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MeganB

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Posts posted by MeganB

    Please Grade My The Amazing Spiderman 298

    in Hey buddy, can you spare a grade?

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    Once you identify which are the key books, and have a general idea of the grade/condition, you can go to eBay completed sales and figure out a range of values.  Any premium value assigned to first appearances is already baked into the price by the market.  Any further upward deviation in the sales price on your part is purely speculative.

    Thts what he called them was key additions.. n I have a whole tote of them too

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, revat said:

    I think most of the things pointed out have been right and certainly well-intentioned, but I would offer an a couple alternate suggestions and comments.

    If you truly want to maximize your money, it is true that you should sell individually for many comics and attempt to sell runs or groupings.  

    The steps to do that would be (and the CGC chat board can help in many cases):

    1.  Make a list (good job!).

    2.  Identify what MIGHT be best sold individually.  (for seasoned comic folks this make take literally 2 seconds a comic, for a newbie it could be 5-10 minutes or more per comic).

    3.  Learn to grade and grade those individual comics.

    4.  Identify comics that might need to be graded to maximize value (this will depend on your own preferred profit margins and opportunity cost of tying up your money and how quickly you want turnover to be, as well as risk preferences.).  This part is actually a decent amount of research for a newbie, depending on how much business experience you have.

    5.  For those comics identified as needing grading, you need to pack them up, pay for a membership (or find a local comic shop to help submit), then submit and PAY MORE MONEY UP FRONT, then wait 1-6 months to get your comics back.

    5a.  There may be a situation where some or many of your comics should be pressed (essentially ironed flat) before grading to get rid of minor defects hopefully resulting in higher grades.  Of course learning about that takes some effort too.

    6.  So eventually you want to sell, you gotta find the right place to sell, take pictures, set up accounts, deal with selling fees, shipping, returns, possibly taxes (if you're already savvy then great).  You might be the kind of person who wants to do the accounting for all this to make the tax situation cleaner.

     

    So this is all a lot of work, but many of us here do it because we love comics and want to make money on the side or make money to buy other comics, and some also for a living.  But most people here at least kind of like comics and have some experience with them.  If you don't have a passion for comics and are starting with very little knowledge, this can all can be EXTREMELY daunting, and then some people that you ask for help will talk down to you.  I'm not saying this is not for you, but I'm definitely saying doing all this is not for everyone.  If you've been looking for a hobby or you are truly passionate about comics or its a fun thing to get into with your kids, then great.  Otherwise here's a few options to consider:

    1.  SELL IT ALL AT ONCE:  Let's say you find the right venue if we got conservative but reasonable grades, and achieved reasonable but conservative prices on all your comics, your expected revenue is $10K-$15K (purely for sake of example - it depends largely on the grades of your books).  Sounds great right? Well what if you have to put in $500-$1000 up front in grading.  And selling fees are somewhere between 5%-10%.  Then lets say 20% taxes.  Then you divide by how many working hours you think it will take, spread over how many months.  BUT lets say you sold it right now today for $2000-$4000 to a dealer, a comic shop, a random craigslist person for cash, and just got rid of all of it, out of your house, and never had to think about it again.  Would that be of interest to you?

    2.  CONSIGN IT TO SOMEONE.  Pay someone else (that you hopefully trust) to sell them for you, and they keep some percentage of the sales.  Yes they will take a hefty cut, but you'll make more than option 1 AND you still get them out of your house and don't have to do any work.  The best consignors will also help you grade the right comics because its in their interest as well.

     

    The problem is its hard to know which is right because you don't know much about it.  And of course it depends on your financial situation.  If you need money more than you need spare hours in the day, that's totally understandable, especially with three kids.  BUT if you're not sure if you're going to be making 9$ per hour or $30 per hour (which you can't really know till you've done at least half the required work)...and you don't have passion for comics.... then maybe consider something other than selling yourself.

     

    Didn't mean to confuse you more, but if you're a parent with three kids as opposed to a college student with no summer job, factors are different.

    Wow, ok tht was alot but I do understand what ur sayin I have made a list of the entire collection, I also had a friend come over n put aside all the comics he knows are worth value (alot of first appearance issues, as well as full runs), yeah I was just trying to make the most $ I can for my boys 14, 10 n 3  n my oldest just started football. So again i understand, this was very helpful though.. Thank you 

    Please Grade My The Amazing Spiderman 298

    in Hey buddy, can you spare a grade?

