GBP later (but unlikely they'd care).  Sounds like you're a first time submitter, and honestly its rare that first time submitters get the highest possible grade on all their submissions.  So just submit under modern, and they'll assess you a higher price if you hit high grade.  Because if you went the other way (pay the higher price up front), they for sure won't give you a refund.

4.  Generally, the unit cost of shipping goes down PER BOOK when you submit MORE BOOKS, of course there may be limits on the economies of scale.  But yes of course, you would have to factor in the shipping costs both ways too if you're not dropping in person.

5.  The 'handling' fee is 'PER INVOICE', so if you submitted 1 book per invoice, you'd pay the same fee as submitting 15 books on that invoice.  Naturally, this might encourage you to submit more, which makes CGC more $$.

6.  VAT - that sucks man.  20% GOOD LORD.

 

So yes, submitting does take a decent amount of math.  For sure not every book is worth submitting, and everyone's situation is different.

In regards to point 3) If that's the case, why does anyone bother submitting with a higher tier? What would be the reason to do that? Is it just if you are good at grading yourself, and you don't want to be surprised by the possible fee increase that a higher tier would bring?

(I asked this in the 'Ask CGC' section 3 days ago but for some reason the post is still pending) I'm thinking of getting some of my comics graded over the next year or so. I'm in the UK, so will be going via the London (Holborn? or Bloomsbury?) office. I'm trying to get my head around the price. Someone I recently talked to on ebay said the cost of grading for a Moon Knight #1 (bronze age) was £18 + £12 handling fee (he picked it up and dropped it off in London himself). But looking at the grading costs on the CGC website I don't see £18 anywhere. For a comic that's worth around £200 it say's the fee would be £40. The handling fee is then £12 on top of that, so £52, and then there's VAT, so another £10 (roughly) making it £62, and then there would be delivery to London (I'll be using the post option) which would probably be about £5 and then UPS back from London, probably another £10. In total I'm looking at £77 per comic (which a value up to £300) is that correct?

Forbiddenplanet here in the UK, was restricting #797 to one per customer, but the numbers around it were not restricted, so I presumed #797 would be the first appearance?

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts was on TT #12?

8 hours ago, adampasz said:

It would help to know your collecting goals. But, without any further information, from your list, I would choose X-Men #129. You should be able to hunt down a slabbed 9.4 for less than $200. You can't really go wrong with X-Men from this era.

But why no Bats and why no Spidey on your list?? 

I bought a detective #89 in about a grade of 4 I think last year because I've always wanted an early detective, but it will be a long time until I can get anything like that again  I like Batman but never really been into collecting it, even back in the day (late 80s/early 90s for me), same for Spiderman, and I'm not paying the crazy prices right now for the first appearance of Venom. I hear what you're saying in regards to X-men #129, it would be great to get a high grade of that, but I'm also after a half decent X-men #9, which appears to be hard to get hold of in a good grade.

I've recently purchased 2 newish comics, both slabbed. One was a Mister Miracle #1 (2017) and another was Wytches #1 (2014). What I don't get, is the Mister Miracle came in a very solid, completely sealed slab, whereas the Wytches #1 came in a much flimsier case where the sides were unsealed. The Mister Miracle was graded a few months back, whereas the Wytches was graded in 2015. Did the 2015 graded comics come in much thinner/unsealed at the sides case?

I read somewhere that a signed comic will either grade at qualified, or the signature counts as damage in the grading process. Does that mean that signed comics are a waste of time to collect? What if a comic has certificate with it proving the providence? would that be accepted by the graders are proof? or it still won't count?

8 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Darkstar is absolutely correct...' There is no reason from a financial standpoint to pay a premium for a recently released graded book. '. Your counterpoint is saying that certain books will probably never be cheaper. You are also absolutely correct. However, why take the risk and buy it slabbed ? Buy it cheaper, in a raw state. If it does rise, get your raw book slabbed. However, if it does not rise, you have only invested the cheaper raw funds. The bigger bucks is in getting your own raw books slabbed. Not buying someone else's. 

8 hours ago, darkstar said:

You could find raw copies that will grade 9.8 for much cheaper. If you are THAT interested in a character, sure splurge on a 9.8 and cross it off your list without wasting your time. But since you mentioned a having a financial interest in what you are collecting then your money is better spent elsewhere. You have to step back and realize how grossly overvalued modern graded books are across the board. 

7 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

Amen. I don’t buy moderns (and would encourage you to buy older books) but this is exactly describes how anyone with a decent collection probably put it together. Years later you can cherry pick through it to get graded the books worth grading.  Take the slabbing money and buy multiples of what you like.  

I completely agree with all of this advice, accept to say where are these under-graded comics? Maybe it's because I only buy from ebay, and probably worse still because I'm in the UK and for a lot of comics it's cheaper to buy them from the States, even with the $30 shipping on top, but nearly all the comics (from various titles and periods) I've looked at over the past few months have been graded to exactly what they are (at least going on the images supplied) or over-graded, which is why recently I've leaned more towards just buying slabbed where I can. And because older slabbed high grade comics are beyond my budget, that just leaves me with the new ones. I would love to find under-graded raw comics, but I hardly ever see them.

35 minutes ago, darkstar said:

There is no reason from a financial standpoint to pay a premium for a recently released graded book. 

And I agree, but taking TAH22 as an example. Slabbed 9.8 say $120. Is that ever going to be cheaper than that? Even if the new series doesn't do well, I can't see it ending up in bargain bins and being anything less than what it already is. If anything it's probably just going to keep on rising.

