Newbie with lots of SA

[Black Hawk]

Looking for any thoughts on my cost/benefit analysis for evaluating CGC grading.

 

My ultimate goal is to sell off my collection and it seems to me that mid to high grade silver-age books earn more when they have been graded by CGC.

FYI my collection spans the late 40's through the 70's and is primarily DC & Marvel with some Gold-Key, books number over 2,000.

 

I'm here because I've been watching CGC comics being bought & sold on ebay for over a year now. In this time I have seen comics that I have in my "junk boxes" sellling at hefty prices.

 

I've been collecting since I was about 6 years old, I'm now 48. I was lucky my mom didn't throw away my comics. As a matter of fact she incouraged me to keep them in nice condition.

 

I'm pretty good at grading comics and I would say that my average comic being a VG+ with many in the F/VF category, with a few NM throw in.

My plan is to pick comics that I have graded VG, F, VF and submit them for grading with CGC. This way I can see how my grading standards stack up against theirs.

 

I thought about submitting scans here for the group to look at, but I feel that to honestly grade a book you have to hold it. It may sound strange but a book may look good but feel soggy and for me a soggy feeling book can't be graded above VG no matter how good it looks. This is something you can't grade via a scan.

 

If I find my grading stands up to that of CGC I will begin submiting other books for grading and then sell them on ebay; or is there a better place to sell them?

 

Can you go wrong with CGC grading on mid-high silver-age books?

Please let me know if you think this is a good idea or not.

[Aces]

General ideas about older mid-to high grades:

 

A book should be worth minimum $150-$200 GP before slabbing.

 

Think about a typical 6.0 that sells for $100 slabbed.

It costs $25 to slab (not counting shipping and taking the 20% off from heritage).

Assuming you guess the grade correctly you can sell it for $100.

You made $75.00.

You probably could have sold it raw for half book easy and made $50.

So you are $25 ahead, but that's if you guessed the grade exactly.

If you over-graded by even one notch you might cost yourself money.

 

So to give yourself a zone of safety of one or two notches of over-grading, make sure the book sells for $150-$200 in the CGC grade you "think" it might be.

[Nefaria]

Welcome to the boards. Best advice I can give is scan a couple of your KA (kick something) comics and get the board to evaluate them for you. Newbies (me included when I was a newbie) have a different opinion on grades and values. Irregardless of what those values you see in the price guides if the quality isn't there then they don't have the value you want nor the demand you want. So let us see some

again WTTB's

[THE_BEYONDER]

WELCOME TO THE BOARDS

 

 

Although I agree that grading books through scans can have it's limitations...I think you'd be surprised how accurate this boards esitimation would be.

 

Post a scan & see....

[inconceivable]

I'm pretty good at grading comics and I would say that my average comic being a VG+ with many in the F/VF category, with a few NM throw in.

My plan is to pick comics that I have graded VG, F, VF and submit them for grading with CGC. This way I can see how my grading standards stack up against theirs.

 

I think that is a wonderful plan for education. I would also recommend to getting a few VF/NM and NM books graded as well. You may be (un)pleasantly surprised. Aces mentioned sending in books of value so you are not only stuck with an education if things don't work out so well.

 

I thought about submitting scans here for the group to look at, but I feel that to honestly grade a book you have to hold it. It may sound strange but a book may look good but feel soggy and for me a soggy feeling book can't be graded above VG no matter how good it looks. This is something you can't grade via a scan.

 

Just mention any defects that do not show up on scans (especially hidden creases/tears or interior tanning or such). You can enter one of the grading contests on the boards (or just follow along to see how you do) as a way of gauging the effectiveness of scans.

 

If I find my grading stands up to that of CGC I will begin submiting other books for grading and then sell them on ebay; or is there a better place to sell them?

 

If you are just looking to sell than ebay is by far the best place because of the exposure from the site.

 

Sometimes we pay ok/good/great prices on the boards and you can save ebay fees. Sometimes not... Plus you get the bonus (or hassle) of dealing with us. If you have unique/specialty books there are threads on consignment as well.

 

Can you go wrong with CGC grading on mid-high silver-age books?

Please let me know if you think this is a good idea or not.

 

Yes you can go wrong. Just look at the complaints on the boards. Anyway, good luck and welcome to the boards.

 

Dan

[Black Hawk]

Thank all for you very insightful comments. I will be scanning a couple of issues and posting them tomorrow. I look forward to seeing how you grade them.

[Silver Surfer]

Black Hawk welcome to the boards. Let me know if you have any Marvel Mystery or Sub-Mariner Comics in your collection.

[Aman619]

Thank all for you very insightful comments. I will be scanning a couple of issues and posting them tomorrow. I look forward to seeing how you grade them.

 

good idea. The guys here are very knowledgeable, and will either sober you up from delusions of untold riches (we all have them about our collections!) or excite you with genuine awe and envy over your books.

 

I would suggest you only grade the keys in any condition, and then just the best condition books. And factor in their ages. That is, Early SA anything above VF-/7.5, Late Silver above VF+/8.5. bronze above VF/NM/9.0 and later books only the truly smoking unread un-nicked copies that look "perfect" but will probably only rarely come back in NM.

 

The problem you face in selling your collection is one we ALL face. The exciting big $$$ ssales are only happenning on the ultra HG copies.... and too many of us just have too few of those. Everything else is pretty common and is tougher to unload, I mean sell.

[Sal]

welcome to the boards! with a name like that, you must be a Quality fan...

 

remember to go through the book cover to cover. interior staining and the like will bring a book down in grade