Stefan_W

The submission is still sitting at G/E/I but it was graded. I know this because I was dinged with an extra charge on one of the books - they bumped it to high value. That is the type of added charge I love seeing

So many options in our local buy and sell to pick from for this topic. Here is one of my favourites but there are so many others just like this.

Modern regular track submission with 21 books: Dropped off at FedEx way up here in Canada - July 27 Arrived at CGC - Aug 2 Box opened and SFG - Aug 14 G/E/I - Aug 18 Note that when I submitted I used Greg's posts to come up with an estimate of Aug 14th for when this would flip to G/E/I, and it ended up being exactly correct. That was really helpful to me.

Same. I am giving them a miss this auction and probably for the next few auctions as well. I hate giving up 2k worth of books and not even being able to pull off a 1k purchase in return.

I know a few people who started collecting Goldens and it is mostly because they view them as a more secure comic investment. The ones I know are mostly middle aged, but there are definitely a few older gentlemen with white hair that are on the prowl for them at local shows. Some started before the pandemic, but the majority that I personally know started when prices of other books were bouncing up and down like crazy during and after the comic boom. They like to point out that while moderns especially, but also silvers, shot up in value before the prices corrected, Golden Age books were more of a straight line in terms of value. I think the logic is basically ok although a little flawed (e.g., a lot of GA books did not bounce in value simple because there are so few sales). When looking for hold books that will appreciate in value over the next couple of decades you can certainly do worse.

Thinking about this, I would add that there is sometimes a cumulative effect where if I lose a few books I really want in a row I get frustrated and end up over bidding for one later in the auction. This has happened a few times to me, but one that stands out is I was trying to nab a few books along with an X-Men 50 at a CL auction during the comic boom. I kept missing out on everything so right near the end of the auction I put in a crazy bid for a 9.2 copy and it ended up making Comic Tom's list that week (see attached image of the sale). That is definitely not a list I ever wanted to be on. To add one more dimension to that story, I sold a ton of books that were previously very low value at that auction. For example, a couple of Star Wars books that I had in my bins priced at $5 each were spiking so I sent them in through CL and ended up with 9.8 on both, which represented $1500 in seed cash after CL took their 10%. I felt like money had no value at that auction because I fed books into it that I probably paid less than $200 in total for and ended up with thousands in credit to spend. The trouble was that everything was going high and I had a hard time spending it. Anyway, long story short even though I made Comic Ton's list with a crazy high buying price the context is I had very little actual cash invested in the purchase. When I kept striking out on books I wanted more it meant nothing to me at the time that I overpaid for this one.

My modern regular submission was delivered on Aug 2nd and entered into the system day before yesterday so it should not be too much longer for yours.

My current submission that is SFG is also no longer clickable as of yesterday. Maybe it is just a glitch.

Has anyone has any luck getting in touch with them? I had a couple of questions a couple of months ago that I sent using their links at the bottom and I never got a response. I just tried again but will probably give up if I dont get a response this time around.

As a quick update, I did call and I think it was straightened out. The service rep was helpful as always. She told me the computer program that is used to generate these charges does miss credits a lot (she said most of the time) and you can just call in to have the credit amount put back onto your card which is what I did. On my end it is all fine since the credit was applied, and making a phone call is not a big deal. It does seem a bit inefficient on CGC's end since this process ties up their customer support folks, and I imagine the accounting person who has to go in and fix it. If I owned a large company I would not want to see that type of wastage since it eats into the overall cost savings of having a computer do this to begin with. It feels like either the programming or database coordination could be improved since the credits should be in a place that could be read by the computer system as it processes the bill. It is not as though reading a few extra lines of coding and processing an extra function would slow a computer down in any meaningful way.

Not a defect on a slab, but I am mildly annoyed that my most recent submission just went in and they charged my card for the full amount instead of applying the two separate credits I had on file. Those credits were the result of previous charges that I should not have paid, and I was pretty zen about it at the time of those errors since I knew this submission was going in and a credit could just be applied to it. I was not expecting a full bill when I have a shade under $120 in total credit on my account. And this amount looks way worse when you convert it to Canadian dollars. I continue to try to be zen about it all since I understand that overworked humans are doing this and slack needs to be cut. I guess if the credit lasts long enough it can just go toward my membership renewal so all good in the end.

True, but my point is there is no shortage of very high grade copies. The demand is there, but the supply is also through the roof which should lead to fairly stable prices unless there is an exceptional circumstance (the pandemic, or a new movie coming out).

I think ASM 300 is one of the books with a lot of room to drop. Prior to the pandemic I used to regularly buy 9.4 CGC graded copies for less than the hammer price on your 9.2. I see ASM 300 as a special case that does not necessarily represent other books from that era. When it came out everyone knew it was going to be an important book and people loaded up on copies. I remember my local comic book shop had order sheets out where people could request whatever number of copies they wanted. People were buying up 5, 10, 20, or whatever copies, and then they read one and put the rest away. There are gads of very high grade copies of this book as a result.

