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Which dealers do the best job of grading their Raw book?

Started by BleekerBob,

40 posts in this topic

sfilosa

sfilosa

Posted
Posted

Which dealers do the best job of grading their Raw book?

 

There are lots of thread about different dealers.

 

What I can say (not having bought hardly any raw books in the past five years except in person) is...

 

Unfortunately, those who are very accurate graders, charge fairly close to CGC prices for their books. In other words, you really aren't getting a bargain other than not having to pay for the CGC grading fee.

 

Now if you are looking for NM books that only guide for $15 and would sell for $40 if CGC'd, then it makes more sense.

 

But if you can get a CGC 9.0 of a book for say $500 or buy a raw copy for $425-450, I'm pretty much going to take the sure bet (unless I could see the book in person and believe it is undergraded).

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october

october

Posted
Posted

Yeah, I find that to be true as well, especially on eBay. The few large dealers that are known to grade well (like Showcase New England and jscomics) often get a hefty premium on their sales, as opposed to some unknown guy selling at the same grade.

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
Posted

Showcase New England has some truly spotty raw grading. For some unbeknownst reason, their ebay auctions do well. But I would not trust their grading without being able to see the book in my hands. Oh, and Dan is kind of an a--.

 

As for who has the best raw grading you can see one of them this weekend in NYC at the Big Apple. Hands down, Bob Storms is one of the absolute best raw graders out there. He's one of the few dealers you can buy from sight unseen and be confident the book will be exactly what he says the grade is.

 

As for the others -- check out the thread... as a quick ref,

 

I'll tell you Zen Comics grades very well, TV comics I find is pretty accurate, and Gary Platt (a local dealer).

 

As for ebay dealers, our own Dr. Banner, Flying Donut and divadrabud are good raw graders as well.

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Murph

Murph

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I just purchased a book raw from Metropolis. It arrived and was grade with extreme accuracy. It was at least the grade as advertised or better. My previous other experience with them and raw grading, the book was slightly overgraded. But I was very happy with both transactions.

 

Brian

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Posted
I just purchased a book raw from Metropolis. It arrived and was grade with extreme accuracy. It was at least the grade as advertised or better. My previous other experience with them and raw grading, the book was slightly overgraded. But I was very happy with both transactions.

 

Brian

 

TGhe vast majority of the number of BA Horror books I bought from Metropolis look, to me, in at least the grade they gave and often I can see better.

 

I will be sending enough BA Horror to CGC for slabbing and using a 9.4 pre-screen. This will be a bit later this year, after Wondercon in February. I will give a detailled report back.

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
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I will be sending enough BA Horror to CGC for slabbing and using a 9.4 pre-screen.

 

Why 9.4? Do you really get your $29 back for the vast majority of the Bronze Age horror books under 9.4?

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Norrin_Radd

Norrin_Radd

Posted
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I will be sending enough BA Horror to CGC for slabbing and using a 9.4 pre-screen.

 

Why 9.4? Do you really get your $29 back for the vast majority of the Bronze Age horror books under 9.4?

 

Didn't you just answer your own question? confused-smiley-013.gif

 

 

Below 9.4 isn't worth the grading fees.

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
Why 9.4? Do you really get your $29 back for the vast majority of the Bronze Age horror books under 9.4?

 

Didn't you just answer your own question? confused-smiley-013.gif

 

Below 9.4 isn't worth the grading fees.

 

Crud, I meant to say "do you really get your $29 back for the vast majority of the Bronze Age horror books under 9.6"...I didn't mean 9.4. blush.gif It doesn't seem like most of them rise in value by more than $29 at the 9.4 level unless it's one of the Bronze horror keys.

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ComicBookGuy

ComicBookGuy

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Which dealers do the best job of grading their Raw book?

 

I would say the best by far is Doug Supila of Doug Supila's Comic World.

Other dealers I buy raw from without hesitation are

Metropolis

JS Comics

Superworld

 

Three ebay sellers I've bought raw books from in the past year that I was happy with were

 

drbanner

the_mighty_queesht!

shiverbones

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

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To me, the answer is yes. Grading is subjective. I might not buy from the dealer again, but to be honest, as the consumer, if the book simply comes back lower, you have to educate yourself in grading so you feel confident you are getting the stated grade.

 

Dealers generally do not guarantee a grade, and CGC is not the be all and end all when it comes to all things grading. They are one source and one standard.

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sfilosa

sfilosa

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Dealers generally do not guarantee a grade, and CGC is not the be all and end all when it comes to all things grading. They are one source and one standard.

 

While CGC is the not the end all of grading, it is if the book is CGC'd (as the value is now in direct relationship with the grade).

 

Here's the problem with High Grade RAW books.

 

The multiples on CGC books can be summed up this way (this is just a basic example.

 

8.0 $100

8.5 $140

9.0 $200

9.2 $300

9.4 $600

 

Now, you see a RAW book that looks like it could be NM (9.4), but maybe it's only NM- (9.2). The dealer says it's NM (9.4) and wants $350 (which would probably be $50-75 over the 9.2 guide price). Assuming the book comes back from CGC as a 9.4, you would get a nice book at a nice price. But if it only comes back as a 9.2, then after grading fees your out almost $100 (considering you could have bought a 9.2 copy for around $300).

 

Obviously, as the books go lower in grade, the better discount you will get, and even if the book is only one notch lower than expected, you still probably will do alright.

 

But most dealers who have NM raw books, and KNOW that the book is an easy NM, would have it certified themselves. Once the book is clearly not NM, then it might be a toss up for them to CGC or sell Raw.

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

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I agree with the entire scenario Sflosa presented, but the one thing I would say is that I've found that most dealers are carrying 9.2s and below -- if they have 9.4s, you have dig through the box and find books that have been recently aquired, and they don't want to take the time or the effort to send to CGC. There are also dealers who simply keep some of the borderline books (i.e., nobody keeps a JIM 83 raw) raw simply because their clientele demands it and the markup isn't significant enough to justify slabbing and the wait time.

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