What the reasoning behind using GPA pricing on raw books?

[VintageComics]

 

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

 

 

NOT FAIR!!!

 

Is that the seventh seal?

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

On ultra-expensive books, of course, it's not such a big deal. It's worth it to a dealer to absorb the costs. But don't expect a shop to have lots of lower-priced slabbed books until collectors get to the point they are willing to offset the grading costs.

 

[lizards2]

GPA tracks CGC slabbed books. When buying a CGC book, you have eliminated most of the risk involved in buying a raw book. You are dealing with an objective grade, not the sellers grade, and the book has had a resto check. Already built into the GPA price is the $30 or so that it cost to slab the book.

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

If I take a certified check from a stranger, I've eliminated a good deal of risk. If i'm taking a personal check from the same person, I'm accepting more risk and want to be compensated for said risk.

Maybe a book does have a GPA of $300 in 9.2, but that does not mean your raw book that you judge to be a 9.2 is worth $300. If for no other reason than the fact that I'd have to lay out $40 and tie up capital for the two months it takes to get the book back in a slab.

I understand that Overstreet is hopelessly broken, but if everyone misuses GPA, it will be too.

 

I don't have a problem with it on dealers who can grade decently. But I do have a problem with those that quote high GPA, post pressed grade and price......., on raw books..., that haven't been pressed, or graded by anyone I would trust. Those are some interesting selling threads.

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

 

 

[VintageComics]

 

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

 

 

 

Where were you hiding?

 

[shadroch]

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

Because some of us know as much about grading as the CGC.

 

 

That being the case, do you use GPA when buying as well as when selling?

[sufunk]

I guess I'm in the minority but I don't think there's anything wrong with it as long as you aren't asking gpa price for a raw book that isnt incredibly rare. OSPG is completely outdated so why would I use that for pricing???

 

I just did a sales thread with a bunch of raws. Basically, I graded the book (say 8.0-8.5) and then looked at gpa for like 1 grade below. For a 8.0-8.5, I basically asked like a 7.0-7.5 gpa price. Like half the books sold with no haggling or discounts so apparently people didn't have much of a problem with it

[Dr. Balls]

If I have a movie poster worth $100, and I pay $100 to have it linen-backed, that posted is now worth $200.

 

In actuality, you are farther out once you add that service - and that is what stinks about that scenario above. If you buy a $100 poster for $50, you have a $50 profit. When you add $100 mounting to it, you have to dip into your pocket, spend your own money and you're still only making $50, but you've spent more money.

 

This is the part that I always thought benefitted slabbing books. Currently, I have a really nice NYX #3 at CGC that I bought for $35. I could sell it for $60-$90 raw, or I could spend $25 for slabbing + shipping and sell it for $200 (presuming it comes back as a 9.8). My potential profit percentage increases with the amount I invest in the book. I'm all in favor of that.

 

That is a profit worth spending an additional cost. Slabs should be significantly valued more than slabs - I'm not exactly sure how this gets justified...

[sl4ppy]

It's in the same vein as posting 90-day gpa on one book and then posting 1yr GPA on the next and last sale on a 3rd. (That last one always makes me laugh.)

 

People will highlight whatever data point they think is most advantageous to themselves.

 

When I buy, OSPG prices are meaningless, and GPA on raw books simply sets the absolute best-case-scenario ceiling on the price I'm willing to pay on a book. For me, listing a GPA on a raw book just did the seller a huge DIS-service by anchoring the potential price.

 

Sadly, with the turnaround times lately from CGC, I don't even look at raw books anymore.

[MrBedrock]

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

Because some of us know as much about grading as the CGC.

 

 

That being the case, do you use GPA when buying as well as when selling?

I use my selling price as the basis for any offer I make when buying. That includes raw or slabbed books. If I think I can sell it for X then I offer some percentage of X.

[EastEnd]

It's not just risk that you get with a raw book. You also get potential upside that a book has been undergraded or can be pressed to a higher grade.

[RockMyAmadeus]

It's not just risk that you get with a raw book. You also get potential upside that a book has been undergraded or can be pressed to a higher grade.