I use multiple approaches since every way of selling has pros and cons. Facebook - great for selling lower value books to local people. I also list higher end stuff there in an attempt to offset fees but most slabs are slow movers or do not sell at all. Ok for buying if you can get a deal, but there is no protection if books do not come in the condition promised. The marketplace can be good for buying collections which is enough in itself to justify checking in there regularly. Comic Link - Good for selling higher end key issues since their cut is only 10% and a hassle-fee selling experience. If you are trying to sell moderns (aside from a small number that sell well like UF4, Nyx 3, etc) and non-keys expect to get a real low price that is far below GPA. The fact that it is really good for buying is a hint that it is not the best for selling. The only downside to buying there is the hammer prices on the raw lots sold there have increased quite a bit over the past few years. Used to get solid and amazing deals as everyone else focused on the slabs. Their marketplace is largely a waste of time for buying and selling. Ebay - I sell minor keys in the 100-300 price range there. I hate giving money to that site so I cap myself at 10-15k in sales and usually make that in a couple of months, which means I am done for the year pretty early. The 15% fees are not outrageous, but the selling experience can turn terrible as people can do returns for no reason which leaves you on the hook for shipping there and back, plus the whole non-payment thing is really poor. I use it but dont love it. In terms of buying it is ok for slabs and not good at all for raws as you discover how bad people are at grading and shipping. MCS - I have never sold through them but know people who have, and everyone is positive about it. The only complaint is how tough they are when grading raw books, but buyers know this and pay more for a given grade so comes out in the wash. I believe it has a 10% commission which is good. I used to buy raw lots there and found the experience generally good with books coming in looking way better than expected. I only stopped because everything I was after was going for too much, and after a few auctions with nil results it felt like a waste of time. I would not hesitate to try again in the future though. Heritage - Probably the best prices realized for books but ridiculous selling fees. I honestly do not know how people can justify sending all those expensive books to them knowing that a massive cut will be taken out. The customer service is the worst of all of them including Ebay - let that sink in for a moment. In terms of buying, I completely gave up on them and will not be back. I was getting raws that were promised as a 6 coming to me with detached covers, and books I bought and sent to CGC were regularly 2 points below what was promised. It would come as a shock to me if they open and inspect anything aside from a quick peek through the bag. I hope this helps.

It sometimes takes a while before the packages are opened up. My last ME took close to three weeks before they even opened the box. Some submissions are faster. Just luck of the draw.

I am friends with some people in my local community and often give them deals where my cost is their cost. People I am friendly with still get great deals but I do make money on the transaction. Random people who walk up to my booth at the local convention get a solid price but that is it. I try to be friendly to everyone but not everyone who buys a comic from me is my friend. Interesting side note is I get tons of friend requests on Facebook from people who join my comic group but haven't bought anything, or who make a purchase and then want to be friends. I just delete those - although I do regret not making a dedicated FB account for comic selling where I can just friend everyone so that one is my bad.

Yup. I use Greg's posts to gauge roughly how long mine will take, and almost all of mine go through at the same rate. Of course CGC is not completely consistent and some orders go through faster than others, but it has nothing to do with who is making the submission and is likely just how books are queued in the system.

Great topic - thank you for this. I collected comics through the mid-70s into the late 80s and most of my initial collection was made up of Star Wars and Fantastic Four. The comic market crashed right when I was starting university so I left the hobby aside and just kept my books in boxes that were hidden away. This changed 8 or 9 years ago when my daughter found my comics and was interested in them. I found a local comic shop, took her there, and she started collecting My Little Pony and TMNT series. Being around comics got me going again, and I started to buy books that I was never able to afford as a kid to fill out my runs. I bought up old comics for a couple of years. After a purchase I would sit at my table, crack open a beer, and savour ever moment of reading these books that I was previously only able to see up on walls in comic stores that I frequented in my youth. It carried on this this for a bit. Then something odd happened. I picked up an X-Men 94, which was one of my grails when I was younger (it shot up in price a lot in a short time after it was released). When I cracked it open and read it I was shocked to discover the writing and story sucked royally. I had similar experiences with a lot of the single digit Avengers comics. This shocked me away from being stuck in the past and I started buying up more recent comics as well, which I never thought would happen. Another big change is that I used to focus on filling out runs, and now I am ok with buying a comic because I love the cover. For example, I do not know what happens in Tec 880 and I dont care - I just love that Jock cover. TL;DR - Although I got back into it for nostalgia, and to share my love of comics with my daughter, the way I collect really evolved quickly over the past few years. I still OCD over completing runs more than a lot of younger collectors do, but mixed in with all of that I am far more eclectic about what I buy and why I buy it. Makes sense to me when I think about it since I am a very different person now than I was 40 years ago.

They are only promising no selling or listing fees for the first undisclosed amount of time. The plan is to include those in the future and we will have to see how they compare to other auction houses. I am sure they will stay pretty reasonable for a while but who knows long term once they start building up a successful model.

Three bullseyes and a total of 3 this round. Would have been a 1 but at the last minute I changed the Avengers grade away from what would have been a bullseye and into a 2. Thanks Mike for running the contest!

Is it still taking a long while for them to open the boxes? My latest shipment arrived at CGC today (after 6 day shipping - thank you FedEx ) and I am wondering if I should be checking up on it over the next while.

I used to go to a small store in Ottawa that has comics along with assorted other things. I bought a lot of stuff there along the way, although most of the books were not really in good enough condition for me so it always took a lot of digging through boxes to find a couple of gems. When the owner found out that I also sell comics he refused to speak to me or sell me any other comics. He was actually visibly angry when I came into his shop. It has been a few years since this happened and I still don't completely get that type of attitude. Most of the people who buy the most stuff for me do it to resell at a profit, and my attitude is more power to them. As long as I am happy with the price I am getting then all is good, and if they manage to also make a few bucks they are more like to come back and buy more.

People are saying this round was really challenging but I found it pretty easy, which of course means that I am completely toast.

Cardy's work in Aquaman has always been a favourite of mine. Jim Aparo took over at the (weak) end of the run so I guess it doesn't qualify wrt multiple artists in the title, but man was Cardy ever on fire in the early part of the run with all of those lovely yellows, blues, and oranges. I don't think I have loved a group of comics more purely for the art than in that run.

6 for me, not too bad but a couple of books that I changed my mind on just as I was submitting cost me a couple of extra points. Oh well, not completely out of it so onwards and upwards!