Our Recent Experience Selling Comics Through Mycomicshop 23 23

[Sweet Lou 14]

On 10/4/2023 at 4:14 PM, thehumantorch said:

My first submission was mostly graded books and a few raws.  Grading seemed tight and now I just send them graded books.

MCS grading is extraordinarily tight.  When sending in raw moderns that would likely come back 9.4-9.8 from CGC, or at the very worst 9.0, by definition the highest grade you can get from MCS is "NM" and it's common to get as low as "VF" or even "FN."  IMHO there's simply no way those books are really 6.0 - 8.0 by CGC standards.  But to be clear, I've only done this for books that I'm looking to dump (not worth enough to slab) so I don't get too bent out of shape when I get paid $1.80 for my book instead of $2.60 or whatever.  Besides, they now possess the books so what am I going to do, ask them to ship back a bunch of $2 books (at my expense) that didn't get the grades I expected?

[comicstock]

Sounds like they grade a lot closer to Overstreet standards...

[mycomicshop]

On 10/4/2023 at 5:58 PM, comicstock said:

Sounds like they grade a lot closer to Overstreet standards...

You might be on to something  

On our grading page:

[Nick Furious]

On 10/4/2023 at 5:07 PM, mycomicshop said:

I can't speak to any specific books in the abstract, have to have an actual book in hand for us to look at and review why we arrived at our grade, but in our internal testing comparing our grading vs CGC's across a larger sample of test books, the most common area that produces larger differences in grade are internal flaws, such as a partially detached centerfold, and in some cases spine issues. Things that are either completely invisible once a book is encapsulated (interior flaws), or at least harder to see (some spine stuff).

In some cases, we think CGC just missed the interior flaws, and in other cases, they didn't necessarily miss them but don't account for them as strongly as we do because again, once encapsulated, the flaw isn't visible. Raw books purchased from us are easily opened up and our buyers do see those flaws.

I have no idea whether that's relevant to this book or not, and not saying it is--just pointing out that in my experience those interior and sometimes spine defects are often responsible for the largest difference of opinion between us and CGC.

I would say that "staple rust" is another place where MCS is more likely to hit the grade than CGC.  As both a buyer and seller of MCS raw books, I've made my peace with the tight grading.  If a book is worth several hundred dollars or more, sure, have it slabbed before sending it in.  But for books worth $50 to a few hundred dollars, the tight grading is well worth the opportunity to sell it at MCS.  I sent a batch of mid-price raw books to MCS, and they ultimately sold for about 500% of what my LCS offered me.  If anyone thinks the grading is too tight, they should put them in auction and let the market decide.  That tends to work out fairly well compared to the alternative of selling them raw on Ebay.  On the buying side, I enjoy buying MCS stock books that have a grade but don't have an image.  It's like opening a mystery box every time, and usually it's a pleasant outcome.  

[Happy Noodle Boy]

I have a bunch of raw golden age stuff to sell--EC's, Marvel Family, pre-code horror--and I'm considering consigning with MCS since I don't want the hassle or the risk of using ebay. But I'm not much of a grader and since MCS seems to grade pretty strictly anyway, my grade estimates would probably end up being too high compared to theirs. This means it would be difficult for me to come up with the right consignment price for my books. Since MCS is going to grade the books themselves anyway, would it be possible to ask them to set the consignment price at FMV, whatever that would be, based on the grades they've given my books?

[KCOComics]

On 10/29/2023 at 3:28 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I have a bunch of raw golden age stuff to sell--EC's, Marvel Family, pre-code horror--and I'm considering consigning with MCS since I don't want the hassle or the risk of using ebay. But I'm not much of a grader and since MCS seems to grade pretty strictly anyway, my grade estimates would probably end up being too high compared to theirs. This means it would be difficult for me to come up with the right consignment price for my books. Since MCS is going to grade the books themselves anyway, would it be possible to ask them to set the consignment price at FMV, whatever that would be, based on the grades they've given my books?

Yes, I believe they will provide guidance. 

I would also ask them about having the books graded. The PCH / EC are likely worth the cost. And MCS can send them in for you.

What you give up is time. It could take several weeks to get them back from CGC and up for sale. 

[Bird]

On 10/29/2023 at 3:28 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I have a bunch of raw golden age stuff to sell--EC's, Marvel Family, pre-code horror--and I'm considering consigning with MCS since I don't want the hassle or the risk of using ebay. But I'm not much of a grader and since MCS seems to grade pretty strictly anyway, my grade estimates would probably end up being too high compared to theirs. This means it would be difficult for me to come up with the right consignment price for my books. Since MCS is going to grade the books themselves anyway, would it be possible to ask them to set the consignment price at FMV, whatever that would be, based on the grades they've given my books?

they grade the books, then you price them. You don't have to price them now.

[mycomicshop]

The consignor pricing his own books is the default, but we are happy to price books for the consignor if they prefer.

