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shadow Administrator Posts: 20
12/31/2015
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It used to be that getting a book graded almost always meant that you would get above "guide" for it...
Everybody was jumping on the "speculation wagon"...
It's not so true anymore.
If your book grades at 9.6 or better, you're apt to get over guide for it because they really are that rare...Having it professionally graded, in some people's minds, is the "seal of approval" that "Yes, my book really is a 9.6."...
Anything 9.4 or below, is just as likely to get you the same price for a "graded" as you can for a "raw"...All slabbing does is give the buyer a little more comfort that it really is a 4.5...and not just the seller saying it is...
Our graded prices have long been based on a formula created from market data. Since not every issue in every grade has been slabbed and then sold and then recorded...it obviously is just a "best guess" formula based on common factors.
What is causing some confusion...is that on some of our titles...after the last upgrade...the "graded" column is pulling from the wrong formula...making it look like the graded are worth less than the raw...
It's not happening on all titles, and we still haven't found the common denominator on the ones that are pulling wrong.
Rule of thumb: Your comic is worth at least "raw" prices...graded or not. If it's graded and a 9.6 or greater, you can probably get over guide for it...
Staff are working to remove the confusion and the price survey team is constantly watching market reports for any changes...
My advice?....Go read a comic and relax 
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knparzival Posts: 16
1/4/2016
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As far as I am aware a graded copy is always worth more than a non-graded copy. Buy getting a graded book not only do you have a higher confidence in the seller representing the grade properly, you get an enclosure. The premiums for graded books however is seeming to come down especially for modern books. I believe that is because people are starting to release getting a 9.6 or 9.8 for a modern book is not that rare. I think the true value and premiums for graded books come in to play when dealing with much older books. There are so many defects that are hard to detect online or at a crowded comic shows including things like color touch ups, missing pages and trimming. A lot of people including myself will pay more for a graded copy to protect them self even if its not a high grade book.
edited by knparzival on 1/4/2016
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expander Posts: 241
1/6/2016
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+1
This is the reason why I very rarely buy slabs at all. I'm all for finding a great buy at a show or convention but I always worry that I'll find some defect after the fact.
As to price differences these days our smart phones are rarley out of reach especially when we're out and about so, a quick google search at a dealers table can give you a good idea whats a fair price or whether you're being gouged or not price wise.
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genuine_article_comics Posts: 44
1/10/2016
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Slabbed vs Raw is 100% about buyer confidence. That's why, for me, slabbed books don't really mean that much. I have confidence in my own ability to accurately grade a book. I'm very much less concerned with the difference between a 9.8 and 9.6 than I am with a NM and VF. If you're in this hobby solely for investment and concerned about Returns On Investments (ROI) then slabbed is the way to go. For me, investment is a factor, but it's certainly not the biggest or main reason I collect. I trust my abilities to grade a book accurately and will not pay a premium for slabbed books graded by a third party.
edited by genuine_article_comics on 1/10/2016
edited by genuine_article_comics on 1/10/2016
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beav62 Posts: 3
2/11/2016
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genuine_article_comics wrote:
... I'm very much less concerned with the difference between a 9.8 and 9.6 than I am with a NM and VF. If you're in this hobby solely for investment and concerned about Returns On Investments (ROI) then slabbed is the way to go. For me, investment is a factor, but it's certainly not the biggest or main reason I collect.
Yes, but if you find a modern book cgc graded at 9.8 on ebay for 2 1/2 times less than this sites price guide shows as its graded value, that's a slam dunk purchase, right? Nothing wrong with some extra value, yes? Although I get how that value is only realized if you sell the book.
edited by beav62 on 2/11/2016
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kporourke97 Posts: 2
2/27/2016
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"Rule of thumb: Your comic is worth at least "raw" prices...graded or not. If it's graded and a 9.6 or greater, you can probably get over guide for it..."
I am new at this site, and trying to sell comics for the first time.
I have over 10,000 comics, mostly from 80s.
If a comic is worth the raw price, I am noticing a lot of comics for sale on this site are priced much less than the raw price.
ACTION comics #595 as an example. Raw price for 9.4 is $12, but there are 5 comics listed at 9.4 grade for $3.75 or less.
Just trying to learn how to properly price the comics I list for sale on this site.
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CapnDoug Administrator Posts: 151
2/27/2016
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kporourke97 wrote:
"Rule of thumb: Your comic is worth at least "raw" prices...graded or not. If it's graded and a 9.6 or greater, you can probably get over guide for it..."
I am new at this site, and trying to sell comics for the first time.
I have over 10,000 comics, mostly from 80s.
