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How are sellers able to sell CGC comics for $20 ?

Started by doxbane,

47 posts in this topic

doxbane

doxbane

Posted
Posted

I've just started in on collecting slabbed comics, and quite a few that I'm interested in, I'm finding for $20 - 30 or so. From what I've read, the cost of having the book graded alone is in that range, so I'm wondering why sellers are listing items so cheaply;

 

Is it just a matter of the seller having to liquidate stock that isn't moving? Or because they had books graded and slabbed in bulk so the process was cheaper?

 

thanks for any thoughts!

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lizards2

lizards2

Posted
Posted

My personal theory is that people get a lot of junk slabbed without doing the research or knowing the market. Lot's of poop inside slabs out there.

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1Cool

1Cool

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Posted

Can't slab a book for less then $20 when you factor in all the cost so they must have hoped for a higher grade and are blowing out slabs to recoup most of their money. If these are books that are 9.8s and still $20 books then they will stop grading those books very quickly since people don't like to lose money - even not very smart people.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted
I've just started in on collecting slabbed comics, and quite a few that I'm interested in, I'm finding for $20 - 30 or so. From what I've read, the cost of having the book graded alone is in that range, so I'm wondering why sellers are listing items so cheaply;

 

Is it just a matter of the seller having to liquidate stock that isn't moving? Or because they had books graded and slabbed in bulk so the process was cheaper?

 

thanks for any thoughts!

 

 

As others have said, it's because people either don't know how to grade (many, many, many of them), or they didn't understand the value of what they were grading, or they simply wanted it graded, regardless of the cost, and now no longer want it, or some combination thereof.

 

It's not possible to slab anything for less than $14.40 (the dealer discount), and that's if you drop off and pick up the slabs in person.

 

Lots of dealers do slab "in bulk", and if they are able to sell enough to recoup and make a profit, the others are dumped.

 

Frankly, this hurts the market overall, as buyers obtain an unrealistic value of the slabs and assume they ought to be able to do that all the time, and so resist the real fact that obtaining a 9.8 for specific books is actually valued at quite a bit more than $20-$30...usually $40-$50 or more...so if buyers are able to buy very high grade slabs for essentially the cost to slab, thus negating any risk on their part with regards to the grade, they should consider themselves to have gotten a great deal, rather than come to expect it as normal.

 

 

 

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blazingbob

blazingbob

Posted
Posted
If you get your hands on a collection, and know you've made enough on the key books you've bought then selling the others for $20 is decent money and reduces your storage space.

 

Decent money?

 

Really?

 

Cheapest modern cost is $14.40 after dealer discount.

 

$5 invoice charge, .33 cents across the 15 book modern submission is all are sent in.

 

There is shipping cost down and back. Lets assume 15 books cost $1 each bach and forth.

 

Assume electronic payment on $20 * .03 = $.60

 

Time is money

 

You are lucky if you are making $3 at $20 assuming that the book cost $0.

 

Not exactly decent money.

 

$20 slabs are flat out books that were "Submission losers". Take the loss and move on. At $20 you are paying everybody else.

 

Bob

 

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sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

Posted
Posted
And why do people get books slabbed that are worth less than the CGC fee?

 

I've met a lot of people newer to the hobby who assume slabbing any book will raise its value, and I've also met a lot of people with a skewed definition of "Mint".

 

Early on that was true, not so anymore. Moderns are especially subject to this given "hot" and "cold" cycles can make the difference of breaking even or losing money. Bob summarized it nicely. Those who think they are "making bank" aren't counting all of the costs.

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Artboy99

Artboy99

Posted
Posted
If you get your hands on a collection, and know you've made enough on the key books you've bought then selling the others for $20 is decent money and reduces your storage space.

 

Decent money?

 

Really?

 

Cheapest modern cost is $14.40 after dealer discount.

 

$5 invoice charge, .33 cents across the 15 book modern submission is all are sent in.

 

There is shipping cost down and back. Lets assume 15 books cost $1 each bach and forth.

