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Question: Best months for selling/buying slabs? Answers inside.
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Started by valiantman,

50 posts in this topic

LordRahl

LordRahl

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, mysterio said:

Exactly. There is a lot more that goes into the cost than the price of the book and the slabbing fee. 

I slab over 1000 books a year so I'm pretty sure I understand what is involved. The $170 net already figures Ebay and PP fees into it. $196 is the gross sales price and $170 is net of fees. Shipping to and from CGC adds about $3 per book on average and if you are pressing moderns, you are doing it wrong. I'll give you the $10 on fast track. That's still a profit of $130 on an investment of $40. Again, sounds pretty good from a margin perspective. 

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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, LordRahl said:

I slab over 1000 books a year so I'm pretty sure I understand what is involved. The $170 net already figures Ebay and PP fees into it. $196 is the gross sales price and $170 is net of fees. Shipping to and from CGC adds about $3 per book on average and if you are pressing moderns, you are doing it wrong. I'll give you the $10 on fast track. That's still a profit of $130 on an investment of $40. Again, sounds pretty good from a margin perspective. 

Plenty of people press moderns because the difference in price between a 9.6 and 9.8 can easily cover the price of the press. Not to mention that a 9.6 is often unsellable. It's nutty, but that is the world in which we live.

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Rune

Rune

Posted
Posted (edited)
18 hours ago, bc said:

So sell your $50K+ books in August and the rest in November. (thumbsu

I thought I was the only one to buy books in Nov, wrap them up, put my own name on them and put them under the Christmas tree :whistle::blush:

Edited by Rune
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LordRahl

LordRahl

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, mysterio said:

Plenty of people press moderns because the difference in price between a 9.6 and 9.8 can easily cover the price of the press. Not to mention that a 9.6 is often unsellable. It's nutty, but that is the world in which we live.

Fair enough. Even with that added in let's say $15 per book for pressing fees and shipping back and forth to the presser. You still have $115 profit on an investment of $55. Most mom and pop businesses would kill for that kind of margin.

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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, LordRahl said:

Fair enough. Even with that added in let's say $15 per book for pressing fees and shipping back and forth to the presser. You still have $115 profit on an investment of $55. Most mom and pop businesses would kill for that kind of margin.

Fair enough, but that also assumes 100% sell through in a timely fashion. And that you aren't paying employees or facilitators any part of that profit.

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valiantman

valiantman

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Posted
18 hours ago, bc said:

Knowing some of the other data that valiantman has supplied about submissions per age of books, my guess would be that the sub-$100 slabs are at least at a 5 to 1 ratio compared to the over-$500 slabs.

I agree, when you put it all together, it is really frightening.

You're right... It's more than 8 to 1.

slab_sales_100_to_500.png

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bc

bc

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, valiantman said:

You're right... It's more than 8 to 1.

slab_sales_100_to_500.png

The percentage breakdown would look like this:

Under $100    57%

$100 to $199  21%

$200 to $299    8%

$300 to $399    4%

$400 to $499    2%

Over $500        7%

 

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1Cool

1Cool

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, valiantman said:

You're right... It's more than 8 to 1.

slab_sales_100_to_500.png

Can you only do CGC books?  Can you chart the number of sales in the comic book section of E-Bay per month?

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valiantman

valiantman

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Just now, 1Cool said:

Can you only do CGC books?  Can you chart the number of sales in the comic book section of E-Bay per month?

I have been downloading CGC sales, not all comics.  I assume someone has been downloading everything, but I know it wasn't me.

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Jaylam

Jaylam

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Posted

I usually try to keep my ebay sales to books under $200-$300 in value. More valuable books I hand off to the auction houses.

Oddly, I seem to have realized better returns on sales in the spring than fall on open auctions. Nothing in November really stands out to me as being a better time to sell like these charts suggest. 

