Are prices still climbing or have they eased up a bit??? 43 43

[Number 6]

On 9/19/2023 at 8:38 AM, the blob said:

Are they slabbed?

Yes.

Suffice to say, I won't send raws to MCS again.

[the blob]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:19 PM, Number 6 said:

Yes.

Suffice to say, I won't send raws to MCS again.

At the end of the day isn't it more about what you can sell them for there rather than the grade they assign? If their Fines sell for 2X as much as a Fine would on ebay then maybe it is not as big a deal if you thought it was a VF. On the other hand, with them hammering the grades it makes it harder to hit that $50 figure in your head and the commissions on lots are pretty brutal (and I completely understand why they are). 

[Number 6]

On 9/19/2023 at 9:27 AM, the blob said:

At the end of the day isn't it more about what you can sell them for there rather than the grade they assign? If their Fines sell for 2X as much as a Fine would on ebay then maybe it is not as big a deal if you thought it was a VF. On the other hand, with them hammering the grades it makes it harder to hit that $50 figure in your head and the commissions on lots are pretty brutal (and I completely understand why they are). 

I've heard that line of reasoning before, that a person gets more even though it's graded lower, and in my personal experience I did not find that to be the case.  I want to just leave it at that as this isn't really the thread to rehash that discussion.  

[southern cross]

 

So comic prices have dropped?

Nearly double Overstreet for mid grade Golden age and 70s romance. Congrats to the seller 

Edited September 19, 2023 by southern cross

[MAR1979]

Destroyer Duck 1 9.8; 1500+ early in 2022 now barely within sniffing distance of 350!  One yesterday at regular ebay auction fell short of 340

Simpsons 1 Welch 9.8; near 2000 in 2021. Barely scrapped 300 ImJan 2023 at moment seems to have stabilized ~350.

Both now probably at Max levels where they should have been organically from 2019-present. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by MAR1979

[the blob]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:32 PM, Number 6 said:

I've heard that line of reasoning before, that a person gets more even though it's graded lower, and in my personal experience I did not find that to be the case.  I want to just leave it at that as this isn't really the thread to rehash that discussion.  

I get it, I know there is another thread for that here, I am just in the process of trying to decide whether it makes sense to park a short box of books over there, maybe ones I don't care as much about, and try to generate some passive income and am trying to collect any info I can. I am just not in a position of starting selling again and shipping 20 books a week or whatever, but I need another income source. 

[Number 6]

On 9/19/2023 at 10:56 AM, the blob said:

I get it, I know there is another thread for that here, I am just in the process of trying to decide whether it makes sense to park a short box of books over there, maybe ones I don't care as much about, and try to generate some passive income and am trying to collect any info I can. I am just not in a position of starting selling again and shipping 20 books a week or whatever, but I need another income source. 

Without completely derailing this thread, let me just add this:

Just like which auction venue you choose depends on what kind of material you're offering, whether MCS is going to work for you depends on your circumstances and how you acquired the material you have.

Based on my own experience combined with what I've seen written here on the Boards, my observation is this:

IF you were/are a dealer, part-time dealer, flipper, etc. and you are in the habit of picking up large collections of books, pulling out the best candidates for 3rd party grading and (if you've done your buying right) those primo books are going to cover most if not all of your purchase cost, leaving you with books that, while not worth submitting, are worth something and are going to be almost all profit... yet are going to require a lot of work to grade, scan and list.

or

IF you purchased the bulk of your collection off the rack in the 70's and 80's and/or you bought a sizable portion of back issue Silver and Bronze during the late 80's and 90's when everyone was chasing Moderns or were in the habit of buying large amounts of books for pennies on the dollar AND you managed to keep the collection well-preserved all these decades.

It seems to me that if you are in one of those categories above (generally speaking) then it seems MCS is going to work out well for you because even if you don't get top dollar, the amount of time and work that you're transferring to MCS verses what you actually have in the books is really going to make it worthwhile.

 

If, on the other hand, you returned to collecting in the last 20-25 years and have acquired most of your collection on the secondary market, buying individual issues (not in bulk) and carefully curating what you have in your collection, even if you've tried really hard to acquire quality material in grade and getting discounts/deals whenever you can, chances are on average what you have in the collection is probably on the whole going to be closer to retail than wholesale.   In that circumstance I think it becomes much harder (not saying it's impossible) to make MCS work to your benefit unless you're just absolutely trying to get rid of stuff and get something/anything for it. 

