PRICES PAID FOR RAW VS. CGC?

[the blob]

Why do people do this? If the grade is the same and the Slab is cheaper buy the slab and crack it. Ive done this a couple of times as I only want SS slabs everything else I like to be able to hold.

 

Well...the slab could be a "9.4" with 5 or 6 big spine ticks

[Dale Roberts]

I paid GPA prices for a couple of raw books once, and got taken to the cleaners when I went to resell them. GPA is for graded books, and I'd never pay GPA price for a raw book ever again. It's a comic book, not original art - whatever I am looking at can be easily found again, elsewhere.

 

+1

 

It doesn't matter how reliable or trustworthy the seller is, you're a sucker if you pay full GPA for a raw book unless the book is absolutely impossible to find otherwise or the GPA data is inconclusive (eg. one GPA sale from 2004 for $200 even though raw NM copies of the same book are currently selling for $500).

 

Think about it for a moment - if you're paying GPA for a raw book, you're actually paying GPA plus any future slabbing cost.

 

Sorry Michael, but unless you are buying new books, which are basically a dime a dozen, then this is a completely wrong philosophy.

 

You don't know ANYTHING about the book that set the last GPA. You don't know eye appeal, page quality, registration...anything. There are reasons books bring varying prices, and it is because all books are NOT created equal.

 

GPA is an extremely useful tool. But it is an extremely LIMITED tool. It simply gives too little information, and the sample size is much too small on most books to be of any significance. Many books there are 1 or 2 copies in a given year reported. That is nothing. It tells you nothing about the circumstances of the sale, seller, buyer, or anything about the condition of the book, other than the number grade.

 

In my opinion, only a fool would use GPA strictly. That would indicate that the true value of most any book can only be determined in an auction setting, and that is really just not true.

 

And for those who said they would never pay even GPA price. The natural conclusion of that philosophy if everyone followed it is that all books are eventually worth nothing.

 

Buy the book, not the grade. Don't be afraid to value the book yourself, based on information from GPA, Overstreet, Comiclink, and from how much you want the book, how hard it has been for you to find, and how much you might have to pay if you wait longer to buy it (either higher or lower).

[mschmidt]

I paid GPA prices for a couple of raw books once, and got taken to the cleaners when I went to resell them. GPA is for graded books, and I'd never pay GPA price for a raw book ever again. It's a comic book, not original art - whatever I am looking at can be easily found again, elsewhere.

 

+1

 

It doesn't matter how reliable or trustworthy the seller is, you're a sucker if you pay full GPA for a raw book unless the book is absolutely impossible to find otherwise or the GPA data is inconclusive (eg. one GPA sale from 2004 for $200 even though raw NM copies of the same book are currently selling for $500).

 

Think about it for a moment - if you're paying GPA for a raw book, you're actually paying GPA plus any future slabbing cost.

 

Sorry Michael, but unless you are buying new books, which are basically a dime a dozen, then this is a completely wrong philosophy.

 

You don't know ANYTHING about the book that set the last GPA. You don't know eye appeal, page quality, registration...anything. There are reasons books bring varying prices, and it is because all books are NOT created equal.

 

GPA is an extremely useful tool. But it is an extremely LIMITED tool. It simply gives too little information, and the sample size is much too small on most books to be of any significance. Many books there are 1 or 2 copies in a given year reported. That is nothing. It tells you nothing about the circumstances of the sale, seller, buyer, or anything about the condition of the book, other than the number grade.

 

In my opinion, only a fool would use GPA strictly. That would indicate that the true value of most any book can only be determined in an auction setting, and that is really just not true.

 

And for those who said they would never pay even GPA price. The natural conclusion of that philosophy if everyone followed it is that all books are eventually worth nothing.

 

Buy the book, not the grade. Don't be afraid to value the book yourself, based on information from GPA, Overstreet, Comiclink, and from how much you want the book, how hard it has been for you to find, and how much you might have to pay if you wait longer to buy it (either higher or lower).