If a comic is worth the raw price, I am noticing a lot of comics for sale on this site are priced much less than the raw price.
ACTION comics #595 as an example. Raw price for 9.4 is $12, but there are 5 comics listed at 9.4 grade for $3.75 or less.
Just trying to learn how to properly price the comics I list for sale on this site.
Action Comics #595 is probably not a good example. It recently went up in value after having been relegated to the dollar bins at most conventions. So, if people posted their listing before it went up earlier this year and have not adjusted, they will be priced below guide.
That being said, many people will price their comics below guide in order to encourage sales. I have several $4 or $5 comics that I am selling for $1 each, in order to sell them quicker. That's not to say that I couldn't get $4 or $5, it just might take a lot longer. And, as with everything else, comics are worth what the buyer is willing to pay.
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BburgDaddy-o Posts: 22
4/15/2016
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knparzival wrote:
I think the true value and premiums for graded books come in to play when dealing with much older books. There are so many defects that are hard to detect online or at a crowded comic shows including things like color touch ups, missing pages and trimming. A lot of people including myself will pay more for a graded copy to protect them self even if its not a high grade book.
edited by knparzival on 1/4/2016
The quality of paper used in comics today is vastly superior to those from much of the 80's and earlier. I have a couple hundred indies titles from the late 80's like The Silent Invasion, for instance, that look just as pristine as they did 30 years ago. Unless a newer book (last 25 years or so) is a key or extremely low print run, I don't see the benefit of slabbing unless you're trying to flip a hot title or speculate that it will be extremely valuable in another 25 years.
I agree that the older the book, the more stock you can put into having it professionally graded. By encapsulating them, you can better preserve that grade while the same books not having gone through the process continue to accumulate more wear, tear and degradation.
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lealew7 Posts: 73
4/29/2016
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I ONLY HAVE ONE CGC GRADED COMIC, WHICH WAS A GIFT FROM MY GUY; BUT MOST OF MY COLLECTION HAS BEEN BOUGHT RANDOMLY THROUGH THE LAST 20 YEARS. I ALWAYS WENT FOR WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE AND I ALWAYS LOOKED FOR EITHER SETS OR THE FIRST FEW OF ANY COLLECTION. YOU NEVER KNOW, AND I DO WHAT I CAN TO JUST KEEP THEM AS CLEAN AS POSSIBLE. I AM ONE WHO DOES NOT MIND BUYING A MIXED UP BOX OF RANDOM GOODIES, BUT I DON'T JUST GO BUYING THEM FROM ANYWHERE. I USUALLY COME OUT WITH A NICE COLLECTION PER BOX IF I BUY THEM
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Guest
10/26/2016
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Newbie here on the site, but have been collecting for a while. I've got a handful of graded books--mostly keys and signed keys. Went that route to ensure what I was buying. After that I think it's all a matter of personal preference. I'm not slabbing everything, but will do so to preserve certain books. If i want to re read later, i can just buy a reader copy.
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Supermanicflash Posts: 1
10/26/2016
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I have about 500 comics from the silver and bronze age. How would I go about selling them as a lot?
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aegirthor Posts: 3
7/1/2017
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So just to be clear
I´m looking at a copy of Star Wars #1 1977 for sale for 1189 US. This guide lists this specific example at raw 600 and graded 1200 US. Given this I assume this is a safe buy since it´s up against the market value? Market value being the graded value?
Thanks
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imatonkatoo Posts: 151
9/3/2017
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I'm of the ilk of where if I need the book I will buy it. I have Sub-mariner number 1 in quite a state but I have it. Not too bothered about the little nicks and dents here and there that brings the book down too much in grade IMO. I do like the CGC signed books though. Don't think I would buy a book signed if it wasn't witnessed by CGC. Have a few signed from (can't think of the name of them now. It will come to me. Dynamic Forces that's the ones.) with the COA whom I trust quite a bit. Haven't purchased from them in a long time as I much prefer the CGC sigs now.
Problem I have with CGC is they need looking after more. If that slabs cracks it is not classed as graded then. I sold a lot of my CGC because of this. Just have my special ones I like too much. Comics look much better in a Mylite, again just my opinion.
edited by imatonkatoo on 9/3/2017
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imatonkatoo Posts: 151
9/3/2017
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aegirthor wrote:
So just to be clear
I´m looking at a copy of Star Wars #1 1977 for sale for 1189 US. This guide lists this specific example at raw 600 and graded 1200 US. Given this I assume this is a safe buy since it´s up against the market value? Market value being the graded value?
