How much does slabbing add to actual value of non keys? 0

[evilskip]

I'm rather new to collecting CGC comics and frankly, the search function drives me batty. So if this question has been asked before, please be gentle in pointing me in the right direction.

For the past 15 years I have seen CGC books come and go on ebay and other auction sites. I tend to gravitate to the lower grade comics as I don't trust 95% of the sellers grading out there. So when I see an average book, say 5.0 or less priced at three times guide I just go WTF and pass it by. It will still be there next year.

Granted, key books will draw more than non keys, but in reality, can you even out a figure on how much value is added by having a book slabbed? ( I'm aware of how valuable CGC is as far as detecting restoration, preserving the comics etc). It seems to me that in a lot of cases, some sellers feel that if the book is slabbed then it is worth XXX$ more than an unslabbed, even if it is a non key.

Some examples. I won an Amazing Spidey 26 , CGC graded at 4.5 for under $65. To me this was a steal because the OPG for that raw is over $90. Grabbed an Avengers 10 cgc 4.5 for $54, which is under what a raw copy guides at. On the flipside, I love the cover to Tales To Astonish 75. A cgc 3.0 is listed at $45 while the OPG is around $14. I think there was a 6.0 or 7.0 listed at $75 while the raw would slide in at under $30. These books keep popping up month after month with no takers.

It probably just comes down to how badly you want the comic and if the price meets how far you will go. But I was just curious to see what kind of answers come up among serious collectors, and dabblers such as myself. Thanks!

[valiantman]

The cost of CGC grading is the key factor... when a book is worth $14, there's not much benefit to slabbing it if you feel like it will return at the same grade that is worth $14.  The cost of slabbing would be $30+ (fee plus shipping both ways), so the book ($14) plus the slabbing ($30+) means you have to sell for $45 just to "break even".

Most of the time a book worth less than the cost of grading is sent to CGC, it's because the submitter is hoping that the grade will be higher than it ends up being.  Submitters who work with high volumes of books will often get books back at lower grades than they expected. Those books might be "break even" books or even "take a loss" books, but the whole volume is profitable because some other books came back higher than they expected.

You're primarily describing the "break even" or "take a loss" books, which can definitely be a good deal for the buyer, but there's also a chance that the CGC 4.5 you purchased under $65 was sold for $30 the week before.  So, your deal might be good, but whoever got it for $30 and sold to you for $60 did better. 

[shadroch]

I have hundreds of slabs I have bought for $10 or less. Most of the books were liberated and the cases used for high value books.

IMO, Slabbing adds nothing to a books value.

[Mercury Man]

23 hours ago, evilskip said:

It seems to me that in a lot of cases, some sellers feel that if the book is slabbed then it is worth XXX$ more than an unslabbed, even if it is a non key.

Kind of nailed it on your own.  Too many books not worth being slabbed are being slabbed.   Sellers then try to get back that money in their asking price.   Usually backfires on them and they sit on books for years, before realizing their folly.    @valiantman also brings up some solid points. 

[Yorick]

It also depends on the collector.  I slab some books that are absolutely worthless, but I need to have a representative copy for inclusion in my Registry Sets...

[Not A Clone]

25 minutes ago, Yorick said:

It also depends on the collector.  I slab some books that are absolutely worthless, but I need to have a representative copy for inclusion in my Registry Sets...

Yeah I've slabbed a few that I know will probably never be worth anything, but they have sentimental value or whatever & I just want to preserve them. I know I could do that other ways, but the ocd in me makes me want everything to be uniformly the same I look forward to the day when I've finished off the last of my pricey ASM books and get to slab the rest of my Registry Set.   

[evilskip]

15 hours ago, Not A Clone said:

Yeah I've slabbed a few that I know will probably never be worth anything, but they have sentimental value or whatever & I just want to preserve them. I know I could do that other ways, but the ocd in me makes me want everything to be uniformly the same I look forward to the day when I've finished off the last of my pricey ASM books and get to slab the rest of my Registry Set.   

I can totally understand that.

[BeholdersEye]

Slabbing doesn't add anything to books per se if you're selling to buyers who buy the book not the number (grade), but slabbing makes it easier to sell now or in the future since it's a recognized 3rd party opinion and evaluation on the condition but most importantly if there's any restoration which is hard to detect for many.  It's more easily less contested as an over-zealous inflated grade by a seller that missed flaws when it's slabbed, and you'll get far less complaints or returns because of the encasement.  I think there's a strong population of buyers who buy graded only because of over-graders.

So, in that way, it does add value to the books on the resale market, as it's in more demand, garnering more attention than raw books, and inherently, especially in an auction environment, more willing buyers vying for it.

[shadroch]

If you take a book that sells for $3 raw, spend $35 getting it stabbed and sell it for $25, has stabbing added value to the book?