 

I think you misunderstood me, Dale. I'm not saying that the single most recent GPA sale of any book should be the end-all when it comes to value - like I mentioned, there are plenty of books where GPA just doesn't have enough conclusive data and you're forced to use other venues and other methods to figure out the true FMV.

 

But for raw books in general, there's no question that, in the majority of cases, a slabbed copy in the same grade will command a premium due to the trust people have in CGC's grading abilities, the ease of resell and the fact that it cost money to get it slabbed in the first place.

 

I'm not saying there aren't exceptions - I'm sure you have books where the price difference between raw & slabbed is negligible - but for books that are readily available in a variety of grades & trade hands quite frequently, I still think it would be silly to pay anywhere near full "compound GPA" (eg. GPA where you're looking at the 90 day, 12 month and last sale to come up with an average value) for a book that isn't slabbed.

[Dale Roberts]

I paid GPA prices for a couple of raw books once, and got taken to the cleaners when I went to resell them. GPA is for graded books, and I'd never pay GPA price for a raw book ever again. It's a comic book, not original art - whatever I am looking at can be easily found again, elsewhere.

 

+1

 

It doesn't matter how reliable or trustworthy the seller is, you're a sucker if you pay full GPA for a raw book unless the book is absolutely impossible to find otherwise or the GPA data is inconclusive (eg. one GPA sale from 2004 for $200 even though raw NM copies of the same book are currently selling for $500).

 

Think about it for a moment - if you're paying GPA for a raw book, you're actually paying GPA plus any future slabbing cost.

 

Sorry Michael, but unless you are buying new books, which are basically a dime a dozen, then this is a completely wrong philosophy.

 

You don't know ANYTHING about the book that set the last GPA. You don't know eye appeal, page quality, registration...anything. There are reasons books bring varying prices, and it is because all books are NOT created equal.

 

GPA is an extremely useful tool. But it is an extremely LIMITED tool. It simply gives too little information, and the sample size is much too small on most books to be of any significance. Many books there are 1 or 2 copies in a given year reported. That is nothing. It tells you nothing about the circumstances of the sale, seller, buyer, or anything about the condition of the book, other than the number grade.

 

In my opinion, only a fool would use GPA strictly. That would indicate that the true value of most any book can only be determined in an auction setting, and that is really just not true.

 

And for those who said they would never pay even GPA price. The natural conclusion of that philosophy if everyone followed it is that all books are eventually worth nothing.

 

Buy the book, not the grade. Don't be afraid to value the book yourself, based on information from GPA, Overstreet, Comiclink, and from how much you want the book, how hard it has been for you to find, and how much you might have to pay if you wait longer to buy it (either higher or lower).

 

I think you misunderstood me, Dale. I'm not saying that the single most recent GPA sale of any book should be the end-all when it comes to value - like I mentioned, there are plenty of books where GPA just doesn't have enough conclusive data and you're forced to use other venues and other methods to figure out the true FMV.

 

But for raw books in general, there's no question that, in the majority of cases, a slabbed copy in the same grade will command a premium due to the trust people have in CGC's grading abilities, the ease of resell and the fact that it cost money to get it slabbed in the first place.

 

I'm not saying there aren't exceptions - I'm sure you have books where the price difference between raw & slabbed is negligible - but for books that are readily available in a variety of grades & trade hands quite frequently, I still think it would be silly to pay anywhere near full "compound GPA" (eg. GPA where you're looking at the 90 day, 12 month and last sale to come up with an average value) for a book that isn't slabbed.

 

I would say on at least 90% of the books I look up, there are less than 3 sales in a year's time. That is, by definition, a small sample size and shouldn't be looked at as an accurate gauge of a books worth. Many of those same books are traded hundreds of times a year. Heck, I personally sell more copies a year on some of those books.

 

On frequently traded books (Hulk #181, X-Men #94, GS X-Men #1) I would agree with you. Certainly not on a book where the sales data is sparce at best.