Need Advice on My Comic Shop Consignment 3 3

[Happy Noodle Boy]

So I'm consigning a bunch of golden age books to My Comic Shop, and on one of them--Haunt of Fear #15-- their graders found trimming on the bottom edge. They graded it at a 5.0, though I would say it presents nicely for the grade. My question is, given the prejudice against trimming in the hobby, should I bother trying to sell this book at all? Their pricing guidance isn't a lot of help in this case, as the suggested prices are for non-restored books.I bought this book for maybe $500 at the height of the comic boom, because I really love Graham Ingels and this book had one of my favorite covers of his, and though I expect pretty much all my books to get a haircut in the current market, I really don't want to let this one go for pocket change. I'd rather have it back than sell it at a huge discount. I've attached pics: what do you guys think? Would the resto just kill all interest in this book? Should I ask for it back?

 

[comicstock]

If you love the book that much and not desperate for the $$$, hang on to it.  You can then look at it forever...or until the market goes back up...

By the way, that IS a great cover!  

[Telegan]

From recent sales, that book seems to fetch about $250-$300 for pretty much any grade under 5.0.  And that's in a blue label, not in purple, and on top of it, yours won't be slabbed.  That issue also isn't uncommon (by most GA standards, anyway), and there are plenty of higher grades out there of the issue (how often they'll come to market is another story).  If it were me, I'd keep it, but I don't know your situation.  Heck, if I owned a trimmed copy, with what they're selling for now, I'd probably try and buy another 5.0 assuming prices stay around where they are now since they seem to be popping up lately. lol. 

 

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 12/5/2023 at 5:21 PM, Telegan said:

From recent sales, that book seems to fetch about $250-$300 for pretty much any grade under 5.0.  And that's in a blue label, not in purple, and on top of it, yours won't be slabbed.  That issue also isn't uncommon (by most GA standards, anyway), and there are plenty of higher grades out there of the issue (how often they'll come to market is another story).  If it were me, I'd keep it, but I don't know your situation.  Heck, if I owned a trimmed copy, with what they're selling for now, I'd probably try and buy another 5.0 assuming prices stay around where they are now since they seem to be popping up lately. lol. 

 

Thanks for the reply, and the research you did! I'm trying to get out of golden age entirely, and to tell the truth I'd probably prefer a nice reprint of the book to buying another copy of the original. My heart is really in the bronze age anyway. I'm going to see if MCS is willing to make an offer on it.

[shadroch]

If MCs already has the book, why not  do the consignment, price it high and see if anyone makes an offer. 

[Lightning55]

I would want the book back to see this alleged trimming for myself, physically measure it against comparables,  and also gather other informed opinions from reputable dealers. You only have 1 opinion that it IS trimmed. 

Selling it on consignment with the trimming in the description is daunting at best. If your research proves that it is trimmed, you can weigh your options with more information. Not a lot to re-ship to MCS if you choose to go that route. 

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 12/5/2023 at 6:48 PM, shadroch said:

If MCs already has the book, why not  do the consignment, price it high and see if anyone makes an offer. 

I guess because I'm impatient? I really want to cash out of golden age immediately, and then use the MCS store credit from the sales to load up on bronze. (horror, Archies.) MCS grading is so tight that even though I'm a bit of a stickler for condition (I'm nothing like the crazy 9.8 brigade though) I can purchase anything they grade fine or better even without a picture and be sure I'm getting a nice looking book. Also I see plenty of consigned books on their site that have just been sitting there for ages, and with the trimming I have a bad feeling my book would sit forever too. Better to let MCS take it off my hands. So far half my consigned books sold in the first ten minutes! (Which makes me very happy.)

[shadroch]

On 12/5/2023 at 5:12 PM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I guess because I'm impatient? I really want to cash out of golden age immediately, and then use the MCS store credit from the sales to load up on bronze. (horror, Archies.) MCS grading is so tight that even though I'm a bit of a stickler for condition (I'm nothing like the crazy 9.8 brigade though) I can purchase anything they grade fine or better even without a picture and be sure I'm getting a nice looking book. Also I see plenty of consigned books on their site that have just been sitting there for ages, and with the trimming I have a bad feeling my book would sit forever too. Better to let MCS take it off my hands. So far half my consigned books sold in the first ten minutes! (Which makes me very happy.)

If your books are selling that fast, you are leaving money on the table.  

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 12/5/2023 at 7:07 PM, Lightning55 said:

I would want the book back to see this alleged trimming for myself, physically measure it against comparables,  and also gather other informed opinions from reputable dealers. You only have 1 opinion that it IS trimmed. 

Selling it on consignment with the trimming in the description is daunting at best. If your research proves that it is trimmed, you can weigh your options with more information. Not a lot to re-ship to MCS if you choose to go that route. 

That's a good point. But I'm bad at grading (at least, bad at grading in any way other than "this looks VF to me and I'm willing to pay a VF price for it") and I'm also, to be honest, lazy. Also I've had something of a comics epiphany of late: I discovered a Youtube channel called "Old Guys Who Like Old Comics" and it's made me really much more interested in comics as reading material than comics as precious collectibles with cool covers. I really would much prefer to just have a Gemstone reprint of the issue than the original.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Happy Noodle Boy

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 12/5/2023 at 7:25 PM, shadroch said:

If your books are selling that fast, you are leaving money on the table.  

It could be. But I've used MCS's sales guidance, pricing them a bit below other copies they have which have just been sitting for awhile. Also the books are pretty desirable: pre-code horror, pre-code crime, some EC's, some good girl stuff, all nice-presenting books with great covers. And I priced the half that hasn't sold yet using the same MCS guidance.

