Value of Qualified Grade comics and differentiation between page missing not affecting the story 1 1

[MOOSE82]

I recently received several of my comics back from CGC. Most of them were my early Fantastic Four and Tales to Astonish issues, A few of them were issued a qualified grade with a green label. The notes that I received with the grading report stated the pages that were missing did not affect the story. I have noticed that is not indicated on the label on the graded comic. It states that's a qualified grade, and notes the page that is missing, however but it does not indicate that it doesn't affect the story.

My question is, How much does receiving a qualified grade damage the value of the comic and is there even a difference in the value of the comic if it receives a qualified grade for missing pages regardless of where the it affects the story or not?

Still a newbie I'm at this less than a year and I'm trying to learn any help is greatly appreciated

[revat]

Very generally, it depends, and here are the biggest factors:

The book. 

The grade of the book otherwise (independent of the qualification)

The presentation of the book (like if you put it up on a shelf)

What is missing ("Missing page doesn't affect story" is less of a value knock than "missing page affects story")

The general rarity availability of the book in general and for the grade.

 

But the market isn't huge, so the expect a significant discount generally.

[revat]

There isn't a ton of data, but you can do comparisons on ebay comparing prices of what things sell for in the same grade.  gotta read the qualifications carefully.  But you can get an idea.

[shadroch]

Your books are missing a page. That page doesn't matter. A book with a missing page is incomplete and should get a 1.0 at best. CGC's giving incomplete books qualified grades is a joke. They treat an unwitnessed signature the same as a missing page.  Putting which page is missing helps others missing the pinup know this book doesn't have what they need.

Edited September 26 by shadroch

[MOOSE82]

Thank you everyone for your input and please continue to comment if you have anything to add. I am a little freaked out because some of these books should be worth something

[Yorick]

On 9/26/2024 at 1:08 PM, MOOSE82 said:

these books should be worth something

They are worth something.  Don't freak out.

If these are your copies from your childhood, they're essentially priceless.

I own many green label CGC slabs.  While they don't achieve the values of matching grade blue labels, they can still have plenty of value (depending on the book, of course).

[zzutak]

On 9/26/2024 at 1:08 PM, MOOSE82 said:

Thank you everyone for your input and please continue to comment if you have anything to add. I am a little freaked out because some of these books should be worth something

A comic with a missing leaf (any missing leaf) is incomplete.  Period!    If you resubmit the book to CGC and specifically request certification in the Universal Grade category (which you are permitted to do), it will be encapsulated with a Blue Label and assigned a grade of CGC 0.5.  It will have a market value, but that value may very well be less than the total cost of certification.

On a related front, CGC's use of the term "page" is inconsistent with the term's use by all comic publishers.  Your TTA #57 (as well as the three SA examples shown above) has a cover wrap plus 8 interior wraps (also known as 16 interior leaves or 32 interior pages).  CGC's note that "Page 12" is missing actually means that interior leaf 12 (also known as interior pages 23-24)  is missing. 

[shadroch]

On 9/26/2024 at 1:08 PM, MOOSE82 said:

Thank you everyone for your input and please continue to comment if you have anything to add. I am a little freaked out because some of these books should be worth something

They are worth something. The problem is giving a book a 7.0 qualified when it is incomplete.    Axelrod #3 in 7.0 might be worth $300.  Axelrod #3 missing a page is worth around an eighth of that. Maybe a little more for key books.   An unwitnessed signature will drive a much higher grading book down to a Green 7.0.

One book has a page missing, and a comic legend signed one, but they both get a Qualified 7.0.  Do you think they both sell for the same price?

[shadroch]

On 9/26/2024 at 2:26 PM, zzutak said:

A comic with a missing leaf (any missing leaf) is incomplete.  Period!    If you resubmit the book to CGC and specifically request certification in the Universal Grade category (which you are permitted to do), it will be encapsulated with a Blue Label and assigned a grade of CGC 0.5.  It will have a market value, but that value may very well be less than the total cost of certification.

On a related front, CGC's use of the term "page" is inconsistent with the term's use by all comic publishers.  Your TTA #57 (as well as the three SA examples shown above) has a cover wrap plus 8 interior wraps (also known as 16 interior leaves or 32 interior pages).  CGC's note that "Page 12" is missing actually means that interior leaf 12 (also known as interior pages 23-24)  is missing. 

Lots of kids managed to remove the pin-up in early Marvels but left the other part of the leaf. I think page 12 means the pin-up is gone, not the centerfold.  Centerfolds are much easier to replace than pinups.  Perhaps I'm mistaken.

[revat]

On 9/26/2024 at 1:08 PM, MOOSE82 said:

Thank you everyone for your input and please continue to comment if you have anything to add. I am a little freaked out because some of these books should be worth something

“Worth” is super subjective based on a million different things.  It really just depends. 
 

if you have more specifics questions about specific books, do a bit of research first yourself then ask your questions.  People here are incredibly knowledgeable 

[zzutak]

Yes, in certain 36-page Silver Age Marvels (such as the X-Men #6 shown below), CGC's "page 12" (correctly described as interior leaf 12) did contain a pin-up on one side (and was frequently removed as a result). 