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    For all that is holy, please don't bend and curl books like that ASM 300 photo where you're holding it from the top to show the spine.  You're potentially dealing with a thousand dollar book.  I'd almost advise wearing cloth gloves to handle it.  Also, close up shots of the corners are far more helpful as it allows people to see creases and ticks.  Here's one such example of what i mean.  You'll want to do the same for all 4 corners, front and back.  The more, detailed shots, the better idea people will have.

    599557a46c39e_fronttopleft.thumb.jpg.0056b144eacfe24323d61301bfe0cf94.jpg

    Another question: the comic friend said I have alot if first appearance comics as well, how do they factor in???

     

    29 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    For all that is holy, please don't bend and curl books like that ASM 300 photo where you're holding it from the top to show the spine.  You're potentially dealing with a thousand dollar book.  I'd almost advise wearing cloth gloves to handle it.  Also, close up shots of the corners are far more helpful as it allows people to see creases and ticks.  Here's one such example of what i mean.  You'll want to do the same for all 4 corners, front and back.  The more, detailed shots, the better idea people will have.

    599557a46c39e_fronttopleft.thumb.jpg.0056b144eacfe24323d61301bfe0cf94.jpg

    Another question: my comic friend said I have alot of first appearance comics, how do those factor in

    Please Grade My The Amazing Spiderman 298

    in Hey buddy, can you spare a grade?

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    For all that is holy, please don't bend and curl books like that ASM 300 photo where you're holding it from the top to show the spine.  You're potentially dealing with a thousand dollar book.  I'd almost advise wearing cloth gloves to handle it.  Also, close up shots of the corners are far more helpful as it allows people to see creases and ticks.  Here's one such example of what i mean.  You'll want to do the same for all 4 corners, front and back.  The more, detailed shots, the better idea people will have.

    599557a46c39e_fronttopleft.thumb.jpg.0056b144eacfe24323d61301bfe0cf94.jpg

    I'm sorry I didnt mean to offend any1 with how I handled it I will use gloves from now on... this is what the corners look like on the 300

    16203297444048492460007117627857.jpg

    16203297822727518258300001916646.jpg

    1620329811114463160963355264199.jpg

    16203298257147432849516850674982.jpg

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Yorick said:

    @MeganB Your list is great.  Probably the best thing for anyone to do coming into any collection is to make a list of all items.  Even in lower grades, some of the books you have listed sell very well.  There has been some very good advice provided so far.

    Certain issues (the Spiderman's 298-300 noted above and Xmen 94) will draw bidders all day long.  Carefully pull those out and take several photos.  Share them in the "Please Grade My Comic" section (review other people's posting to see what kind of photos to take).   Once you have an idea of the condition of each, you will better be able to research sold listings on ebay (search for raw/ungraded sales only).  Then search for the equivalent sales of GRADED copies.  Sending books to CGC for grading is not cheap and it takes a lot of time.  You will have to determine if having them graded will be worth the extra expenses.

    Regarding the other books in the collection, sell them in short runs.  Maybe five to ten books in a lot.  Shipping an excessive number of books in one package can create a higher potential for postal handling damage.

    I feel that the best way others here can help you is to point out certain issues from your list which you should research first.

     

    Thank you very much for this advice, I have a whole 1 subject notebook of all the comics I have on hand, I have done a ton or research n Google alot of the comics I jus dont know how or where to start n asking price for them..

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    The "Please Grade My" section is where veteran boardies assess a book and provide their best guess as to what grade/condition a book appears to them.  It's obviously not guaranteed, but it should provide you a close estimation of what they think the book would grade out as if you sent it in.

    You and me both.  I wouldn't spend any money on it, but I would say the same of 99.9% of "fair" books.

    Agh I gotcha, thanks for all ur help n advice 😁

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    Yes, that's what recent sales appear to be.  Frankly that's a crazy price and I would never pay that much for a 0.5.  That's the absolute worst condition a book can be in before it gets a NG (No Grade) designation.  Personally, your book looks worst than what I'm seeing from these 0.5s and that will have a negative effect on the value of your book.  I would not expect to get $400 for your book ungraded.

