When do you know it's worth CGC grading a comic? 1 1

[Eskreeyo]

When do you know it's worth CGC grading a comic? I've recently started searching for valuable comics in garage sales, book stores, etc.. It's a very addicting hobby and I find myself wanting to send everything I find to CGC. If anyone has any suggestion or advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Cgc fan]

If it's a key first appearance issue from Golden Ag to the Bronze Age it is worth getting graded.

[jevlnuts]

There are a lot of factors that come into answering this question. In my opinion there are three main things I look for in determining whether or not a book should be graded:

1)What is the age of the book? The older the book the better. Determine the age i.e. Golden, Silver, Bronze, Modern.

2)What is the condition of the book? Modern books usually must be NM but older books may maintain value if they are highly damaged.

3)Does the book have any special historical significance (i.e. first appearances, iconic covers, important story lines). These book are often referred to as "key issues".

In my opinion, as a general rule of thumb, if you have book with at least two of these factors it may be worth getting graded. For instance if you have a golden age book in outstanding shape, in may be worth it. Likewise, you may have may have a modern book, that is a significant key issue in great shape, off the top of my head Batman Adventures 12 and New Mutants 98 would fit this mold. 

At the end of the day it is important to choose which book you have graded, not all books are worth the investment but some definitely are.

[Parabellum]

100% agree 

[revat]

I'd say just do the math.

compare. 

On one side - Price of selling the book raw in its current grade (or with a press, if that costs you money or not).

On the other side - Conservative estimated fair market value of the graded book (with a conservative estimate of the grade), make sure to subtract all the grading fees including shipping to/from, insurance, grading, invoice fee, pressing fees, customs and translation fees if you're international.

 

Other things to account for:  Timing (wait for grading) preferences, preferred profit margins or ROI, preferred liquidity, your market for selling (shows? online? craigslist?), how bad or fast you need the money, any personal attachment to the comic in question, your ability to grade, your ability to judge the market, your own ability to make good financial decisions.

[FN-2199]

20 hours ago, revat said:

I'd say just do the math.

compare. 

On one side - Price of selling the book raw in its current grade (or with a press, if that costs you money or not).

On the other side - Conservative estimated fair market value of the graded book (with a conservative estimate of the grade), make sure to subtract all the grading fees including shipping to/from, insurance, grading, invoice fee, pressing fees, customs and translation fees if you're international.

 

Other things to account for:  Timing (wait for grading) preferences, preferred profit margins or ROI, preferred liquidity, your market for selling (shows? online? craigslist?), how bad or fast you need the money, any personal attachment to the comic in question, your ability to grade, your ability to judge the market, your own ability to make good financial decisions.

I like this train of thought.

Comic + Investment (press, grading, selling fees) + time = Profit?  

OR

Comic + Selling fees = Higher % Profit, but less money and less time

I sell a lot of moderns so slabbing is usually expensive, time consuming, and sometimes I'll realize less profit than selling raw if my grading isn't spot on. If you're slabbing keys you'll usually win on those books, but slabbing any and everything won't work. I also recommend finding your niche because everyone is chasing keys.

[Heronext]

13 minutes ago, FN-2199 said:

I like this train of thought.

Comic + Investment (press, grading, selling fees) + time = Profit?  

OR

Comic + Selling fees = Higher % Profit, but less money and less time

I sell a lot of moderns so slabbing is usually expensive, time consuming, and sometimes I'll realize less profit than selling raw if my grading isn't spot on. If you're slabbing keys you'll usually win on those books, but slabbing any and everything won't work. I also recommend finding your niche because everyone is chasing keys.

Each time I submit, I do this exact type of analysis - all grading, shipping & pressing fees plus what I have in the book vs. FMV.  I also find serial #s for examples already slabbed, to see that the notations will be, and I ask CGC to add specific notations if they are noteworthy and absent from past labels.  If the end result is a small loss, I'll submit anyway if I really want the book in a case.  All this takes quite a while.  Excel is your friend.

Edited October 31, 2017 by xomic

[revat]

24 minutes ago, FN-2199 said:

I like this train of thought.