[MOOSE82]

 

I just spent a boatload of money on grading fees. I am not asking for sympathy or snarky comments. I am just asking simply is there a way to sell some of these books at a fair price to someone to recoup some of my grading fees?  I hear what you are saying regarding if a page is missing it is garbage HOWEVER I Don't understand why cgc references that it does not affect the story. I found a Tales to astonish no 27 4.0 Qualified the sold for just a little over $1000.  At the end of the day, I guess they're worth what somebody's willing to pay for but as I said I don't want to try to mess over anybody or cheat anybody they have to be worth something; Some percentage of what that grade would normally sell for, Not all of these are dogs. this TTA 65 is a 9.2 missing page 16

 

[Jordysnordy]

Everyone has growing pains with their 1st few submissions as it’s easy to miss lots of things. That being said making sure all the pages are there is easy thing to check as you can find online how many pages are in every book.

[Jordysnordy]

$276.00 last sale for TTA 65 9.2

I would think you could get 50% of this but I may be way off as I don’t buy Green labels.

Others will definitely know more about this space than me

 

[zzutak]

On 9/26/2024 at 3:51 PM, MOOSE82 said:

I found a Tales to astonish no 27 4.0 Qualified the sold for just a little over $1000.

Which is actually pretty close to what an incomplete Universal 0.5 copy brings (see below).  So, as I said in my earlier post, you can ballpark the FMV of your TTA #57 by looking at recent sales of Universal 0.5 copies.  Just remember that TTA #57 is not as significant and desirable a book as TTA #27 (the first appearance of Ant-Man). 

[revat]

It is A LOT of luck, the market generally isn't huge.  The reason there is a difference for story affecting vs non-story affecting is that people do gain some value from the the theoretical possibility that one day  a person might break the comic out and read it as originally intended.  If that is not an option, that hurts the value (how much depends on the comic).  

I'm not sure there's a single best way to sell, but I would consider putting them on ebay or mycomicshop at 70% (or less if multiple pages are missing or the story is affected) of the low range of Universal value, and then also accept offers and see what you get.  Its really hard because rarely are defects the same.

Please note that while of course it matters to you what YOU spent, it really doesn't matter at all to potential buyers.  From a business perspective, what you already spent is a sunk cost, and assuming you don't want to keep the books, its just about future cash flows (as opposed to profit margins).  I think you can price them however you like without fear of 'cheating' anyone, as long as they're in the slabs, people have enough info to make informed decisions for themselves.  The market will decide.

But yah again, you can do some ebay research to see how much similar green labels get compared to the universals.

Good luck.

[zzutak]

On 9/26/2024 at 4:04 PM, Jordysnordy said:

That being said making sure all the pages are there is easy thing to check as you can find online how many pages are in every book.

Even easier if all you collect is SA & BA Marvels (and you can count to 16). 
The lesson here (not for the OP but for any noobs who may stumble upon this thread) is simple: no purchase should be deemed "final" and no submission should go forward to CGC before checking the interior for completeness.

Edited September 26 by zzutak

[MOOSE82]

On 9/26/2024 at 6:04 PM, Jordysnordy said:

Everyone has growing pains with their 1st few submissions as it’s easy to miss lots of things. That being said making sure all the pages are there is easy thing to check as you can find online how many pages are in every book.

Thank you now that was helpful and constructive

[MOOSE82]

On 9/26/2024 at 6:22 PM, Jordysnordy said:

$276.00 last sale for TTA 65 9.2

I would think you could get 50% of this but I may be way off as I don’t buy Green labels.

Others will definitely know more about this space than me

 

That is a great tool. where are you finding that? Is that om CGC page? Thats a great time saving tool.   I can use that that would be very helpful

[thehumantorch]

On 9/26/2024 at 4:51 PM, MOOSE82 said:

 

I just spent a boatload of money on grading fees. I am not asking for sympathy or snarky comments. I am just asking simply is there a way to sell some of these books at a fair price to someone to recoup some of my grading fees?  I hear what you are saying regarding if a page is missing it is garbage HOWEVER I Don't understand why cgc references that it does not affect the story. I found a Tales to astonish no 27 4.0 Qualified the sold for just a little over $1000.  At the end of the day, I guess they're worth what somebody's willing to pay for but as I said I don't want to try to mess over anybody or cheat anybody they have to be worth something; Some percentage of what that grade would normally sell for, Not all of these are dogs. this TTA 65 is a 9.2 missing page 16

 

Always count pages, in this era 8 pages from the front cover to the centerfold and 8 pages to the back cover.  While you're doing it look for interior stains and missing chunks/coupons/Marvalvaluestamps.  If you're unsure how many pages a book should contain you can go to grand comics database as the site has detailed info on most comic books.

This is a tough lesson to learn but it's important to avoid problems like this.  Also learning to spot colour touch and trimming is very important as a lot of books from this era have been tampered with.  You'll find plenty of videos on detecting restoration on youtube.