1st Series Daredevil question on CGCing what issues

[asellers98]

I did not know that about the 7 years replacement. I will rethink that plan then. Hmmm....

[BachelorOfComix]

link

 

Cheers,

 

Bachelor of Comics

[fantastic_four]

Oh yea, and just so you don't think I'm crapping on your purchase, check this comic out:

Click for larger image

I bought this thing for $1900 in late 2000. It was sold to me as NM by a dealer ("collector with a web site" is probably a better way to describe him), but in reality it's a trimmed 8.5. I'd be lucky to get half of what I paid for it, even though it's over 2 years later and Daredevil hype is at an all-time high.The best lessons are those that are most bitter!!! I felt like [!@#%^&^] for quite a while after I realized this thing was trimmed, but I'm a lot more careful now because of it, so it was all for the best.

[asellers98]

To be honest. I paid $6000 for the entire collection. Apparently he needed the money for something badly. After getting the money, he asked if he could buy back #1 and #7. But I am getting the ones everyone suggests graded before I make my decision to sell. My goal was to resell the whole collection for $7200-8200, but I am learning the true value of some of these comics, and questioning my logic there. I might be throwing an opportunity away selling it that cheap. Not knowing where to find values of CGCed comics, I am going off www.milehighcomics.com and ebay sales. That is the reason I want to send so many off for CGCing. If I have really what is described, I might be sitting on a whole lot of potential. Although, I wanted to leave profit room for the next guy, there is no fun in getting a comic for max price, in my opinion, unless it something you want to hold onto for a while.

[asellers98]

I looked closely at the bottom of your picture, fantastic four, the bottom does look very straight. Where exactly was your comic trimmed?

[fantastic_four]

That's what I figured you paid, $6000. Just the #1 is worth at least that if it comes back 9.2 unrestored, which is what cast doubt for me on the auction as a whole.

 

The bottom edge on my copy has about 1/32" overflash that is visible in scan; this probably rules out trimming on the bottom edge. However, look at the top edge, especially in the upper-right. You can see the interior pages poking out of the top section. You almost NEVER see Silver age Marvels with the interior pages sticking out up top; the vast majority of copies have overflash up top. "Overflash" or "overhang" is when the front cover is slightly larger than the interior pages. The lack of overhang is a clue to trimming, but what clinches it on my copy is that the top edge has little tears that are different from the Pre-Marvel tearing I usually see. I'm pretty sure this is due to a dull-bladed paper cutter used to cut that top edge, probably quite some time ago before the early 1990s when slight restoration got its bad rep.

 

I haven't submitted it for CGC to verify my suspicion of the trimming, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. This is the most trimmed-looking book I've ever owned.

[Bonds25]

If I were you, I'd grade about 10 of the comics, and send them into CGC for grading. You'll get those 10 back and know how closely your grading mirrors CGCs. If it's close, then you'll know whether to send in the rest of the books.

[thecomicsheet]

If the descriptions are accurate and the CGC grades you would get equal the described grades then here are estimates of what you would get for some of the issues:

#1 9.2 $5500

#2 9.0 940

#3 8.0 255

#4 7.0 125

#5 9.0 460

#6 6.5 70

#7 9.0 700

#8 7.5 75

#9 9.0 180

#10 8.0 100

#11 7.5 65

#12 7.5 70

#13 9.0 140

#14 9.2 240

#15 9.0 100

#16 9.0 245

#17 9.4 705

#18 9.0 105

#19 8.5 75

#20 9.4 200

#21 9.0 70

#22 9.2 130

#23 7.5 25

#24 7.5 25

#25 9.0 65

#26 9.0 75

#27 9.4 180

#28 9.4 180

#29 9.4 200

#30 9.4 205

#81 9.2 115

#100 9.2 75

#131 9.2 160

#132 9.2 50

#158 9.2 100

#159 9.2 40

#168 9.2 150

#183 9.2 20

-----

Total $12215

 

Warning: Be very prepared to be EXTREMELY disappointed in the grade CGC gives the books. If you have the time I recommend getting a few of them graded at a time. You will probably want to have the first 10 issues graded no matter what. See if the grades you get back are REAL close to what you expect. If the above grades are off by being a single step too high you could wind up with about 60 percent of the money and several books that will simply be hard to sell. The drawback to getting a few graded at a time is TIME. Economy grades can take a couple of months to turn around. The books are not worth it to grade with any of the higher priced options. Use one of the websites to get the 20 percent off on your submissions.

 

Also by the time you get these turned around, some more of the movie hype will be gone. Prices may fade a little more.

 

I would say anything on the above list <= $50 I wouldn't bother getting graded unless I was REAL sure that was a MINIMUM grade and I was very likely to get higher. REMEMBER - YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED in the grades you get!

 

Good luck!

[ubiquiti]

Well - if you're looking to sell them....do you mean worth $40 in NM, or $40 as is?

I know you said you're not that familiar with grading - so you might want to take a close look at those that you think are in the best shape. Getting a DD 30 in say, Fine + shape graded would pretty much be a loss no matter how you look at it - in that condition it would be worth on eBay probably $10-15 - that is less than it would cost to grade it. That is, of course, if you plan to sell it. If not - and you just want to have it...then do what makes you happy.

Especially with Daredevil right now - look at what is selling on eBay, make your best grade estimation, and only send in those that are selling well and/or those in very high grade.

Or.....

You could probably sell them piece by piece to everyone on this board and maybe make your money back.

