Consigning Raw Books to Comic Link Experiences 0

[telerites]

I have a lot of GA and SA raw books that I am wanting to sell and was wondering what experiences folks have had with CL raw consignments.  This isn't a which venue is best for my books as we have had many of those and maybe one like this but I do not remember it but I rarely stray into the CG forum.

Due some personal issues that exhaust much of my time and energy, I am looking for alternatives that do not require me to grade the books and list and sell the books myself.  I would explore options like Mycomicshop but I still need to assess if MCS will accept the book and if so, grade and record books myself if I am not mistaken; yet still would be graded by MCS @mycomicshop (tagging Conan).  The same may be true for CL.  I am just looking at their selling options from their website and since I tagged Conan probably appropriate to tag Josh although I am not sure how active he is here @COMICLINK and the following in the spoiler is what it says for the option I am considering but before I contacted them directly outside of the tag here.

Spoiler

Selling Option #2

This option is popular among those with items they would like to sell, but without the time or knowledge necessary to accurately grade and/or price them.

Services Provided to the Seller

1. Storage
2. Listing or Auctioning
3. Grading
4. Pricing recommendations
5. Price guide calculations
6. Scanning of key items - all consigned items worth $500 or more will be scanned within one week of receipt. Other consigned items will be scanned as time allows.
7. Credit card processing
8. Safe packaging and insured shipping to buyers (including provision of shipping materials)
9. Escrow Service
10. You will also benefit from our large customer base and advertising expenditures.

Requirements

1. Normally, the seller will give ComicLink the right to sell the consigned books for a minimum period of six months. Other arrangements may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Listing Fees

None

Other Fees

There are no fees unless ComicLink sells your books for you. After the sale, ComicLink charges a flat seller commission as low as 10% TOTAL so the seller can receive a full 90% of the price the buyer pays for an item! It is important to note that ComicLink DOES NOT charge an exhorbitant buyer fees/commmission that you will find elsewhere that will eat into your profits as a seller.

If interested in what we have to offer, or if you have any questions about this service and need further clarification, please phone us at 617-517-0062.

So any experiences?  I assume they price the books themselves as well assign the grades.  Do they accept any and all or do you send a list and let them pick?  A small group of books I am wanting to sell in the spoiler below (please no PMs).  Tried to give a range of genres and desirability in the pic.  Not all crappy stuff.  SA stuff is mainly Marvel hero titles.

Spoiler

And is payment painless and fairly prompt?  Any other alternatives? 

Thanks for any input.

[musicmeta]

It's been a while since I've listed and sold any raw books on CLink via their exchange site.  The one or two books that sold went pretty smoothly.  You don't even have to send your books into them until it's sold from a buyer. 
it does take a while to receive payment from Clink though after you mail in the sold book.  I think it took me a couple of months before I got paid.  Something like that.

[djpinkpanther67]

[mycomicshop]

The only reason we would not accept a raw silver or gold book for consignment is if the value is too low. Our minimum commission for a raw book is $7, so we don't want people who don't know what they're doing us mailing us a bunch of beat up $5 and $10 comics to consign. 
 

The grade you pick when recording raws for consignment isn't important for anything other than estimating value to determine if it's above the min value to consign. As long as you know what you're doing, we don't care if you want to send in a $20 or $30 raw as a consignment.

You'll be paid within one week of the buyer's order shipping, which is usually within one business day of them ordering unless they chose to pay by check or bank transfer, in which case they have two week to get the payment in. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by mycomicshop

[PopKulture]

On 11/1/2021 at 10:47 AM, mycomicshop said:

The only reason we would not accept a raw silver or gold book for consignment is if the value is too low. Our minimum commission for a raw book is $7, so we don't want people who don't know what they're doing us mailing us a bunch of beat up $5 and $10 comics to consign. 
 

The grade you pick when recording raws for consignment isn't important for anything other than estimating value to determine if it's above the min value to consign. As long as you know what you're doing, we don't care if you want to send in a $20 or $30 raw as a consignment.

You'll be paid within one week of the buyer's order shipping, which is usually within one business day of them ordering unless they chose to pay bu check or bank transfer, in which case they have two week to get the payment in. 

