Konrad5288

On 9/30/2017 at 6:46 PM, Bomber-Bob said:

Only press if the book can be improved with a press. IMO, a quick press is worthless. Please don't ask us to recommend a presser. In poor taste to our Host.

A quick press worked for me but with mixed results.  I had 6 DC reprints and  that were all wavy through the whole book. I sent them in with some others for quickpress and grading.  Well when I sent them the corners were all sharp and no other defects but the waves. I got them back. 3 of them came back 9.8's the other 3 were ruined by the pressing. the 3 that were ruined all had damage at lower staple area. They came back 9.0 9.2 and 9.6 due to damage.  But all are wave free!  So the QP did work.  Just watch out.  If whatever presser you are using puts too much pressure on your books they will end up like those 3 did.  No other comics were ruined and quickpress drastically improved some of them.  One of my books came back a 9.8 that I thought best case would come back 9.4.  That book was older.  The quickpress worked really good on most! I sent in a Hero for Hire 1 Express press once also. That came out the exact grade I figured it would.  QP seemed to worked just about as well as the $85 option did.  I'll keep using QP for cheaper titles that need it and would suggest the service to others. I'm sticking with CCS and have sent in 6 more of the same DC reprints to CCS for pressing/grading.  They are there right now.  If they come back all messed up this time, my opinion might change.  If you are worried about a book being ruined have it prescreened or don't have it pressed, If you don't prefer CCS go somewhere else, and if you have a $10000 book watch whoever presses it press it.  That's my opinion/advise.

A good point was made in here. A lot of GFTs come back 9.9's. Do you all own any? They are printed on thicker paper for one. Don't have any fold marks along the spine and have pointy sharp corners. Most of the marvels and DCs I get have a fold line along spine or tiny split on corner, and/or you can see where it was cut at the bottom left or top left corner. They say that fold line doesnt affect grade, but Ill refer to my inhumans prime that is slabbed. Only defect is the normal fold line on spine with one horizontal crease(less than 1mm). Its like a tiny fleck off the line. Should be a 9.8 with only that  if fold line is disregarded-graded 9.6.

I dont have any 9.9s or 10s yet, but i did sub 4 GFTs for press and grade just to see if I can get one! I might be posting pics soon............

Btw. Those are some great looking books everyone.

So I know this has kind of been asked many times before, but I have to ask again. I will be sending in 25 or so moderns for prescreen.  I have some variant books in there, but most are regular covers. Im keeping a lot of them but selling some. Anyone have trouble selling 9.6s slabbed for $15 if they end up 9.6s? Looking for opinions. It seems like the most Ill  lose on a 9.6 is $5 either way and any variants should at worst break even slabbed at 9.6. Plus its probably easier to sell a slabbed book. Am I correct in this or should I prescreen 9.8? Any input would be appreciated.

Oh and 2 more questions. Will CGC let me know which ones are denied before grading or after? And when do they charge on a prescreen? Before or after grading?

On 6/28/2016 at 4:42 PM, Doktor said:

Sometimes, I let my principles get the best of me. For instance, I just cut ties with DCBS over 1 book.

 

So, like many of you, I've gone to mail-order for the majority of my books. Probably been ordering from them for 4 or 5 years now. I've mostly been satisfied with them. Only 1 damaged book in the past few years that was replaced, but otherwise, until now, they've always been pretty good. Until today.

 

I got this month's order the other day and Civil War II #2 was damaged. 2 pretty ghastly creases on that card stock cover was way too noticeable. NCB stuff on other books happens from time to time. But this bugged me. So of course, I sent an email to customer service explaining very politely that it was damaged & inquiring about a replacement. No big thing. They replied back & asked for photos. Sure, no problem. Trying to get pictures of color breaking stuff on a glossy card stock was a nightmare of course, but you can mostly see them in the photos. Maybe not as well as in-hand, but still. Cool. Photos sent & I figured "they'll take care of it in some way"...

 

Today I got this reply:

 

Hi Joe,

 

The remaining copies we have in stock are in the same condition, which tells me that this is how we received all of these books. We apologize, but we will not be able to offer a replacement or credit.

 

Thank you for your business!

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

XXXXXX

 

This didn't exactly sit well with me. Ok, fine. You can't replace it. No big deal. You ran out of stock that doesn't have that same problem. Whatever. But not even crediting it? I'm sorry... what? Exactly how is that my problem? You shipped a damaged book. You admitted you shipped a damaged book. And you won't even credit it? Unacceptable.