 

[COI]

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

Because some of us know as much about grading as the CGC.

 

You may. You also may be a tighter, more consistent grader than the CGC. But that's besides the point. GPA is a body of data on sales of books that have been slabbed by the CGC. If your book hasn't been slabbed by the CGC, that data is not very relevant. The prices on GPA reflect the sequence of bidders or the one buyer's valuation of a specific book at a specific time that was given a specific grade by the CGC.

 

People pay CGC to get their books graded so that they can fetch the graded-by-CGC price. Using graded-by-CGC pricing without actually getting the book graded by the CGC ultimately amounts to taking a short cut to maximizing profit on a book by mitigating risk, and saving time and money on the grading process.

 

Do any dealers who know "as much about grading as the CGC" ever downgrade the slabs they sell because they disagree with CGC? Do any sellers ever sell their CGC 9.6 at a 'Flutie's Comics NM 9.4 price' because they, Flutie, know just as much about grading as 'the CGC' and disagree with their grade?

 

And finally, if you know as much about grading as the CGC, why refer to graded books at all? Implicit in quoting GPA prices for raw books is deference to CGC's grading, or at the very least, an acknowledgment that CGC's services often legitimate the price of a book. So the only real reason to do it is to add that "legitimacy" to your book without actually paying for it.

 

 

[CKB]

It's not just risk that you get with a raw book. You also get potential upside that a book has been undergraded or can be pressed to a higher grade.

 

It's attitudes like this that make "nice looking" raw $1000+ keys fly off of eBay. But people are kidding themselves if their first thought is "here's a deal" versus "why isn't this book in a slab."

 

Kudos to sellers who guarantee the CGC grade their book will receive. Both of them.

 

 

[faster friends]

It's in the same vein as posting 90-day gpa on one book and then posting 1yr GPA on the next and last sale on a 3rd. (That last one always makes me laugh.)

 

People will highlight whatever data point they think is most advantageous to themselves.

 

When I buy, OSPG prices are meaningless, and GPA on raw books simply sets the absolute best-case-scenario ceiling on the price I'm willing to pay on a book. For me, listing a GPA on a raw book just did the seller a huge DIS-service by anchoring the potential price.

 

Sadly, with the turnaround times lately from CGC, I don't even look at raw books anymore.

 

Then how do you read them??

[Mark 1]

When it comes to LCS selling raw books....all of the ones I shop at use OSPG. Even Metro uses OSPG for raw books.

 

When I buy and sell on this forum, I use OSPG. If I have quoted GPA for raw books, i'd be surprised. I don't see the comparison to using GPA for raw books. The CGC grade takes the guess work out of the grading for the most part and GPA is for slabs in my opinion.

 

Any dealer who tries to sell me a raw book at GPA pricing usually turns me off. With that said, there are cases where GPA is actually less than OSPG but I wouldn't expect the dealer to lower the price to be reflective of GPA (in my favor).

 

I may be old school but I still believe in the OSPG for the most part on raw books.

 

Of course there are books that are always over guide...such as Archie 50....guide goes out the window on that book and maybe GPA is a good data point to see where FMV is at the moment.

 

 

[MrBedrock]

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

Because some of us know as much about grading as the CGC.

 

You may. You also may be a tighter, more consistent grader than the CGC. But that's besides the point. GPA is a body of data on sales of books that have been slabbed by the CGC. If your book hasn't been slabbed by the CGC, that data is not very relevant. The prices on GPA reflect the sequence of bidders or the one buyer's valuation of a specific book at a specific time that was given a specific grade by the CGC.

 

People pay CGC to get their books graded so that they can fetch the graded-by-CGC price. Using graded-by-CGC pricing without actually getting the book graded by the CGC ultimately amounts to taking a short cut to maximizing profit on a book by mitigating risk, and saving time and money on the grading process.

 

Do any dealers who know "as much about grading as the CGC" ever downgrade the slabs they sell because they disagree with CGC? Do any sellers ever sell their CGC 9.6 at a 'Flutie's Comics NM 9.4 price' because they, Flutie, know just as much about grading as 'the CGC' and disagree with their grade?

