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Anyone Use MCS For Consignment
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51 posts in this topic

Yes they are very, shall we say, conservative on their grades. It's important to remember, though, that they do high-res scans and buyers have eyeballs so if the book is significantly undergraded it should fetch a premium compared to other sellers' comparable grades. I have consigned to them many times and have been frustrated with their grades. I have generally done ok with realized sales however.

On a side note, is anyone submitting lots to them anymore here? They raised their consignment percentage considerably on lots and I still see a lot of lots coming up in their auctions. Unless I was just dumping some books, I would never submit a lot to them anymore; eBay would be a much better venue.

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8 hours ago, randostoyz said:

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this. I was just curious to see if anyone uses My Comic Shop for selling comics? I sent some raw books in for consignment sale and the grades they gave were horrible 😲 

Your complaint is a common one. MyComicShop is a great place to consign graded comics but often frustrating when consigning raws. Their conservative grading always surprises sellers but, for buyers, is a bonus (when compared to the questionable grading at many other online vendors).

My advice is to set your pricing at the grade you believe the raw comics to be and, with the quality scans MCS provides, see if buyers agree.

 

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I've consigned both raw and slabbed books.

Very happy on both fronts. The slabs sold fairly quickly (however, I did price them fairly). I like that you have control over the list price. MCS pays promptly as well.

The raw books I sold weren't key issues and so I was happy to offload them all at one time. They will grade very conservatively so don't consign high value raw keys. You won't get the same return that you would selling elsewhere.

Edited by Michelangelo
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52 minutes ago, Michelangelo said:

I've consigned both raw and slabbed books.

Very happy on both fronts. The slabs sold fairly quickly (however, I did price them fairly). I like that you have control over the list price. MCS pays promptly as well.

The raw books I sold weren't key issues and so I was happy to offload them all at one time. They will grade very conservatively so don't consign high value keys. You won't get the same return that you would selling elsewhere.

Always appreciate feedback from the boards. I'm curious if you could elaborate on this point: "They will grade very conservatively so don't consign high value keys. You won't get the same return that you would selling elsewhere."

Anything in the $2000+ range we strongly recommend be slabbed before sale, which we can do for you (few exceptions, like something that's $2000 in PR doesn't benefit from slabbing as much as a book that's $2000 in 8.0). Once it's slabbed, the biggest difference is that our commission is less than 10% for sales over $300, vs 10% at most other venues.

Below $2000, we can still slab items for the consignor if they want, we just don't require it to the degree that we do for books in the $2000+ range.

For items in the $200-2000 range, what other venues allow you to sell the book raw, and you see providing a better return due to the book not being graded as tightly as it would be with us? My impression is that most dealers and auction houses are primarily selling books in this range that are slabbed, not raw.

We are working on a batch of updates to our web site and consignment options, so any feedback and recommendations here or via PM are welcome.

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59 minutes ago, mycomicshop said:

Always appreciate feedback from the boards. I'm curious if you could elaborate on this point: "They will grade very conservatively so don't consign high value keys. You won't get the same return that you would selling elsewhere."

Anything in the $2000+ range we strongly recommend be slabbed before sale, which we can do for you (few exceptions, like something that's $2000 in PR doesn't benefit from slabbing as much as a book that's $2000 in 8.0). Once it's slabbed, the biggest difference is that our commission is less than 10% for sales over $300, vs 10% at most other venues.

Below $2000, we can still slab items for the consignor if they want, we just don't require it to the degree that we do for books in the $2000+ range.

For items in the $200-2000 range, what other venues allow you to sell the book raw, and you see providing a better return due to the book not being graded as tightly as it would be with us? My impression is that most dealers and auction houses are primarily selling books in this range that are slabbed, not raw.

We are working on a batch of updates to our web site and consignment options, so any feedback and recommendations here or via PM are welcome.

Can I ask how many graders you have and/or whether comics are viewed by more than one grader to reach a consensus? I don't have too big an issue with MCS' conservative grading as I price the comics I consign with you accordingly, but I sometimes wonder about the consistency of the grading. I have in the past bought $100+ raw comics for my collection and then, after finding upgrades, returned them to your company for consignment (having never removed them from the labeled MCS mylars) only to have them graded lower than the grade assigned when I bought them (not on every occasion, but it has happened multiple times).

I know grading is subjective, but to me consistent grading and tight grading are equally important when it comes to keeping both buyers and sellers happy.

 

Edited by Black_Adam
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44 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

Best Offer is now available on a limited number of comics on the site and Este told me the goal is to eventually have the option available to all consignors.

How do they determine eligibility? 

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1 hour ago, Ryan. said:

How do they determine eligibility? 

Not sure how they selected the test group, but I submitted an offer that was accepted a few weeks ago. Will be nice once it is implemented and available to everyone.