Thanks
I have this in a 9.4 but can't justify the price doubling just for something spotted under a microscope or however they grade. We don't read comics under a microscope. Grading should be by the naked eye IMO.
high res image hosting
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GinoDiCaprio Posts: 19
9/3/2017
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To be honest, I do not rely on grading prices, and I collect books, not for investment but because I enjoy them. Yes, I did and still do buy multiple copies if I feel the art or the story is fantastic. Sometimes if it is an independent company that I know only has a small print run and very rare with a good story or art, I would support them by buying multiple copies.
Now for grading, I do not rely on other as in GCC since I have noticed on some of their gradings I do not always agree with. And at shows, the problem is too many people open a sealed copy and put their fingers on it, and the grad can change automatically if they don't purchase it and put it back.
I find the Price Guide focuses on the wrong things, for example, a mainstream company that has a print run of over 300,000 copies and then sells because of a demand went from $2 to $800, but a comic that came out at the same time that only has less then 3,000 print goes from $2 to $3. Sorry in my book "demand" or "NOT', that lower print run is worth $100.
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rixmaxx Posts: 459
9/4/2017
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GinoDiCaprio wrote:
To be honest, I do not rely on grading prices, and I collect books, not for investment but because I enjoy them. Yes, I did and still do buy multiple copies if I feel the art or the story is fantastic. Sometimes if it is an independent company that I know only has a small print run and very rare with a good story or art, I would support them by buying multiple copies.
Now for grading, I do not rely on other as in GCC since I have noticed on some of their gradings I do not always agree with. And at shows, the problem is too many people open a sealed copy and put their fingers on it, and the grad can change automatically if they don't purchase it and put it back.
I find the Price Guide focuses on the wrong things, for example, a mainstream company that has a print run of over 300,000 copies and then sells because of a demand went from $2 to $800, but a comic that came out at the same time that only has less then 3,000 print goes from $2 to $3. Sorry in my book "demand" or "NOT', that lower print run is worth $100.
But how is it "worth" $100 if nobody wants it?
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
9/5/2017
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GinoDiCaprio wrote:
I find the Price Guide focuses on the wrong things, for example, a mainstream company that has a print run of over 300,000 copies and then sells because of a demand went from $2 to $800, but a comic that came out at the same time that only has less then 3,000 print goes from $2 to $3. Sorry in my book "demand" or "NOT', that lower print run is worth $100.
The wrong thing would be pricing any book with no demand and a "low" print run at an arbitrary price. There are loads of books that have "low" print runs when compared to the big two but that doesn't mean they those print runs are actually low. Take The Walking Dead #1. There were something like 7500 of those printed. Back then that would have been a really good print run for a smaller publisher and for a genre that hadn't experienced a comeback yet. Now though that 7500 usually cannot meet demand. There were likely a couple of hundred other books that had print runs smaller when TWD #1 came out but are not worth more than cover, if that, because there is no demand for them.
Demand dictates prices not how many were printed or how many surviving copies exist. You could have a book that had a print run in the thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands and still go up in price steadily because the supply never meets demand and, at the same time, have a book that only had a few hundred or few thousand print run be worth no more than cover because there simply is no demand for that book.
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Jc102602 Posts: 3
5/16/2018
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I don't agree with this. Having a third party validate or confirm the quality of an item of value should always increase the price of that item, especially since the owner absorbed the cost (sometimes heavy) of getting the item valued. This is a common practice across other areas and is justifiable since we are not certified graders and can be biased. Also, the slab offers a degree of protection not offered by just a bag and board.
In my experience, it is is an extremely rare occurrence where a graded version of a book will go for the exact same price as its raw counterpart (unless the seller is intentionally going below guide to sell fast). If this site is going to take a position otherwise, then the price quoted on CPG just isn't based in reality or what's actually happening in the market.
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pthomas2010 Posts: 116
5/16/2018
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What ox is saying is that you can say a book is "worth" whatever you want, but the price it sells at determines the actual value. Rarity of an item doesn't matter if nobody wants it. There must be a paying customer.
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Jc102602 Posts: 3
6/3/2018
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Its possible that we might not be debating the same thing, but I'm not contending the existence of outliers. I'm challenging the accuracy of the reported values that I assume are supposed to be a reflection of the bell curve. It is possible that if some unlucky soul were to compile ALL market data and perform a comprehensive analysis then we may discover that the standard deviation is much larger than anyone would've anticipated. In the event of this "wild, wild west" scenario, we may be forced to challenge the whole enterprise of formal price guides in general. Regardless, I believe that a workable deviation exists and would have to conclude that most people do as well, otherwise we wouldn't be using/relying on these guides.
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