passed the half million mark

[gozer]

In the last newsletter, Greg Holland reported that as of April 9, CGC had graded

over 500,000 books.

 

Wow. That's a lot of books.

 

What I find odd is how seldom I see slabbed books at conventions. Maybe

that's just me, since I don't often make it to any of the "big" cons. Although

at the last Wizard World in Dallas, I didn't see that many slabs.

 

A question for CGC - is the pace picking up or slowing? Are more submissions

coming in now than a few years ago, or fewer.

 

Are we ever going to get to the point where there just aren't that many

books left worth slabbing?

 

cheers,

gozer

-------------------------

Many interesting and important things have been put into boxes

over the years: textiles, other boxes, even children's candy.

[OldGuy]

What I find odd is how seldom I see slabbed books at conventions.

 

I can't think of a reason why I would buy a CGC book at a convention unless it's a high $ book and I want the restoration check. I don't need CGC's opinion when I'm buying a book in person. CGC is only useful to me when I can't see the book in person or feel like I should have a restoration check.

[500]

At Wizard World Chicago I saw tons of slabs being carried around, a few dealers had them for sale, and I think one dealer's entire stock was slabbed books.

 

I flipped through one of the slab dealer's bins and was shocked at the prices, everything seemed to be 60 bucks and up, for modern comics that could still be pulled off the shelves. Seeing that made me wonder about CGC for awhile, but I'd agree CGC is extremely helpful in regards to not being able to personally look over a comic and needing restoration checked, in addition to giving a collectible item some grandeur.

[Flaming_Telepath]

What I find odd is how seldom I see slabbed books at conventions.

 

I can't think of a reason why I would buy a CGC book at a convention unless it's a high $ book and I want the restoration check. I don't need CGC's opinion when I'm buying a book in person. CGC is only useful to me when I can't see the book in person or feel like I should have a restoration check.

 

I agree...that is probably the No. 1 reason. CGC comes into its own when we're talking mail order halfway across the world. I had a bit of a disagreement with sfilosa about the percentage of CGC sales I make at shows compared to raw. I figure no more than ten percent with an average of probably 7-8%.

 

If you can make your own examination and assessment, why pay the premium for the slab? In fact, if you're at a show, you can make a better assessment of a raw book than one that's encased.

[sfilosa]

Considering their turnaround times, they obvioulsy still have plenty of books to grade.

 

As we have discussed before:

 

1) As long as people are willing to shell out $25 or more for 9.9 or higher Moderns, dealers will keep pre-screening new books.

 

2) Most major GA collectors HAVE NOT used CGC, therefore if any of them decided to sell (might be a year, might be several decades), CGC will have a lot of top notch books to grade. Less then 15% of all Edgar Church books have been graded (but it's possible that more have been grade but not identified).

 

3) Lastly, if submissions slipped too much, they could always lower prices just slightly, making more books (especially books from 1970-1974), more CGC worthy.

[rob_react]

In the last newsletter, Greg Holland reported that as of April 9, CGC had graded

over 500,000 books.

 

Wow. That's a lot of books.

 

What I find odd is how seldom I see slabbed books at conventions. Maybe

that's just me, since I don't often make it to any of the "big" cons. Although

at the last Wizard World in Dallas, I didn't see that many slabs.

 

That's a lot of books, in one way, but it's not a lot books in another. I mean, 500,000 is only a small percentage of the print run of X-Men #1. Multiply that by the thousands of thousand of books printed monthly in quantities ranging from just a couple thousand well into the millions and you get a picture that jibes really well with what you see at shows. CGC graded books are a small, tiny, wee little percentage of the comics out there in dealer's inventories and in collector's boxes.

[valiantman]

...you get a picture that jibes really well with what you see at shows. CGC graded books are a small, tiny, wee little percentage of the comics out there in dealer's inventories and in collector's boxes.

 

I agree, 500,000 isn't much at all compared to what's in print.

 

I'm not able to attend many shows... how often would you say that the older key issues

are seen CGC graded vs. raw?

 

Ignoring whatever quantity of key issues that are privately held and not-for-sale,

what's the ratio of CGC keys to non-CGC keys in the open market right now?

(I'm sure this has been debated before, but I'm interested in show-goers impressions.)