     

    I would recommend taking photos and posting them in the "Please Grade My" section of the boards.  And I don't mean one grainy group photo.  I mean high quality scans or close up shots.  Generally, one with the book that fills the entire image, then at least 4-5 of each corner plus a shot of the spine.  Front and back.  The guys in that section of the board can tell you what condition the book is in and from there you can get a better idea of valuation.  That might also help provide a basis for you to determine how the rest of your brothers collection would grade out.  Best thing to do would be to make a full list of books and provide it to a trusted comic shop and they can tell you which are the key books to look up.  Most books are likely to be completely worthless though.  If you're looking to sell, your best bet is either to sell the keys individually and sell the rest as a lot, or to just sell entire runs as one lot.  "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush."

    Exactly uro the 2nd person to mention the "please grade my" section.. how does tht work? Will he tell me what he thinks I would get for it graded or will tell me to send it in?!

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    Just now, ExNihilo said:

    Yes, that's what recent sales appear to be.  Frankly that's a crazy price and I would never pay that much for a 0.5.  That's the absolute worst condition a book can be in before it gets a NG (No Grade) designation.  Personally, your book looks worst than what I'm seeing from these 0.5s and that will have a negative effect on the value of your book.  I would not expect to get $400 for your book ungraded.

     

    I would recommend taking photos and posting them in the "Please Grade My" section of the boards.  And I don't mean one grainy group photo.  I mean high quality scans or close up shots.  Generally, one with the book that fills the entire image, then at least 4-5 of each corner plus a shot of the spine.  Front and back.  The guys in that section of the board can tell you what condition the book is in and from there you can get a better idea of valuation.  That might also help provide a basis for you to determine how the rest of your brothers collection would grade out.  Best thing to do would be to make a full list of books and provide it to a trusted comic shop and they can tell you which are the key books to look up.  Most books are likely to be completely worthless though.  If you're looking to sell, your best bet is either to sell the keys individually and sell the rest as a lot, or to just sell entire runs as one lot.  "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush."

    Oh I definitely knew I wasn't getting nothing for tht spiderman #1 its jus in plastic for looks now... but all my books are in plastic n r in fairly great condition a lil discolored from age but nothing major

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    If you thought $550 graded was a lot, you're gonna want to take a seat before looking up the price range on Amazing Spider-Man 300...

    I had a friend of a friend come over n he went through almost all 14 totes of the comics n made me put the better 1s off to the side, I have alot of complete runs but said i would probably get more chopping them up...

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    13 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

    You have to realize, a lot of uninformed people come into collections and then ask the very same question you're asking now.  A lot of times, people have things they think are of value, but really aren't.  There have been about 8 different versions of Amazing Spider-Man #1 and people have come in with alternate volumes, or reprints wrongly believing they've struck it rich.

    No one's being rude here, just trying to keep your expectations reasonable instead of setting the belief that you're somehow going to make six figures off this.  Also, attacking the people you're seeking advice from is a sure fire way to turn people away from helping you.

    I was jus commenting back, cuz the "are you sure about tht" comment was uncalled for as well, I dont have any problem sending as many pictures as 1 would like n I genuinely dont have n idea about comics tht why I was askin,  I know some are worth a bunch as a few people have told me. But being I have no clue what to even start to ask for some of them?! 16203201980815854055507099196477.thumb.jpg.19b14578b7cf61430f5196a3b77ce2e4.jpg16203202347025601654326410508323.thumb.jpg.0003e65660f53fc248c4cebf56c83007.jpg16203202894273195701448566163898.thumb.jpg.b6d577eabecca9672c35df7fec63a30f.jpg16203203221658221124840098404685.thumb.jpg.0ef88550a201ae8f34340085441e90f6.jpg16203206011531790202647262534770.thumb.jpg.a05dfe3c8ae8b3e0e3de6965b643c1e1.jpg16203214641051664296998563836586.thumb.jpg.2d59b207324ad37985b5cb94cd60e5eb.jpg16203215297664108893370055606079.thumb.jpg.3268adbcbacbee2c2d10e053cebfc4d6.jpg

    Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help

    in Newbie Comic Collecting Questions

    Posted

    On 10/2/2020 at 10:10 AM, Angel of Death said:

    Are you sure about that, though?

    Unless your brother is mad rich, I'm not sure why he'd just give such a big collection away.

    Umm, So Yes I'm sure about tht, no my brother is not mad rich, he worked his off for every comic he had since he was little n lived in the US. but since he was stationed in Germany in the army he left them with my dad who let a large majority ruin So he 'YES GAVE THEM TO ME' SO I CAN TRY TO SELL THEM N MAKE US BOTH SOME $..                So if u have anymore rude comments u can take it elsewhere Thanks ✌