• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Tony S

Member
  • Posts

    3,362
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Personal Information

  • Occupation
    Social Work Supervisor
  • Location
    Evansville, Indiana

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. As Stormflora said - if you have the books in your possession and they are your books just ignore any and all threats of legal action. Dangerous Waters is in Florida. You said you live in Canada. He's bluffing - the legal costs would be many multiples of the value of the books. It's hard to get court judgments when two different jurisdictions are involved and both are in the same state. Two countries? LOL. Die of old age before anything happens. Besides that - if the books were submitted under the owner or stores account THEY FILLED OUT THE RETURN ADDRESS. You don't need to worry about actions by CGC. CGC sent the books where they were told after they were paid. They have done their part. As an aside - Dangerous Waters does not have a Dealer Account with CGC. At least not according to the CGC Dealer look up. Nor do they list on their website that you can send books to CGC through them. With shipping $250 is in the general ball park - a little high - for five moderns. Retail would be $25 a book ($125) a five dollar invoice fee and $80 return shipping. That's $210 - plus whatever he charged to ship the books to CGC. So you certainly were not saving any money going through the store's account.
  2. Many with dealer accounts have books shipped directly back to the client
  3. Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284226451331?itmmeta=01HQCN20SE9M6AYS4BR9P98SMR&hash=item422d377783:g:jS8AAOSw4qBgVhaI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4AZh5b5nOIiD93ANP7%2BZDB%2FSuJ0Kbg3NU0j%2Fyre%2B5nEkZVfqj1JX%2BXoF0d4rSnUdRnSNV4BGJ3rFpef4INGO2tgGJd0qgttUOvsQKPTgWkaTWleGWk9y4%2BUGW1QO9yDalLG7ZqaomYDUSfSzJYlYDzY38PoCCa3yJFUxW1srqogyyi3Yv1ioOpZbIKyIx58dmB8Q2RZaauPBnJbGgk9WEMYsGJ09BgivraFpkdpXf3k5MgXQMYNTgFjkCkJJf9bwUNiq3pyvTdtNVi1ki63FdrRz3PeT%2FMrjn6TuJwJTs0n7|tkp%3ABk9SR-qMiJW7Yw
  4. Usually this arrangement is with someone you are good friends with and/or that you already have a business relationship with. Just to assist with clarity, what you are looking for is someone here in the USA that you could use as a "ship to" address for your purchases from various sellers. eBay most common, but it could be most any seller. Then once the person has a decent size box of books for you, they ship your purchases to you in Switzerland. So the idea about mycomicshop is never going to work. No way they agree to receive and hold your purchases from eBay or Facebook or Mile High Comics until you have a box full. They MIGHT hold books you purchased from them until you can fill a box. Might. The reason it has to be a good friend or someone you already have a business relationship with is because it can easily be a fair amount of effort and time by the person serving as your USA receiving address. You will also find that some sellers - and it should be nearly all sellers - will not ship to an address other than what is associated with your payment information. Because sellers - the people you are buying comics from - can end up getting ripped off when shipping books to an address not associated with the credit card or PayPal account. One final note. One big box is pretty much always cheaper than multiple little boxes to ship. But here in the USA, there are NO inexpensive international shipping services. Just none. And there are limits on how much insurance can be purchased on international shipments.
  5. If high grade - and it looks to be - the book will get a green label qualified grade. So if the book is otherwise 9.8, the numeric grade would be 9.8. But with a green label that says "Qualified" . You can find CGC graded examples of this and similar books (say FCD Umbrella Academy) for sale on eBay. No, it cannot be cleaned off.
  6. The book you speak of is full of bad advise. It is not highly regarded except by those that have little knowledge and are unwilling to take the time to learn. The answer to your question is simple. It's not safe to do much in the way of cleaning on comics with erasers anywhere except the white areas. But if you clean up the white areas it makes the rest of the book pop. Myke's book literally defines the old adage of "those that can, do. Those that can't teach."
  7. Why who knows. But the Unlimited as you note is just poorly explained. It is $100 minimum on unlimited - minus any discount the submitter qualifies for. My best guess on why is competition. That place in Texas has made a big deal of grading high value books at a much lower price than CGC. That CGC is responding suggests that they noticed.
  8. The new unlimited has to be a mistake. The price should - and no doubt will be - 4% FMV minus 20 percent. That's 3.2%. $100 minimum charge becomes $80 minimum charge. There is no way CGC is lowering the minimum price of Unlimited to $55. That price is less than High value/
