London comicon report (October 5th)

[Ian_Levine]

I haven't bought any comics off Duncan McAlpine ever.

I had a strange run in with his ex partner John Skoulides, who pretended that he wasn't ACTUALLY John, that his name was Charlie, and he was John's shop manager, all of which was some weird roleplaying fantasy that I still haven't gotten to the bottom of. I didn't realise he actually WAS John himself, until Harley pointed it out.

As for Harley, I've had great comics off him, and haggled and gotten them at the price I wanted.

Unlike most of you, I love restored books, hate slabbed books, and refuse to have one in my collection. I've bought over fifty, all of which I've cracked open, including the Action 1.

Comics are for looking at. If you want them in a slab, you may as well just buy a front cover.

I realise I'm in the minority here, but I buy low grades just to physically have a copy of the comic.

Near mints are wasted on me.

[Ian_Levine]

I have no intention of ever selling off.

I parted with too many other rare possessions (Rare Soul records, Doctor Who props) to finance this.

I intend to keep my entire DC collection till I die, which I pray hopefully will be at the age of 108 years old, peacefully in my sleep...............

 

Well we can all dream............

[goldust40]

Ah, I see. The thing is though, that I'm not actually anybody, as such. My user ID has most of my name and if you go to my profile, my full name is there, along with my city of residence. Unlike Flaming Telegraph, I don't have an identity that you might recognise (I'm assuming that he is recognisable to some here). Apart from publishing my picture, address or e-mail address, I'm not sure what I could do to identify myself more. Since doing those things is generally considered a bad idea in cyberspace, I'll pass.

 

Tell you what though, if I ever go to a London show again, I'll come up and say hello. Might even go to the one in January if I'm not skinned out after Xmas.

 

Whoops. Mea culpa. Relatively speaking you're anonymous due to a lower profile (as you stated in your post). But your name is in your c.v. and that's good enough for me. And yeah, not giving out your email/address/picture is always the better option. See you after Xmas.

[herc2000]

 

A couple of items from Bob Storms, who rumour would have it is based in the US of A. ASM #14 in VF+ @ $2400 - 40% above guide. ASM #24 in VF/NM @ $525 - 92% above guide.

 

Are these the 8.5s and 9.0s you're talking about? The 'plentiful ones' that the 'rest of the world' are giving away?

 

Go look on Ebay, and do a search for CGC Silver Age in 8.0 to 9.0. I don't think you'll have to wait too long....

 

p.s. As for Bob Storms, I'll take his pricing, grading, stock content, and professionalism over the majority of U.K. dealers any day of the week !

 

 

, , , , , , , , That's all I can say to your above comments. Showcase New England sold a X-men 1 on ebay last week for pretty much 50% guide, does this therefore mean that every other dealer out there should be selling X-men 1's for 50% of guide because that's what it fetched on ebay? Sometimes you will get a great deal on ebay and sometimes you won't.

How you think prices on ebay are the God sent value of a book I don't know, but they are not. As soon as the Overstreet comes out, I'd say two months afterwards,

it's values are outdated and remember it is only a GUIDE! If you think you will get Defenders 10 or Detective comics 400 in 8.5- 9.0 already cgc'd for guide then please get me some, I'll take multiples of you! Hey I'll even give you 10% commision cause you would'nt want to make any more than that would you? Not unlike these terrible Brit dealers LMFAO, LMFAO, LMFAO, LMFAO, LMFAO.

[goldust40]

You must be joking Andy, that X-Men #94 on your web-site is no anomaly. Your prices on CGC'd material are outrageous. Most of your CGC'd books are in the 8.0 to 9.2 catergory, widely available in this condition and do not justify the 2 to 3 times guide multiples you have applied. This seems to be a U.K. dealer disease, which I had hoped you had not caught. Whether it's because U.K. dealers just do not have the quality in their stock, and see their U.S. counterparts making a killing on higher graded CGC material I don't know, but it's turning the U.K. market into a joke. You will rarely find any top U.S. dealers like Blazing Bob, Metropolis, Ideal etc stray so far from market in the grades from 8.0 to 9.2. When dealers are offering CGC'd material that is amongst the finest example of a particular book in the world, then they can price accordingly.