 

Assume electronic payment on $20 * .03 = $.60

 

Time is money

 

You are lucky if you are making $3 at $20 assuming that the book cost $0.

 

Not exactly decent money.

 

$20 slabs are flat out books that were "Submission losers". Take the loss and move on. At $20 you are paying everybody else.

 

Bob

 

Unless you acquired the book in a collection and it is already in a slab.

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thecopperagekids

thecopperagekids

Posted
Posted
I've just started in on collecting slabbed comics, and quite a few that I'm interested in, I'm finding for $20 - 30 or so. From what I've read, the cost of having the book graded alone is in that range, so I'm wondering why sellers are listing items so cheaply;

 

Is it just a matter of the seller having to liquidate stock that isn't moving? Or because they had books graded and slabbed in bulk so the process was cheaper?

 

thanks for any thoughts!

 

 

As others have said, it's because people either don't know how to grade (many, many, many of them), or they didn't understand the value of what they were grading, or they simply wanted it graded, regardless of the cost, and now no longer want it, or some combination thereof.

 

It's not possible to slab anything for less than $14.40 (the dealer discount), and that's if you drop off and pick up the slabs in person.

 

Lots of dealers do slab "in bulk", and if they are able to sell enough to recoup and make a profit, the others are dumped.

 

Frankly, this hurts the market overall, as buyers obtain an unrealistic value of the slabs and assume they ought to be able to do that all the time, and so resist the real fact that obtaining a 9.8 for specific books is actually valued at quite a bit more than $20-$30...usually $40-$50 or more...so if buyers are able to buy very high grade slabs for essentially the cost to slab, thus negating any risk on their part with regards to the grade, they should consider themselves to have gotten a great deal, rather than come to expect it as normal.

 

 

 

What Bob said was dead on, as is what RMA has said.

 

I remember buying a Rom 2 CGC 9.6 at a $19.99 BIN with free shipping about 2 years ago.There has been some hype around Rom being in a GOTG movie for a while now, at $20 shipped for the second issue, figured what the eff.

 

Bought it and eventually sold it for $50 (+ shipping), wasn't exactly the deal of the century as it took almost 1/2 a year of 30 day listing cycles to sell.Looked it up in GPA, here's my sale date:

 

Feb-29-2016 $50 Cert# 0229957019

 

Original purchase date:

 

Nov-08-2014 $20 Cert# 0229957019

 

The seller wasn't a newbie dealer, either.

 

He had a 9.8 copy listed at around $100.he certainly lost money on the 9.6 slab.I actually remember that the seller put "before transformers" in the title as a key word search gimmick and just did a search to find him.

 

For a reference point, this is that seller's current listings, he has another Rom 2 CGC 9.6 listed, looks like he has since cut out that $19.99 shipped nonsense:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rom-The-Space-Knight-2-CGC-9-6-1980-Marvel-Comic-1173399014/142014927881?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38846%26meid%3D09f88b394efd4af6816bcbfb9f8708c1%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D141376452990

 

 

 

 

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romanheart

romanheart

Posted
Posted
If you get your hands on a collection, and know you've made enough on the key books you've bought then selling the others for $20 is decent money and reduces your storage space.

 

Decent money?

 

Really?

 

Cheapest modern cost is $14.40 after dealer discount.

 

$5 invoice charge, .33 cents across the 15 book modern submission is all are sent in.

 

There is shipping cost down and back. Lets assume 15 books cost $1 each bach and forth.

 

Assume electronic payment on $20 * .03 = $.60

 

Time is money

 

You are lucky if you are making $3 at $20 assuming that the book cost $0.

 

Not exactly decent money.

 

$20 slabs are flat out books that were "Submission losers". Take the loss and move on. At $20 you are paying everybody else.

 

Bob

 

Unless you acquired the book in a collection and it is already in a slab.

 

Yes that was my point. I think most people wouldn't grade most moderns/coppers even if they are 9.6/9.8 because of the costs you mentioned. There are exceptions of course.