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Karl Liebl

Karl Liebl

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Posted
On 11/16/2018 at 9:10 AM, LordRahl said:

I slab over 1000 books a year so I'm pretty sure I understand what is involved. The $170 net already figures Ebay and PP fees into it. $196 is the gross sales price and $170 is net of fees. Shipping to and from CGC adds about $3 per book on average and if you are pressing moderns, you are doing it wrong. I'll give you the $10 on fast track. That's still a profit of $130 on an investment of $40. Again, sounds pretty good from a margin perspective. 

Do you insure your books for their FMV when mailing?  Do you claim FMV prices for CCS pressing and CGS grading?  Shipping was not 3 dollars a book... it was more like 100 with UPS.  Do you want your books back in 3 weeks or 3 months... choices choices...

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Karl Liebl

Karl Liebl

Posted
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On 11/16/2018 at 10:11 AM, LordRahl said:

Fair enough. Even with that added in let's say $15 per book for pressing fees and shipping back and forth to the presser. You still have $115 profit on an investment of $55. Most mom and pop businesses would kill for that kind of margin.

15 dollars to press a book with postage?  Then why am I paying 150 for it without postage?  Let me get this straight CCS pressed your silver age books for 15 buck each including postage both ways?

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Dark Prime 0

Dark Prime 0

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, Karl Liebl said:

Do you insure your books for their FMV when mailing?  Do you claim FMV prices for CCS pressing and CGS grading?  Shipping was not 3 dollars a book... it was more like 100 with UPS.  Do you want your books back in 3 weeks or 3 months... choices choices...

 

21 hours ago, Karl Liebl said:

15 dollars to press a book with postage?  Then why am I paying 150 for it without postage?  Let me get this straight CCS pressed your silver age books for 15 buck each including postage both ways?

karl you insure your books for FMV of what you think they will be?  why?   you have no clue what they are going to be once they come back, personaly if under 200 i put what i paid and if over 200 i just say 200 then add that up and that's the insurence i get at the PO.  i can't comment on ccs prices as i only use them for SS books and always do the $10 option, i use people outside of cgc for pressing bc i get the same lv of service for the same price/cheeper and faster.  can't say on ups shipping prices, use usps with flat rate priority and it's 13.65 on a full order of 25, that's 1.80 per book shipping 1 way, just pack them really really good is all.........................sounds like you add extra costs on for basicly no reason

on pressing i pay about 250 but i'm also sending 25 books, from my math it runs me about 600-700 for a modern order (1975+) and 900-1k for older (1974-)

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Karl Liebl

Karl Liebl

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40 minutes ago, Dark Prime 0 said:

 

karl you insure your books for FMV of what you think they will be?  why?   you have no clue what they are going to be once they come back, personaly if under 200 i put what i paid and if over 200 i just say 200 then add that up and that's the insurence i get at the PO.  i can't comment on ccs prices as i only use them for SS books and always do the $10 option, i use people outside of cgc for pressing bc i get the same lv of service for the same price/cheeper and faster.  can't say on ups shipping prices, use usps with flat rate priority and it's 13.65 on a full order of 25, that's 1.80 per book shipping 1 way, just pack them really really good is all.........................sounds like you add extra costs on for basicly no reason

on pressing i pay about 250 but i'm also sending 25 books, from my math it runs me about 600-700 for a modern order (1975+) and 900-1k for older (1974-)

Yes.  I wasted a lot of money doing things the wrong way.  Live and learn.  Did CGS cut me any slack? Heck no lol.  All books I sent in have been disappointing.  Its a great service for buyers but very disheartening for people with raw books to go through as your big money dreams will be slashed by 50 to 90 percent.  What is better truth or delusion?  That being said I did just buy a 1200 buck slabbed book, game on i guess lol...

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LordRahl

LordRahl

Posted
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On 11/17/2018 at 9:37 PM, Karl Liebl said:

15 dollars to press a book with postage?  Then why am I paying 150 for it without postage?  Let me get this straight CCS pressed your silver age books for 15 buck each including postage both ways?

Cuz you’re doing it wrong. 

All joking aside, don’t use CCS if that’s what they charge. I’ve never used them so I had no idea but that is a ridiculous price to press a book. Also, I was talking about pressing moderns specifically if you read my posts, not silver age. The equation changes significantly with silver age books.

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