 

And finally, if you know as much about grading as the CGC, why refer to graded books at all? Implicit in quoting GPA prices for raw books is deference to CGC's grading, or at the very least, an acknowledgment that CGC's services often legitimate the price of a book. So the only real reason to do it is to add that "legitimacy" to your book without actually paying for it.

 

blah blah blah blah blah. whine whine whine whine whine. blah blah blah blah blah.

butthurt

[COI]

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

Because some of us know as much about grading as the CGC.

 

You may. You also may be a tighter, more consistent grader than the CGC. But that's besides the point. GPA is a body of data on sales of books that have been slabbed by the CGC. If your book hasn't been slabbed by the CGC, that data is not very relevant. The prices on GPA reflect the sequence of bidders or the one buyer's valuation of a specific book at a specific time that was given a specific grade by the CGC.

 

People pay CGC to get their books graded so that they can fetch the graded-by-CGC price. Using graded-by-CGC pricing without actually getting the book graded by the CGC ultimately amounts to taking a short cut to maximizing profit on a book by mitigating risk, and saving time and money on the grading process.

 

Do any dealers who know "as much about grading as the CGC" ever downgrade the slabs they sell because they disagree with CGC? Do any sellers ever sell their CGC 9.6 at a 'Flutie's Comics NM 9.4 price' because they, Flutie, know just as much about grading as 'the CGC' and disagree with their grade?

 

And finally, if you know as much about grading as the CGC, why refer to graded books at all? Implicit in quoting GPA prices for raw books is deference to CGC's grading, or at the very least, an acknowledgment that CGC's services often legitimate the price of a book. So the only real reason to do it is to add that "legitimacy" to your book without actually paying for it.

 

blah blah blah blah blah. whine whine whine whine whine. blah blah blah blah blah.

butthurt

 

blah blah blah deflection. blah blah blah using 'butthurt' like Wonder Woman's bracelets.

[Transplant]

I never tire of this discussion. What difference does it make if you quote your Uncle Fred's opinion of value or GPA or OSPG? It's not misleading anyone, if the grading is in line with what CGC will assign or what Fred would grade it at. It's just another data point.

 

Like I said, if I think GPA is relevant to a raw book, I use it to set my price. I just don't quote it anymore b/c of all the butthurt it engenders here on the boards.

[MrBedrock]

So why do some of you reference GPA pricing when discussing raw books?

Because some of us know as much about grading as the CGC.

 

You may. You also may be a tighter, more consistent grader than the CGC. But that's besides the point. GPA is a body of data on sales of books that have been slabbed by the CGC. If your book hasn't been slabbed by the CGC, that data is not very relevant. The prices on GPA reflect the sequence of bidders or the one buyer's valuation of a specific book at a specific time that was given a specific grade by the CGC.

 

People pay CGC to get their books graded so that they can fetch the graded-by-CGC price. Using graded-by-CGC pricing without actually getting the book graded by the CGC ultimately amounts to taking a short cut to maximizing profit on a book by mitigating risk, and saving time and money on the grading process.

 

Do any dealers who know "as much about grading as the CGC" ever downgrade the slabs they sell because they disagree with CGC? Do any sellers ever sell their CGC 9.6 at a 'Flutie's Comics NM 9.4 price' because they, Flutie, know just as much about grading as 'the CGC' and disagree with their grade?

 

And finally, if you know as much about grading as the CGC, why refer to graded books at all? Implicit in quoting GPA prices for raw books is deference to CGC's grading, or at the very least, an acknowledgment that CGC's services often legitimate the price of a book. So the only real reason to do it is to add that "legitimacy" to your book without actually paying for it.

 

blah blah blah blah blah. whine whine whine whine whine. blah blah blah blah blah.

butthurt

 

blah blah blah deflection. blah blah blah using 'butthurt' like Wonder Woman's bracelets.

Waa waa waa. Pot stirring. Boo hoo hoo. non-issue. mumble mumble mumble. Head up .