 

Just my 

 

[the blob]

On 9/19/2023 at 5:28 PM, Number 6 said:

Without completely derailing this thread, let me just add this:

Just like which auction venue you choose depends on what kind of material you're offering, whether MCS is going to work for you depends on your circumstances and how you acquired the material you have.

Based on my own experience combined with what I've seen written here on the Boards, my observation is this:

IF you were/are a dealer, part-time dealer, flipper, etc. and you are in the habit of picking up large collections of books, pulling out the best candidates for 3rd party grading and (if you've done your buying right) those primo books are going to cover most if not all of your purchase cost, leaving you with books that, while not worth submitting, are worth something and are going to be almost all profit... yet are going to require a lot of work to grade, scan and list.

or

IF you purchased the bulk of your collection off the rack in the 70's and 80's and/or you bought a sizable portion of back issue Silver and Bronze during the late 80's and 90's when everyone was chasing Moderns or were in the habit of buying large amounts of books for pennies on the dollar AND you managed to keep the collection well-preserved all these decades.

It seems to me that if you are in one of those categories above (generally speaking) then it seems MCS is going to work out well for you because even if you don't get top dollar, the amount of time and work that you're transferring to MCS verses what you actually have in the books is really going to make it worthwhile.

 

If, on the other hand, you returned to collecting in the last 20-25 years and have acquired most of your collection on the secondary market, buying individual issues (not in bulk) and carefully curating what you have in your collection, even if you've tried really hard to acquire quality material in grade and getting discounts/deals whenever you can, chances are on average what you have in the collection is probably on the whole going to be closer to retail than wholesale.   In that circumstance I think it becomes much harder (not saying it's impossible) to make MCS work to your benefit unless you're just absolutely trying to get rid of stuff and get something/anything for it. 

 

Just my 

 

I'm somewhere in the middle. 98% of my collection was bought for $3 or less, 99.99% of it after 1993, mostly under $1, not so much in bulk, just by 30 years of trying to cherry pick cheap-o boxes. The books I have money in probably wouldn't go there other than some mid-grade SA I probably paid too much for when I was starting. But my mid-grade Spotlight 28 or what not type$40-80  books I paid $1, particularly if I have 3 copies, might go in the box. I'm just not ready to get back into shipping stuff and stressing about whether someone will complain that my F/VF grade is no good and demand a refund and am completely not interested in that if, as I am hoping, I return to private practice by this time next year and my time is actually worth something again.  At the very least if it is all a failure and I get the books back I suppose I have paid $4 a book + shipping to receive some tight grades. Maybe I will learn something.

Edited September 19, 2023 by the blob

[VintageComics]

On 9/18/2023 at 7:43 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

That surprises me. I thought it was the sellers demanding the premium so they pocketed more. Why would they stop because of that? I still sold my Bat 1 thru CC; I just didn’t ask for a Buyers Premium 

 

On 9/18/2023 at 3:26 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I'm just guessing, but my assumption is that they are passing on costs when the seller negotiates a lower commission on a premium collection.  This is the same principle they (and others) use when adding a 3% "premium" that just coincidentally happens to align with their credit card fees when buyers use credit cards.

So what I'm imagining is that they tell the seller they'll keep something less than 10% of the hammer price, but they (more than) make up for it with a buyer's premium.  You may remember that when they first started experimenting with this, they would sometimes say 5% and sometimes 15%.  These days it seems to be consistently 15%.

 

On 9/19/2023 at 1:27 AM, lou_fine said:

 

Like Clark had correctly stated, why would the consignors stopped selling through CC because of the Buyer's Premium when they were the ones that asked for it just in order to squeeze an extra 1.3% out from CC's standard 10% auction commission fee?  

Or is it because they feel that there will now be less eyeballs on the CC Event Auctions because potential bidders/buyers are turned off by thei 15% BP and will not bother to participate in the CC auctions anymore, which I would somehow doubt?    

I can't share details of which books or who said it as it would quickly give a lot of clues as to who it was. Just going by what I heard when CC first introduced the buyer's premium. 

It was a surprise to me that CC started charging a Buyer's Premium but every auction house has different fee structures and people use what works best for them.

