Is there a place to order comics in the stated grade?

[Batty Scrooge]

I would give your LCS a wantlist, if they know they have a customer looking for Archies they would be more likely to buy collections when they come in, or directly refer the seller to you. I would think you could get better prices from your LCS if you wait to see if they come in rather than going to someone that already has them and is looking to make a profit. With a buyer in hand you know you don't have to sit on the books and account for opportunity cost.

 

I collect mostly GA/SA, so I don't really consider reading HG books. If you just want to read the books you could download them in CBR format. I have all the Batman and Tec's in CBR for reading.

 

 

[acatl-migration]

Batty Scrooge what viewer do you use to read this CBR's.

[Batty Scrooge]

Batty Scrooge what viewer do you use to read this CBR's.

 

ComicZeal (I'm pretty sure thats the name) on the iPad

I use ACV and JJcomics Viewer on Android

 

And on the PC I usually just decompress the CBR and look at the jpgs in Windows Picture viewer. (A CBR file is a RAR archive with jpg images of each page inside, and a CBZ file is a WinZip file) I can't find a good, free, viewer on the PC.

[HouseofComics.Com]

A few general and specific comments--

 

1) I absolutely agree that you cannot rely on the grading for inexpensive books from the big two back issue websites. I've found their grading to be just fine on lower and mid-grade books and a lot of their grading on say 1970s VGs and FNs is actually conservative. But if they are bragging about grading 25,000 books a week with their grading teams, hey, a lot of FNs and VFs are getting NM tags.

 

2) The next biggest sites seem to actually be consignment sites an there you're taking just as much of a chance as with eBay.

 

3) All the 1980s and up books on my site are graded individually by me, which is the good news. The bad news is that I've decided it's not at all economic to continue to do so. Partly because my focus continues to be on getting the inventory older and older by the month. I've started listing a lot of books just in ranges like 9.0-9.6 and that's the best compromise I've been able to come up with. My policy when one of those sells is to then check the book and make sure it is at least 9.0. So no one ever receives books from me they are grossly disappointed with. On occasion I suppose they would get an email from me saying the book doesn't meet that grade and what do they want to do, but that hasn't happened yet. (Partly because I don't sell many moderns.)

 

4) The giant new collection is unfortunately all Marvel and DC. There are no Archies in it. Even if there were, they would probably be copies that were read by non-collectors first and then wound their way back into "the collecting community." The likelihood of Archies being unread comic store stock or copies that collectors bagged and boarded right away, is very low.

 

As for this collection, the plan is to just bulk these out to people who come visit the warehouse and to have a giant sale on the boards, without giving specific grades. If people need specific grades it's possible I will be able to quickly scan the books before shipping, but deciding whether a sharp $3 book is 9.4 vs 9.6 is not really something I have a lot of expertise or interest in, I'm afraid. And they'll basically be $1 in the thread, so I'll have even less interest. These are specific comments about how I do it, but you can also read them as a general comment. I understand why the big mail order houses can't afford to have someone closely looking at all the books that come in that they then plan to sell for $.99 and give free shipping on and pay to warehouse for years.

 

5) I do appreciate the compliments and the PMs. I of course will respond same day.

 

Marc

[nocutename]

I can completely understand why the big comic shops cannot do it. They have various people packing the comics that may or may not have much expertise. I still order from them because they do have an incredible variety and I can order a lot of comics I need from one site. But I don't order comics that I am looking to make a specific grade.

 

Personally, I don't know how a seller grades out a collection with any sense of accuracy. Over the summer I had a long box of Spawns. It took me forever to grade them and I could only do so much before I started missing things or seconding guessing myself. The next day I would go at it again with the same results.

 

My major problem is that the smaller dealer, for the most, does their own packing. How are these obvious flaws missed during that process? I would assume that they haven't seen the book since they put it up for sale. Any number of things could have happened. At that time when you see the glaring flaw, do you stop and email the buyer? That has never happened to me, they seem to just pack it up and sent it on its way.

[HouseofComics.Com]

My major problem is that the smaller dealer, for the most, does their own packing. How are these obvious flaws missed during that process?

 

I feel that most smaller dealers are really still hobbyists and not that professional or might not even really be able to grade very well anyway. A lot of them might have built up a lot of comics and may do thousands of ebay transactions but don't really have much connection with other pros or serious collectors and don't pick up things. And a lot of others, if selling cheap items, really get so sick of it that they don't want to spend time writing to the customer. Plus they know that most of the customers can't grade and just want to read them anyway. They get so few complaints that it's just usual business practices for them.

 

But what do I know? I mostly sell 50s through 70s and most of those books are FR to VF.

 

Btw, I have a feeling that the first thing that the smaller dealer pays someone else to do is pack. If I had a different warehouse system that's what I would do.