Really Worth CGCing Bronze Books?

[mr_highgrade]

So I guess the question is, is 9.8 like art? One doesn't know what it is, but one knows it when they see it?

 

A 9.8 is what CGC says it is, and nothing more.

 

Never sub to CGC with a 9.8 in mind, as it's a losing game and you'll get back some CGC 9.2-9.6 returns. Always send in what you think are NM or higher issues with a 9.4 as your profit and a 9.6 as your best case.

 

"Will the books be profitable to sell at CGC 9.4?" Yes or No. Submit or Not.

 

Otherwise, you'll be adding up "pie in the sky" CGC 9.8 sales figures and then end up going in the hole trying to sell off your CGC 9.2-9.4 common Bronze issues.

 

 

You hit the nail right on the head.

I submitted 15 Moderns a while back that I was sure would be at least 9.8's or better! Mind you these were books that I cherry picked from the comic shop back in the mid 80's and were never read and immediately put into an acid free backing board with a mylite.

Here are some of the grades:

 

Punisher Limited Series # 1 (2) 9.2/9.6 WP

# 2 (3) 9.6 WP

# 3 (1) 9.6 WP

# 4 (2) rejected because of overhang

# 5 (4) 3 9.6 1 9.8

 

 

 

This shop wasn't from our favorite comic shop on 37th ave, run by our obese chain smoking friends, was it?

 

 

Nah...these puppies were bought at the Comic Art Gallery in the Village.

[davidpg]

Here is my ASM 196:

 

The waves in the middle of the book is the comic bag...the book is perfectly flat:

 

[harveyfan323]

I would slab any and all ASMs from 150-200 that I thought had a pretty good chance of getting a 9.4. You will certainly make more selling them this way than ungraded. Even if some come back 9.2, you should still be able to sell them for $15-$20 or more which will cover the grading fee.

[thecomicsheet]

I would slab any and all ASMs from 150-200 that I thought had a pretty good chance of getting a 9.4. You will certainly make more selling them this way than ungraded. Even if some come back 9.2, you should still be able to sell them for $15-$20 or more which will cover the grading fee.

 

Most of the issues from 150-200 you will average around $25 in a 9.2 grade. Even as low as 9.0 you'll get around $20 for most of them. If you figure 20 percent discount on grading fees, then add in mailing costs, etc., it will cost you about $15 each to get these graded. IMHO you will profit on these (versus selling them raw) if you pre-screen these for 9.2 or above.

 

You will come close to breakeven on 9.0 books even if you pre-screen as low as 9.0 or above (you have to factor in about $5 per book in reject fees and mailing costs just to send them in - would you rather have a slabbed 9.0 book that you can sell for $15 - $20 and essentially break even, or would you rather have the raw book back that you've already lost $5 on.)

 

Selling them raw it is harder to maintain good feedback on eBay (due to grading disputes) or even to get bids if you don't already have a lot of good feedback. CGC mostly eliminates grading disputes. If you are starting out selling some low-priced CGC issues (say $50 or less), you can get bidders on these even with low feedback and thus build up your feedback. On any of the books you get lucky on and get a 9.8, maybe save those for later when you have good feedback. Many of these issues in 9.8 bring $200 or more.

 

Biggest drawback to this scheme is you have to send in a hundred moderns for pre-screening. You could be dinged for as much as $1,500 in grading fees all at once. It's not likely that all the books will pass the pre-screen though. You would be doing good to have as many as 50 percent of the books pass pre-screen at 9.2 (maybe 60 percent at 9.0).

[sfilosa]

I have a strong opinion about this:

 

I don't think it makes a lot of sense to have any book graded when the grading fee is more than 20% of the sale price of the book.

 

Let me give an example (and realize that the cost you paid for the book is irrelevant).

 

 

Say you have a ASM #XXX that you believe is NM. If the book gets graded CGC NM, the market value is $60 but if it only comes back as a NM- you would get $30.

 

So you figure, get it CGC graded and pay around $18 for grading and S/H/I(assuming you plan on sending a few books in at a time to reduce shipping cost).

 

Now it comes back a CGC NM so your profit is $42 or it comes back CGC NM- and your profit is $12.

 

Not bad but:

 

Say you sell if "Raw" as a NM. You show a big scan and say you accept refunds. Now it sells for $20. Well you gave away alot of profit if it was a true CGC NM but you made money if it was only a CGC NM-. But here's the good part. I will bet that if the buyer really believes the book is a NM, than they will look for your next auctions and pay more next time. In other words, if you are a tight grader, you will get a customer base that might pay close to the CGC market value thereby increasing your profits and MINIMIZING your risk (of getting a CGC NM- or lower books).

 

And remember that page quality makes a big difference. You might have a NM book but if it comes back with Cream to Off-white you will almost surely get significantly less than Off-White or better. Yet, if you sell it "raw", most buyers will agree with the grade and not factor the page quality in to the true value.

 

Remember that most buyers are not as experienced as CGC is. Maybe, there is a small, non-color breaking crease that CGC will downgrade for, but a buyer might not see. Or a small chip in a page, or hundreds of other defects.

 

And lastly, I would rather make sell make a $30 profit on a $50 sale than a $30 on a $100 sale. Why? Because I will pay less eBay and PayPal fees.

 

 

 

Just my opinion.