Throwing Money Away 6 6

[toro]

On 6/27/2022 at 6:46 PM, Lightning55 said:

A lot of those, as auctions, that's what you get.  Auctions have no power anymore.  Too bad.  It used to be like the Wild West years ago, now more like a ghost town.

As I was scanning through, I saw an ASM 316 9.6 go for $9.99 plus shipping.  What's with that???  https://www.ebay.com/itm/304545134080?

Then I see that the seller auctions some slabs with starting bids of $9.99.  I bet this one got listed as a Fixed Price instead, and someone picked it off.  It does show as sold, not as "ended". 

Only took 7 minutes and 33 seconds from list to sale.  I wonder if the seller explained the mistake, or actually sold it for $9.99.  Ouch.

I saw that one too.  I doubt the sale went through.

 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

On 6/28/2022 at 12:00 AM, NP_Gresham said:

Why anyone would submit a Copper or later book and not use a 9.8 pre-screen is beyond me.

@greggy

[joeypost]

On 6/28/2022 at 10:30 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

@greggy

In some cases you would still come out ahead compared to paying the CGC reject fees. 

[MattrixAlien]

To be honest when I got back into the hobby it took me a while to understand that slabbing doesn't make every book valuable, like renovating a house. The reality is quite the opposite. Unless it's already a book with some value above a certain condition you will not be adding any value to it. For example, even a key like ASM298 (1st McFarlane Spidey & Venom cameo) if it's not above a 7.5, a raw is worth just as much as a slabbed, the last time I checked. Fortunately we don't have CGC down here so I didn't get the chance to throw my money away 

[lou_fine]

On 6/27/2022 at 1:33 PM, jsilverjanet said:

there are over 4000+ items sold under that criteria (graded CGC and less than $24) in the last 90 days

Well, my bet is that it's much more than 4,000+ items and at least well into 5-figures if you include the cost of shipping and also toss in the cost of pressing that some of these slabbed books might have gone through.     

[lou_fine]

On 6/27/2022 at 8:32 PM, jcjames said:

I see your 1.8 and raise, err, lower you a 1.0

 

Err, I see your CGC 1.0 and raise you a restored raw Good condition book:  

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/adventure-comics-38-dc-1939-condition-apparent-gd/a/122207-13010.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115

Seriously though, why waste both your money and time (months on end    TAT) getting books like this graded and slabbed when you can simply sell them raw and fetch $4,320 or something approaching 12X unrestored condition guide.    

Edited June 30, 2022 by lou_fine

[Lightning55]

On 6/30/2022 at 12:48 AM, lou_fine said:

Well, my bet is that it's much more than 4,000+ items and at least well into 5-figures

What would lead you to believe that the number 4,000+ is wrong, and would be several time higher? 

I just checked the search and set the item counter per page to 240.  There were 17 full pages (4080) and 44 on the 18th page, so 4124. 

Don't know how you arrive at a larger number.  It is what it is.  Unless you think eBay doesn't report all the sales, arbitrarily.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Lightning55

[lou_fine]

On 6/29/2022 at 11:12 PM, Lightning55 said:

What would lead you to believe that the number 4,000+ is wrong, and would be several time higher? 

I just checked the search and set the item counter per page to 240.  There were 17 full pages (4080) and 44 on the 18th page, so 4124. 

Is that because you are basing it on only $24 for the cost of slabbing, because if you had read my post, I was also factoring in the cost of shipping plus pressing which would definitely bring the full total cost to more than $24?  

[Lightning55]

On 6/30/2022 at 2:29 AM, lou_fine said:

Is that because you are basing it on only $24 for the cost of slabbing, because if you had read my post, I was also factoring in the cost of shipping plus pressing which would definitely bring the full total cost to more than $24?  

I did read it, but missed the meaning of the additional costs increasing the $24 base break-even figure.  Agree with your post.

And could also include costs like Fast Track and custom labels, and grading itself higher than $24 if not Modern.  Not to mention the original value of the comic raw (although maybe negligible in most cases).

