Tafkap

8 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

You submit the full charge and you are then reimbursed through the credit card for the books that were not graded minus the prescreen fees.

Also, I thought you said you submitted 23 books as 9.8s, that's more than a handful. Does your LCS not know about prescreening?

No, I submitted 30 books; CGC, for  some reason, is sending the last 7 books separately.  I don't know if my LCS knows or not.  I'll ask him when I pick up the rest of the books this week hopefully.  The majority of the books I was basically fine with any reasonable grade; for example I sent in 14 copies of Thor 337 that I didn't "require" a 9.8 to make money.  However some other stuff, Moon Knight #1, Wolverine Limited and a few others, I allowed my LCS owner to do his prescreen to weed out anything less than a 9.8.  I learned a lesson..  

2 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

I know this will probably come across as disrespectful but reading that post of yours made me cringe. I myself would never state that a comic of mine is a 9.8, since I am not CGC. Even if some were undergraded before (in your point of view), I would never assume to have a 9.8 let alone expect that. Hope for it, sure, but expecting it and being in disbelief sounds like folly. Worst of all, you had 23 books, just add 2 more for 25 and do the prescreen. That's the only way to ensure you get the 9.8s. What I can't believe is that this wasn't the strategy chosen by you and the LCS owner. You guys wanted 9.8s and this is the one guarantee you have of getting it and you didn't go for it. Why?

Also, less than half a point of grade is literally one of the lowest discrepencies possible.

Well, first, out of the 30 books I submitted there was only a handful that I qualified for only 9.8s; the majority of the batch I was happy to get any reasonable grade.

How does it work with pre-screening?  Obviously you can't submit the correct charge for the books upfront?  Do you leave them a credit card or do they contact you?  

Just now, thehumantorch said:

Clearly you and the LCS owner don't grade to CGC standards.  It's a tough lesson but pretty common.  Study the books, read the graders notes.  You'll soon understand what you were missing are you'll be a better grader for it.

Well actually on the previous batch we/he actually under-graded them; I was pleasantly surprised with the high overall numbers on those.  

8 minutes ago, Tony S said:

What you have experienced is why no one pays the 9.8 price for a raw comic book at a LCS. Fact is that NM+ and better books are pretty much the exclusive grading domain of professional grading companies.  You have also learned your ability - and your LCS ability - to prescreen at 9.8 is lacking. 

What you SHOULD have done is sent in two more comic books - a total of 25 - and had CGC prescreen them.  Then instead of getting back a bunch of 9.4's in slabs, you'd have only gotten back 9.8's in slabs and everything not a 9.8 would have been returned raw. The rejects would have cost you $5 each. But that's better than the price of slabbing. 

This is how all the big sellers of hot new comics have lots 9.8's for sale. They are probably only a little better than you or your LCS at identifying 9.8's.  But they send their books to CGC prescreened. BUYERS don't know about all the books they get back raw that didn't pass prescreen

As for your original question. I'm not sure I remember. There have been a number of times I was off two full points. I treat it as a learning experience. Most recently I've learned a book that looks a solid VG (4.0) might come back a 2.0 if it has much in the way of tape. 

Thanks.   Actually I sent it 30 and the other 7 apparently were shipped out later.  

Now it makes sense why there are so many 9.8s out there; especially of non-notable issues.  

I guess I'll do the pre-screening with my next batch.  

So I just got a batch back of 23 comics.  Of those myself and a LCS owner screened some of them strictly and only if they'd get a 9.8.  All those came back at 9.4!  I truly couldn't believe.  Stuff like Wolverine Limited 2 and 4 in 9.4 are now basically break-even products.  What's been your biggest discrepancy?  

23 hours ago, ramithard said:

turnaround time was at 25 days......now at 32 days....these are BUSINESS days...no weekends

Oy!  Thanks for the info.  A few months back I sent off some books and they were relatively quick.  Any idea what's going on there?  Why the delays?

Last month, I sent out 30 modern books for grading.  It's been almost 6 weeks which includes the time they were shipped from California.  Haven't got them back yet.  Anyone know how long their turnaround is now?  Thanks!

Well there is a forum here called Ask CGC.  I'd try that.  

3 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

Doesn't that come out to a rather small margin if they are 9.4? I worked in a shop and I can assure you selling all my inventory for $100 each now is way more advantageous than forking out more money and waiting months to eventually sell them at $150. 

Yup that would be a small margin at 9.4.  However, I also had 4 copies of mine graded and they turned out to be 9.4, 9.6, 9.8 and 9.8.  I didn't really see any difference between the copies I had graded against the ones I bartered with.  My 9.8's I sold for about $500 each on Ebay.  But I was being conservative on the grade.  So, yeah, it really all depends on the grade.  But in any case he was selling them below Ebay prices.    

