Ablation Steve

It's my 25th eBay anniversary...and I'm leaving it. Siding with the buyers 98% of the time and charging commissions on the amount of tax collected were the last straws.

So I'm interested in consigning, or finding the best place to sell a few graded Magic cards. For comic people, MyComicShop seems to be the default, since they'll sell on their own site and on eBay, and they'll take the risks with buyer complaints.

Any thoughts?

Hi all, bumping this once just in case anyone has thoughts on any aspect of it.

Hi all! I have no experience grading cards (I only use CGC for comics) but I came across this promo card when I was digging through my 90s stuff. On eBay it seems to go for $100 or more, and to my untrained eye it looks like it's in good shape.

You can see from the photos that there are little dimples on the card, which I'm guessing is from some part of the manufacturing process or bagging of the card with the magazine. I've also included a pic of the worst corner.

Questions are:

1) Can things like the dings be pressed out? (Again, I'm coming from the world of comics where that's commonplace)

2) With those surface dings, how much does that hurt the card's grade?

3) What overall grade would you give this?

4) With graded versions going for much more money, is it worth getting it graded considering the condition?

Thanks to any and all who reply!

On 10/17/2022 at 9:16 PM, ComicsAndCode said:

I see the benefit of a newsstand indicator for both MCS and buyers, but adding that property to comic books where applicable is no small feat. It requires a proper cost/benefit analysis. To put it into perspective, seeing that the online store is database driven, one or more table fields have to be introduced and queried for. Then the UI has to be updated to display the indicator where appropriate (eg. title in search results, on product page, etc.). Plus visitors might want to filter their search by 'newsletter' which means modifying the search functionality - a critical component business might be very hesitant to touch at all. Finally, assuming business doesn't test new development in production, then you add all the QA work that goes with it. MCS has to be sure all the time and money poured into the project is quantifiably worth it.

Absolutely understand, and I'm sure it's even more involved than I imagine it to be. But this isn't something that's going away, this is the way CGC's going to label from here on out (especially as people reholder). It might be niche collecting, but it's niche collecting that brings in higher-dollar books (in enough cases). If MCS adds these to their database once, they're done, because no new newsstands are ever coming out.

I just got some newsstands with the new CGC label back last week, and while I want to send them to MCS, I'll be putting them on eBay because I can put "newsstand" in the title and get double the price much more quickly. Currently on MCS, people have to choose each individual listing in order to see scans to determine newsstands, which can delay sales and cause sellers to drop the price.

I know MCS won't be affected by missing out on a 10% cut of my $500 books, but I can see the changes paying for themselves before long. And anything they can do to help me avoid eBay would be greatly appreciated!

On 10/12/2022 at 10:38 AM, mycomicshop said:

We already do for some books, generally keys or higher demand books where there's clear activity and demand and meaningful price difference. We don't intend to differentiate every single low value issue in our database that exists with direct and newsstand versions. To some degree it'll be a top-down process influenced by what CGC and GPA do.

@mycomicshopThat's too bad. I know I have some stuff consigned with you right now that would have probably sold already if it had "newsstand" in the title. Others I've had to drop multiple times before someone noticed what it was.

Love it or hate it, I honestly think you (and your customers) will make more money if you start labeling them as such.

I know MCS checks this thread, so I figured I'd ask here. Will MCS be notating "newsstand" in the titles of books now that CGC has started differentiating them?

S

On 8/17/2022 at 11:49 AM, F For Fake said:

It IS a cool book, and not easy to find. I grabbed two on eBay at random a while back, and now @Parabellumhas one of 'em. Not many floating around. The problem with this thing is that the newsprint is so flimsy, it picks up creases and wrinkles like an old catcher's mitt. Cool book, enjoy it!

Yeah, I picked it up in a Chicago comic shop back in '88, and like every other free thing from the time, I kept it!

On 11/11/2020 at 1:57 PM, PeterPark said:

This is so cool...do you know anything about it? I can't find one anywhere online...

I just found a copy I've had since I picked it up in a Chicago comic book shop back in 1988. Here are 6 of the 8 pages.

Excellent idea, thank you. All I do is slum it here on the general board!

Sorry, should have said TV series. Here's some info, pretty sure the whole premise of the thing was just announced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Jedi_(TV_series)

So, same name, different concept.

So the Tales of the Jedi series seems to have nothing to do with the Dark Horse comics. But will just the name boost the value of the comics?