[shadroch]

I won four books in Monday's auction.  I paid by Zelle on Tuesday and had the books in hand on Friday.

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 10/29/2023 at 12:16 PM, mycomicshop said:

The consignor pricing his own books is the default, but we are happy to price books for the consignor if they prefer.

Thanks, that's really helpful. I want to get a reasonable price for them, but I also don't want them to sit for a long time. I'll probably be consigning these books with you guys soon.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Happy Noodle Boy

[ttfitz]

On 10/29/2023 at 3:28 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I have a bunch of raw golden age stuff to sell--EC's, Marvel Family, pre-code horror--and I'm considering consigning with MCS since I don't want the hassle or the risk of using ebay. But I'm not much of a grader and since MCS seems to grade pretty strictly anyway, my grade estimates would probably end up being too high compared to theirs. This means it would be difficult for me to come up with the right consignment price for my books. Since MCS is going to grade the books themselves anyway, would it be possible to ask them to set the consignment price at FMV, whatever that would be, based on the grades they've given my books?

Once they get your books ready for sale, you then set your price. They give you a good bit of guidance to help you out, things like what is currently listed on their site, recent sales, etc. Here's an example:

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 10/30/2023 at 12:23 AM, ttfitz said:

Once they get your books ready for sale, you then set your price. They give you a good bit of guidance to help you out, things like what is currently listed on their site, recent sales, etc. Here's an example:

That's really, really useful, thank you!

[BigLeagueCHEW]

Bought a book a few weeks ago from the site. Smooth transaction and received the book within a few days.

[FigaroToe]

I'm considering sending in some slabs for consignment...I'm just wondering how well modern (i.e. in the last 5 or so years) books do? I have a good amount of rare variants to modern books (like All-New Wolverine 19 here) that are 9.8 slabs. Just wondering if it's worth it to send them in.

[mycomicshop]

On 11/3/2023 at 6:32 PM, FigaroToe said:

I'm considering sending in some slabs for consignment...I'm just wondering how well modern (i.e. in the last 5 or so years) books do? I have a good amount of rare variants to modern books (like All-New Wolverine 19 here) that are 9.8 slabs. Just wondering if it's worth it to send them in.

I'm biased but I think it's accurate to say there's no better venue than us for books like that. We have the largest audience for them, across the MCS website plus cross listing to ebay, so getting 100-110-120% of market via BIN is pretty easy and often sells pretty quick if priced at or close to market. The stuff that lingers and doesn't move is usually priced well above market. 
 

Variants can also do well in auction, especially if they're rare enough there isn't a clearly established market price. We have sufficient qty of people watching and interested in modern variants to drive them to good prices. As always there's more variability with auctions than BIN--you can have a rare item go for 150-200% of what you expected, or it can go for less than what you could have got with a fair BIN asking price. 

[Ryan.]

If the variant happens to have good girl art on the cover it will sell almost immediately. 

[speedcake]

I don't want my critique of the grading standards I experienced to make it seem like I have had anything but a good experience with dealing with MCS so far. They are great, IMO. For both buying and selling. Can only wish everyone else conducted themselves as well as they do.

[The humble Watcher lurking]

I love this store. Grading is very good, plus you can save so much money with shipping.  Way better than eBay. Highly recommend. 

[Hamlet]

On 10/29/2023 at 2:28 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I have a bunch of raw golden age stuff to sell--EC's, Marvel Family, pre-code horror--and I'm considering consigning with MCS since I don't want the hassle or the risk of using ebay. But I'm not much of a grader and since MCS seems to grade pretty strictly anyway, my grade estimates would probably end up being too high compared to theirs. This means it would be difficult for me to come up with the right consignment price for my books. Since MCS is going to grade the books themselves anyway, would it be possible to ask them to set the consignment price at FMV, whatever that would be, based on the grades they've given my books?

One helpful thing at MCS is that they allow you to look at their sales history for other copies of the books you are selling, so that you can see what your book has gone for in the past in similar grades.  If you’re selling books that trade hands often, that will give you a pretty clear indication of reasonable pricing.

[Nick Furious]

On 11/4/2023 at 3:27 PM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

I love this store. Grading is very good, plus you can save so much money with shipping.  Way better than eBay. Highly recommend. 

Another thing I find very valuable is that MCS keeps an online history of your purchases.  I can sort it by title or by date and see everything I ever purchased from them going back to my first purchase in July 2019.  More than 4 years later I can still open that link and save the MCS images of that book on my computer.  That image could be used to sell the book through another venue such as Ebay.  That won't be necessary though, coincidentally that July 2019 purchase recently went back to MCS as one of my consignment items.  But I also will be able to get my original purchase cost off the MCS website for tax purposes when the book does sell.  I can't remember the last time I made an online comic purchase through anyone other than MCS.  I like having an industry-respected grade on my raw comics.  I like the way they operate, and I like having all of my purchase information and images easily accessible for years after I've made the purchase.