[godzilla43]

Here is one slabbing gone wrong example. If you look in Ebays sold items Bloodstone 1. There is two CGC 9.2 sold for like 210-220$ and one raw which is advertised as VF/NM which sold for 375$.

Bloodstone 1 is a better candidate for slabbing than I dunno lets say 95% of comics that are slabbed but still if you are going to send it for grading then first send it to clean&press and for 9.8 pre-screen.

There is no potential buyer who thinks that your raw copy will have restoration even if it looks NM. If the comic book would be from the 70s then maybe but from 2000s no.

[jsilverjanet]

On 7/1/2022 at 3:41 AM, godzilla43 said:

There is two CGC 9.2 sold for like 210-220$ and one raw which is advertised as VF/NM which sold for 375$.

there are some additional factors for this

is the raw seller a known undergrader? when did those auctions end

is that 375 the norm or the outlier

 

[godzilla43]

Yeah, there are some factors probably but the point was that you probably will make more money if you just sell it raw.

[lostboys]

I like having cool covers slabbed.

So in my Xmen collection I have issues 212 and 213 - cgc 9.4s....but I also have reader copies.

They are not big money books but they look cool slabbed and they add a little "pop" to the run if I ever wanna sell.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

[lou_fine]

On 7/5/2022 at 5:42 AM, lostboys said:

I like having cool covers slabbed.

They are not big money books but they look cool slabbed and they add a little "pop" to the run if I ever wanna sell.

I guess it's really a case of to each their own when it comes to storage and presentation of their books.  

Personally, I prefer to have them encased in glossy mylar where they present so beautifully, as opposed to a bulky CGC case which makes it seem so much more like an industrialized commercial product for sale.    

[shadroch]

I guess it is a personal preference but when people say they like how a book looks in a slab, I wish I could look thru their eyes. I just don't see what they do.

[valiantman]

On 6/30/2022 at 1:12 AM, Lightning55 said:

On 6/29/2022 at 11:48 PM, lou_fine said:

Well, my bet is that it's much more than 4,000+ items and at least well into 5-figures

What would lead you to believe that the number 4,000+ is wrong, and would be several time higher? 

I just checked the search and set the item counter per page to 240.  There were 17 full pages (4080) and 44 on the 18th page, so 4124. 

Don't know how you arrive at a larger number.  It is what it is.  Unless you think eBay doesn't report all the sales, arbitrarily.

A simple example would be that any CGC book sold on eBay for $25 (since your search stopped at $24) which had free shipping would be a much worse sale than a $24 sale with $12 for shipping.  That could be hundreds (or thousands) of additional slabs if there was a way to add the CGC sales with free shipping and search up to $35 sales (since the cost of shipping doesn't equal profit).

Another example would be something like a $30 CGC slab sale on eBay where the seller spent an extra $10 to press the book before slabbing.  There's no way to know, but it surely happens, because some people who "slab everything" are also "press everything" people.

 

[Lord Gemini]

On 7/5/2022 at 7:42 AM, lostboys said:

I like having cool covers slabbed.

So in my Xmen collection I have issues 212 and 213 - cgc 9.4s....but I also have reader copies.

They are not big money books but they look cool slabbed and they add a little "pop" to the run if I ever wanna sell.

Same here. Some people don't like how books look slabbed, but I don't understand them.

[Axe Elf]

I don't mind how the outside of a book looks in a slab; I just hate that the slabbing process makes the inside of the comic disappear.

It seems to fly straight in the face of the wise old proverb warning against judging a book by its cover.

[Lord Gemini]

On 7/5/2022 at 1:57 PM, Axe Elf said:

I don't mind how the outside of a book looks in a slab; I just hate that the slabbing process makes the inside of the comic disappear.

It seems to fly straight in the face of the wise old proverb warning against judging a book by its cover.

Many books I DO judge by their cover though. I love a great story, but I also love a great cover.