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Ebay sniping and buying CGCs for the cost of grading

Started by n2wdw,

21 posts in this topic

n2wdw

n2wdw

Posted
Posted

This weekend I won a couple of ebay auctions at the very end. From a tip on this board, I've been using bidnapper.com and won 1 that way. But it's more fun to do it yourself, and I won the other one that way, putting in my final bid with 5 seconds left. I probably only win about 10-15% of auctions I bid on, but it's fun (and not winning more is a good thing for my wallet).

 

I won the All Star Batman & Robin #5 for $26. I figure grading for modern comics cost about $26 each, if you send in 10 at one time. I break it out this way:

 

Modern grading: $18

Return shipping: $5 (based on CGC's charge of $50 for up to 10 comics)

Shipping to CGC: say $3

 

So buying this CGC 9.8 for $26, it really discourages me from sending in my own non-hot / non-key books for grading, especially since there's no guarantee what grade you'll get (and in my opinion, moderns less than 9.8 are worth having but not worth grading). It's better to just to be patient and wait for the CGC comic you want to be graded and sold by someone else. Anyone else reached this conclusion?

 

Anyway, here are the 2 books (the pics are not great but they were the ones posted by the sellers).

 

 

T2eC16dHJHgE9n0yHD2zBRGBrMjw7g60_57_zps28681825.jpg

 

KGrHqNikFEHTPI4rBRHDtUVWgw60_57_zpsccde0f59.jpg

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Owls Head

Owls Head

Posted
Posted
This weekend I won a couple of ebay auctions at the very end. From a tip on this board, I've been using bidnapper.com and won 1 that way. But it's more fun to do it yourself, and I won the other one that way, putting in my final bid with 5 seconds left. I probably only win about 10-15% of auctions I bid on, but it's fun (and not winning more is a good thing for my wallet).

 

I won the All Star Batman & Robin #5 for $26. I figure grading for modern comics cost about $26 each, if you send in 10 at one time. I break it out this way:

 

Modern grading: $18

Return shipping: $5 (based on CGC's charge of $50 for up to 10 comics)

Shipping to CGC: say $3

 

So buying this CGC 9.8 for $26, it really discourages me from sending in my own non-hot / non-key books for grading, especially since there's no guarantee what grade you'll get (and in my opinion, moderns less than 9.8 are worth having but not worth grading). It's better to just to be patient and wait for the CGC comic you want to be graded and sold by someone else. Anyone else reached this conclusion?

 

Anyway, here are the 2 books (the pics are not great but they were the ones posted by the sellers).

 

 

T2eC16dHJHgE9n0yHD2zBRGBrMjw7g60_57_zps28681825.jpg

 

KGrHqNikFEHTPI4rBRHDtUVWgw60_57_zpsccde0f59.jpg

 

 

 

n2wdw -- see if I got this right... if I send only one book, it is going to cost me 50 bucks for return shipping?

 

If so, I better send 10 books...

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mschmidt

mschmidt

Posted
Posted
n2wdw -- see if I got this right... if I send only one book, it is going to cost me 50 bucks for return shipping?

 

If so, I better send 10 books...

 

No, the return postage price is based on the number of books & the insured value - but as there's a large upfront cost associated with USPS registered mail, having just one book sent back that way will set you back around $25.

 

CGC also offers UPS return shipping which starts at $10 (or $11?) for one book.

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Arkham

Arkham

Posted
Posted

(and in my opinion, moderns less than 9.8 are worth having but not worth grading). It's better to just to be patient and wait for the CGC comic you want to be graded and sold by someone else. Anyone else reached this conclusion?

 

Yep. Shipping really flogs me any which way it can regardless.. but that definitely seems easier. IF you can get the right price.

 

Nice wins. Love that All Star cover.

