How to grade and sell a short box of comics?

[Junkdrawer]

Too bad its listed under Canada. It may get overlooked. Should be listed under US coins. California Dreamin'

[uchiha101]

Won't grading them all in one day burn me out and make me miss things I would have usually caught?

 

It's a short box, and out of that, how many are actually worth putting a grade on? If you want to make money selling books, get used to it.

 

With the current comics I have about 5-10 are worth getting a grade on and my current limit is about 20 a day.

[uchiha101]

A while back a bought a short box of comics and separated the more valuable comics from the dollar bins ones I have 147 comics.

 

So my questions are:

 

How many do I grade a day without burning myself out? Grade them all in one day, get them all done so it isn't sitting around for days/weeks/months/years

What would be the best thing to do with the dollar bin comics? trade them? sell them? sell them

Do you give a general grade for the comics in a huge lot or go through them one by one? You will have to go through the more valuable books one by one. In addition to grade count the pages to make sure they are all there.

 

 

 

 

Won't grading them all in one day burn me out and make me miss things I would have usually caught?

 

If you're serious about being serious about comics, grading 100 in a day should be nothing. If you worked in comics book store you might grade 200-300 (or more) in a day AND do bagging, boarding, and pricing on those comics. Big books are sexy and bring headlines, but even for the big dealers most of their PROFIT is made on recognizing, grading, and selling the $5-$50 books. When you buy 10 longboxes from some old dude in the countryside, you might easily identify 20 books that cover 80% of the cost of the whole lot, but selling the actual 10 longboxes is where your profit comes from. And that can mean all day grading for days or weeks at a time (or paying someone to do so if you can afford it). Grading accurately and consistently over a long period of time is an acquired skill only gained through experience and perseverance.

 

 

SO you could also treat this an a grading consistency exercise. Grade them all in one day, write down all the grades. Come back 2 days later and grade them again, see what you get for grades. See if you can learn anything. Take 5 of your more valuable comics and put them in the PGM subforum here, see how you do compared to the people.

 

I was always curious what the process was for grading a collection or bigger lot of comics. I'll start practicing grading more comics because right now my limit is 20. I'm serious about comics though I'm coming across lots of new situations so I always ask. For the exercise I never heard of it before but it sounds like something I need to do a lot of.

[jaybuck43]

How much time of your day are you considering using to do the grading?

 

You should be

1) Counting the pages, checking to make sure that they are all snuggly attached at both staples.

2) Looking for interior damage to pages as you are counting (make sure edges are all present, no creases, folds etc)

3) Checking the covers for color touch, pieces added, and trimming

4) Examine the condition of the exterior

5) Assigning a grade.

 

This entire process should take no more than 10 minutes for an inexperience grader. An experienced grader can do it easily under 5, and I'm sure some of the guys on here can do it even quicker than that.

 

Assuming you are going to take 10 minutes a book, and you are limiting to 20 books a day, you're only spending 3 hours and 20 minutes on grading.

[Iceman399]

How much time of your day are you considering using to do the grading?

 

You should be

1) Counting the pages, checking to make sure that they are all snuggly attached at both staples.

2) Looking for interior damage to pages as you are counting (make sure edges are all present, no creases, folds etc)

3) Checking the covers for color touch, pieces added, and trimming

4) Examine the condition of the exterior

5) Assigning a grade.

 

This entire process should take no more than 10 minutes for an inexperience grader. An experienced grader can do it easily under 5, and I'm sure some of the guys on here can do it even quicker than that.

 

Assuming you are going to take 10 minutes a book, and you are limiting to 20 books a day, you're only spending 3 hours and 20 minutes on grading.

 

Waste of time on $1 books.

[uchiha101]

How much time of your day are you considering using to do the grading?

 

You should be

1) Counting the pages, checking to make sure that they are all snuggly attached at both staples.

2) Looking for interior damage to pages as you are counting (make sure edges are all present, no creases, folds etc)

3) Checking the covers for color touch, pieces added, and trimming

4) Examine the condition of the exterior

5) Assigning a grade.

