How well does Metropolis grade?

[ericc123]

I just signed up to the collectors society and have three submissions. I was thinking about buying one of the comics off of the Metropolis website but wasn't sure how their grading held up compared to CGC. I have only bought from one major major dealer non cgc and that was Show Case New England and to say the least I was not pleased. I feel that some peolple have trouble grading VF/NM and wanted to know if Metropolis had this problem. Sorry if this was already covered before but I need to know.

 

Have a good weekend,

Ericc123

[aardvark88]

Metro should be accurate w/ their vfnm but they can't guarantee cgc will grade consistently. The full moon may affect cgc's grading.

Bought a g+ golden age fr them 10 yrs ago. No problems. They were 1 of the few dealers who could grade a g+ or vg- well & not send me a POS in the mail.

[whatthe-migration]

Bought about 2 dozen books from Metropolis. The grades, with the exception of one book, seemed right on. The one book I returned was pretty painless.

Metropolis claims to have created the grading scale that is used by CGC and Overstreet. Does anyone have any info about this?

 

 

[Goliath-migration]

My experience is that you will encounter the same identical discrepancies with any dealer on "raw" (I see that's the appropriate term used here) material as you will with the experts over at CGC. Only difference is huge sums of $ on the line with higher labeled bluetop material. SHowcase is a solid seller though, bought some books from them & they are one of the few solid dealers that hasn't soley relied on and kissed up to CGC for a living. Marnin Rosenberger is another solid seller that has some absolutely beautiful unslabbed material at reasonable prices.

 

Hope that helps.

[tb]

Metropolis is solid. In my experience, they tend to overgrade by 0 to 1/2 a point which earns them a high ranking compared to other dealers. Before CGC, Greg Manning and Heritage, Metropolis was one of the few places I would go for >$500 books. One pecularity I've found is that they tend to grade a lot of books "VF++", which usually turns out to be something between VF and VF/NM by my standards. I've found that they are very honest about restoration, too.

 

 

 

 

[Kevin76]

Marnin Rosenberger is another solid seller that has some absolutely beautiful unslabbed material at reasonable prices.

 

You mean to tell me that Marnin selling raw books for 4-5 times guide is reasonable? i.e Spidey #300 NM+ $210.00....that's reasonable?

[Guest]

I've never had any problems with Metropolis. I generally agree with their grading.

[ubiquiti]

Metropolis is about as close to how I would grade as any dealer selling books could possibly be.

They are pretty friendly and ship quickly, too.

And if you want a Batman #1 - they got like 50 of them.

[Drummy]

Hey Eric!

 

I bought a mis-cut copy of Tales of Suspense #98 from Metropolis for a reasonable price; they had graded it NM 9.4. I didn't mind the particular mis-cut in question (on the top of the book rather than the spine), and it CGC'd as a 9.6 NM+ with wp. So they are OK in my book on grading.

 

One thing I didn't appreciate at all about Metropolis was asking about some CGC'ed early Avengers comics (9.2's) at the Chicago Con and getting quoted 2.5 to 3 times guide without any room for negotiation. "No, we can't come off that price because someone else will certainly pay that," they said. When I got home and checked their website, however, those issues were being listed for up to $120 LESS than the "convention price" given to me. What that said to me is that they would rather treat anonymous web customers better than someone who takes the time to come to a convention to meet them in person and try to build a relationship. That really bugged me for some reason, and I have only bought one (graded) book from them since then (FF #51 in 9.2, which is such a nice copy of a great issue that it trumped my disgruntlement ).

 

When I compared some other major dealers' convention prices to their website prices, they were exactly the same - no convention inflation. That's why those dealers will always get my business before Metropolis sees another penny from me.

 

Caveat emptor! Good luck!

 

Dan

[whatthe-migration]

You have to go to Metropolis in person to appreciate how amazing their inventory really is. Your jaw drops. I have never seen another dealer have anything close to what they have. As far as grading goes, they are #1 in my opinion.

 

 

[clarkkentdds]

On raw books that were graded recently, they are right on...However, I think some of their older stock (stuff that was graded before CGC's genisis) was graded according to Overstreet and may be a little lenient... They do offer a full refund though. I recommend Metropolis... Their prices are actually more reasonable than some of the other big dealers out there!

[Bugaboo-migration]

Ok.......I just placed my first comic book order with from a major company (Metropolis) since I was a kid ordering stacks of books from Mile High. It was just for one single issue (that's all they had that I needed).

 

Here are my thoughts and questions about my first experience:

 

Ed at Metropolis was very quick in responding to my numerous emails.....especially when you consider this is an inexpensive bronze age non-key Superman issue.

 

The only problem was that he wouldn't provide any direct knowledge of the books condition regarding cover centering or provide a scan of the book before I ordered it. He simply said I could return the book if not satisfied. That guarantee really isn't any goon on an inexpensive book if they don't refund shipping charges.

 

eBay has spoiled me with simply being able to email the books owner for quick details and scans.

 

They had the book listed as a 9.4 NM. I plan on getting this book CGC graded. How close can I expect their grading to be with CGC standards?

 

I think that's the last time I'll order just a single book from them. $8.00 to ship one lousy $12.00 book is a little steep. (see my next point regarding this).

 

Their online ordering system is very weird and you don't know what the shipping costs are going to be until after you've placed the order, they've processed it, and emailed you back with shipping costs.

 

What are some of the other REALLY GOOD suppliers and their website addresses?

 

Thanks for your help.

[chrisco37]

I would say, next time you need a single issue, first check w/ the people here. If they have it, they'll send it to you and provide scans (except me, no scanner ). Plus, as picky as most of us are (and as many graded books there must be between everyone), you know the book will be graded tightly (even Scottish! ).

 

Chris

[Bugaboo-migration]

Hey Chris,

 

Thanks for the response. The only problem is, the few books that I want are mostly from the 1970's and are not any type of key issues or even semi-key issues. I'll go ahead and start a thread with the issues I'm looking for and see if someone might have one of them. However, most of them are not likely to be in anybodys collection unless they have a full run of a series and then they aren't likely to part with it. Thanks again.

[BachelorOfComix]

Post your list Bug! I know the fine folks here will help you out.

 

Cheers,

 

Bachelor of Comics

[FlyingDonut]

What do you need, young Grasshopper?

 

Believe me, somebody here will have it.

[drbanner]

C'mon bugger...I'm sitting here in my office staring at a good 8 or 9 boxes of 70's books just waiting to help you out. We can do it mon!!

[chrisco37]

What'd I tell ya?

 

 

[Bugaboo-migration]

Ok guys......here's my want list......in all it's weirdness.

 

CGC graded 9.2 or better.......or raw copy in NM or better of:

 

Hulk # 169

 

D.C. Superstars of Space # 2

 

Superman # 275

(this is the issue I just ordered from Metropolis in 9.4 condition for $11 + $8 frigging dollars to ship). Anyone have a better copy available?

 

Power Man (Luke Cage) # 18

 

Iron Man Annual # 4

 

Thanks for any help guys.

 

Also, I allready have the following CGC graded copies, but I'm always looking to upgrade:

 

Batman #185 CGC 9.2 (80 page giant)

Worlds Finest #219 CGC 9.4

Invaders #6 CGC 9.6

Action #413 CGC 9.4

Marvel Team-Up #20 CGC 9.2

 

[Joanna]

70's Superman books? I only have hundreds, and I'm breaking nearly every run I have, so that's no biggie. It's just a matter of condition with me. Is my copy or treasure? I'll only know when I have the number. It's like buying a scratcher with my collection, cuz sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.

 

-- Joanna