Once the payment has been made to the consignor within that one week after the sale, does that imply you’ll keep the book if a return is made? And simply leave the consignor whole?  
 
This would make sense in that you obviously have a large customer base and another sale might be expected soon after the return (save perhaps if we ever experience a bearish comic market again!).

[Ryan.]

On 11/1/2021 at 11:58 AM, PopKulture said:

Once the payment has been made to the consignor within that one week after the sale, does that imply you’ll keep the book if a return is made? And simply leave the consignor whole?  

Yes.

[telerites]

On 11/1/2021 at 10:31 AM, musicmeta said:

It's been a while since I've listed and sold any raw books on CLink via their exchange site.  The one or two books that sold went pretty smoothly.  You don't even have to send your books into them until it's sold from a buyer. 
it does take a while to receive payment from Clink though after you mail in the sold book.  I think it took me a couple of months before I got paid.  Something like that.

I wasn't sure you could still list raw books to the Exchange without sending them but even if you could, that wouldn't solve my problem.  I really don't have time nor want to go through the effort of grading and listing and sending a book at a time if one sells.  

[mycomicshop]

On 11/1/2021 at 9:58 AM, PopKulture said:

Once the payment has been made to the consignor within that one week after the sale, does that imply you’ll keep the book if a return is made? And simply leave the consignor whole?  
 
This would make sense in that you obviously have a large customer base and another sale might be expected soon after the return (save perhaps if we ever experience a bearish comic market again!).

Correct, we'd keep the book if it was returned and resell it ourselves so the consignor isn't bothered.

[telerites]

On 11/1/2021 at 10:47 AM, mycomicshop said:

The only reason we would not accept a raw silver or gold book for consignment is if the value is too low. Our minimum commission for a raw book is $7, so we don't want people who don't know what they're doing us mailing us a bunch of beat up $5 and $10 comics to consign. 
 

The grade you pick when recording raws for consignment isn't important for anything other than estimating value to determine if it's above the min value to consign. As long as you know what you're doing, we don't care if you want to send in a $20 or $30 raw as a consignment.

You'll be paid within one week of the buyer's order shipping, which is usually within one business day of them ordering unless they chose to pay by check or bank transfer, in which case they have two week to get the payment in. 

Hi Conan.  Thanks for weighing in.  I have sent books in before for auction and all went well.  Not sure I understand your first sentence here - not all GA/SA books have a value below $7.  And what happens when someone over-estimates a book, do you return the book at the owner's expense?  I believe too there is an override feature so can't someone use that feature to send in books that may a lower value than you want?  I am going by memory from some time ago.  

Still even recording and grading myself doesn't solve my problem.  I guess what I hoping is a venue that grades for me and I would be willing to incur a higher SP for that.  Books of lower values could be grouped together and sold as lots all at the consignment shop's discretion. 

[shadroch]

You seem to be complicating things

Grab a book, give it a quick visual grade. Lets say it's an Revengers 54.  You look at MCS buy/consign list.  The listing says they accept books in 4.0 or higher.

Is your book a 4.0 or higher?  If so, you can send it in. It doesn't matter what you grade it, they will grade it and then you choose the price you want.  If that is too time consuming for you, look on the same page to see what they are buying it for.  It's generally well less than what you can sell it for on consignment but it is quick and payment will also be quick.  Selling on consignment takes more time but is more profitable. 

MCS gets $7 minimum for selling a raw book so if your book only sells for $10, you clear $3.  That is so people don't send in low value books and clog the system with their graders working on thousands of near worthless books. 

I was very disappointed in the time it took Comic Link to pay after the auction closed.  MCS is usually very quick to pay,although lately that isn't the case.

Edited November 1, 2021 by shadroch

[thehumantorch]

On 11/1/2021 at 10:27 AM, telerites said:

Hi Conan.  Thanks for weighing in.  I have sent books in before for auction and all went well.  Not sure I understand your first sentence here - not all GA/SA books have a value below $7.  And what happens when someone over-estimates a book, do you return the book at the owner's expense?  I believe too there is an override feature so can't someone use that feature to send in books that may a lower value than you want?  I am going by memory from some time ago.  