Comic + Investment (press, grading, selling fees) + time = Profit?  

OR

Comic + Selling fees = Higher % Profit, but less money and less time

I sell a lot of moderns so slabbing is usually expensive, time consuming, and sometimes I'll realize less profit than selling raw if my grading isn't spot on. If you're slabbing keys you'll usually win on those books, but slabbing any and everything won't work. I also recommend finding your niche because everyone is chasing keys.

To the OP (and the world), you should put at least this much thought into anything you see as an investment.  If you're spending for personal reasons, do whatever you can afford within your preferences.

[ThothAmon]

Ive just started submitting and my personal threshold is gpa value of about $100 slabbed for most books. The major exception is books that may achieve highest graded census status or books with very few sales.  

[Michelangelo]

before you start sending books to CGC, you absolutely need to know how to grade books yourself.

Thinking a book is a 9.8 when it's actually a 9.0-9.2 will not make you any money long term after grading fees, shipping and pressing fees.

assuming you're selling the books you find: many times a book sold raw will yield a higher roi% than if you sold it slabbed after the grading and pressing fees. thus, know your prices for books sold raw vs. books sold graded

Edited November 2, 2017 by Michelangelo

[Cocomonkey]

I get my books graded more for long-term safekeeping than resale, and don't have nearly the budget to get more than a handful graded every couple years (I only have around 15 graded books to date, but all submitted by me, none bought already slabbed). Any $$ spent grading is less I can spend acquiring more to complete my UXM run, or picking up anything of random interest. So when I'm figuring it out, my factors are--

1) Is the book really important to me? I made sure to get my 9.0 Swamp Thing 37 graded because I love Constantine, for example. Same for my 7.0 X-Men 60 SS signed by Neal Adams (and if I had a higher-grade copy of X-Men 58, I'd have gotten that graded instead/also), because I love his X-Men art from back then. (Although to be fair, I submitted the Swamp Thing at a CGC event doing free submissions for modern books, and just had to pay shipping.)

2) Is the book a key or semi-key and in danger of condition loss if I don't get it slabbed? I have some lower-grade SA semi-keys that I got graded because I wanted to make sure they got protected, in case anything happened.

3) If my grading is reasonably on-point (and I usually ask my LCS for their opinion before I send anything through them, just for a second set of eyes--though we've both been wrong at times, and I've had books come back higher and lower, because it's all a roll of the dice), is the difference between Graded FMV vs. Raw FMV more than the cost of grading the book plus shipping? It isn't worth it money-wise to get a book graded if the slabbed value isn't at least as much as the raw plus the cost of slabbing. I have a column for both on my inventory spreadsheet, and when I'm thinking of getting books graded again, I'll check the ones that have the highest difference first, then update their values, see which still qualify, and pick X number from those (assuming I don't have any falling in either of the first two categories above).

And when I'm picking for reasons 1) or 2) above, then that's my motivation and what determines what I send in, fitting within my budget.

[CKinTO]

All great points above. The only other thing I'd add for someone new at this is how to figure out what the graded price for a book goes for. You saw above someone refer to GPA, which is a website that tracks graded sales of books over time (but requires a $10/month membership to do so).

If you just want a rough gauge on value, check EBay Sold Listings (Advanced Search, check SOLD listings). This will show you all sale prices for the last 3 months (although it won't show you the final price for Offers that were Accepted). This is a quick / free way to get a sense for approx. how much a book is going for - note: this won't help you that much for books that don't have frequent sales.

[Shane grillo]

For me, some of it is personal value and resale value. There are quite a few books I got graded simply because I love the story and cover art and just want to display them encased on my wall.

[WoWitHurts]

I only send stuff in if I am going to be selling it and it is of high enough grade\value.  For instance I have 5-6 copies of Iron Man #7 raw. All of the copies present well and look super nice but grades range from 8.5-9.4. A graded 8.5 sells for less than $60 and a 9.4 for around $125 graded. After figuring in cost to ship to and from CGC and grading costs plus any selling fees etc. it is hardly worth it to me to get it slabbed.