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Tony S

Tony S

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Posted
This weekend I won a couple of ebay auctions at the very end. From a tip on this board, I've been using bidnapper.com and won 1 that way. But it's more fun to do it yourself, and I won the other one that way, putting in my final bid with 5 seconds left. I probably only win about 10-15% of auctions I bid on, but it's fun (and not winning more is a good thing for my wallet).

 

I won the All Star Batman & Robin #5 for $26. I figure grading for modern comics cost about $26 each, if you send in 10 at one time. I break it out this way:

 

Modern grading: $18

Return shipping: $5 (based on CGC's charge of $50 for up to 10 comics)

Shipping to CGC: say $3

 

So buying this CGC 9.8 for $26, it really discourages me from sending in my own non-hot / non-key books for grading, especially since there's no guarantee what grade you'll get (and in my opinion, moderns less than 9.8 are worth having but not worth grading). It's better to just to be patient and wait for the CGC comic you want to be graded and sold by someone else. Anyone else reached this conclusion? Anyway, here are the 2 books (the pics are not great but they were the ones posted by the sellers).

 

 

 

Yeah, reached this conclusion too. Every once in a while I'll send in something cheap just because I like the cover and I haven't ever seen it for sale. But you role the dice. CGC is grading really tight right now, especially at the high end. So if I see a 9.8 book I like that's going for $25 I'll certainly buy it. A few times I've nabbed some 9.6's for less than the cost of slabbing - $15 or so. I mean what - these books are going to go DOWN in value?

 

Here is an example of something I sent in just because I liked the cover. Fortunately, this one came back the desired 9.8. A couple of other books "only" got 9.6, but they were substantially more valuable so still worthwhile at 9.6

 

JonahHex87FC_zps3afa9f6a.jpg

 

 

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999ghosts

999ghosts

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Posted

I was following about 20 eBay New Mutants books (vol 1). All of them 9.8. They made $7,50 up to $23 per book. If postage to Belgium wasn't that high I would have been all over hem.

 

They where all from 1 seller. I guess the seller wasn't happy.

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stroszek

stroszek

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This is surely the fate of all but a few dozen modern slabs. Aside from the few collectors who want to complete modern registry sets, what motivation is there to spend $40+ on a modern book you can find for $3 raw? I would expect in the future that even slabbed high grade moderns will go for single digits on a routine basis and there will be a massive dump by sellers trying to get anything back for them.

 

And then of course there won't be many more slabbed moderns because there's no value to doing it. Do you need CGC to tell you a very common, low value book is 9.8 instead of 9.6? Unless you're completing a registry set (which I'm not questioning - I imagine that's a lot of fun) then probably not. In which case the only value is, well, the case. If you really like the way a book looks in the slab instead of in a bag and board, maybe you'll have the chance to pick up large runs of them very cheap. Of course then you have to find the room to store them. I know how much room it takes to store 15,000 bagged books - 15,000 slabs I don't wanna think about!

 

 

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Anfield Fox

Anfield Fox

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There is no reason to spend that kind of money for most people on moderns. The only exceptions are keys and to a lesser extent no 1's, low ratio variants and cool covers. Of course there are exceptions like the Walking Dead but for most books only people going for a CGC graded set would go for a graded copy that doesn't meet the above criteria.

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n2wdw

n2wdw

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Of course then you have to find the room to store them. I know how much room it takes to store 15,000 bagged books - 15,000 slabs I don't wanna think about!

 

 

This is an important point. I try to keep to a very focused CGC collecting goals, and because of that I currently have less than 100 (out of over 40000 comics in my collection). So whenever I'm tempted to buy a run of CGCs because they're so cheap, I think about how I'm gonna store them, which would be difficult.

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n2wdw

n2wdw

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This weekend I won a couple of ebay auctions at the very end. From a tip on this board, I've been using bidnapper.com and won 1 that way. But it's more fun to do it yourself, and I won the other one that way, putting in my final bid with 5 seconds left. I probably only win about 10-15% of auctions I bid on, but it's fun (and not winning more is a good thing for my wallet).