 

So maybe my principles got the best of me, but while I decided to give them the opportunity to clarify, I also made it clear in the most polite manner possible that this is unacceptable. And made it perfectly clear that if they're unwilling to even credit for a damaged product & expect me to understand that, then they'll have to understand that I'm taking my business elsewhere. I know they probably don't care. I'm only about a $120/month customer for them (unless there's a pricey variant that I really want). One of thousands. But if this is how they handle 1 damaged $5 product, I won't stick around to find out how they handle a damaged order or a damaged high-dollar variant or on the occasion that I order something more expensive & it arrives damaged.

 

TL;DR

 

I think I just threw the most polite temper tantrum of my life over a $5 book because apparently it's my problem if I'm shipped a damaged item. So screw them. I'll take my business elsewhere.

I know this post is older but I wanna rant a bit too Doktor. Ok now mind you this is the first shipment of my first order from DCBS. Part of a $500something dollar order. I already placed a $1500 order for October too. That probably seems like a lot to some of you but to me its called speculation and investment. If I think a book will be valuable in 10yrs I dont buy 1 or 2. I buy 10. Then I'll sell 2-3 to get some money back as needed.

This can be like an update for you(Doktor) on DCBS CS a year later. 

For 1 they didnt or don't have the 10 Venomverse 1 Torques I ordered. Maybe they were shipped some bad ones. Im not sure. But looking at the others.... Hopefully those come with the second half of the order

2 order was packaged well and was not damaged in shipping.

So I open it. Looks good. Then I look at the books. All of my Venomverse 2 Torques look like this. Some worse than others.  And its not just the torques. Half of my books look this way like someone set my pile of unboarded books on a frickin wavy platform. Ok they look pretty good other than that. I press will fix it if Im sending for grading. I can deal with the wavy paper. Comics won't always be perfect.

Then I look at my Francavilla Venomverse 2 variant. It has some wave to it some printer press lines(or whatever you want to call them) and a dent in the back. I can deal with all that. It's still probably NM if I dont get dinged for the printer lines. Somebody please  chime in on if you get dinged for those. What wasnt ok was the big 2" cb crease on the top corner. Thats a handling error, not a production error. I paid $75 for that book and its an 8.5. That is ridiculous.  Ive actually found out most of the time the distributor will take back and replace ratios that are under NM. So there is no reason I should have an 8.5. Especially at that price point. It should be a 9.2 or better. 

I have emailed DCBS to get a replacement and will post the results here whenever they get back to me. That October preorder is getting cancelled(im on a charge note) if they dont take the return and replace or credit me. So lets see how it goes.

Steppinrazor did a great job packing my items and I picked them up at a great price. Thank you very much!

Im spamming sorry. In 5 days you are not going to know the difference in an 8.0 and a 9.0. I received a Hero for Hire 1 in the group i was talking about last post. Initially I thought it was an almost flawless comic. 2 years later I sent in the comic. I had it pressed and graded to the tune of $225. Even after that I was so stressed thinking it had a slight chance to end up a 7.5. It just came back 8.0! I was actually thinking the press might get it to an 8.5 but that didnt happen. Im using this to show an example of initial impression of a nice comic when you first get in and after a while. Initially I was thinking 9.0.  Later on I saw the defects and had to pray it wouldn't end up a 7.5.

This is my scheme of things to sell the 100 or so that Im working on right now.

I personally would not send all yours in until you can eyeball a real grade.

1. First buy in. Pay at least the Gold and get the $150 sub credit

2. Be ready to be out some cash for a month or 3 or 4 until 1st sub comes back too. You say you have the cash so thats good. 27 bucks the cheap way with a 50 business day turnaround plus a possible press on silvers. 750 comics is like $15-20000 to grade. As an example here I just sent some bronze in. QP MFT 18 of them was 710. Ill make a profit of $400 and a few freebies. Unless a couple come back 9.9's of which 6 of them have a chance

3.Decide how much to put in initially. If you want to spend $2000 dont spend on first sub. Ill explain below

4. A: Find the comics that need pressing(if you are into that) and send those first. Cause theyll take the longest. Also keep in mind your subs have to fit same price tier or they will be separate orders. Shipping starts around $36 per sub. And goes up with each book(shipping on 15 is around $60 or so) if no press skip 4a

4 B:Find some that dont need press and send them in just for grading.

5. Wait...........Like a week or a month and send some more in! This gives you constant cash flow as your comics get returned

6. Wait repeat

See thats why you dont spend it all up front- unless you have a lot of money and a lot of patience on getting it back 

So tired of writing

I'll reiterated vann's knowledge.Get a price guide! Get a price guide! GET A PRICE GUIDE!  Trust me. IF I only had a price guide that NYX 3 and Hulk 181 amongst others would still be with me. I inherited some comics a while back when the market was down and went just off of ebay. What a mistake! 

