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Is CGC out of interest for most comic book stores?
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Started by Hollywood1892,

134 posts in this topic

kav

kav

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, Hollywood1892 said:

Serious?

And I imagine you have been to thousands.

Do you think LCS will eventually lose out to to Ebay and other social media platforms where people have more variety?

nah I been to 4

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kav

kav

Posted
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3 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

me neither and you think each shop would have at least one slab on the wall or behind the case ??

they seem to know remarkably little abt slabs or much of the stuff discussed here.  

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
Just now, Hollywood1892 said:

Either that or they dont care.

But than again

Arrogance masks ignorance.

They dont care.   

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted

LCS 1:  guy enters with about 300K worth of comics he inherited.  Owner offers 5K

Guy takes books to LCS 2, where owner says these books are worth about 300K-I cant afford them but I can tell you best how to sell them.

Guy ends up selling to honest owner for 30K cash.

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Hollywood1892

Hollywood1892

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Posted
1 minute ago, kav said:

LCS 1:  guy enters with about 300K worth of comics he inherited.  Owner offers 5K

Guy takes books to LCS 2, where owner says these books are worth about 300K-I cant afford them but I can tell you best how to sell them.

Guy ends up selling to honest owner for 30K cash.

Here in Toronto we have a couple LCS guy 1

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Hollywood1892 said:

Do you think that the slab market is out of control when it comes to pricing?

If the pricing gets under control than these local shops are gonna have to eventually join the herd or get run over by it.

I think the 9.8-9.9 frenzy may be a bubble but otherwise the market dictates slab prices.    Most people go to comic shops dont even know or care what a slab is.  

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Hollywood1892 said:

Here in Toronto we have a couple LCS guy 1

they never realize they are repeatedly losing out.  People with collectibles that dont know anything are VERY suspicious.  They know owners may try to screw them.  So when they meet a guy that says yeah that book is worth about 15 thousand dollars-they immediately trust them.  And will sell at huge discount because they dont want any hassle and they can trust the guy when he says this is the most I can pay for them and they are worth much more.

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Hollywood1892

Hollywood1892

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3 minutes ago, kav said:

they never realize they are repeatedly losing out.  People with collectibles that dont know anything are VERY suspicious.  They know owners may try to screw them.  So when they meet a guy that says yeah that book is worth about 15 thousand dollars-they immediately trust them.  And will sell at huge discount because they dont want any hassle and they can trust the guy when he says this is the most I can pay for them and they are worth much more.

That's really unfair

But you see it all the time. They run a business,but still some integrity would be nice.

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Hollywood1892 said:

That's really unfair

But you see it all the time. They run a business,but still some integrity would be nice.

One LCS owner repeatedly reaps the rewards of honesty.

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ExNihilo

ExNihilo

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, kav said:

Most people go to comic shops dont even know or care what a slab is.  

Truth.  I had no idea slabbing was a thing until...well, whenever I signed up on this board.  For that reason it just doesn't make dollars and sense to go about offering slabbed books because in all likelihood, the book will just sit there gathering dust.  It makes even less sense to send in a number of new books hoping they'll return in 3 months and that there will still be a market for them amongst your customer base.

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Bookery

Bookery

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, kav said:

LCS 1:  guy enters with about 300K worth of comics he inherited.  Owner offers 5K

Guy takes books to LCS 2, where owner says these books are worth about 300K-I cant afford them but I can tell you best how to sell them.

Guy ends up selling to honest owner for 30K cash.

I suppose if the $300k is all $1-stock, then $30k is a fair offer.  Otherwise, your LCS 2 guy is also a crook!  I know there are still some dealers able to get good collectibles for 10-cents on the dollar... but I think in this day and age it's a lot rarer then folks on here tend to believe.  For most dealers, the margin on decent collectibles is pretty small.   A payout of 60% - 70% on a mid-grade key is likely, and if you are not in a major metropolitan area, you'll probably also knock off 10-15% on the other end when you sell.  Also factor in that the buyer is apt to use a credit card, costing you another 2-3%.  When you realize that you can double your money on a new-release comic, and order exactly what you can sell... or on RPGs do likewise AND re-order at will... you'll understand why a lot of small shops don't deal in vintage material, slabbed or otherwise.  Those of us that do deal in them do so because we like them... but again, you have to get big enough that you can turn a large quantity of material to make it feasible.  There are dealers like Dale who buy a lot of material from other dealers.  He picks them up in smaller markets and takes them to large conventions in big cities.  But his mark-up is not going to be huge, and his overhead with table fees and travel costs is large.  He and other dealers like him make it work by doing the work... a lot of it.  

