Another 'when should I grade' thread. 0

[Nemogollom]

Backstory: After being sealed for 25 years I recently mailed myself my high school comic book collection (maybe 1000 books) and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  They're mainly late-copper to early modern books, and I used to be a dealer and almost all books were purchased in bulk and immediately bagged/boarded.  While some have some small marks, by far almost all books are NM.  A while ago, I pulled out my favourites (maybe 40 books) and sent them to be signed/slabbed for wall display (museum glass, indirect light, etc), but now I need to go through the rest.  I'm now stuck determining which ones I should have slabbed before sale (and some saving).

Situation:

• I can afford to float a chunk of money during grading, even with long turnaround times.  So it doesn't matter to me about rushing, and it's more about minimizing the overall grading costs.
• I have a connection to very cheap outgoing shipping, so return costs from cgc matter, but outgoing is not a big deal.
• The comics are an old labour of love so I don't mind the time cost to evaluate, re-bag, and eventually sell any valuable slabs.

The higher dollar value books are easier to determine given the lower modern grading costs, but what about the lower dollar ones?  An example is X-Force #1.  GPA has a it currently at 9.8 $200, 9.6 $40, 9.4 $35, 9.2 $25.  I have 5 copies of this that I believe are 9.6+, but even if it came back 9.2 (which I can't see, maybe 9.4, but very unlikely 9.2), is it worth it?  If I bulk my shipping invoices, currently have the 10% discount (could upgrade for 15%?), add in selling fees, then am I conservatively looking at $20-25?

I guess my question is, for books that I have high confidence on, am I crazy to bulk slab them for sale?  If I sell them raw it looks like I'll get barely anything.  I'm not looking to spend infinite amounts of my time, but evaluating, updating the bags/boards, dropping them with CGC, then selling the (decent) slabs seems to be worth the time.

This was just one issue, but it seem to be a theme.  I have 4 Lethal Protector #1's, and while the top end is around $100, it holds better through 9.2 which reduces the risk.  I don't think any of the books submitted need pressing, as I'm already filtering out anything with any marks I can see (even tiny nbr spine ones), etc.

Anyway, I know selling old collections is a common topic, but any more advice on what to do? It seems like the potential reward outweighs the risk as some point.  It's not just about the value, I do plan on keeping some of the best ones for the memories.

[Bomber-Bob]

39 minutes ago, Nemogollom said:

Backstory: After being sealed for 25 years I recently mailed myself my high school comic book collection (maybe 1000 books) and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  They're mainly late-copper to early modern books, and I used to be a dealer and almost all books were purchased in bulk and immediately bagged/boarded.  While some have some small marks, by far almost all books are NM.  A while ago, I pulled out my favourites (maybe 40 books) and sent them to be signed/slabbed for wall display (museum glass, indirect light, etc), but now I need to go through the rest.  I'm now stuck determining which ones I should have slabbed before sale (and some saving).

Situation:

• I can afford to float a chunk of money during grading, even with long turnaround times.  So it doesn't matter to me about rushing, and it's more about minimizing the overall grading costs.
• I have a connection to very cheap outgoing shipping, so return costs from cgc matter, but outgoing is not a big deal.
• The comics are an old labour of love so I don't mind the time cost to evaluate, re-bag, and eventually sell any valuable slabs.

The higher dollar value books are easier to determine given the lower modern grading costs, but what about the lower dollar ones?  An example is X-Force #1.  GPA has a it currently at 9.8 $200, 9.6 $40, 9.4 $35, 9.2 $25.  I have 5 copies of this that I believe are 9.6+, but even if it came back 9.2 (which I can't see, maybe 9.4, but very unlikely 9.2), is it worth it?  If I bulk my shipping invoices, currently have the 10% discount (could upgrade for 15%?), add in selling fees, then am I conservatively looking at $20-25?

I guess my question is, for books that I have high confidence on, am I crazy to bulk slab them for sale?  If I sell them raw it looks like I'll get barely anything.  I'm not looking to spend infinite amounts of my time, but evaluating, updating the bags/boards, dropping them with CGC, then selling the (decent) slabs seems to be worth the time.

This was just one issue, but it seem to be a theme.  I have 4 Lethal Protector #1's, and while the top end is around $100, it holds better through 9.2 which reduces the risk.  I don't think any of the books submitted need pressing, as I'm already filtering out anything with any marks I can see (even tiny nbr spine ones), etc.

Anyway, I know selling old collections is a common topic, but any more advice on what to do? It seems like the potential reward outweighs the risk as some point.  It's not just about the value, I do plan on keeping some of the best ones for the memories.

The only comment I would make is that, in your situation, you should utilize the CGC prescreen service. There is a minimum submission requirement (50 ?) but you can instruct them to only grade books meeting a certain criteria (9.6, 9.8, etc). If a book doesn't 'pass', you are still charged a fee (5.00 ?) but it's better than paying the slabbing price.

[Nemogollom]

3 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

If a book doesn't 'pass', you are still charged a fee (5.00 ?) but it's better than paying the slabbing price.

Nice, I forgot about that, and it's a really good tip.

They almost need a 'donate' option for the ones that miss as they'll be worth more to me as a donation