[asellers98]

Ok, if you goto www.milehighcomics.com and I will give an example:

 

Issue 43 on mile high sells for $36.00 in NM.

Issue 43 on mile high sells for $108.00 in CGC 9.2

 

This is the reason I was going to get a lot more graded that I should have. The difference there makes up for the trouble.

 

And since I do not know where to go other than Ebay and milehigh, I am really at a loss. The last Overstreet pricing guide seemed way low for what this series is selling for, so I ignored it.

[scottish]

Mile High books are way overpriced (IMHO). I won't go into their sub-standard, crappy, blind, -poor and useless grading since it's a sore spot with me.

[fantastic_four]

Scottish is right, using Mile High as an example is misleading. When they say NM, the reality is that it's somewhere between 6.0 and 9.8, with the majority falling in the 8.0 range. Gotta love a company that doesn't ever assign the VF 8.0 grade...

[BachelorOfComix]

Gotta love a company that doesn't ever assign the VF 8.0 grade...

Correction: they do use the vf grade.

 

Cheers,

 

Bachelor of Comics

[seank]

I looked closely at the bottom of your picture, fantastic four, the bottom does look very straight. Where exactly was your comic trimmed?

 

Look at the right edge of the book. Unless I'm hallucinating, the white area between the Spiderman box and the edge is a bit narrower than the white area between the Karen/Matt/Foggy box at the bottom. Scroll the image up and you can see the comic get narrower.

[fantastic_four]

Whoa, you're right. That's a recent addition, as recently as six months ago Mile High didn't use VF.

[fantastic_four]

Unless I'm hallucinating, the white area between the Spiderman box and the edge is a bit narrower than the white area between the Karen/Matt/Foggy box at the bottom. Scroll the image up and you can see the comic get narrower.

You're not hallucinating, but it's not due to trimming; almost every Daredevil #1 is like that. It's easily verifiable by looking at the ones on E-Bay, especially now that so many are listed on E-Bay due to the movie. Those boxes with the pictures of Spider-Man, FF, and Foggy/Karen are never lined up correctly with the right edge of the comic. Part of that is a VERY subtle misalignment of the boxes; the right side of them isn't at a 90-degree angle with the bottom edge like you'd think they should be. Part of this is also due to a miscut by Marvel's printer the month DD 1 was released. Fantastic Four #25, which came out the same month as Daredevil #1, also has this angle cut on the right edge; I personally haven't seen an FF 25 without an angled right edge.

 

Here's ComicLink's unrestored CGC 9.4 Daredevil #1 for comparison; notice the extra whitespace you describe at the bottom is visible on this copy also:

 

[chrisco37]

Be very prepared to be EXTREMELY disappointed in the grade CGC gives the books. If you have the time I recommend getting a few of them graded at a time.

 

I couldn't agree more. They are very tough. If you haven't had any experience with them, I'd do what ComicSheet said and send in a few for grading. Pick a couple of the best looking books and send them in. When they come back, you can see how closely your grading is to theirs. I'd also recommend picking up the OS Grading Guide. It's a good point of reference.

 

Also, as Dave and FF said, stay away from Mile High Comics. Their website is great for looking at covers, but they are way over-priced. Not to mention the worst graders on the planet. I'd guess that part of it is due to the volume of books they have, but still there's no excuse for it. As FF said, an NM can fall anywhere between 6.0 - 9.8. I'd even say it could fall lower than that. I purchased a "NM" Tales to Astonish #57 last year. I doubt it would have even recieved a 5.0. They refunded me the money though, but you have to send them a letter saying why you didn't accept the book. It was irritating.

 

Good Luck on your submissions!

 

Chris

[fantastic_four]

Yah I had no problem at all getting a refund either on the "NM/MT" Spidey 11 that was really a VF-. I'd buy from them again if I thought they were grading tightly, but most of the word-of-mouth I've heard says they haven't improved yet. The fact that they're finally using VF is a positive sign and I'll keep an eye on them now, but due to the EXCESSIVELY bad grading I've seen from them, it'll take more than that to get me to buy again.

[asellers98]

You guys were right about the grading system. I got screwed, like I always get. #1 came back 8.0 unrestored. I just wish I knew why.

 

The book looked great in person, but I can tell now that I did not know how hard CGC would grade. So I sent an email to seller and advised him of the situation. He had requested getting the #1 and #7 back, the day I handed him the money.

 

Knowing this, do any of you think I can get my $6000 back out of this collection now, or am I going to have to eat it.

[fantastic_four]

It all depends on the quality of the remaining unslabbed books in the lot. If you look back at TheComicSheet's appraisal list above, notice that you'd still get your money back if you removed DD #1 from the list. And remember--unrestored 8.0 is MUCH better than restored 9.2 or even 9.4!! DD #1 is one of the issues I track prices on; I don't have my data near me, but I remember an 8.0 going for as much as $1800 a month or two ago.

 

Do you have a scanner? If you post some scans of the more expensive issues, we could give you a VERY rough indication of what grades you might get. If you do want to do this, then you should also post a COMPREHENSIVE list of defects for each issue; this will help us account for the defects not easily seen in a scan. Remember, anybody with a sharp eye can find and list out defects, but the experience/skill factor comes in assigning a grade to a set of discovered defects...if you'll be our eyes, the group here could be your brain in determining a grade. The DD #2 is certainly worth your time in having us help you with it, or did you slab that one already?