Sellers who price your books at multiples of GPA -- What's your endgame? 0

[namisgr]

On 5/16/2024 at 1:16 PM, Off Panel said:

Any sellers out there who understand and can explain the mindset here?

That wouldn't be me.  While I've sold quite a few slabs on E-Bay through the years, every single one of them was sold by auction.

[Hepcat]

On 5/19/2024 at 1:39 AM, LordRahl said:

The problem is that a lot of dealers overgrade so they want GPA 9.4 price for their raw 8.5 or 9.0. 

So true!

Edited May 20 by Hepcat

[Hepcat]

On 5/19/2024 at 1:09 PM, Off Panel said:

An alternative argument that I would be more inclined to consider would be, "How do we know all those 9.8s have survived?" House fires still happen, and how many collections were lost in Hurricane Katrina?"

I don't like to think about that, but I actually think about it pretty often.

A horrible thought to be sure. I hate envisioning the destruction of scarce collectibles of any kind.

 

[Kevin76]

On 5/19/2024 at 3:25 PM, Hepcat said:

So true!

They want 9.8 money for a 7.0 raw copy...usually that dealer is a comic store owner  

[Hepcat]

Meanwhile they pay 10% of GPA (but only if they must) when a comic walks in the door.

 

[Off Panel]

On 5/19/2024 at 2:22 PM, Kevin76 said:

So you're only go by what "seems" scarce in comparison to others around it, 30 is 30, no matter how you compare it...7 Billion people in this world, I think more than 30 want that book in 9.8. In the sports card world, 30 is considered incredible rare, even 2000 is considered rare. 

Most people aren't cracking out 9.8's to get a 9.9/10, they are cracking out 9.8's cause they don't like slabs.  

Yeah, 30 is 30. It's not my intent to make it sound like 9.8s of this book are growing on trees, BUT...

For the last five years, I've been chasing those books that only have 11 copies, or 15 copies, and that is a slog my friend. Nowadays, I'm genuinely relieved when I'm going after a book and see it has an entire 30 copies in 9.8. Usually that means that, like with this book, a couple of copies will fairly reliably come up for sale every year and you've got a shot at them.

In the case of this book, a couple of copies are coming up for sale every year and very consistently selling for between $875 and $1,800.

My main takeaway with ASM 99 is that I'm actually looking at a universe of 29 9.8s for this book, not 30. Because this particular copy isn't going anywhere -- it's essentially off the market. Ten years from now, this copy will still be sitting unsold on eBay for $5,000. (Unless something crazy happens and the fair market value actually rises to $5,000, in which case this book will be on eBay for $22,500.)

 

[Kevin76]

On 5/19/2024 at 5:35 PM, Hepcat said:

Meanwhile they pay 10% of GPA (but only if they must) when a comic walks in the door.

 

Yup,  Heard a dealer at a show who valued someone's collection at 20K and said he thought his 8K offer was fair.  Look at Very Gary on youtube...He pays next to nothing then charges insane prices for stuff  

[Kevin76]

On 5/19/2024 at 10:39 PM, Off Panel said:

Yeah, 30 is 30. It's not my intent to make it sound like 9.8s of this book are growing on trees, BUT...

For the last five years, I've been chasing those books that only have 11 copies, or 15 copies, and that is a slog my friend. Nowadays, I'm genuinely relieved when I'm going after a book and see it has an entire 30 copies in 9.8. Usually that means that, like with this book, a couple of copies will fairly reliably come up for sale every year and you've got a shot at them.

In the case of this book, a couple of copies are coming up for sale every year and very consistently selling for between $875 and $1,800.

My main takeaway with ASM 99 is that I'm actually looking at a universe of 29 9.8s for this book, not 30. Because this particular copy isn't going anywhere -- it's essentially off the market. Ten years from now, this copy will still be sitting unsold on eBay for $5,000. (Unless something crazy happens and the fair market value actually rises to $5,000, in which case this book will be on eBay for $22,500.)

 

It's just the same books being resold over and over again which makes it seem like there's a lot. In general, 30 isn't a lot.  I like golden age cause only 30 copies are across all grades and you can pretty much name your own price, anyone who complains about it you can always say "ok, go find another...

[Off Panel]

On 5/19/2024 at 10:52 PM, Kevin76 said:

It's just the same books being resold over and over again which makes it seem like there's a lot. 

There's no doubt in my mind that you're right about this. Checking the slab numbers you can see that it's usually a small subset of the books that keep coming to market.

[DaveBowen]

On 5/16/2024 at 9:50 PM, grendel013 said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284324895257?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4iirAuo7QAK&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I tried negotiating with the seller a couple years ago with no budge. I ended up putting my own grail set together myself. Took 20 years but I saved like $16k.