On 9/7/2017 at 7:30 PM, Bob Sacamano said:

I was fortunate to find a copy of Walking Dead #1 in one of my comic boxes. It's a high grade, I didn't even know I had it and I probably didn't even read it when I bought it. I must have bought it back in 2003 and totally forgot about it. Anyway since the value of this book is highly dependent on the grade and it could conceivably be greater than the $3000 limit for express, how should I submit this for grading? Is the only way to do a walk through?

 

thanks,

To answer your question. Do you want it back in 5 days or 10? They go off normal raw fmv. Even if its a 9.8 you couldve seen it as a 9.4. Oh and CGC customer service is awesome.  They will answer all your questions. If the person on the phone doesnt know, someone who does will call you back.

On 9/7/2017 at 9:51 PM, Bomber-Bob said:

First off, I would wait until the hurricane challenge is over. Express is fine. Some may even suggest a lower tier and let CGC bump you if they see fit. Nice find in your personal stash ! Good luck and let us know how it graded.

I called CGC about the tiers on pressing and then grading due to the fact a book may be $800 prepress and $2000 after. Customer Service told me if Im happy with the lower tier of insurance they dont really care either. I personally wouldn't send it below standard-$1000 though. They will for sure bump you on a modern sub for obvious reasons.

Put my Hero for Hire 1 on ebay. Tomorrow when I receive it from CGC price goes up to $500. My fees last month- Ridiculous. Don't worry I will still provide grader notes to anyone here interested after receiving it unlike listing states on the bay.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/stock-photo-1972-Hero-For-Hire-1-CGC-8-0-white-pages-last-chance-under-500-/152692268638

No interest in these from anyone so moving to ebay where they are selling like hotcakes...

*CLOSED*

Ok there is a good starting point.

My phone is about to die so ill give quick estimate on some more grades based off the same scale i used on others.

179-199

179-4.0

185-1.0+

188-4.0

190-4.0+

197-4.5+

199-4.0+

I could be low on these but im not going to post something unrealistic without pics. Im going to charge a little while and ill b back

Screw it 3%

181-1.5+

176-4.0+

175-3.5+

174-4.5+

173-4.0

172-4.5+

170-4.5

168-2.5 i think. stain on top right corner and color rub off middle of back by his face

Btw. I know im going low on a lot of these. Some that I listed approximate grades already would be good 5.0/5.5 candidates, but I dont like returns. Its a hassle

159 im giving a  1.0+ bad spine creases. Another trifold back cover with some extra creases.only cover ripped bottom corner Creases, creases, creases.

152 154 158 161 162 covers detached 161 and 162 in 2 pieces ripped down spine...they would be at least probably 3.0's if the covers werent detached

im giving 160 a 4.0+ those creases are supposed to be on back cover for trifold display on back cover. Spine curled a little has spine creases corners are pretty good

I had to wait for kids to get sleep.  Heres the list

More under 200 than i thought

152

154

158

159

160

161

162

164

166

167

168

170

172

173

174

175

176

179

181

185

188

190

197 

199

So 24 under #200

Then

203

(2)205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

221

224

230

251

258

And

Super special

12 with comic

17 with posters

23 with stickers

Winter 1979 with color pages

And 

A beat up annual 10 missing back cover and stickers

Pics soon.

Looking at them now price might be going up....... !

4 hours ago, FN-2199 said:

When I started looking for NM comics on eBay, I used to look at the VFs too because I thought some sellers might be stingy graders or I thought I could press to NM.

Let's just say that now I don't even bother with the VF/NM listings and if it says 9.4, I'll assume its 9.0-9.2, maybe. I look for those raw "9.6s" and "9.8s" if I want a 9.2/4 and bid accordingly.

Glad Im not the only one. I am a bit stingy on eyeballing them though. The way I look at it is a 9.6 is a 9.8 that just didnt make it and a 9.4 is a 9.2 that looked good. If I added 9.4's and 9.6's it would be way too confusing. So typically on those vf/NM listings AKA 9.0's how are the ebay books looking? Right on, closer to a 9.2, or closer to an 8.5?