23 minutes ago, darkstar said:

Where are you seeing that EOSV2 sells raw vfnm for $120.00 less than CGC 9.8? Looking at eBay it looks like you can buy graded 9.8s for ~225.00 and raw advertised NM for 50.00-75.00. You are much better off buying 3 or 4 raw copies, especially now when prices are depressed due to the holidays, than you are buying a graded 9.8 copy.

The cheapest EOSV2 high grade raw's I've seen is $99. It could be because I'm in the UK, and then there's shipping (usually $20-$40) on top of things. On balance out of those 2 I would probably prefer the 9.8 slabbed Runaways #1, but they are running at around $300, and it seems hard to find raw high grade copies of it.

58 minutes ago, darkstar said:

If you are buying books with the intention of making money off them in a few years with little starting capital you should stick with raw books. Very few graded books from the past 30 years are worth putting money into as a buyer if they are not 9.8s. And most 9.8s from the past 30 years are currently overvalued. 

What about new 9.8's? say something like TAH22 ?

48 minutes ago, darkstar said:

The only graded 9.8 EOSV2 I would spend money on right now is the Land incentive variant. That isn't in your price range. With the amount of money you discussed I don't see reason to spend the money on a 9.8 regular cover. I would just buy multiple raw copies. Too easy to find under-priced and under-graded copies right now with the seasonal dip.

Runways #1? I can't imagine now is the best time to be buying a 9.8 copy of that book. I'd have to believe it's currently seeing historic highs, yes? 

Not sure if you can see this link at go.collect ( http://comics.gocollect.com/priceguide/view/304759 ) but Runaways #1 9.8 seems to be a bit down recently, I'd had to add $50 to my budget but I could get one if thought that was a wise choice. As for EOSV2 regular cover, there seems to be about a $120 difference between a slabbed 9.8 and a VF/NM raw version. Which I guess means the raw is a good buy if it ends up grading that high, but looking at the go.collect charts a 9.8 slabbed of that has slowly been rising, consistently over time. I've gone back and forwards between these for a few days, on one hands there's the Runaways TV show which looks like it will run for at least 2 seasons, so there's probably room for #1 to keep on going, but then ESOV2 is perhaps a better long term (3-5 years +) buy. Or I could just ignore those and get a bunch of other cheaper things on the list

1 hour ago, darkstar said:

In your case, unless the book is in danger of having been restored you should stick to raw comics. Determining which of your choices is correct depends on why you are targeting the books for purchase. 

I can just about stretch to a 9.8 on some of those I've listed, such as Runaways #1 or EOSV #2. But you would still suggest going for raw?

1 hour ago, darkstar said:

That would depend on why you are getting back into collecting comics. 

Combination of make some money on a purchase over a few years, and buying because I particularly like the story/artwork.

This sort of follows on from my less than 9.8 question, but I've got a few hundred bucks to spend and my ebay list of possibles is already 80+ strong. Here's the main options, which are mostly raw, but a few slabs are available as well, any guidance for someone getting back into things would be appreciated!

1. Fantastic Four #67 - low grade-mid grade (around $70-$200)
2. SAGA #1 - I've seen some high grades go for around $150
3. EOSV2 - Could get a slabbed 9.4 for about my budget I think.
4. Marvel Premiere #1 - Mid-high grade for about $200
5. Star Wars #1 - High-ish grade just about my budget.
6. TRANSMETROPOLITAN #1 - High grade for my budget
7. Runaways #1 - 9.6 for my budget (9.8 is just beyond)
8. NM #98 - I think around a 9.2 for my budget
9. Ms Marvel #1 - Around 9.4 for my budget
10. X-men #129 - High grade, just about my budget. (Or a bunch of mid grade of any of the x-men around this era, which all look amazing).
11. Infinity Gauntlet #1 - 9.8
12. Savage She-hulk #1 - 9.8
13. (From here on they are a lot cheaper so I could get a few)
14. Postal #1 - 9.8
15. Redneck #1 - 9.8
16. Realm #1 - 9.8
17. Seven to Eternity #1 - 9.8
18. Monstress #1 - high grade
19. Scalped #1 - mid-high grade.
20. Alias #1 - high grade
21. God Country #1 - high grade
22. Revival #1 - high grade
23. Scalped #1 - high grade

So I'm caught between going big on something expensive, and high-ish grade, or maybe get a few of the high grade cheaper modern comics. I should add I'm open to other suggestions!

I've just started collecting again after decades so I've got a lot of catching up to do. A number of modern comics I wouldn't mind having, are available for 9.2's-94's for reasonable prices (say less than $150), but as soon as you get to 9.8 the prices for almost anything shoots up to a few hundred dollars. So my question is, is the extra money worth it for a comic which might only be 15 years old or in some examples a lot less? or a 9.2/9.4 pointless for such a new comic? This might be a completely dumb question, but like I say I've got a lot to learn

I've got some basic dumb questions for anyone that runs a comic store. I should mention I'm in the UK, but hopefully most questions/answers will apply universally.

1. What would say is your biggest cost outlay? (salary, rent, stock etc).
2. Just how do you go about getting the stock? do you get it direct from Marvel/DC or I've see a company called Diamond mentioned?
3. Can you buy a limited amount of stock? (say 20 copies of whatever) or there's a minimum you can't go below?
4. I presume you keep whatever you can't sell? you can't return comics?
5. Do you have to sell at the price the publisher sets? or can you discount?
6. Could you survive just selling comics, or you need the merch as well?
7. Everything needs to be insured?
8. Do you sell old and new comics? or just new? and if old and new, what's the ratio between them in sales. Mostly new sell?
9. Any other questions I should be asking?