kcm54 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 I'm getting along in years and am starting to sell off my personal collection, while I can still use the money. Mostly high-grade books 1970-1990, Marvel. The books fall into three categories 1. Utter junk (e.g. New Universe) 2. High-value books (e.g. ASM 129, GSXM 1) 3. The rest. Currently, I'm submitting anything that GoCollect has at $100 or more in a grade 2 below what I think I have. But I wonder about some books that are worth a bit at the 9.8 I hope to get, but maybe only $50 at 9.2, which is always possible. Does it make more sense just to sell them raw? Is there a discussion of this somewhere on the boards? The Search function doesn't work well with words like slab or raw. Additionally, where to sell? eBay is obvious. MCS has plusses and minuses (particularly that fixed value sales happen on eBay anyway, with a double commission). Lastly, what to do with the utter junk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat54 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 If you are going to sell I would say post them in the for sale threads on the CGC board it cost nothing to list . To get an opinion on grades post pics or scans in HEY BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE A GRADE here on the boards. Koschei and Chaz G. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadroch Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 (edited) What double commission are you talking about? Don't take this the wrong way, but if you aren't sure if a book is a 9.2 or a 9.8, you may need to do a lot more research before you start selling. Using gocollect to value your books is your first mistake. Edited April 23 by shadroch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcm54 Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 (edited) MCS marks up comics about 15% to post them on eBay (because they have to pay the eBay commission). So, if it sells there, I lose that 15%, plus MCS's normal 10% on top. If I post a price on MCS of $100, it gets listed on eBay for $115 and if it sells for that, I get $90. I find myself adjusting my price on MCS to compensate for the eBay markup. Maybe that's just the cost of doing business, but it affects what I put on MCS. Edited April 23 by kcm54 BingBangBong 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcm54 Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 On 4/23/2024 at 8:39 AM, topcat54 said: If you are going to sell I would say post them in the for sale threads on the CGC board it cost nothing to list . To get an opinion on grades post pics or scans in HEY BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE A GRADE here on the boards. Mostly my question is what to do about books that range from $40-$100 when slabbed but might sell for $10 raw. It might be that there are more people looking for raw books they can read than non-key slabs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadroch Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 On 4/23/2024 at 7:57 AM, kcm54 said: MCS marks up comics about 15% to post them on eBay (because they have to pay the eBay commission). So, if it sells there, I lose that 15%, plus MCS's normal 10% on top. If I post a price on MCS of $100, it gets listed on eBay for $115 and if it sells for that, I get $90. I find myself adjusting my price on MCS to compensate for the eBay markup. Maybe that's just the cost of doing business, but it affects what I put on MCS. That is not correct. If you send a book to MCS and price it at $100, you get $90 when it sells. How it sells or what it sells for has nothing to do with anything. You get the $90 you wanted. Why do you care if MCS sold it to a customer on their site or on ebay? You set the price and got the price you asked for. If MCS incurs more expenses in selling the book for you, you still get the price you wanted. As MCS eats the eBay and Paypal fees, you save money by selling through them and getting to piggyback on their sterling reputation. I've sold well over 100K via MCS and never once adjusted a price because of an eBay markup. BingBangBong 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcm54 Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 (edited) I guess it depends on how you look at it. If the question is "Should I sell on eBay or at MCS?" you have to consider this. Edited April 23 by kcm54 BingBangBong 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat54 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 On 4/23/2024 at 11:01 AM, kcm54 said: Mostly my question is what to do about books that range from $40-$100 when slabbed but might sell for $10 raw. It might be that there are more people looking for raw books they can read than non-key slabs. Lets think about this : first you have to ship the books to CGC then pay for grading then pay to have them shipped back Ship to CGC depending on how many books $ 15.00 to ? Cost to grade modern $ 25.00 ea vintage pre 1975 $ 40.00 each Ship back depending on how many slabs say $ 30 to ? If that was 1 book that has a value of $ 100.00 after grading you make $ 30.00 on 1 modern book is it worth it ? The high dollar books yes the $ 100 books I say no sell them raw. mpo Also remember if you use PAY PAL after $ 600.00 in sales you will get a 1099A