 

This entire process should take no more than 10 minutes for an inexperience grader. An experienced grader can do it easily under 5, and I'm sure some of the guys on here can do it even quicker than that.

 

Assuming you are going to take 10 minutes a book, and you are limiting to 20 books a day, you're only spending 3 hours and 20 minutes on grading.

 

I understand time is of the essence here but going so quickly won't you miss something? How you described the comics is how I check them but I never timed myself yet.

[jaybuck43]

How much time of your day are you considering using to do the grading?

 

You should be

1) Counting the pages, checking to make sure that they are all snuggly attached at both staples.

2) Looking for interior damage to pages as you are counting (make sure edges are all present, no creases, folds etc)

3) Checking the covers for color touch, pieces added, and trimming

4) Examine the condition of the exterior

5) Assigning a grade.

 

This entire process should take no more than 10 minutes for an inexperience grader. An experienced grader can do it easily under 5, and I'm sure some of the guys on here can do it even quicker than that.

 

Assuming you are going to take 10 minutes a book, and you are limiting to 20 books a day, you're only spending 3 hours and 20 minutes on grading.

 

Waste of time on $1 books.

 

The way I read his post is that he separated out the $1 books from the "more valuable books" and that he has 147 books to grade.

[BeachBum]

Too bad its listed under Canada. It may get overlooked. Should be listed under US coins. California Dreamin'

 

This all hurts my head.

[uchiha101]

How much time of your day are you considering using to do the grading?

 

You should be

1) Counting the pages, checking to make sure that they are all snuggly attached at both staples.

2) Looking for interior damage to pages as you are counting (make sure edges are all present, no creases, folds etc)

3) Checking the covers for color touch, pieces added, and trimming

4) Examine the condition of the exterior

5) Assigning a grade.

 

This entire process should take no more than 10 minutes for an inexperience grader. An experienced grader can do it easily under 5, and I'm sure some of the guys on here can do it even quicker than that.

 

Assuming you are going to take 10 minutes a book, and you are limiting to 20 books a day, you're only spending 3 hours and 20 minutes on grading.

 

Waste of time on $1 books.

 

The way I read his post is that he separated out the $1 books from the "more valuable books" and that he has 147 books to grade.

 

No you're right that's exactly what the situation is I separated the more valuable from the dollar comics and I do have 147 to grade.

[Beige]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

[Junkdrawer]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

He knows enough to make threads on Fridays

[vaillant]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

He knows enough to make threads on Fridays

And much more… Gabi is everything but a shill!

[Red84]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

 

Let's reserve the vitriol for someone who deserves it.

There's at least 2 other threads going on right now where it would be appropriate.

[Artboy99]

A while back a bought a short box of comics and separated the more valuable comics from the dollar bins ones I have 147 comics.

 

So my questions are:

 

How many do I grade a day without burning myself out? Grade them all in one day, get them all done so it isn't sitting around for days/weeks/months/years

What would be the best thing to do with the dollar bin comics? trade them? sell them? sell them

Do you give a general grade for the comics in a huge lot or go through them one by one? You will have to go through the more valuable books one by one. In addition to grade count the pages to make sure they are all there.

 

 

 

 

Won't grading them all in one day burn me out and make me miss things I would have usually caught?

 

If you're serious about being serious about comics, grading 100 in a day should be nothing. If you worked in comics book store you might grade 200-300 (or more) in a day AND do bagging, boarding, and pricing on those comics. Big books are sexy and bring headlines, but even for the big dealers most of their PROFIT is made on recognizing, grading, and selling the $5-$50 books. When you buy 10 longboxes from some old dude in the countryside, you might easily identify 20 books that cover 80% of the cost of the whole lot, but selling the actual 10 longboxes is where your profit comes from. And that can mean all day grading for days or weeks at a time (or paying someone to do so if you can afford it). Grading accurately and consistently over a long period of time is an acquired skill only gained through experience and perseverance.