 

I won the All Star Batman & Robin #5 for $26. I figure grading for modern comics cost about $26 each, if you send in 10 at one time. I break it out this way:

 

Modern grading: $18

Return shipping: $5 (based on CGC's charge of $50 for up to 10 comics)

Shipping to CGC: say $3

 

So buying this CGC 9.8 for $26, it really discourages me from sending in my own non-hot / non-key books for grading, especially since there's no guarantee what grade you'll get (and in my opinion, moderns less than 9.8 are worth having but not worth grading). It's better to just to be patient and wait for the CGC comic you want to be graded and sold by someone else. Anyone else reached this conclusion? Anyway, here are the 2 books (the pics are not great but they were the ones posted by the sellers).

 

 

 

Yeah, reached this conclusion too. Every once in a while I'll send in something cheap just because I like the cover and I haven't ever seen it for sale. But you role the dice. CGC is grading really tight right now, especially at the high end. So if I see a 9.8 book I like that's going for $25 I'll certainly buy it. A few times I've nabbed some 9.6's for less than the cost of slabbing - $15 or so. I mean what - these books are going to go DOWN in value?

 

Here is an example of something I sent in just because I liked the cover. Fortunately, this one came back the desired 9.8. A couple of other books "only" got 9.6, but they were substantially more valuable so still worthwhile at 9.6

 

JonahHex87FC_zps3afa9f6a.jpg

 

 

Very nice, this one just went on my want list.

 

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Bill1

Bill1

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When I first started buying CGC about 3 years ago, I had a deal with a subscription CGC seller to purchase his unclaimed/unsold stock, 5 (9.8's only) for $100, plus about $12 shipping. We did this about 6 or 8 times and then I decided to slow down a bit and just buy what I really wanted. Got some good books and some marginal books, but who doesn't like the look of any book that is CGC'ed!

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Owls Head

Owls Head

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Posted
This weekend I won a couple of ebay auctions at the very end. From a tip on this board, I've been using bidnapper.com and won 1 that way. But it's more fun to do it yourself, and I won the other one that way, putting in my final bid with 5 seconds left. I probably only win about 10-15% of auctions I bid on, but it's fun (and not winning more is a good thing for my wallet).

 

I won the All Star Batman & Robin #5 for $26. I figure grading for modern comics cost about $26 each, if you send in 10 at one time. I break it out this way:

 

Modern grading: $18

Return shipping: $5 (based on CGC's charge of $50 for up to 10 comics)

Shipping to CGC: say $3

 

So buying this CGC 9.8 for $26, it really discourages me from sending in my own non-hot / non-key books for grading, especially since there's no guarantee what grade you'll get (and in my opinion, moderns less than 9.8 are worth having but not worth grading). It's better to just to be patient and wait for the CGC comic you want to be graded and sold by someone else. Anyone else reached this conclusion? Anyway, here are the 2 books (the pics are not great but they were the ones posted by the sellers).

 

 

 

Yeah, reached this conclusion too. Every once in a while I'll send in something cheap just because I like the cover and I haven't ever seen it for sale. But you role the dice. CGC is grading really tight right now, especially at the high end. So if I see a 9.8 book I like that's going for $25 I'll certainly buy it. A few times I've nabbed some 9.6's for less than the cost of slabbing - $15 or so. I mean what - these books are going to go DOWN in value?

 

Here is an example of something I sent in just because I liked the cover. Fortunately, this one came back the desired 9.8. A couple of other books "only" got 9.6, but they were substantially more valuable so still worthwhile at 9.6

 

JonahHex87FC_zps3afa9f6a.jpg

 

 

Like that cover too got love for sale... :luhv:

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n2wdw

n2wdw

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Congratz on the All Star!

I think 26 was a fair price, I should know i sold it to you!

Sorry for the pics our scanner wont fit cgc :(

 

Oops, the risk of posting a good deal on this site is the seller might be a member. Hopefully this was a win-win for both of us!

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