so you may have to pay taxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadroch Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 On 4/23/2024 at 8:22 AM, kcm54 said: I guess it depends on how you look at it. If the question is "Should I sell on eBay or at MCS?" you have to consider this. When deciding where and how to sell a book, many factors must be considered. Imaginary double commissions shouldn't be one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revat Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 Most of these decisions are soooooo subjective. Just make sure you’re working with the best possible facts and assumptions. if it’s true junk you can Craigslist it super cheap like $10 per long box just to get rid of it and save you the space or drive to goodwill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texmurphy2099 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 for me personally, if I want to sell the book and I think it's worth over $500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayor006 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 So based on your original post we are talking about category 3 the rest. If this is a huge piece of your collection and what you want to cull the most you have lots of options. Typically I look at sold lots on Ebay to find what something sold for in any given grade. I take that amount and figure that Ebay is taking 15-20% of that amount. It may not be necessarily true, but it gives me a starting point. If you see that the bulk of your books are falling on the slightly lower side and don't seem to be worth it, take category 1 and 3 and see what your local shop or a vendor at a show will give you just to get them out of your way so you can concentrate on the nice books. Cash value will be pennies on the dollar, but most shops or vendors will give you more in trade. If you take the trade value and turn it into a lot less category 2 books and you've still left meat on the bone for the vendor and you didn't have to spend all that time on figuring out what to do with a large portion of books. If you need something to do in retirement to keep busy looking through and selling books a few at a time isn't the worst way to stay active. Basically just do what feels right and enjoy. kcm54 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cman429 Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 A 9.8 is a literal coin flip. Even dealers who spend all day looking over dozens & dozens of books every day are hard pressed to nail a 9.8 vs 9.6/9.4, especially when dealing with vintage comics. So that’s my way of saying that if the only way getting it slabbed is worth the cost is hitting a 9.8, you’ll probably end up losing money on four 9.6s (or less) for every one you score. You’re better off just selling it as a NM and letting someone else roll the dice. kcm54 and royaluglydudes 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hanes Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 A couple years ago I sent in about 250 books I thought could be a 9.8 (prescreen)..about 80 came back as 9.8. With the fees associated with slabbing/ prescreen and selling..I broke even. It was fun but I did not make any money. I basically got my money back on 80 comics. I also tried just sending in about 100 comics that I thought would be in the 9's ...I got back 100 comics in a wide range of grades from 5's to 9.4's..mostly in the 7 to 8.5 ranges...I lost a lot of money on that. I thought I was fairly decent in grading but there's a reason why professional graders get paid..they have a lot of experience. So unless you are a master at grading and are very familiar with how CGC grades...most likely you will not do well, financially speaking. But, it is a fun process and you will learn a lot kcm54 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hanes Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 (edited) You can try selling lots on MCS (for comics that cant be sold separately) at auction only...but you will not make your money back..but you will get something back. Ebay is fickle when it comes to non key raws...key raws do well on Ebay..but non key raws dont seem to do as well as their slabbed counterparts (from my experience)..and I think this has to do with the international market. Edited April 23 by Ed Hanes kcm54 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PVOG Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Question, so I procured a couple new modern comics at my lcs. They are and look absolutely mint, under scrutiny, however, I did not open them and flip thru pages. I inspected under light and bl. Looks virtually untouched. If I buy a book in this condition, would it make sense to clean and press? I'm thinking of sending them in in this condition, without cleaning and pressing. My thoughts are,, if it is mint, just handling it more has the absolute potential to lessen the quality through handling. And being serviced. Thoughts and advice please? (I also do not want to dig it out just to take pics, please imagine I'm your head, perfect condition, lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axelrod Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 On 4/23/2024 at 9:19 PM, PVOG said: Question, so I procured a couple new modern