Still even recording and grading myself doesn't solve my problem.  I guess what I hoping is a venue that grades for me and I would be willing to incur a higher SP for that.  Books of lower values could be grouped together and sold as lots all at the consignment shop's discretion. 

Not sure if you've seen our recent thread on mycomicshop.  Perhaps it will help.

 

[telerites]

On 11/1/2021 at 12:20 PM, thehumantorch said:

Not sure if you've seen our recent thread on mycomicshop.  Perhaps it will help.

 

Yes, I did indeed.  But again, I am wanting basically to pay for a service that grades, lists and sells.  But of course, it was helpful to read through, Dave and thanks for sharing it. 

 

On 11/1/2021 at 12:12 PM, shadroch said:

You seem to be complicating things

Grab a book, give it a quick visual grade. Lets say it's an Revengers 54.  You look at MCS buy/consign list.  The listing says they accept books in 4.0 or higher.

Is your book a 4.0 or higher?  If so, you can send it in. It doesn't matter what you grade it, they will grade it and then you choose the price you want.  If that is too time consuming for you, look on the same page to see what they are buying it for.  It's generally well less than what you can sell it for on consignment but it is quick and payment will also be quick.  Selling on consignment takes more time but is more profitable. 

MCS gets $7 minimum for selling a raw book so if your book only sells for $10, you clear $3.  That is so people don't send in low value books and clog the system with their graders working on thousands of near worthless books. 

I was very disappointed in the time it took Comic Link to pay after the auction closed.  MCS is usually very quick to pay,although lately that isn't the case.

It seems simple, Shad and most likely is.  I have boxes and boxes of books that I want to clear out.  Here's the deal and I have shared it before.  I watch after my 84 year old mom who suffers from dementia.  It is a 24/7 exhaustive experience and I mean that literally not figuratively.  She hallucinates constantly and is delusional 100% of the time.  It is a horrible disease.  Her sister suffered also but her symptoms began when was in her 90s and did not hallucinate.  My cousins kept saying you can't imagine and I couldn't.  There really is no escape.  My cousins after three years of caretaking finally put my aunt in a memory care center (a glorified name for a nursing center that doesn't get any better care) and a few months later (last October), she contracted COVID and passed away.  

So that is what I am dealing with and why I am trying to find a path of least effort to pare down my collection. 

P.S. Right after I retired six years ago, I had some major health problems.  So I get back on my feet, I get hit with this.  So I sell my place and move in to watch after her and will continue to do so as long as my health and sanity hold out.  I just feel putting her in a nursing memory care center is like a death sentence.  Rough duty.

Edited November 1, 2021 by telerites

[Vixom]

If you price it fmv or below it will sell fast and you will get paid slow. If you are well off enough then waiting a few weeks or months might not matter. Personally I would cherry pick the high grades and keys and sell the rest to collectors. Find a marvel guy or two and dc guy and call it a day. Silver and gold is easy. It only takes 5 seconds to know if a book is worth pulling out of the bag. You don't need to grade them dead on. Just in the ballpark to know if they are worth sending to a auction house to send to cgc or worth your time to sell single issue or run. 

 

[mycomicshop]

On 11/1/2021 at 9:27 AM, telerites said:

Hi Conan.  Thanks for weighing in.  I have sent books in before for auction and all went well.  Not sure I understand your first sentence here - not all GA/SA books have a value below $7.  And what happens when someone over-estimates a book, do you return the book at the owner's expense?  I believe too there is an override feature so can't someone use that feature to send in books that may a lower value than you want?  I am going by memory from some time ago.  

Still even recording and grading myself doesn't solve my problem.  I guess what I hoping is a venue that grades for me and I would be willing to incur a higher SP for that.  Books of lower values could be grouped together and sold as lots all at the consignment shop's discretion. 

If you want to put in the minimum effort, you could record all your books at the grade we have highlighted in green, which is "typical grade", our estimate of the most commonly seen grade based on the age of the comic. Them submit all for consignment that are eligible. Once we check in and grade your books, any that fall too low in value to be consignable, we can return to you at your cost, or we can make an offer to buy them. 
 

The override option is for offering us books where our system's estimate of value may be too low. You list the item and point us to data showing the value. If we agree then we accept it for consignment.

We also allow consignors to offer runs of books for multi item lots. 

