Raw vs slabbed and slabbing criteria......curious how you decide. 0

[shootin-str81]

I am not a complete NOOB but a NOOB to submitting to CGC.  Back in the mid to late 90's I was active on these boards and mostly bought books for my collection.  Life got to very busy, I stopped collecting and my collection sat.  Now I have decided to sell most of my collection.  My question, with selling in mind, how do YOU decide what to sell raw or submit for grading.  Thanks in advance.  

[revat]

1.  Grade your raw comics yourself, obviously the better you are this the better all of it will go.

2.  Price your raw comics according to your grades, try to factor in all the variables.  Use whatever price guide makes sense to you, I tend to use sold eBay searches.  Make sure you factor in all fees and possibly taxes.

3.  Figure out how much it would cost to submit your books (note that economies of scale may come into play), including shipping there, insurance, possible pressing, grading fees, invoice fees, shipping and insurance back, etc.  consider pre-screening if you’re submitting in bulk.

4. Research your expected sales price based on the expected Cgc grade.  Be conservative, and assess your risks of getting a lower grade.  Everyone has different levels of risk aversion.  Make sure you factor in all fees and possibly taxes.  It is common to use gpa analysis to research pricing data.

 

5.  Subtract estimated slabbed sales price less estimated raw sales price and compare to your total submission costs.  Compare to your own preferred marginal profit calculation.  For me, at this point I need to be guaranteed 100% profit on my additional investment, so if I submit a modern hoping to get 9.8, the graded 9.6 better be worth $50-$60 more than the raw comic (this assumes that I get a minimum 9.6).  Of course I might gamble harder if the 9.8 is worth disproportionately more.  I also used to be way more loose about submitting.

 

6.  Also, some folks factor in opportunity cost of tying up for 3-5 months, if the risk of damage in transit.  I don’t really factor that.

 

good luck
 

 

 

[shootin-str81]

Thanks for the reply.  That all seems logical and the key is to determine an accurate grade initially.  I guess the other piece that I probably didn't communicate clearly, is there a grade level that you can do better selling raw versus slabbed.  I am thinking of an experienced book dealer I know that told me I would be better off selling an already graded/slabbed 7.0 ASM 129 - raw.  So that made me wonder is there some logic to his statement and if so, what is it??  Is he assuming someone might pay more speculating a higher grade??  I dunno.....  

[shootin-str81]

3 minutes ago, Fizzle said:

This board started in 2002 Were on the Ebay comics chat at all back then?

Dang it sux to get old....  I should have said I started collecting in the mid to late 90's and was active on these boards.....if memory serves me....sometime after 2002   

[Fisionbomb]

1 hour ago, shootin-str81 said:

Thanks for the reply.  That all seems logical and the key is to determine an accurate grade initially.  I guess the other piece that I probably didn't communicate clearly, is there a grade level that you can do better selling raw versus slabbed.  I am thinking of an experienced book dealer I know that told me I would be better off selling an already graded/slabbed 7.0 ASM 129 - raw.  So that made me wonder is there some logic to his statement and if so, what is it??  Is he assuming someone might pay more speculating a higher grade??  I dunno.....  

In my opinion, yes a book like this could POTENTIALLY fetch more advertised as 7.0 raw vs. a graded 7.0 because folks MAY GAMBLE that they could clean/press into a higher grade. In regards to what grade hits the threshold of better to sell raw vs. graded... That's on a book to book basis, not a broad stroke "always sell x.x grade raw".

Edited April 6, 2021 by Fisionbomb
Added clarity

[revat]

1 minute ago, Fisionbomb said:

In my opinion, yes a book like this could potentially fetch more advertised as 7.0 raw vs. a graded 7.0 because folks will gamble that they could clean/press into a higher grade. In regards to what grade hits the threshold of better to sell raw vs. graded... That's on a book to book basis, not a broad stroke "always sell x.x grade raw".

Agree, to your own price analysis on each book individually for the relevant grade, see if the numbers work out for your own risk and profit 

Also, the variables and prices can change over time as well, so make sure to use current info for deciding 

[amatta]

2 hours ago, shootin-str81 said:

Thanks for the reply.  That all seems logical and the key is to determine an accurate grade initially.  I guess the other piece that I probably didn't communicate clearly, is there a grade level that you can do better selling raw versus slabbed.  I am thinking of an experienced book dealer I know that told me I would be better off selling an already graded/slabbed 7.0 ASM 129 - raw.  So that made me wonder is there some logic to his statement and if so, what is it??  Is he assuming someone might pay more speculating a higher grade??  I dunno.....  

Perhaps that's because if you sell on eBay there might be many who evaluate the book with rose color glasses, seeing what would score a 7.0 as being a potential 8.5+. This is why a lot of eBay sellers refuse to provide an estimate of grade (it's negotiating against yourself - and also, they could very well be wrong and the direction of error is random. I've seen books that I would score a 8.5 graded as 9.2 and the reverse situation too).

However, with regards to your ASM 129, I'm afraid that it probably isn't worth too much given the market - but you seem like a nice guy so I'll give you $50 just to be nice. 

No, in all seriousness, I think the previous reply was solid advice. You could also do it like this: figure out what your dollar return would be if you sent it out for a press & slabbing and see if you can get a comparable return here selling it raw. When you do the analysis, factor in liquidity - just because it's slabbed doesn't mean it will sell easily even if it's a nice grade. (you can see my current sales thread - some nice books but they aren't flying out of the store). Also, as the previous poster pointed out, I get the sense that lag times are looong these days due to the massive influx of people wanting grades for books that have spiked in value and those who want to slab and sell in the seller's market.

[theCapraAegagrus]

If it's worth less than $200 slabbed, then I wouldn't bother.