 

Although I am dis-appointed to see Andy has gone the Silver Acre route, he is genuinely one of the most honest, and professional dealers around. He is one of the U.K.s most consistent graders on raw books (along with Dave at Incognito Comics). In fact he is as tight a grader as any dealer in the U.S. (and more so than most).

 

 

 

Although Flaming Telepath and herc2000 have pre-empted (rather well, I might add) whatever I had planned to say, 2 small points. Firstly, having compared prices with ideal collectables, I've found that I am cheaper on a few books where our inventories overlap, such as lesser Marvels in 9.0 or 9.2.

 

Far more importantly, however is the fact that I have, in stock, at present, 150 CGC'd comics. My inventory is somewhere in the region of 20,000 books. That means that 0.75% of my stock has been CGC'd. Whereas a company such as Ideal has 100% of it's comics slabbed. The point is 150 slabbed items, some (but by no means all) of which are v. expensive admittedly, is scarcely representative. Any comparisons therefore are specious, and yes you ARE prone to exaggeration! A lot of my slabbed books are between 1.2- 1.66X Overstreet. You keep on picking the odd book that backs your argument. My Avengers 4 CGC 8.0 is 1.2 Overstreet, for example. I really don't think that 50-75 premium priced books has meant that I've gone down any "route", nor that such a move will or has turned the U.K. market into a joke (there are some on these boards who thought this anyway - check my first post re this matter).

 

Thanks for the praise at the end there, though.

 

 

 

[Durok-migration]

You also claimed that Andy charged '2 or 3 time guide', whereas it was a factor of 1.7 (and I'm sorry, but 1.7 is waaaaaaaaaay different to 3), but you seem to think that gross exaggeration is just as fine as sweeping generalisation.

 

It was 1.7 on the 1st example I came across. If you want more random examples,

 

Amazing Spider-Man #36 CGC VF+ 8.5 $425 = 2.23 X Guide (Average recent sale price via G.P.Analysis $147)

Amazing Spider-Man #122 CGC VF/NM 9.0 $476 = 2.659 X Guide (Average recent sale price $226.)

 

I obviously should have said "1.7 to 2.659 times guide" instead of "2 to 3 times guide", so sorry for the sweeping generalisation !

 

This is becoming a roast Goldust Andy thread, which is not how it is intended because he is not the worst culprit, and is still one of the best U.K. dealers by a mile.

 

Simply telling us all that we're all w*nkers, with w*nk stock and w*nk prices, displaying w*nk attitude, is neither helpful nor right.

 

Sorry, but you need to see things from our side of the table. The majority of U.K. dealers cannot grade, yet they expect you to pay huge multiples for a raw NM book that you know will come back an 8.5 to 9.0 from CGC. Trying to purchase genuine high grade material in the U.K. is a nightmare. This is exactly how I feel towards the majority of U.K. dealers, because they peddle cr*p, and it is overgraded, overpriced cr*p. Again I don't know you, and have never bought from you (as far as I'm aware), but if the cap fits......

[Ian_Levine]

QUOTE... "This is exactly how I feel towards the majority of U.K. dealers, because they peddle cr*p, and it is overgraded, overpriced cr*p"

 

_________________________

 

 

Are you saying that if a comic isn't slabbed, then it's [!@#%^&^]

Because that is what is coming across.

 

At the risk of being lynched, I say once again - if all you want are slabbed comics, then you might as well just sit and look at a Gerber guide.

[Durok-migration]

QUOTE... "This is exactly how I feel towards the majority of U.K. dealers, because they peddle cr*p, and it is overgraded, overpriced cr*p"

 

_________________________

 

 

Are you saying that if a comic isn't slabbed, then it's [!@#%^&^]

Because that is what is coming across.