I'd say no, but it happens to characters all the time. Characters who have almost nothing to do with their namesakes (Groot comes to mind) still command premiums. 

Ha! Yeah, that's me. I'm selling most stuff through MCS but have a couple that I wanted to handle myself. In the next week or so I'm gonna switch the Spawn 1 to "Best Offer" and see what happens. So far it's just been a publicity stunt for the charity.

I've got it up at auction on ebay right now with a 1.0-1.5 grading, just to be safe. We'll see what happens. Thanks again to everyone for their opinions.

Thanks all, I pretty much agree. I graded it myself about 15 years ago and called it FAIR, so pretty much what I thought. Thanks for the opinions!

S

I've got a pretty good idea of what people will say (especially once they see the spine and the ink on the cover), but second opinions are a good idea.

On 2/8/2022 at 1:31 PM, apollobuzz said:

I think some of those invisible comics were slabbed upside down also.  They got stupid money raised to the power of brainless.  

The sad thing is, it would sell for more if I created and NFT of a slabbed upside down Spawn #1. 

On 12/14/2021 at 9:54 PM, toro said:

Wow, if you ever put that up for auction, let us know.  Give it some title, only known copy or some other BS and see if the people will jump at it.  Or just put it at a BIN of $10,000 with a best offer and see if someone offers stupid money.

Per the request of some of you, I have decided to put it up at a crazy price (and draw some attention to my favorite charity at the same time). 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304348127916?hash=item46dc8fe2ac:g:BQwAAOSwkDZiAHwY

For a lark I put up my slabbed-upside-down Spawn #1 in case there are any uberfans with bitcoin money. Also to draw attention to my favorite charity. I think it qualifies for this thread.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304348127916?hash=item46dc8fe2ac:g:BQwAAOSwkDZiAHwY

Thanks to all of those who actually read the initial post and responded to the fun-natured spirit of what this thread was actually about!

For other responders, I will keep a bookmark to this thread when I want to explain to someone what a strawman argument is.

Peace, all. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

On 12/21/2021 at 4:06 PM, thesink said:

You’ve kind of pivoted on the “investment” portion of this thread and relied on the fun portion. I don’t disagree that you have had fun and that makes it worthwhile, I disagree that it was a “good” or even profitable investment. The X-men 1 example loses a lot of ground when you can go buy raw copies for less than $30.

Consider me dim today, I don't follow your argument at all. I don't see how you can say the investment isn't profitable, even if I would (after everything, including original sale price) only make $.01 a book. That's profit, no matter if I work a thousand hours to sell one comic book. Would such a silly situation be a "good" investment? No, but it would be profitable.

If I must, let's take that laughably absurd number of netting $20 after everything (including the original purchase price). If it takes me 15 minutes to pack up a book, get it back, post pictures, sell it, and ship it...there, I'm making $80 hour. Good money.

On 12/21/2021 at 3:54 PM, shadroch said:

So we've gone from $70 a book profit to $20.   Now take in the original cost of the book, the bags, the boards, the boxes, insurance and lost opportunity. $20 profit over thirty years. No an easy way to making a living.

Not at all. I proposed a laughably low number that anyone who is being reasonable would agree could be attained, to establish a "floor" for further discussion.;

And as I've pointed out multiple times, this has nothing to do with making a living. This is about dispelling the myth that someone can't make good money on comics that are often ridiculed, and that those who claimed they'd be able to send their kids to college on them were, while not correct, accidently onto something.

On 12/21/2021 at 3:28 PM, shadroch said:

You had me for awhile. You should have quit when you were ahead. You sold thousands of dollars worth of books but think slabbing, ebay fees and taxes run you $30 a book?  

You know, I realized my mistake after hitting submit and heading to the bathroom, but I thought "you know what, I won't change it because it's a fun topic to talk about and people will have a good time discussing it and I'm sure no one will call me out on something like that."

Consider me corrected.

On 12/21/2021 at 3:23 PM, MattTheDuck said:

That's reasonable, but if you're not assigning a dollar figure to your time you shouldn't be claiming to have "made" anything selling comics.  If it's just for fun, stick to describing it only that way.

If you're a Groening fan as your avatar suggests, you'll probably recognize the quote "Two things can be real."

I can have fun. I can make money. I can choose to not assign my time a dollar value and consider everything I make to be profit brought about by having fun.

Three things that are real.