[skypinkblu]

I've sold with CC several times, I was told that if I wanted to add the percentage I could, that I would save on fees, but it was totally up to me, but we agreed that the book usually goes for the same bottom line# and that no percentage would probably get more bids.

I was never given the impression that anyone who consigned books would randomly have the percentage added.  

[Black_Adam]

On 9/19/2023 at 9:19 AM, Number 6 said:

Yes.

Suffice to say, I won't send raws to MCS again.

If you disagree with the MCS grades you always have the option to have MCS send them for CGC grading and consignment upon return. I often do this with raws where grading makes sense.

[PopKulture]

On 9/20/2023 at 12:12 PM, Black_Adam said:

If you disagree with the MCS grades you always have the option to have MCS send them for CGC grading and consignment upon return. I often do this with raws where grading makes sense.

How often do the books come back from CGC with grades higher than MCS gave those same books? Would you say they varied more for certain grade ranges? 

[Black_Adam]

On 9/20/2023 at 8:59 PM, PopKulture said:

How often do the books come back from CGC with grades higher than MCS gave those same books? Would you say they varied more for certain grade ranges? 

Due to MCS' conservative grading and the additional factor of CGC grading only being requested when I feel they have really missed the boat, I would say the comics came back with higher grades 100% of the time. I think MCS is a lot tougher on higher grade books and lower grade books. Books in the middle grades (5.0 - 6.0) I find their grading to be more accurate.

Also, I often send raw comics I plan to slab and sell to MCS (with a note to have them graded) instead of submitting them myself! 

[MyNameIsLegion]

On 9/21/2023 at 8:08 AM, Black_Adam said:

Due to MCS' conservative grading and the additional factor of CGC grading only being requested when I feel they have really missed the boat, I would say the comics came back with higher grades 100% of the time. I think MCS is a lot tougher on higher grade books and lower grade books. Books in the middle grades (5.0 - 6.0) I find their grading to be more accurate.

Also, I often send raw comics I plan to slab and sell to MCS (with a note to have them graded) instead of submitting them myself! 

wait what? MCS will submit things to CGC for you? How does that work? I wasn't aware that was a thing? 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 9/21/2023 at 8:31 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

wait what? MCS will submit things to CGC for you? How does that work? I wasn't aware that was a thing? 

I’ve had CC do it. I imagine they all will if you ask. They will deduct the cost from your bottom line sale

[Number 6]

On 9/21/2023 at 6:34 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I’ve had CC do it. I imagine they all will if you ask. They will deduct the cost from your bottom line sale

Clink will as well.

 

On 9/20/2023 at 10:12 AM, Black_Adam said:

If you disagree with the MCS grades you always have the option to have MCS send them for CGC grading and consignment upon return. I often do this with raws where grading makes sense.

As you say, the operative phrase is "where grading makes sense".  Personally, if I'm sending raws to MCS it's because I didn't think the books were worth enough to justify slabbing in the first place, but I can see situations where that information would be useful.  

[skypinkblu]

On 9/21/2023 at 9:34 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I’ve had CC do it. I imagine they all will if you ask. They will deduct the cost from your bottom line sale

I have had them do it too.

[Black_Adam]

On 9/21/2023 at 6:31 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

wait what? MCS will submit things to CGC for you? How does that work? I wasn't aware that was a thing? 

You can ask Este or anyone in consignment to submit your comics for grading and consignment upon return. You get the MCS grading discount and I think they charge a handling fee of $5 per comic.

[bluehorseshoe]

On 9/15/2023 at 8:35 AM, Mark Warren said:

Good. Let the silly people spend silly money on their 9.8's, that leaves more sanely priced 9.2 - 9.6 books for the rest of us. 

 

On 9/15/2023 at 10:43 AM, MAR1979 said:

Pages are not White, from what I've seen most here would have no interest in crappy OW/W. To some (not me) WP's take precedence over seemingly all else.  Which makes perfect sense in slabbed book where the difference between OW/W and W is highly apparent and at least in a few cases can bump up if the book is sent for a sig then re-graded. @Jordysnordy knows!

The thirst is completely a real thing. 

[DC#]

On 9/21/2023 at 3:03 PM, bluehorseshoe said:

 

The thirst is completely a real thing. 

Was just thinking about how much money I could have saved had I just stuck with attractive, raw copies.........