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Why would someone send this book in for grading??

Started by mosconi,

54 posts in this topic

RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

 

That reminds me of a recent LABi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con I was at recently, and a friend of mine was asking my opinion on some neato Schomburg GA books. I looked at the stickers, then looked at the OPG, and was like "these books are vastly, vastly overpriced. This copy's at best a VG/F, and he's got it priced at the VF/NM price ($750.) VG/F was $160. I told him I wouldn't pay more than $100 for it, and that was being generous.

 

I told him it probably wasn't worth dealing with the guy. The guy said "feel free to make an offer!" but where do you start? You're conscious of decorum, and don't want to insult the guy, but he's nowhere near reality. So, I told him "well, I'm wondering about these prices, because these don't really go with these grades."

 

The guy says "oh, those are the NM prices! I'm not asking THOSE prices!" (which, of course, is ridiculous, and a waste of time, but I digress.) "What did you want to offer?"

 

So I told my friend to offer $100, and the guy took it....and STILL got more than I would have paid him, which means his ruse may very well have worked.

 

But how can you possibly negotiate with anyone if they're not even on the same planet, much less the same ballpark?

 

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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So many comic shop owners seem to put such little effort in researching relevant topics. I understand if a comic shop owner isn't keen on graded comics, but every comic shop owner should understand what makes graded comics desirable to the people who are keen on them. "This case makes the comic worth more" isn't a universal truth but many shop owners think it is because they saw some slabs selling for far more than raw. So they decided to slab everything and jack up the price without paying any regard to actual grade and actual demand lol

 

Reminds me of that Arizona shop someone posted recently that presses every comic in the store and uses PGX

 

Which shop is this? I live in Arizona and would like to avoid it.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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I should have made it more obvious I was being sarcastic. This is the usual ending in these forums to a statement like that.

 

I don't buy slabbed books for the most part since my collection consists of newer Star Wars titles, so I doubt I would even notice if a shop had them pressed and slabbed.

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gino2paulus2

gino2paulus2

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That reminds me of a recent LABi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con I was at recently, and a friend of mine was asking my opinion on some neato Schomburg GA books. I looked at the stickers, then looked at the OPG, and was like "these books are vastly, vastly overpriced. This copy's at best a VG/F, and he's got it priced at the VF/NM price ($750.) VG/F was $160. I told him I wouldn't pay more than $100 for it, and that was being generous.

 

I told him it probably wasn't worth dealing with the guy. The guy said "feel free to make an offer!" but where do you start? You're conscious of decorum, and don't want to insult the guy, but he's nowhere near reality. So, I told him "well, I'm wondering about these prices, because these don't really go with these grades."

 

The guy says "oh, those are the NM prices! I'm not asking THOSE prices!" (which, of course, is ridiculous, and a waste of time, but I digress.) "What did you want to offer?"

 

So I told my friend to offer $100, and the guy took it....and STILL got more than I would have paid him, which means his ruse may very well have worked.

 

But how can you possibly negotiate with anyone if they're not even on the same planet, much less the same ballpark?

 

I do agree with you on your points RMA it's tough because you don't want to insult or lowball. I did state it was priced and I quote, "very aggressively" I was only noticing Joey hadn't posted and wanted to throw in a good word since he's been so kind to me for the last few years. He seems to price things on the higher end for sure but make no mistake he's selling books and seems to have pretty clean feedback. I'm by no means defending stabbing this particular copy in fact if it was me I wouldn't have especially if I were a dealer of any sort as they must take into consideration recuperating slabbing fees and when the dollars don't make cents you don't do it plain and simple..it's as easy as that for a business model of slabbing. Me...I slab for the resto check and up until a few months ago I slabbed for the uniformity of it and still do somewhat but as I've found new ways of displaying that I enjoy I've gotten away from it a small bit. He's still a guy worth working with if you want to make a deal that's my only point. As far as the thread title is concerned if it were my book I wouldn't have sent it in. Who knows though maybe he didn't send it in and it's a consigned book. It's all speculation after that though. Either way it's too common a book in too bad if shape to slab so the OP had a point with his title. Where's Hector with his words of positive CGC slabbage influence?? :D

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gino2paulus2

gino2paulus2

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Joey's a good guy, and a savvy collector/seller. I'm sure he has his reasons.

 

 

 

What reasons are there for saying things that aren't true?

 

hm

 

PM him, it'll put an end to any speculation. (shrug)

 

Agreed and thanks BTW!!!