comics at my lcs. They are and look absolutely mint, under scrutiny, however, I did not open them and flip thru pages. I inspected under light and bl. Looks virtually untouched. If I buy a book in this condition, would it make sense to clean and press? I'm thinking of sending them in in this condition, without cleaning and pressing. My thoughts are,, if it is mint, just handling it more has the absolute potential to lessen the quality through handling. And being serviced. Thoughts and advice please? (I also do not want to dig it out just to take pics, please imagine I'm your head, perfect condition, lol) There are some who suspect that if you use CGC's pressing services, you get a bump in the grade. Pretty sure there is no way to verify this. Kind of like the old Publisher's Clearinghouse magazine sweepstakes where they claimed you did not need to buy a magazine to be entered, but people suspected that if you bought a magazine you had better odds. That said, people do send in books (esp. modern books) with no pressing and they do get 9.8s, so it's certainly possible. You probably do increase your odds with a press. I think the chances you actually hurt the grade are not that high. May just be another cost/benefit thing, i.e. how much more would it be worth. PVOG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHASEnBLUE Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 (edited) All great advice from boardies here as always... IMHO as a lifetime collector and ebay store seller, it boils down to what you want in return considering what you have in raw state. For example, I have approximately 15K comics in my "keep" collection. All purchased by me at cover or less and I have a continuous update strategy/plan in place to stay current in today's market. Grading/shipping maybe $25 at the most each book (for sake of argument) depending on your membership level with CGC. Of many examples most of us here could potentially give, I have maybe 100 (and some change) copies of Venom Lethal Protector #1 remaining as well as Spawn #1 in raw form. At this point in life so many years later, the purchase cost/loss of those books is really nil, though the current or updated investment would be to evaluate and then grade each one with the current grading/shipping costs in mind. If I have 20 that most likely will grade 9.6 or higher, then I stand to gain from my own needs/wants/expectations. The raw copies say at 9.2 below, I would consider selling raw to fund the grading of the higher graded copies. Again, many scenarios could unfold, so consider thinking through, realistically, not hopefully, what is most likely to transpire in your likely return financially vs. the time/energy/money in the unknown or guesstimate returns. Just another perspective to consider...similar to swing thoughts if you are a golf person. We know how that goes... Edited April 24 by CHASEnBLUE PVOG and kcm54 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomO1357 Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 On 4/23/2024 at 9:28 PM, Axelrod said: There are some who suspect that if you use CGC's pressing services, you get a bump in the grade. Pretty sure there is no way to verify this. Kind of like the old Publisher's Clearinghouse magazine sweepstakes where they claimed you did not need to buy a magazine to be entered, but people suspected that if you bought a magazine you had better odds. That said, people do send in books (esp. modern books) with no pressing and they do get 9.8s, so it's certainly possible. You probably do increase your odds with a press. I think the chances you actually hurt the grade are not that high. May just be another cost/benefit thing, i.e. how much more would it be worth. I tried CGC's pressing exactly once (for 10 or so books) and it changed absolutely nothing. It looked like they didn't even press the books. Either they didn't or each book reverted 100%. There was no improvement on any of them. Better to use an outside service if you're not going to press them yourself (I press my own usually, I just wanted to try theirs to see how it was)... As to the "quick question" poster before that, why would you clean and press books that already look perfect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicginger1789 Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 I know that CGC grading can take some getting used to. What I would do is pick a couple of these books you speak of (the ones that command good value in 9.8 but case cost or less if they fall to a 9.2). See how it goes. Either your eye will hold up and you will be happy or you will learn your grading is perhaps too lenient and you know that selling these books raw is the way to go. As for selling the "utter junk", sell off in lots but sprinkle in some books that don't sell from "the rest". So a collector sees some decent bronze age stuff they might want, mixed with the junk and if priced appropriately, you can move those books. For example I sold a lot of 10 Spider-Man books for $50 the other day. 90s spideys but I tossed in a mid grade issue #103 and the lot sold quick. Way I figure it, selling 103 by itself might have yielded $30-40 and I would have never gotten $20 for the rest (or it would have taken a while).. kcm54 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