[Dr_Neff]

I think that the KEY book ratio is about 28% that is of existing copies of books that there are considered to be less than 100 copies of in any grade. (action # 1 is my example) and also consider thwat there are lifelong collectors who won't go near a slab, and when they kick the collections will go to dealers who will sell keys immediately and still may not see a slab. Unless the coinvestites really do the crossover and spend their capital gains on more slabs. The cardvestites have already gone out tof the comic market after 1998.

 

As for shows, probably less than .0005% of all comics there are graded, even when Harley is there. Keep in mind for a dealer to take a long box (200) of ungraded comics, its 60 pounds. For dealers to carry CGC books they have to take CGC books at a pound EACH or more, so that's 30 pounds for each magazine/ gerber/cole whoever box, at like 7 boxes totalling 210 pounds. not too mention bumps, scrapes and the like on the holders.

 

So out of the 900 billion vcomcis 500 k is not a lot, and at C4K we've given out 1/2 that for free.

[DawgPhan]

I think that the KEY book ratio is about 28% that is of existing copies of books that there are considered to be less than 100 copies of in any grade. (action # 1 is my example) and also consider thwat there are lifelong collectors who won't go near a slab, and when they kick the collections will go to dealers who will sell keys immediately and still may not see a slab. Unless the coinvestites really do the crossover and spend their capital gains on more slabs. The cardvestites have already gone out tof the comic market after 1998.

 

As for shows, probably less than .0005% of all comics there are graded, even when Harley is there. Keep in mind for a dealer to take a long box (200) of ungraded comics, its 60 pounds. For dealers to carry CGC books they have to take CGC books at a pound EACH or more, so that's 30 pounds for each magazine/ gerber/cole whoever box, at like 7 boxes totalling 210 pounds. not too mention bumps, scrapes and the like on the holders.

 

So out of the 900 billion vcomcis 500 k is not a lot, and at C4K we've given out 1/2 that for free.

 

 

 

I dont really have any idea what you just said.

[tth2]

I think that the KEY book ratio is about 28% that is of existing copies of books that there are considered to be less than 100 copies of in any grade. (action # 1 is my example) and also consider thwat there are lifelong collectors who won't go near a slab, and when they kick the collections will go to dealers who will sell keys immediately and still may not see a slab. Unless the coinvestites really do the crossover and spend their capital gains on more slabs. The cardvestites have already gone out tof the comic market after 1998.

 

As for shows, probably less than .0005% of all comics there are graded, even when Harley is there. Keep in mind for a dealer to take a long box (200) of ungraded comics, its 60 pounds. For dealers to carry CGC books they have to take CGC books at a pound EACH or more, so that's 30 pounds for each magazine/ gerber/cole whoever box, at like 7 boxes totalling 210 pounds. not too mention bumps, scrapes and the like on the holders.

 

So out of the 900 billion vcomcis 500 k is not a lot, and at C4K we've given out 1/2 that for free.

 

 

 

I dont really have any idea what you just said.

Are you kidding? This was the first Dr Neff post in ages that I completely understood!

 

What did you not understand about this post?

[DawgPhan]

I think that the KEY book ratio is about 28% that is of existing copies of books that there are considered to be less than 100 copies of in any grade. (action # 1 is my example) and also consider thwat there are lifelong collectors who won't go near a slab, and when they kick the collections will go to dealers who will sell keys immediately and still may not see a slab. Unless the coinvestites really do the crossover and spend their capital gains on more slabs. The cardvestites have already gone out tof the comic market after 1998.

 

As for shows, probably less than .0005% of all comics there are graded, even when Harley is there. Keep in mind for a dealer to take a long box (200) of ungraded comics, its 60 pounds. For dealers to carry CGC books they have to take CGC books at a pound EACH or more, so that's 30 pounds for each magazine/ gerber/cole whoever box, at like 7 boxes totalling 210 pounds. not too mention bumps, scrapes and the like on the holders.

 

So out of the 900 billion vcomcis 500 k is not a lot, and at C4K we've given out 1/2 that for free.

 

 

 

I dont really have any idea what you just said.

Are you kidding? This was the first Dr Neff post in ages that I completely understood!

 

What did you not understand about this post?

 

Mostly that first sentence...I am guessing that it is just a period and comma thing...but the first time I read it, it made no sense. I think that he is saying that not a lot of books are graded.

[tth2]

I think that he is saying that not a lot of books are graded.

[Dr_Neff]

Hey I'm the short story long guy