 

This is an odd seller. All of the recent sales are Private Listing. Even though I've sold on eBay forever I've never used Private Listing and am not even sure what the use case is. The sellers live listings seem to be mostly for Mylars or super common modern slabs at a floor price of about $85. Strange indeed.

[MAR1979]

On 5/20/2024 at 5:15 AM, DaveBowen said:

This is an odd seller. All of the recent sales are Private Listing. Even though I've sold on eBay forever I've never used Private Listing and am not even sure what the use case is. The sellers live listings seem to be mostly for Mylars or super common modern slabs at a floor price of about $85. Strange indeed.

Then uses 2 of their likely many eBay accounts to get this to show up - "2 people have this in their cart".

To quote Forest Gump; "Dee Bahg is as Dee Bahg does"

Edited May 20 by MAR1979

[Off Panel]

eBay isn’t doing this poor seller any favors.

C’mon! He’s just trying to get his $1,899.99!

[Off Panel]

This guy:

”Okay, I know I’m asking $7,744 for this book. (Plus $19.52 shipping ‘cause I’m not going to turn around and lose money on shipping for this deal).”

 

”And yeah, maybe it’s selling for around $881…”

 

“…and maybe there hasn’t been a recorded sale over $881… well…ever.”

 

“But… and hear me out…it’s THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF FRICKIN’ BI-BEAST!!!”

Edited May 25 by Off Panel

[Cat]

On 5/17/2024 at 3:38 AM, Off Panel said:

You may be right, although when I think of sellers trolling for suckers, I usually think of listings like this:

 

 

Ohmigod! An X-Men #1 in 9.8! I've heard of that book -- it's a GRAIL!

Funnily enough, this ISN'T that book. This is a more recent release, recoloured by Thomas Mason. Apparently it's a case of low availability, high demand, as I THINK copies are selling for a hundred or two. At least they were last I checked, but that was some years ago. Certainly nowhere near what this fool is asking, but far more than a regular X-Men #1. 

You call yourselves comic fans and you can't even recognise a simple X-Men #1? 

[Off Panel]

On 5/25/2024 at 11:33 AM, Cat said:

This is a more recent release, recoloured by Thomas Mason…I THINK copies are selling for a hundred or two.

Thank you — I’m always open to fact-checking. (And didn’t know the Thomas Mason book was a thing…)

[Cat]

On 5/26/2024 at 1:46 AM, Off Panel said:

Thank you — I’m always open to fact-checking. (And didn’t know the Thomas Mason book was a thing…)

Yeah it was released for the 20th anniversary of X-Men #1, back in 2011. IIRC not a lot of people bought into it because they were unhappy with the price, which was something like $7.99US. I was one of the fools who purchased a copy, I was curious to see how the pages would look with modern colouring. I'll just say the colouring was not to my liking, and really changed the vibe of the pages, IMO. Totally didn't work for me. But that's just my opinion. 

[Off Panel]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:22 PM, Cat said:

Yeah it was released for the 20th anniversary of X-Men #1, back in 2011. IIRC not a lot of people bought into it because they were unhappy with the price, which was something like $7.99US. 

People who didn’t like this book for $7.99 are REALLY going to hate it for $588,888.88.

[Off Panel]

Okay, I know I’ve been throwing a few stones here at sellers who I find particularly egregious. Let me balance that with some praise for a dealer who I see making a positive change.

Someone who is consigning a Sub-Mariner #1 just dropped their price 45% from $15,800 to $8,750.

That is way more aligned with current fmv in 2024. 
 

Better still, I know I can go directly to mycomicshop.com and pick up this exact copy for $600 less, or $8,150.

Thank you, unknown comic book consignor, for adjusting your pricing to show an awareness of the market. (I mean, $8,150 is still a poop-ton of money, but it’s reasonable for the book given the surrounding sales.)

I hope your book sells quickly.

 

Edited May 25 by Off Panel
Misspelled “mycomicshop.com”

[Darwination]

If a book sits too long, I believe MCS will apply a little pressure to the consigner?

Without looking at the history of the book, it seems like it might have been listed during Covid when the ask was more in line with the value?  No doubt plenty of buyers had plenty of love for the slow to adjust *during* the Covid boom.

I don't have much of an issue with high priced books sitting on eBay (maybe not at *multiples* of value) except that a few of these can lead every other lister to jack their price when they do comps, too.

[Off Panel]

On 5/26/2024 at 5:33 PM, Darwination said:

Without looking at the history of the book, it seems like it might have been listed during Covid when the ask was more in line with the value? 

I suspect you’re right. 
 

I don’t begrudge sellers raising their prices to meet the market, but I like it when they’re consistent and lower prices when the market goes back down.