When to settle.... 3 3

[lou_fine]

18 hours ago, Xenosmilus said:

I found a good price on a book but it’s a 9.6 and not a 9.8. I can afford both grades but the 9.8 is double/triple the price. Is it worth it?

Well, all I'll say is that actual dollars paid for an item is an indisputable number that is completely objective in the sense that it is exact, succinct, and not open to question.

A CGC grade, on the other hand, is much more subjective and definitely open to question both short term and long term.  Especially in the sense that a book can sometimes be graded as a CGC 9.6 copy one day and then as a CGC 9.8 copy the next day with absolutely nothing done to the book.  And on a longer term basis as we all should know by now, CGC grading standards tend to change over extended periods of time, whether it be due to changes in their grading teams or changes in their business agenda.  

[the blob]

I was looking at some slabs and the 8.5 and 9.0 looked better than the 9.4, all roughly the same era.

[jimjum12]

A book like the MTU 3 might be the sort of book that could "slip through the cracks" at auction.... I'd sign up at the major auction houses and file a want list for the book..... most of them will send an email when your book is scheduled for an upcoming auction. Put in the max you want to pay and sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[jason4]

A lot of collectors will not buy 9.6 for copper and above. Bronze is ok 9.6. Me personally, I go 9.4 or 9.6 because I too think triple price for 9.8 is ridiculous. But there’s no denying We are the minority’s on this as the market has shown. My nyx 3 in 9.4 looks amazing and I saved a ton of money for other books.

[letsgrumble]

15 hours ago, vaillant said:

I don’t agree. It’s not the same thing to read a lowgrade copy, especially if it’s weary. If I handle a 9.6/9.8 well, the worst thing that could happen is that it becomes a 9.4 in my hands… but then it ends here. And only if it’s expensive, and not GA or SA I could just slab it in case I need to sell it.

A thing that in general would be extremely unpractical/costly from Italy, anyway.

That's okay - everyone's different. And anyone can do what they want with their collection. There's lots of variables, I get it.

But... I assume you would agree that it is an asset for a buyer of back-issue comic books to know the market value of a book before making a purchase, whether you're buying to read, not read, invest, or flip. The value is relative to the condition. And when the grade is certified, there is less dispute and the value more predictable. Pretty basic.

So, from my perspective, if I'm sitting on a raw PPSSM #64 in NM/MT condition, and I know that a certified copy of that book in 9.8 fetches $550 in the marketplace, why would I start handling it so that it loses a few grade points - which, in the uber-grade marketplace, is worth about 75% less? That's like $400 out of $550 potential value just being wasted, like pearls before swine. It just makes more sense to me to certify the book and, if I really must, just buy another one in 8.0-9.2 shape, one with good eye appeal, read it and stick it in a Mylar.

[vaillant]

1 hour ago, letsgrumble said:

That's okay - everyone's different. And anyone can do what they want with their collection. There's lots of variables, I get it.

But... I assume you would agree that it is an asset for a buyer of back-issue comic books to know the market value of a book before making a purchase, whether you're buying to read, not read, invest, or flip. The value is relative to the condition. And when the grade is certified, there is less dispute and the value more predictable. Pretty basic.

So, from my perspective, if I'm sitting on a raw PPSSM #64 in NM/MT condition, and I know that a certified copy of that book in 9.8 fetches $550 in the marketplace, why would I start handling it so that it loses a few grade points - which, in the uber-grade marketplace, is worth about 75% less? That's like $400 out of $550 potential value just being wasted, like pearls before swine. It just makes more sense to me to certify the book and, if I really must, just buy another one in 8.0-9.2 shape, one with good eye appeal, read it and stick it in a Mylar.

@letsgrumble: Of course I agree, but if we re-read your statement it underlines a fact which I don’t like that happened in collecting: professional grading on the super-high grades (which ends up being somewhat "artificial", no matter how objective is the starting criteria) heavily influences a kind of speculation that in the long term is not much healthy for collecting.
But I agree on slabbing valuable books to have a professional evaluation when selling/buying – all I can say is that there shouldn’t be such a price difference between 9.6 anf 9.8-9.9-10s.

Let’s also keep in mind that for an average nice SA book in low to mid grade, the CGC slabbed and raw value remains basically the same.
One might slab big keys if they’re high grade just to be sure he does not over price or under price them…

Edited December 10, 2018 by vaillant

[vaillant]

3 hours ago, jason4 said:

A lot of collectors will not buy 9.6 for copper and above. Bronze is ok 9.6. Me personally, I go 9.4 or 9.6 because I too think triple price for 9.8 is ridiculous. But there’s no denying We are the minority’s on this as the market has shown. My nyx 3 in 9.4 looks amazing and I saved a ton of money for other books.

@jason4: Minority as related to market or not, you’re right. It’s an objective thing. Many 9.4 have almost invisible flaws which de-facto makes them the same than 9.6/9.8s.
Plus, the case plastic is not that transparent and blue: even if one enjoys just looking at the cover and at the NM/M book, in the end it’s like looking through a semi-obscured mirror.

Edited December 10, 2018 by vaillant

[lizards2]

50 minutes ago, vaillant said:

@jason4: Minority as related to market or not, you’re right. It’s an objective thing. Many 9.4 have almost invisible flaws which de-facto makes them the same than 9.6/9.8s.
Plus, the case plastic is not that transparent and blue: even if one enjoys just looking at the cover and at the NM/M book, in the end it’s like looking through a semi-obscured mirror.

Having cracked a ton of books out, I can say that the slabs tend to hide/obscure a lot of the flaws - there is frequently an "Aw krap!" moment, once the book is removed from the outer well.

[Ride the Tiger]

20 hours ago, kav said:

Keeping in mind that the 9.8 might have graded a 9.6 on a different day.

Me thinks this is one of them spare no expense moments.

 

[BAT MAN]

Unless you are competing in the registry 9.6 is the best value proposition in BA and CA for sure. Non-key/non-outlier moderns in 9.8 can be had on the cheap.

Regardless of your financial disposition, the aggregate amount of money you would save on 9.6's could be deployed into other areas of pursuit.  Depending on the character and publisher, a real world example in my particular area of pursuit is a 9.8 selling for $125 while its 9.6 counterpart fetches $30.

[jason4]

4 hours ago, Ride the Tiger said:

Me thinks this is one of them spare no expense moments.

 

 

Now you know he would have bought 9.8

Edited December 10, 2018 by jason4