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ft88

ft88

Posted
Posted

A common occurance can be getting 5-10 copies raw of a decent book, say a Rom 1 since we're there. 5 grade 9.8 and 3 grade 9.6 but the other two grade 8.0 and 7.5. Why'd you submit those? Well it was easy to miss that centerfold staple pull and some other flaw and it was just easier to submit them all without a pre screen. The you sell the 8 for a handsome sum and clear out the other two for a minor loss.

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Logan510

Logan510

Posted
Posted
A common occurance can be getting 5-10 copies raw of a decent book, say a Rom 1 since we're there. 5 grade 9.8 and 3 grade 9.6 but the other two grade 8.0 and 7.5. Why'd you submit those? Well it was easy to miss that centerfold staple pull and some other flaw and it was just easier to submit them all without a pre screen. The you sell the 8 for a handsome sum and clear out the other two for a minor loss.

 

+1

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Number 6

Number 6

Posted
Posted
I've just started in on collecting slabbed comics, and quite a few that I'm interested in, I'm finding for $20 - 30 or so. From what I've read, the cost of having the book graded alone is in that range, so I'm wondering why sellers are listing items so cheaply;

 

Is it just a matter of the seller having to liquidate stock that isn't moving? Or because they had books graded and slabbed in bulk so the process was cheaper?

 

thanks for any thoughts!

 

 

As others have said, it's because people either don't know how to grade (many, many, many of them), or they didn't understand the value of what they were grading, or they simply wanted it graded, regardless of the cost, and now no longer want it, or some combination thereof.

 

It's not possible to slab anything for less than $14.40 (the dealer discount), and that's if you drop off and pick up the slabs in person.

 

Lots of dealers do slab "in bulk", and if they are able to sell enough to recoup and make a profit, the others are dumped.

 

Frankly, this hurts the market overall, as buyers obtain an unrealistic value of the slabs and assume they ought to be able to do that all the time, and so resist the real fact that obtaining a 9.8 for specific books is actually valued at quite a bit more than $20-$30...usually $40-$50 or more...so if buyers are able to buy very high grade slabs for essentially the cost to slab, thus negating any risk on their part with regards to the grade, they should consider themselves to have gotten a great deal, rather than come to expect it as normal.

 

 

 

What Bob said was dead on, as is what RMA has said.

 

I remember buying a Rom 2 CGC 9.6 at a $19.99 BIN with free shipping about 2 years ago.There has been some hype around Rom being in a GOTG movie for a while now, at $20 shipped for the second issue, figured what the eff.

 

Bought it and eventually sold it for $50 (+ shipping), wasn't exactly the deal of the century as it took almost 1/2 a year of 30 day listing cycles to sell.Looked it up in GPA, here's my sale date:

 

Feb-29-2016 $50 Cert# 0229957019

 

Original purchase date:

 

Nov-08-2014 $20 Cert# 0229957019

 

The seller wasn't a newbie dealer, either.

 

He had a 9.8 copy listed at around $100.he certainly lost money on the 9.6 slab.I actually remember that the seller put "before transformers" in the title as a key word search gimmick and just did a search to find him.

 

For a reference point, this is that seller's current listings, he has another Rom 2 CGC 9.6 listed, looks like he has since cut out that $19.99 shipped nonsense:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rom-The-Space-Knight-2-CGC-9-6-1980-Marvel-Comic-1173399014/142014927881?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38846%26meid%3D09f88b394efd4af6816bcbfb9f8708c1%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D141376452990

 

 

 

 

I think the seller in question - reynoldjay - submitted a big portion of his speculator hoard in the early 2000's when just about any book in 9.6/9.8 slab sold for a premium. When the market got more discriminating I think he was left with some books in 9.6 and even 9.8 that most wouldn't consider slabbing now.

 

I also get the impression it took him awhile to catch on to where the market was at and therefore adjust his submissions.

 

For whatever reason I guess he felt the need to blow the book out to free up some cash.

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Calamerica

Calamerica

Posted
Posted

Every now and then someone sells me a cracked/destroyed slab that is not worth their money and time to get reholdered.

 

Some are then PLODS and GLODS I collect.

 

Hope this helps.

 

CAL who will be soon down to ONE storage unit at last!

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