  9. My question too. I'll be inquiring tomorrow. If dealer accounts are not adjusted (improved) I expect a lot of dealer accounts will become Elite memberships instead. Which will happen quickly - as renewals are next month. Is the ability to submit to NCG and PMG new? I don't remember that being included before. CCS cannot seem to make up its mind on the cost of pressing moderns. $15 forever. $10 for a few months of 2023. Back to $15 the end of 2023. And now $12. Time settle down guys Update. I mocked up several submission. Dealer discount looks to be 25%. And the discount on pressing is new. Used to only be on grading.
  10. If your customers or you are most concerned about damage or getting lost, Registered Mail is the Gold Standard. It also is the slowest. Sometimes lots slower. Ten business days not uncommon. But lose or damage is nearly unheard of. And insurance costs much less once the package is registered. But I'm pretty sure you know all of this. And probably have private shipping insurance. I cannot say about the US Postal Service. But I worked for a State Agency where deadlines and accuracy of benefits given were the most important. I was middle management. And at least where I worked, the big bosses had a view on timeliness just the opposite what you express (and is most fair/reasonable) Their attitude was that once it was late, it was late. That counted against our benchmarks. But it didn't matter how late. One day late, three weeks late. All the same on the stats. So the focus was getting as many done on time as possible. Once a case went late, it became a much lower priority. . Again, I have no idea if there is a similar view at the USPS and other delivery services. And I disagree - now and back then - with that view. But that view was the prevalent view at the top. Because for them it's not about the individual case/person and maybe package. It is about meeting the benchmark. Stats. Once late, no reason to hurry.
  11. I have no good answer LOL. NASA has billions and every once in a while a rocket blows up. Ford sold 4.2 million cars in 2022 - and a some were lemons. USPS doesn't meet it's stated delivery time - in my experience - more than seems reasonable. Maybe it didn't get scanned properly. Maybe too many people called in sick so it just sits a day. But USPS gives the sender the postage costs back if you ask on the Express service. Which I will do if they are late. But that doesn't happen often with me, because I strongly encourage customers to just do regular priority mail with some extra insurance and a signature. The difference in delivery time is often only a day and sometimes - like this situation - no difference at all.
  12. It's not lost. It shows in the system as in transit. It's going to arrive late. Just file a claim to be reimbursed the postage costs when it finally does show up.
  13. I doubt that 40% figure. Here is why One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is that the higher the restored grade, the lower the percentage of the same grade it blue label it brings. Low grade keys will often fetch 50-70% of blue. High grade not even close. Example AF 15 - New record set at 3.6 MILLION for a CGC 9.6 AF 15 - Restored CGC 9.6 - take your pick of one at $86,600 (Slight professional) or $52,800 (A3 - or moderate professional) Either figure is tiny, TINY percent of blue label. Let's do 100,000 restored to make the math easy. Less than THREE PERCENT of blue label. The reason why is easy to deduce. One hundred grand can still buy you decent, unrestored copy of AF 15. Which would you rather have - a 9.6 restored or a 6.5 unrestored. Your B&B 28 is going to hit that problem much earlier. A blue label 8.5 is a $34 - $35K book.40% is $14,000. For $14,000 you can get a 7.5. That's not a decision worth even a few seconds of consideration. Anyone with any knowledge of collecting would take a blue label 7.5 over an purple 8.5. Now anything can happen on any given day with any given sale. But 40% of blue for a CGC 8.5 restored is doubtful and not a good purchase for the buyer. Not meaning to pick on your book. But this was a good example of the "higher the restored grade, lower the percentage of blue it's worth" guideline that had not yet been discussed.
  14. I have never used Instagram. Is there a way to post up "I am slammed and cannot take on any new restoration jobs for xxx time?" A quick Google search indicates that there are some auto response features with Instagram. Both to frequently asked questions, welcome messages and away messages. So Kenny should take a few minutes and set such up. The front end of any business is important. That old saying is "you only get once chance at making a first impression." No response at all is not a good first impression.
  15. If Kenny Sanderson was the last man standing, he's also super busy. I contacted him a year ago and while he initially responded (as near as I can tell you can only reach him through Instagram) he never followed up so I did not get my book restored. But Kenny isn't actually the last person standing. CCS - the in house pressing service for CGC - also does restoration. They do a lot more restoration removal, but they do offer restoration services as well. CCS is - almost certainly - the easiest to reach out to and most likely to respond. Just send scans of the front and back cover of the book(s) you want restored to submissions@cgccomics.com