We previously offered a "full service" option that charged a higher commission (25%) and let consignors send in boxes of stuff that we would sort into three groups and handle for them: individually consignable items, multi item lots we constructed, and the remainder not suitable for either that we would offer to buy. That option has been turned off since the start of COVID because of staff constraints and a surge in standard consignment commissions--we just haven't had the time for that more labor intensive setup on our end. We may reopen that at some point, but you can make more using the standard consignment option with a little upfront work. I don't think comiclink or anybody else is interested in sorting through boxes of relatively low value material to maximize them for you--we already have more options at the low end of the price spectrum, and for handling raws, than anybody else. 

[telerites]

Thanks all for the comments.  Just to give an example of what has become a typical occurrence with my mom's condition.  She hallucinates 100% of the time from a little girl living in the kitchen trash can to people coming through her closet and trying clothes and I could keep going.  She is constantly throwing her clothes in piles or putting them in bags which I think is to hide them from others trying them on.  She is unable to dress herself and constantly puts shirts on her legs and so on.  You really cannot imagine what she comes up with.  Just a murky mess in her mind.

She fixates on wanting to go home and when you ask where she is at, she says home but then follows up can you take me home.  Last night it was through the night - just non-stop.  She becomes defensive and combative.  She has lived in this house in 1972.  My dad is 93 and they have been married since 1962 but she doesn't know who he is.  Part of her dementia is Capgras Syndrome or the imposter syndrome where loved ones have been replaced with others.  

Up until a few weeks ago, she would always recognize me but there now have been a couple of times when she did not know me.  I have to cut up her food to make it easier to eat - it really is like dealing with an infant.  

My dad has been somewhat dispassionate and his health is not great.  He should be on dialysis but refuses.  So on top of all this, I maintain the household by doing laundry, cleaning, outside chores like mowing, gardening and such. 

 So while many suggestions may seem more effortless, dealing with this not takes an incredible of time, you get little sleep and you are emotionally drained. 

Not a simple life.

TMI, I am sure but just wanted to add clarity so folks could more understand why I was looking for the most effortless option.  I do appreciate all who have weighed in and the PMs of support.  

[mycomicshop]

I'm so sorry to hear that your mom and dad and you are going through all that. That must be so painful and draining. 

[KCOComics]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:32 AM, telerites said:

Thanks all for the comments.  Just to give an example of what has become a typical occurrence with my mom's condition.  She hallucinates 100% of the time from a little girl living in the kitchen trash can to people coming through her closet and trying clothes and I could keep going.  She is constantly throwing her clothes in piles or putting them in bags which I think is to hide them from others trying them on.  She is unable to dress herself and constantly puts shirts on her legs and so on.  You really cannot imagine what she comes up with.  Just a murky mess in her mind.

She fixates on wanting to go home and when you ask where she is at, she says home but then follows up can you take me home.  Last night it was through the night - just non-stop.  She becomes defensive and combative.  She has lived in this house in 1972.  My dad is 93 and they have been married since 1962 but she doesn't know who he is.  Part of her dementia is Capgras Syndrome or the imposter syndrome where loved ones have been replaced with others.  

Up until a few weeks ago, she would always recognize me but there now have been a couple of times when she did not know me.  I have to cut up her food to make it easier to eat - it really is like dealing with an infant.  

My dad has been somewhat dispassionate and his health is not great.  He should be on dialysis but refuses.  So on top of all this, I maintain the household by doing laundry, cleaning, outside chores like mowing, gardening and such. 

 So while many suggestions may seem more effortless, dealing with this not takes an incredible of time, you get little sleep and you are emotionally drained. 

Not a simple life.

TMI, I am sure but just wanted to add clarity so folks could more understand why I was looking for the most effortless option.  I do appreciate all who have weighed in and the PMs of support.  

I'm so sorry to hear your dealing with all this. I've had family go through similar things, though I wasn't the primary care taker. It's heart breaking. 