 

 

SO you could also treat this an a grading consistency exercise. Grade them all in one day, write down all the grades. Come back 2 days later and grade them again, see what you get for grades. See if you can learn anything. Take 5 of your more valuable comics and put them in the PGM subforum here, see how you do compared to the people.

 

Thank you for responding to this for me.

You provided excellent advice.

 

Grading a book shouldn't take the 10 minutes mentioned, or even the 5 minutes mentioned. Now I do consider that I am very experienced. here is how I do it:

 

-Pick up the book and review the front noting any defects.

-Flip it over and look at the back noting any defects.

-Open inside front cover and look, you are looking for marks, bleed through (indicating color touch), and tanning

-Open inside back cover and look

-View interior pages, make sure all wraps present especially centerfold,

-check staples

Assign grade

 

Should take a couple hours max to grade all 147 books. Add an hour to include a price sticker/ rebag/ reboard if needed.

 

3 hours

[Beige]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

He knows enough to make threads on Fridays

 

[Beige]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

 

Let's reserve the vitriol for someone who deserves it.

There's at least 2 other threads going on right now where it would be appropriate.

 

Another CAK epic?

Where?

[rodan57]

Grading a book shouldn't take the 10 minutes mentioned, or even the 5 minutes mentioned. Now I do consider that I am very experienced. here is how I do it:

 

-Pick up the book and review the front noting any defects.

-Flip it over and look at the back noting any defects.

-Open inside front cover and look, you are looking for marks, bleed through (indicating color touch), and tanning

-Open inside back cover and look

-View interior pages, make sure all wraps present especially centerfold,

-check staples

Assign grade

 

Should take a couple hours max to grade all 147 books. Add an hour to include a price sticker/ rebag/ reboard if needed.

 

3 hours

 

I might add counting the pages -- 8 to centre / 8 to back -- and quick sniff of the book looking for any whiff of mould.

[uchiha101]

Shouldn't take you long, seeing as you don't work.

Do 'em in a day and list in groups of 10.

After everything 40 odd peeps have told you in your train wreck of a journal, you still need to come back and ask the same questions again?

 

You have to be the best shill on these boards in its entire history!

 

No you're right I don't work and I don't remember asking these specific questions and if the boardies felt that they didn't answer they wouldn't I don't know my journal off by heart and I'm not a shill I can assure you of that.

[revat]

Grading a book shouldn't take the 10 minutes mentioned, or even the 5 minutes mentioned. Now I do consider that I am very experienced. here is how I do it:

 

-Pick up the book and review the front noting any defects.

-Flip it over and look at the back noting any defects.

-Open inside front cover and look, you are looking for marks, bleed through (indicating color touch), and tanning

-Open inside back cover and look

-View interior pages, make sure all wraps present especially centerfold,

-check staples

Assign grade

 

Should take a couple hours max to grade all 147 books. Add an hour to include a price sticker/ rebag/ reboard if needed.

 

3 hours

 

I might add counting the pages -- 8 to centre / 8 to back -- and quick sniff of the book looking for any whiff of mould.

 

I would also add, that if you're planning to sell them anyways, take your scans/photos during this process, so you don't have risk damaging the comics again at some later time.

[uchiha101]

Grading a book shouldn't take the 10 minutes mentioned, or even the 5 minutes mentioned. Now I do consider that I am very experienced. here is how I do it:

 

-Pick up the book and review the front noting any defects.

-Flip it over and look at the back noting any defects.

-Open inside front cover and look, you are looking for marks, bleed through (indicating color touch), and tanning

-Open inside back cover and look

-View interior pages, make sure all wraps present especially centerfold,

-check staples

Assign grade

 

Should take a couple hours max to grade all 147 books. Add an hour to include a price sticker/ rebag/ reboard if needed.

 

3 hours

 

I might add counting the pages -- 8 to centre / 8 to back -- and quick sniff of the book looking for any whiff of mould.

 

The comics from the short box I bought are mostly bronze age but yeah I can see if they have mold in them.