51 issues LG $60 shipped grades ranging from .5 to probably 6 on a few. I haven't looked really good at them but most look to be 3.5 or better. I put the .5 in case pages are missing or the cover is taped. And there ARE some rough ones in there. Some of them are #d upper 100's most 200's. The pile next to the spread out magazines are not for sale yet. Some of those are lower #s so I have to look at them better. Ill pack the books well, but for this price its media mail. Add $12-17 bucks you want them priority based on your location.

Paypal only

First Ill take it gets them.

PM any offers

Thanks

You need more pics and issue numbers ill get them later

I received a Nm/Nm+ today.  Close, but  NM-.  I'm getting really tired of this, but seller probably listed just as I did in first sentence if anyone caught that.  Anyway packaging was as follows.  Bubble mailer, followed by 2 priority mailers, followed by the cut up priority "boards".  Now here is where it got weird for me.  In the middle of the sandwich was the comic  with backing board wrapped in small bubble wrap.  Well if I can dent a comic with my finger while I'm holding it that small bubble wrap can dent the comic.  Especially sandwiched between boards.  I was like wtf?  It would have been different had it been the comic with backing board with board on top of comic wrapped in bubblewrap.  Even just the boards would have been better.  Then when I saw the 1/2" crease by the bottom corner and the cb crease on the spine I was like wtf again.  WTF.  Atleast the seller tried to get it to me as good as when shipped.  +1 for that. The press should get it to a 9.4 but that's 8 more bucks after already paying a NM/NM+ price.  Anyone else having real bad luck getting an actual NM/NM+ on ebay lately? 7 out of the last 12  I have purchased off the bay have ranged from 8.5 to 9.2. One had 8 spine creases that weren't all obvious in the scans!  That one almost got returned. 

On 7/8/2017 at 8:39 AM, the blob said:

I have a question..

A buyer made an offer on a few books I had in a lot. He realizes after I accept he does not need one of them. I'm ok, happy to make the sale on the other two.  I come up with a price for the other two and tell him I will try to invoice him a reduced amount. I know I will be eating the ebay fees on the reduction. Whatever.

Ebay does not allow me to give a discount on the invoice that exceeds shipping. I know once upon a time I could adjust the price more than that.  How do I sent an invoice that does so?

Buyer would have to pay full and then you give him a partial refund at that point. Ive had to go this route a few times. Seems to be the only way to do it. Just make sure everything is documented through your messages. Or cancel sale by buyer request and relist correctly. That way you get your fees back from first sale. If you are worried about the buyer totally backing out....... Set up a new BIN for more than selling price, have buyer put in offer. Then cancel the first listing. Then accept offer. If he/she doesnt pay at least you get to report them then.

:closed:

The way I see it, if you are worried about the staples and for sure want it pressed find someone who won't mind spot pressing it for you. In the one pic unless the camera is playing tricks it looks like you have a dent through left side they could press out. Maybe they can fix up the staple indents too. I just sent in a bronze with some tanning on inside cover and back. They probably only dinged me .5 or so on the grade.  Youre tanning is worse though. Watch out too. If you check out CCS guidelines it says pressing could have undesired effect on excessively tanned books.

Or just send it in and hope for the best. Im going 6.0 post press.

. 

On 8/31/2017 at 1:05 AM, Konrad5288 said:

1 book Express CCS and CGC (No prescreen)

Received 8/23

At CCS 8/24

Verified 8/30

Graded/shipped 9/5

 

18 MQP & MFT (No prescreen)

Received 8/07

At CCS 8/25

Express graded/shipped 9/5. Under avg tat

18 book still at CCS

I have like the whole run of Car Toons Magazine just sitting in the bottom of a box. Grades on them probably range from about a 2 to 8.5. My price guide doesnt list them, Ebay is all over the place on pricing. Anyone have a guide price they could post for me? Thank you in advance.

1 hour ago, SteppinRazor said:

I'll put it on hold.  Thanks!

 

The I'll take it guy is an emoticon

Yes but it doesnt pop up when i write Ill take it! Works though

On 8/26/2017 at 10:40 PM, kimikkkk said:

I need the name of this comic (more specifically the name of this dog). I am struggling since days to find an answer and I decided to ask experts !!!
Please help me guys !!!

Is that Jack & Jill? Im going to open up the stash in about an hour and find out for you.