The dealer who gets great stuff by ripping off his customers is not a myth... but in the modern environment with all of the knowledge and info out there about comics, and all of the myriad types of competition, with each passing year it gets closer to being one.

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Bookery

Bookery

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17 hours ago, Phicks said:

I see some discussion on here concerning "Raw price" versus "Slabbed price".  Please explain, because it doesn't make sense to me.  Say Overstreet says my 8.0 copy of Iron Man #1 is worth $500.   Are you trying to say it is worth more than $500 if I send it to CGC and they slab it as an 8.0?  All grading is subjective opinions.  To my point of view, CGC is trying to be the most consistent systematic grader, and that helps with selling a book over the internet.  But if I am at a comic convention, and there is a raw and GCG slabbed version of exactly the same comic, then I would expect them to be about the same price.

It's more complicated than that.  It depends upon the source.  CGC was created, at first, with mail-order sales in mind.  When one is unable to view a book in hand, it was important to have some sort of reliability in what you were actually buying.  And even now, a raw book from some unknown original owner on eBay claiming his book is 8.0 will not (should not, anyway) bring near as much as a CGC-graded book.  On the other hand, there are dealers out there whose grading is as trusted as CGCs, and they will get close to slabbed value for their material.  I generally get about 90% of CGC value for my raw books*.  One can't expect to get 100%, because the slab itself has value... and you have to leave room for that value.  If CGC Book A is worth $1000, and it's going to run about $100 to get that slab, a raw copy, even with dead-on grading, shouldn't be bringing any more than $900.  And a seller whose grading isn't "dead-on", or who is an unknown quality... won't even get close to that.

* The caveat to the above is on cheaper books.  A CGC book whose current value is $25-$30 is probably only worth about $5 raw, because the majority of that $25 value comes from the cost of having the book slabbed itself.

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Hollywood1892

Hollywood1892

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27 minutes ago, Bookery said:

I suppose if the $300k is all $1-stock, then $30k is a fair offer.  Otherwise, your LCS 2 guy is also a crook!  I know there are still some dealers able to get good collectibles for 10-cents on the dollar... but I think in this day and age it's a lot rarer then folks on here tend to believe.  For most dealers, the margin on decent collectibles is pretty small.   A payout of 60% - 70% on a mid-grade key is likely, and if you are not in a major metropolitan area, you'll probably also knock off 10-15% on the other end when you sell.  Also factor in that the buyer is apt to use a credit card, costing you another 2-3%.  When you realize that you can double your money on a new-release comic, and order exactly what you can sell... or on RPGs do likewise AND re-order at will... you'll understand why a lot of small shops don't deal in vintage material, slabbed or otherwise.  Those of us that do deal in them do so because we like them... but again, you have to get big enough that you can turn a large quantity of material to make it feasible.  There are dealers like Dale who buy a lot of material from other dealers.  He picks them up in smaller markets and takes them to large conventions in big cities.  But his mark-up is not going to be huge, and his overhead with table fees and travel costs is large.  He and other dealers like him make it work by doing the work... a lot of it.  

The dealer who gets great stuff by ripping off his customers is not a myth... but in the modern environment with all of the knowledge and info out there about comics, and all of the myriad types of competition, with each passing year it gets closer to being one.

I actually load up Ebay when I'm in the store. I wonder if that peeves dealers off?

Do you think its safe to say that there is more profit in just online sales? I know a guy who sells online,has about 500 long boxes,knows his entire inventory,and will answer any questions you ask. Plus you know exactly what your getting from him by checking his feedback. For the most part this is a solid community of collectors and sellers,nobody is going to go on Ebay and slander someone's name.

A seller has to pay about 17% in fees online for every sale,which somewhat explains a bit of markup on raws,also pays for packaging to ship the product  whereas a store owner has to pay his employees hourly,has to pay rent,hydro ect ect. And also the online seller can sit on a product like a slab alot longer.

Nostalgia aside,it makes sense to me to sell strictly online. Than again I know stores that do both,and as a matter of fact the stuff they sell online,they dont have for sale in store 

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