 

Don't take it personally please RMA but He uses that as a blanket statement in his listings which he has close to a thousand of Btw which includes books like Supes #1, multiple AF 15s, etc. And he doesn't make ANY promises. He uses the words collector and diversify your portfolio. No where do I see a promise and you are wrong that the book hasn't gone up. In the last decade it may have went up and down but at every single grade point this book sells for more than it did in 2006. The book has trended up overall as they have with I'm sure most if not all the books he carries and sells.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

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Joey's a good guy, and a savvy collector/seller. I'm sure he has his reasons.

 

 

 

What reasons are there for saying things that aren't true?

 

hm

 

PM him, it'll put an end to any speculation. (shrug)

 

Agreed and thanks BTW!!!

 

Don't take it personally please RMA

 

 

I don't. Why would someone take things personally that aren't personal?

 

 

but He uses that as a blanket statement in his listings which he has close to a thousand of Btw which includes books like Supes #1, multiple AF 15s, etc.

 

 

Yes, I'm guilty of the same thing, and it's just as bad as when anyone else does it. "Blanket descriptions" can get one in trouble if they're not careful.

 

 

And he doesn't make ANY promises. He uses the words collector and diversify your portfolio. No where do I see a promise and you are wrong that the book hasn't gone up.

 

 

That's not what I said. As I already explained, several posts back, the book was very hot in the early 90's (even appearing in Wizard's Top 10 hottest back issues, if you can believe it), and, amid the general collapse of the comics market in the mid- to late-90's, fell back down to earth in dramatic fashion.

 

Anyone who would have bought the book in, say, 1993, at the height of its then-new found popularity, would not have not been able to recover what they paid for a good decade or more.

 

So yes, in fact, the book has gone down, at times, in the 45 years since its publication, and has NOT "only gone up." "Only gone up" is the same as "never gone down."

 

Nowhere do you see a promise...?

 

"This book has only gone up for the last decades and will continue to do so! "

 

What do you call that...?

 

And set aside the fact that a seller can "ask whatever they want" for a minute, because of course they can. However, something that is priced at about nine times current fair market value cannot possibly be considered a "good investment" at those price levels. If we're going to talk historical values, historically, the most notoriously underperforming comics are those in very low grade, so much so that the "spread" in the OPG since 1970 between "Good" and "Mint (aka Near Mint, aka Near Mint-)" has been expanded many, many times.

 

Again, totally has the right to ask whatever he wants...but to call it a "good investment"...?

 

Really...?

 

We're sounding an awful lot like the 90's again...

 

 

In the last decade it may have went up and down but at every single grade point this book sells for more than it did in 2006.

 

 

Not in dispute.

 

 

The book has trended up overall as they have with I'm sure most if not all the books he carries and sells.

 

 

Also not in dispute. The issue there isn't past performance....it's future results. Nearly all comic books published between 1933 and 1990 have trended up overall; there are plenty of people willing to pay more than retail at the time of issue for those comics.

 

The issue, then, is the promise that the book will continue to go up in value, a promise no one can make, and which it is ILLEGAL to make in the securities market, for example.

 

 

 

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted
Joey's a good guy, and a savvy collector/seller. I'm sure he has his reasons.

 

 

 

What reasons are there for saying things that aren't true?

 

hm

 

PM him, it'll put an end to any speculation. (shrug)

 

 

Why would I want to do that? The listing is a public listing, therefore it's open to public discussion. The public discussion has started, so sending a "PM" would not help anyone else. It's a fair question, and a fair discussion.

 

Roulette44 has, no doubt, red this conversation, but has not responded.

 

He's posted in other threads in the meantime, so if he wishes to discuss this, he's more than capable of doing so, and his responses would be welcomed.

 

And, it's a good topic to talk about generally: just how good ARE comic books as investments. and how can they responsibly be marketed....?

 

I shudder to think of the 90's happening again. Lots of people were really hurt then. Lots of people lost everything they had.

 

So, again...what reasons are there for saying things that aren't true...?

 

 

 

 

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

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All right I'm starting to sound like a cheerleader it's late for me lol Bad book to slab, nothing wrong with the verbiage of the listing, Great Seller. Nuff said'

 

 

If he removes the investment verbiage from the listing, then I would agree, nothing wrong with it. While it remains, however, it is not accurate. One can chalk it up to negligence, until one is made aware. If one chooses to NOT fix the problem, once brought to their attention, now we're moving into the realm of purposely misleading.

 

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