oldrover

2 minutes ago, zzutak said:

You might want to reflect on this conclusion a bit more.  After your initial disappointment, as an honorable human being, wouldn't you be relieved that your decision to certify will enable you to accurately represent your goods to prospective buyers?  Your first CGC submission has put you on notice that your your personal grading standards are too lax by as much as three grade increments.  Not good.

Far too much talk in this thread about maximizing profit, and far too little focus on the consequences of imprudent choices on our immortal souls. 

If you continued reading, you saw that I wanted to represent accurately. Just trying to figure out which is best.

And I bought these comics without CGC labels... and I've been quite satisfied with them... and I knew they were restored. As of course I would tell anyone who had an interest in buying them.

I'm not obligated to CGC these. Just like if a seller sells his home, he's not obligated to pay for the home inspection. But like a home seller, I must disclose any and all issues I know about.

Which I would.

Thanks for your post.

9 hours ago, The Lions Den said:

For me, eBay is no longer my first choice for selling books with significant value (like your Hulk #1, for example).

They tend to favor the buyer, not the seller----even when the seller has excellent feedback and the buyer doesn't.

What IS your first choice? Heritage?

6 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Consigning your better books, like this Hulk 1, to an auction house may be the best approach.

I'm not sure about that... if you go back and look at sold history, the same books at the same grade generally go for higher on eBay.

One of mine is a CGC'd 7.5 incredible Hulk 1 from the Nicholas Cage collection, where the notes say only "Small color touch". That might be worth it.

How would I know if it's worth it? Does CGC do this work? If not, who might, and what kind of cost are we talking about?

BTW, thanks for all the insight and advice on this thread.

17 hours ago, Mayor006 said:

One thing I would say about having them slabbed is it gives the buyer an idea of just how much restoration there is that may or may not come across in descriptions and pictures alone.  

That's why I'm leaning toward slabbing them all. The buyer should know exactly what they're getting, and I can't really tell them that without getting them slabbed.

1 minute ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Some advice: Don't talk about profit on the internet. Since you are supposed to declare the Capital Gains on your Income Tax, it's just prudent to not say anything. I had a large collection and when I retired I thought the same thing as you, start selling them myself. Not as easy as it sounds. If your books are raw, be prepared for complaints, returns, damage during shipment, Paypal claims, E-Bay claims, Credit Card claims, etc. If you get them slabbed, be prepared for some giant expenses. Anyway, your call, I wish you luck.

I appreciate your advice.

I've run a business or two before... I think I'm prepared for people to be, well, people.

And I'll be declaring all this. I'm in the unenviable (enviable?) position of having a large capital loss a few years back, that when applied to these gains, will basically cancel it out. Yay.

16 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Unless you enjoy selling 10,000 books yourself, I would sell the collection, sans a few keepers, as a lot to a dealer.

I don't mind it... I think I'll do better selling it myself. Plus it's not like I'm selling them all one at a time.

I'm on track to sell about 700 books in my first month... so I figure it'll be about a years work. That's not a bad part-time job to net another, say, $50,000. Maybe more. YMMV.

9 hours ago, Tony S said:

My experience is this...
Generally speaking, low grade restored books (say 3.5 or less) sell for about the same amount of money slabbed or unslabbed. As the grade gets higher, a premium starts to emerge for graded and slabbed.  
If I knew a (key) book was restored, I wouldn't bother paying for professional grading and encapsulation unless I expected a grade at 6.0 or better. 

This was basically my take... my concern is that I'm not a great grader, and that CGC is very strict. For my first CGC submission a few weeks back, I sent in three (unrestored) books I thought were VG, FN and FN (ASM5, FF48, FF52). They came back VG-, VG+, and VG/FN.

If I sent in one of these restored (or presumed to be restored) books, say JIM83, thinking it was a VF, and it came back FN, that would be a bummer. Maybe I'll have to post some photos here before submitting.

Selling off my 10,000 comics over the next few years... I own restored FF1, XMen 1, and AF15 books (among others) that look tremendous.

My plan was to CGC them all and let the chips fall where they may... but now I'm wondering if what someone here called the PLOD (Purple Label of Death) would be more of an impediment to a sale than just disclosing they are restored and selling them with beaucoup photos.

Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

BTW, first time poster here. Great forum.