 

[revat]

3 minutes ago, shadroch said:

If you take a book that sells for $3 raw, spend $35 getting it stabbed and sell it for $25, has stabbing added value to the book?

 

yes, it just didn't add more value than the cost of the slabbing.  But its not like it sells for NEGATIVE MONEY NOW, like you HAVE TO GIVE IT AWAY.

 

BUT in some cases it might be negative.  There's plenty of junk books out there that are slabbed that you would have to PAY ME to take because I'm just totally out of space in my house (at least for comics).  I might pay $1 for the slab if you crack the book out for me and the slab is one of the bigger ones.

 

So I guess, as always the answer is 'it depends'.  But if anyone 'blindly' slabs everybook they come upon, they're not gonna make money.

[shadroch]

The seller could h ave sold the book and made a small profit without stabbing it. In this case, he ended up losing money. Did he get value by stabbing it?

[revat]

19 minutes ago, shadroch said:

The seller could h ave sold the book and made a small profit without stabbing it. In this case, he ended up losing money. Did he get value by stabbing it?

its a bit of semantics, but per the original question, slabbing in most cases adds ACTUAL value, as in technically the price of the book is increased to more than it otherwise would have been had you done nothing.  Is it good ROI? Was it worth it?  Did they actually 'get value'?  From a purely economic perspective, almost certainly not. 

Essentially you're putting a gold leaf inside the comic book.  Would adding a gold leaf add to the actual value of any comic book?  Assuredly so.  But is it worth it? Well that depends on how much you paid for the gold leaf relative to the price of the book/gold leaf combo.  Is it 'worth it' is a different question than is it 'worth more than it was', or 'is it the best decision?".  Yes, semantics, but I'm really in a crotchety phase in my life where I try to answer the specific questions that people ask, even if they're not perfect questions (and I secretly hope people will learn to phrase their questions better). 

[BeholdersEye]

7 hours ago, shadroch said:

If you take a book that sells for $3 raw, spend $35 getting it stabbed and sell it for $25, has stabbing added value to the book?

 

Although sometimes, a $3 raw book, if at 9.8 graded can command $50 or more.  I've had dollar bin books that I couldn't give away, get graded, come back a 9.8 and turn around and sell what I wasn't able to sell, and for more than FMV raw.  So, a lot of times a slabbed book is an attractive buy, and some collectors look at it as a nice $20 picture frame for their comics.

[DreGarciaTat2]

I slab books, and purchase slabbed books, purely because I like the look. I understand that when I see an ASM 300 at 9.8 it’s gonna fetch much higher dollars than non slabbed high grades. 

But ive been scooping up Skottie Young variant Captain America books for a bit more than they should cost... just to get ‘em pre slabbed. :-) 

do it for the reasons that make you happy, first! 

[Mystafo]

On 6/20/2018 at 3:46 PM, shadroch said:

has stabbing added value to the book?

 

No but it does make you feel a lot better about it!

[William-James88]

On 6/4/2018 at 2:19 PM, shadroch said:

I have hundreds of slabs I have bought for $10 or less. Most of the books were liberated and the cases used for high value books.

IMO, Slabbing adds nothing to a books value.

It can go both ways. Some people buy for the slab. So if they only collect 9.8s, they will pay extra even though the book itself raw would have been sold at $5-$25. 

But for golden age, the slab doesn't add much. The idea of the slab there is simply to "guarantee" the grade. So a 5.0 would sell for a 5.0 and not less, ideally. Though from my recent experience, I still buy slabbed golden age books below guide at auction, so the slab didn't really help the person get the price associated to the grade, proving your point.

One question though, shadroch, where did you get those 10$ slabbed books? I have never seen such prices myself.

[shadroch]

On the last day of almost any show, you can find slabs for that or less. You just have to look and ask.

[revat]

24 minutes ago, shadroch said:

On the last day of almost any show, you can find slabs for that or less. You just have to look and ask.

my favorite is slab hunting at the end of shows.  Get the cash out (exact change!) ahead of time start handing it to them on whatever offer you're making.  They've had the slab for a long time now, they've already likely made money since they bought in bulk with keys that they've already broken even on, so hopefully they're either in gravyland or cut-their-losses-mode.  Ideally for you they hopefully haven't had a great show, and they need some cash in their pocket. They'd rather turn over the money then carry heavy slabs back to the car.  Or at least that's the hope.  Even better do a bundle offer. 

[William-James88]

Is Spidey 98 a non key? Seems like Slabbing a 9.0 added a 10$ value. not great when you consider slabbing it is anywhere from 30-50$

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by William-James88

[revat]

6 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

Is Spidey 98 a non key? Seems like Slabbing a 9.0 added a 10$ value. not great when you consider slabbing it is anywhere from 30-50$

 

even for most keys (that aren't mega), the slab-worthiness still a function of grade too.