6 hours ago, William-James88 said:

Not really, 99% of books sell for guide or less. Its just the keys, scarce GA and very high grade books that need a bit more attention but they aren't found aplenty in local comic shops anyway.

Well specifically I "sold" 5 copies of Thor 337 a few months back  (probably be 9.4 to 9.6, maybe a 9.8) for basically $50 a piece; it was actually in trade to have other comics pressed and sent out to CGC.

He then sold them at his store for anywhere between $90 - $100 each; depending on if the customers were "members" of his store.

I could've bought those copies of Thor at $90 - $100, had them graded, and sold them for anywhere between $150 - $220 each; the prices are even a little higher now.

And if any of them, by chance, would grade a 9.8, that copy could sell for $500; even more now.     

59 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

the shop I worked at goes by overstreet as well

Seems odd with how quickly things can change.  There would seem to be some opportunities in that.  

7 minutes ago, rumrunner71 said:

estatesales.net is pretty good, but yes, there's been very little (of anything good, anyway) for a while. If you can find local estate sales companies in your area, many of them have email listservs you can get on.

Thanks

Just now, 1950's war comics said:

Local Comic Shop

Thanks.  I know my local shop sells some raw comics well below Ebay prices.   He always seems to want to go by Overstreet pricing.  

31 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

eBay, on line dealers and comic cons is where to get older comics ...

an LCS is for newer comics 90% of the time...

LCS?

24 minutes ago, littledoom said:

Craigslist for garage sales; estatesales.net for estate sales... although both have been very dry for many months sadly 

Thanks. 

On 7/22/2020 at 5:45 PM, littledoom said:

Estate sales or garage sales

Any particular app, website or method to find these sales?  

Thanks

As someone who collected heavily in the '80's I'm in the process of having a lot of my comics graded and selling them on Ebay or maybe selling them on here.

I've still got plenty of comics to go through but I'm kind of getting the bug to get more and do this more and more.

I don't have a comic book store.

So besides having your own store what's the best way to get older comics with the intention of possibly pressing/cleaning, grading and selling them for a profit?

Putting ads in local things like Craig's List?  Checking out garage/estate sales?  Buying raw comics on this site and Ebay?  Buying raw from local comic book stores? 

Thanks! 

16 minutes ago, The Lions Den said:

My suggestion would be to take it one comic at a time.

Personally, I'd contact CGC and see if the book could be pressed back to it's original condition... 

Okay.  thanks.  Have you ever had one of your comics experience this?  

OK.  So now I'm fairly convinced my Thor 337 9.8 has experienced Shaken Case Syndrome after I've had it returned to me on Ebay. 

So what does one do?

I'm now very hesitant of getting the rest of my collection graded now that I see there's a chance the comic can actually be "ruined" by the holder.

I believe it happened when a buyer returned it because of "newton rings" he did not pack it very well and I believe that's what  happened.  

How have you dealt with it?

How do you deal with it going forward?

Is it just the risk of doing business on Ebay? 

I just can't fathom more 9.8's being ruined!!   

7 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

You can contact grading company see what they are willing to do for you. Or take great photos so it is clearly shown and eventually someone who buys the grade on the label will come along and be thrilled to have it. 

Well actually I took close up photos of it and sold it within an hour of it being back on Ebay today.  Sent it out today.  So we'll see what happens....  I was actually thinking about taking it down and bam...sold before I even had time to think about it.

19 minutes ago, spidermanbeyond said:

It is not possible to change the book without evidence of tampering so not fraud.  It is Shaken Comic Syndrome and unfortunately happens quite often with shipping of slabs.  Looks like edge got folded, not piece missing.  You might try to have it pressed out.  You might not or not retain the 9.8 grade or sell as is.

 

Thanks. 

21 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

Nah. I doubt they care if it is fragile or not. Well I usually just toss packages because it easier then carrying them over, oh wait this one is fragile, I will be careful with it. 

I would imagine so. 

Well when I showed the 9.8 today to a comic book owner he also didn't think it looked like a 9.8; this was the same guy who helped me pick out the book in the first place to submit it. 

So either it's some incredible bad luck and it did get shook, or maybe one of the two buyers took out some rage and shook it to spite me for some reason, or it was switched? 

None of them are really sticking out for me as the answer.  Very frustrating.  Oh well.  

5 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

Fell off or got folded? I don't know what is possible. Most my slabs the inner well or book moves around. I secure my slabs during shipping so the don't move at all. Inner well can still move though. It's a rare thing though because I have owned thousands of slabs and never had the staple tears of shaken syndrome. 

Well I'm still having a hard time believing it happened because I  pack very secure inside a box.  I did not tell the Post Office it was fragile however.  Do you do that?  

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to add that the second photo is just when I took it out of the CGC bag.