 

At the risk of being lynched, I say once again - if all you want are slabbed comics, then you might as well just sit and look at a Gerber guide.

 

That's not how it's intended, but for me condition is crucial on comic books. Unlike their Yank counterparts however, many U.K. dealers cannot seem to grasp this concept.

 

Anyway, you are only hitting on the Gerber guide because they didn't bother with any D.C. beyond 1963 !

[goldust40]

Again I refer to my post about how my CGC books are not in fact representative of my overall pricing structure, and some of them are not priced out of all proportion either ad nauseam. I'm sure you could find examples if you actually bothered to look a little harder and with less prejudice that would back this up.

And lest we forget, it's only a guide we're talking about here, as herc2000 pointed out. So there!!!

 

And to think this all started because Kev lumped all U.K. dealers in with Mile High.

That was a bit harsh. Anyway I'm tired of all this self- justification. Over and out, gentlemen!!!!

 

Roast ye not!

[Ian_Levine]

[That's not how it's intended, but for me condition is crucial on comic books. Unlike their Yank counterparts however, many U.K. dealers cannot seem to grasp this concept.

 

 

 

 

But for me it's all about the comic itself. Having collected Dcs since I was six years old, and now having (hopefully) the best DC collection in the world (at least for content not for grade), I CANNOT understand this fixation that's developed for condition as opposed to content. It NEVER used to be like this. Surely, the most important thing is to HAVE the comic ??

[blowout]

And by the way, I know plenty about how the market is going, which is why I take objection to U.K. dealers trying to rip me off with mid-grade CGC'd garbage when the rest of the world understands that Silver Age in 8.0 to 9.0 is PLENTIFUL.

 

I can only assume that when you say that you know how the market is going, you are refering to the ultra high grade SA market? Your comment that CGC 8.0-9.0 books are 'mid-grade garbage' aludes to this fact.

Myself, and I'm sure the majority of genuine collectors, do not consider accurately graded VF to VF/NM comic books to be 'garbage'. Also, although mid-late SA books in this range are relatively common, they are certainly not 'plentiful', and try getting certain pre-65 SA books in these grades...not so easy a task.

 

While I understand your point in general with the overpricing of books grading below NM, you might want to re-consider making such generalised, statements as the one I quoted.

 

 

 

[Flaming_Telepath]

Look, I am not for a moment saying that all UK dealers are saints, just as you shouldn't be suggesting that they are all sinners. However, I am pretty much brassed off with your insistence that no UK dealer could ever compete with their US counterparts.

 

I buy exclusively from the US, from maybe two dozen dealers on a regular basis. At one time or another, I have bought from upwards of three hundred small and big-time sellers in America. However, the two dozen I use regularly are the only ones I trust to come close to my grading standards. With the rest of them, the first thing I've had to do with a consignment is downgrade the lot from the claims made. Not being inclined to pass the books on as sold to me, that means that I've bought lots of 'beautiful, news-stand fresh VF/NMs' and had to sell them as 'tatty, shop-soiled FN+s'. I'm not even going to go into what that does to my profit margin (if I break even on such deals, I'm one happy camper), but the point is that UK dealers have not cornered the market on poor grading. Even the dealers I do use regularly will sometimes throw books my way that I disagree with them over the grade.

 

Just as a few folk will disagree with my grading on a few items.

 

But overall? I reckon I get it right 90% of the time, at least.

 

Two books I sold raw to a customer last year, and then arranged to have them slabbed. I sold an Iron Man #1 in NM- and a Surfer #1 in VF/NM. Those were my grades. The I.M. came back a 9.4 and the Surfer a 9.2.

 

Now, if I were the myopic, money-grabbing tosser that I should be (being a Brit dealer, and all that), surely I would have over-graded books of this nature, knowing that a slight shift from NM- to NM would have allowed me to charge at least an additional £100-£150?