[shadroch]

Old eyes appreciate bigger print.

[stock_rotation]

On 12/5/2023 at 7:07 PM, Lightning55 said:

I would want the book back to see this alleged trimming for myself, physically measure it against comparables,  and also gather other informed opinions from reputable dealers. You only have 1 opinion that it IS trimmed. 

Selling it on consignment with the trimming in the description is daunting at best. If your research proves that it is trimmed, you can weigh your options with more information. Not a lot to re-ship to MCS if you choose to go that route. 

It looks obvious to me

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 12/5/2023 at 8:41 PM, stock_rotation said:

It looks obvious to me

Yeah, I never looked at the bottom edge that closely, but now that I am--I agree, that looks trimmed.

You win some, you lose some...

[Black_Adam]

If you want to sell it, you are going to have to take the resto hit. But you could ask MCS to send it to CGC for grading. It will still come back purple but I am guessing with a much higher grade than the 5.0 MCS gave it.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 12/5/2023 at 8:34 PM, Black_Adam said:

If you want to sell it, you are going to have to take the resto hit. But you could ask MCS to send it to CGC for grading. It will still come back purple but I am guessing with a much higher grade than the 5.0 MCS gave it.

That's the money shot, imo, but is a personal choice and whether worth the risk, I'd say so, and yet time and money too.

 

[Buzzetta]

On 12/5/2023 at 7:07 PM, Lightning55 said:

I would want the book back to see this alleged trimming for myself, physically measure it against comparables,  and also gather other informed opinions from reputable dealers. You only have 1 opinion that it IS trimmed. 

Selling it on consignment with the trimming in the description is daunting at best. If your research proves that it is trimmed, you can weigh your options with more information. Not a lot to re-ship to MCS if you choose to go that route. 

I am going to echo this.  

I put a EC Book that I was told might have been trimmed over in the "Please Grade Me" with the suspicion that it was trimmed.  

A lot of good eyes here assured me it was not.  I sent it off to CGC and it came back a Blue label 6.5

 

Check this out @Happy Noodle Boy as there was some useful information in here from other board members. 

 

[Nick Furious]

On 12/5/2023 at 3:19 PM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I really don't want to let this one go for pocket change. I'd rather have it back than sell it at a huge discount.

 

On 12/5/2023 at 4:44 PM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I'm going to see if MCS is willing to make an offer on it

Take a breath.  You've moved pretty quickly from one end of the spectrum to the opposite end.  You should be able to sell it quickly on consignment for more than MCS would give your for it.    

On 12/5/2023 at 5:48 PM, shadroch said:

If MCs already has the book, why not  do the consignment, price it high and see if anyone makes an offer. 

I would mostly agree with this, except the price it high part.  Maybe $500 OBO to start.  If PCH books have crashed in value, I'm not aware of that.  Personally, trimming doesn't bother me as much as it bothers the market as a whole, so when it comes to trimmed books I am more likely a buyer than a seller.  

Edited December 6, 2023 by Nick Furious

[Heronext]

In my opinion, any raws sold without disclosed restoration are implicitly guaranteed to be unrestored (not trimmed).  Any reputable seller (the person from whom you purchased it) should take it back if an outfit such as MCS thinks it's trimmed.  If you got it on eBay, of course the seller would have eBay's return window to hide behind, but if it were me, I'd take it back.  It's the right thing to do in a hobby where things like this can easily go unnoticed.  My reputation is worth more to me than one returned book.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Heronext

[Nick Furious]

On 12/5/2023 at 10:07 PM, Heronext said:

In my opinion, any raws sold without disclosed restoration are implicitly guaranteed to be unrestored (not trimmed).  Any reputable seller (the person from whom you purchased it) should take it back if an outfit such as MCS thinks it's trimmed.  If you got it on eBay, of course the seller would have eBay's return window to hide behind, but if it were me, I'd take it back.  It's the right thing to do in a hobby where things like this can easily go unnoticed.  My reputation is worth more to me than one returned book.

Forgive me for playing Devil's Advocate but let me challenge that with an extreme example:  I buy a book from you and 2 years later it has dropped 50% in value.  I can just trim the edges, have the trimming verified by MCS and send it back to you for the original purchase price?  

[Happy Noodle Boy]

On 12/5/2023 at 11:07 PM, Heronext said:

In my opinion, any raws sold without disclosed restoration are implicitly guaranteed to be unrestored (not trimmed).  Any reputable seller (the person from whom you purchased it) should take it back if an outfit such as MCS thinks it's trimmed.  If you got it on eBay, of course the seller would have eBay's return window to hide behind, but if it were me, I'd take it back.  It's the right thing to do in a hobby where things like this can easily go unnoticed.  My reputation is worth more to me than one returned book.

Well here's a game-changer, and I'm pretty freaking annoyed: your post inspired me to do some research to confirm where I purchased this book from. I had mixed up which EC books I purchased where, assuming this Haunt of Fear book was bought raw at a convention, but looking through my ebay history, it turns out that I bought it on ebay, SLABBED BY CGC, a blue label 6.0. I do crack out all my slabbed books, but didn't realize this was one of those. The trim looks obvious even to me now that I'm looking at it, but it obviously got by CGC.  The sale was long enough ago that ebay no longer has a good picture of the book, just a tiny postage stamp-size jpeg, but there it is in my purchase history.

Playing Devil's Advocate, even though it sure looks trimmed, is there any chance CGC could be right and MCS wrong?