Walk Thru Service -- that makes a difference!

[Guest]

Question - I just did the math on how much it would cost for me to get my entire SW collection CGC graded. Using the "Modern Tier" and claculating shipping and insurance - almost $7500.00 - Damn.

And that was BEFORE the prices go up!

 

Now, with the Walk Thru Service charging 2.5% of the fair Market Value, if I am reading this right - the MOST they could charge me would be $1000.00. Is that right? Hell, I have rental property in Florida...if that is right, me thinks I'll be making a road trip here real soon.

 

 

[theVisitor]

There is a $110.00 minimum per book with walk-thru service. Time to recalculate.

 

phil

[greggy]

That's per book! Also, there is a minimum of $110 charge per book given the current pricing scheme!

[jens25e]

I thought that the maximum is $1000 per book.

[drbanner]

Not exactly...the Walk-thru fee is per book, so what would be the cost at $110 (the minimum for this service) per book!?!?

[aardvark88]

The minimum walk thru fee is $110 per comic. Does that include a free tour of the Cgc inner sanctum?

[Guest]

That would make it almost $40,000 to do my collection. -F- that!

Guess, that hangover from last night is affecting my interpertation of the written word.... after re-reading the form...yep. That is just insane! My guess is that the Pre-Screen service will start to really roll now...

 

Does anyone have any statistics from CGC -?

How many employees do they have?

How many of those are actual graders?

How big is their facility?

How many comics to they grade in a year?'

How many days a week are they open?

 

I want to do the math on this and get an estimate in my head on how much $$ CGC is banking.

 

 

 

[greggy]

Check the main page and there is a link to all the graders and pre-graders and their ugly mugs!

[read_em-migration]

I think Steve once said that CGC grades 500-600 comics per day?

[Guest]

Ok, lets average this out. Lets be extremely conservative here and say 300 comics a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks per year, minus 4 weeks(we'll be generous here and take out 4 entire work weeks for holidays and such) 48 weeks per year.

The average charge (prior to Feb's Increase) is $32.40.

300 Comics X $32.40 = $9,720 per day

48 Weeks X 7 Days = 336 Days

336 X $9,720 = $3,265,920 per year

 

According to the CGC web site, they have:

2 Senior Graders, 1 Modern Age Specialist, 1 Grader, 1 Restoration Detection Expert, and 2 Pre-Graders. Lets be very generous here and give the 2 Senior Graders and the Modern guy 100,000 per year salaries, the grader and the restoration detection expert gets 65,000, and the 2 pre-graders will get 45,000 per year. For a total pay-role payout of $520,000 per year.

$3,265,920 - $520,000 = $2,645,920

Rent & Utilities

Lets assume that they have to have a building that is 3500 square feet in size. The rent for that size building would be approx $18psf. or about $63,000 per year.

Insurance - I am estimating that insurance for the kinds of valuables they have would cost about $20,000 per year & utilities for the facility would run (estimating high here for the HVAC and such) $36,000 per year.

$2,645,920 - $63,000 - $20,000 - $36,000 = $2,526,920

Slab costs - Lets give them the benefit of the doubt here and say they actually do 600 comics a day 365 days a year - that makes 213,600 comics per year plus breakage (we know how easy the slabs break) so a round number of 220,000 slabs purchased per year. Again giving them the benefit of the doubt, we'll say the slabs cost $4.00 per slab for a total of $880,000 in slab expenses.

Phone, electricity, web site improvement and upkeep $150,000 per year. - High Estimate -

$2,526,920 - $880,000 - $150,000 = $1,496,920

And just for good measure lest deduct another $200,000 just for anything we missed here....

$1,296,920 per year PROFIT. With the OLD prices....

Of course, its 3:00 am, I am tired and I am out of beer, so this really was just an exercise in [!@#%^&^]. Good Night All!

 

[read_em-migration]

"Lets be extremely conservative here and say 300 comics a day,"

Nah, I'm 99% sure that Steve said on these Boards around early July that it's 500-600 books a day. I did a quick search for the thread, but can't find it. I think it might have been cycled out of the Board's archive???

[Samruby]

You are missing so much in that "equation".

 

Insurance (Very High)

Advertising (also etremely high)

Travel costs to shows (different from advertising on a P & L)

Lodging

Commission payments

MIS support

Payroll taxes

Fringe Benefits

Other professional costs (accounting, legal, etc)

Payroll services fees (if applicable)

Banks charges, penalties, etc

Various taxes

 

and most importantly, the initial cash/ debt outlay for any fixed assets,

 

Plus many more.

 

You cannot assume anything here regarding how much they make or do not make

 

Eric

[murph0]

He already hit on most of those in different forms. He did miss travel, that's about it.

 

Brian

[Guest]

You cannot assume anything here regarding how much they make or do not make

I know you are a CPA and all and I know that I don't (professionally speaking) know what I am talking about - thats why I hired accountants for my company - but I would make a small wager with you that I am within the general ball park on that final number.... And yes, I did figure in insurance, and its not THAT expensive. One of the first products my company produced was classified as a weapon...our professional, product, and liability insurance for that product (including our training on it) was only $7500 per year for 2 Million in coverage....