[djpinkpanther67]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:32 AM, telerites said:

Thanks all for the comments.  Just to give an example of what has become a typical occurrence with my mom's condition.  She hallucinates 100% of the time from a little girl living in the kitchen trash can to people coming through her closet and trying clothes and I could keep going.  She is constantly throwing her clothes in piles or putting them in bags which I think is to hide them from others trying them on.  She is unable to dress herself and constantly puts shirts on her legs and so on.  You really cannot imagine what she comes up with.  Just a murky mess in her mind.

She fixates on wanting to go home and when you ask where she is at, she says home but then follows up can you take me home.  Last night it was through the night - just non-stop.  She becomes defensive and combative.  She has lived in this house in 1972.  My dad is 93 and they have been married since 1962 but she doesn't know who he is.  Part of her dementia is Capgras Syndrome or the imposter syndrome where loved ones have been replaced with others.  

Up until a few weeks ago, she would always recognize me but there now have been a couple of times when she did not know me.  I have to cut up her food to make it easier to eat - it really is like dealing with an infant.  

My dad has been somewhat dispassionate and his health is not great.  He should be on dialysis but refuses.  So on top of all this, I maintain the household by doing laundry, cleaning, outside chores like mowing, gardening and such. 

 So while many suggestions may seem more effortless, dealing with this not takes an incredible of time, you get little sleep and you are emotionally drained. 

Not a simple life.

TMI, I am sure but just wanted to add clarity so folks could more understand why I was looking for the most effortless option.  I do appreciate all who have weighed in and the PMs of support.  

My mom passed from Alzheimer’s three years ago. The last year of her life was horrible 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 11/3/2021 at 10:16 AM, djpinkpanther67 said:

On 11/2/2021 at 10:32 AM, telerites said:

Thanks all for the comments.  Just to give an example of what has become a typical occurrence with my mom's condition.  She hallucinates 100% of the time from a little girl living in the kitchen trash can to people coming through her closet and trying clothes and I could keep going.  She is constantly throwing her clothes in piles or putting them in bags which I think is to hide them from others trying them on.  She is unable to dress herself and constantly puts shirts on her legs and so on.  You really cannot imagine what she comes up with.  Just a murky mess in her mind.

She fixates on wanting to go home and when you ask where she is at, she says home but then follows up can you take me home.  Last night it was through the night - just non-stop.  She becomes defensive and combative.  She has lived in this house in 1972.  My dad is 93 and they have been married since 1962 but she doesn't know who he is.  Part of her dementia is Capgras Syndrome or the imposter syndrome where loved ones have been replaced with others.  

Up until a few weeks ago, she would always recognize me but there now have been a couple of times when she did not know me.  I have to cut up her food to make it easier to eat - it really is like dealing with an infant.  

My dad has been somewhat dispassionate and his health is not great.  He should be on dialysis but refuses.  So on top of all this, I maintain the household by doing laundry, cleaning, outside chores like mowing, gardening and such. 

 So while many suggestions may seem more effortless, dealing with this not takes an incredible of time, you get little sleep and you are emotionally drained. 

Not a simple life.

TMI, I am sure but just wanted to add clarity so folks could more understand why I was looking for the most effortless option.  I do appreciate all who have weighed in and the PMs of support.  

Expand  

My mom passed from Alzheimer’s three years ago. The last year of her life was horrible 

My Grandad died of Alzheimer's about 4 years ago and then a year or 2 later, my uncle died riding a motorcycle. The Alzheimer's was one thing, long and patient, then the out of the blue  

Life conditions us, sometimes our help only comes from above.  

[shadroch]

My Moms two sitsers went thru something very similar. They were diagnosed with calilcification of the brain, where your nerves turn to calcium and no longer work. The result is your brain recieves incomplete data and is forced to guess what the eyes are telling them. The eyes send the code that they are seeing a dog, but the missing nerve endings garble the message and what arrives to the brain doesn't make sense so it searches for the closest thing the code is sending- which might be ice cream, television or flying oak trees.

It is truly horrible for the cargivers. It was even worse for my one Aunt as she must have realized she herself was beginning to suffer even as she was the main caregiver. Before the disease, the two of them lived on a cruise ship for almost two years, enjoying their well earned retirement. 

My Mom was beginning to show some signs, plus she was legally blind so she was double whammied. Seeing things that weren't there and not seeing things that were.

Mercifully, her heart wore out before her brain. I'm sure she would have wanted it that way.