 

Point is, there are just as many poor dealers in the US as in the UK. Has anyone shopped with SNE? A restored book in every batch is their new company motto, I believe. And there are many other examples. Poor grading, high prices, bad service.

 

And there are great, great US dealers, too.

 

But there are on this side of the Atlantic, too, and the moment you at least open your mind to that possibility is the moment you and I might stop going at this in this fashion.

[herc2000]

Has anyone shopped with SNE? A restored book in every batch is their new company motto, I believe. And there are many other examples. Poor grading, high prices, bad service.

 

And there are great, great US dealers, too.

 

But there are on this side of the Atlantic, too, and the moment you at least open your mind to that possibility is the moment you and I might stop going at this in this fashion.

 

Showcase New England are very nice people, Dan and Cindy and friendly and very pleasant. Fast delivery, well packaged items, and all their items are always no reserve, so high prices are just what bidders are prepared to pay, so how you can say high prices is stupid. As I said earliar, they sold a X-men 1 for 50% guide last week, and it looked very well graded. The quantity and the regularity makes there job hard, but they keep on going. Refunds are always given when desired, they sometimes even throw in additional freebies, how you can say bad service I do not know. I beg you please tell me who the 12 great dealers who you deal with are? I'd love to know and give my opinion on them, as no doubt I have dealt with them!

And also you say about ebay prices are cheaper than Goldusts 8.0's etc Well SNE prices are ebays prices, duh!

[goldust40]

Again the voice of reason. This has been, by and large (I've generally done okay with SNE), my experience most of the time on ebay. If you buy from U.S. dealers, there will be times when you're going to have to take a bath on an overgraded dud, even from a usually reliable source. And some Brit dealers do take pride in their grading skills.

 

Sock it to 'em, FT. (even though methinks that young Durok doth extract the proverbial urine!).

 

This thread may turn out to be the longest on record, the way things are going.

[Darthdiesel]

This thread may turn out to be the longest on record, the way things are going.

 

Only if you mention undisclosed restoration, color touch and trimming, use a derrogatory word referencing female genitalia, or talk about Hulk 181 sales in the UK...

 

but I'm enjoying this so far....

[JohnBull]

However, I am pretty much brassed off with your insistence that no UK dealer could ever compete with their US counterparts.

 

I buy exclusively from the US, from maybe two dozen dealers on a regular basis.

 

[goldust40]

This thread may turn out to be the longest on record, the way things are going.

 

Only if you mention undisclosed restoration, color touch and trimming, use a derrogatory word referencing female genitalia, or talk about Hulk 181 sales in the UK...

 

but I'm enjoying this so far....

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. I think we can take care of those. Undisclosed restoration - we did that one already, did we not? As for the other subjects, I'm genuinely surprised they haven't been touched upon yet. All except for Hulk 181. Not much call for it round here, don't you know. Is it important? Have you ever had a thread about that book on these boards?

[JohnBull]

I'd love a Hulk 181, but I only buy pence copies. I can't stand those inferior cents issues that made up 97% of the print run.

[Darthdiesel]

Have you ever had a thread about that book on these boards?

 

NOt nearly enough by my estimation. Now it is your duty to fill us in on the status of this book on your side of the water

[Flaming_Telepath]

Herc2000, you mis-understood my criticism. I have dealt with SNE on three occasions. The first, an X-Men #8, had a pin-up page reinserted with glue...undisclosed restoration. It's replacement, a Spidey #39, had colour-touch along the spine...again, undisclosed restoration. The third time was a batch of stuff, all over-graded by half to a full grade, with three books being colour-touched.

 

However, their customer service is excellent and their prices are good. Their prices are not so good, however, if you discover that you're not getting VF+s, but are in fact getting FN/VFs and VF-s....

 

My comments regarding prices, attitude, etc., were NOT directed at SNE...my qualms with them relate solely to grade and restoration. Instead, they apply to other dealers. I am merely saying that all of those 'qualities' can be found on the other side of the Atlantic, just as they can in the UK.