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Bottom line: MCS is my favorite site for consignments, graded or raw. Auctions? Not so much. Their weekly auctions don't seem to generate anywhere near the amount of bidders as Comiclink and I have almost always been disappointed by the results with anything auctioned there. 2c

 

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On 12/5/2019 at 7:04 AM, bb8 said:

Yes they are very, shall we say, conservative on their grades. It's important to remember, though, that they do high-res scans and buyers have eyeballs so if the book is significantly undergraded it should fetch a premium compared to other sellers' comparable grades. I have consigned to them many times and have been frustrated with their grades. I have generally done ok with realized sales however.

On a side note, is anyone submitting lots to them anymore here? They raised their consignment percentage considerably on lots and I still see a lot of lots coming up in their auctions. Unless I was just dumping some books, I would never submit a lot to them anymore; eBay would be a much better venue.

I'm a fairly new consignor at MCS.  I've done three small consignments with them since September.  They often grade tighter ( sometimes much tighter ) than CGC.  I've found that buyers understand that though, and I've gotten prices that are pretty decent on the fixed priced books I've consigned.  For example, I sold a Marvel Premiere 1 that they graded as a 7.5 for $250.  That was strong CGC 8.0 money at the time.  Since I thought the book was probably an 8.0/8.5, that seemed like a pretty good price for a raw book.  The auctions have been a mixed bag, but I feel like auctions often are.  I've seen some of my books go for more than I expected, and some go for disappointing amounts.  Typically, the books I'm consigning in their weekly auction are books I'm just looking to move regardless.  If you are looking to auction a more expensive book, I think you are best off waiting for their Prime auctions that they have every 3 months.  I've got some nicer stuff ( $100-200 books ) scheduled for their Jan 6th auction, so I'll see how it does.

I did submit three lots with them.  I sold two groups of 10 McFarlane Spideys, and a set of the six Kraven's last hunt books.  The two McFarlane lots sold for about $50 each, and the Kraven lot sold for $65.  They were nice copies for the most part, but not extremely high grade.  I'd say they were mostly VF+ copies.  I probably would have gotten a little more through Ebay, but I would have had to ship three times and deal with the Ebay hassle.  The higher 25% ( $12 minimum ) commission rate for the lots ( plus the increased shipping cost of sending lower dollar books ) makes the lots a much more marginal choice for most books.  I see an awful lot of lots in their auctions that don't make much sense to have consigned, IMO.  On the other hand, it is a low work way to move the books.  If you aren't willing to do the work of selling them yourself, its one of the only ways to move books like that.  I probably netted $3.50/book for the McFarlanes, which isn't top dollar, but it is more than I bought them for and more than I think I could get for them without much work, so I was pretty content.  I see them all the time for $4-$5 each.  I can now confidently buy them for $2, knowing I have an easy way of moving them for $3.50.  

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I'm a big fan of MCS whether it is the trading, selling or buying section(s). Been using them forever it seems.

Recently I had three consignments with them. In the fixed price consignment area I sold an Iron Man #1 in vg- for what I thought was a great price for both parties. The second comic was a JLA 10 vg- that kept sitting in the fixed price area that I lowered to $45. It still wouldn't sell. So I put it in the auction site where it is now fetching over that price. This has happened with me a lot and I can't find a rational explanation for this. I'm not complaining mind you, but it strikes me as odd. I've moved a Batman 128 into next week's auction so we'll see.

I've also had issues that I bought from them, read and resubmitted that were graded much differently than the original grade, on both ends of the spectrum. MCS has made me a much tighter grader which is both good and bad. When I see books on ebay that are greatly over graded I just have to roll my eyes and move along.

But to answer the OP, by all means use MCS for consignment. Ebay is a PITA. MCS earns every penny they charge and are great to deal with.

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23 hours ago, Black_Adam said:

Can I ask how many graders you have and/or whether comics are viewed by more than one grader to reach a consensus? I don't have too big an issue with MCS' conservative grading as I price the comics I consign with you accordingly, but I sometimes wonder about the consistency of the grading. I have in the past bought $100+ raw comics for my collection and then, after finding upgrades, returned them to your company for consignment (having never removed them from the labeled MCS mylars) only to have them graded lower than the grade assigned when I bought them (not on every occasion, but it has happened multiple times).

I know grading is subjective, but to me consistent grading and tight grading are equally important when it comes to keeping both buyers and sellers happy.

 

We have many graders organized into two departments. One department handles books that are generally newer than 1980 and priced under $10. Those books are assigned letter grades NM, VF, FN, etc. The other department handles books older than 1980 and/or over $10. Those books are assigned ten point grades. It requires more training and skill to become a grader in the ten point department. There are managers and assistants in each department that are the folks with the most experience, and they'll be the ones handling the most valuable books.

I would be surprised if any retailer in the world does grading by consensus involving multiple people reviewing the same book. We don't. Maybe for the occasional book here or there that has something unusual about it the grader might ask for somebody else's opinion, but those are exceptions not standard process. Unlike CGC nobody is paying us $20+ to grade a comic.

In terms of consistency when grading the same book repeatedly over time, I don't have any scientific data I can point to, but I don't have the impression that we're significantly less consistent than CGC is with the grading of our ten point graded books. Any book might come back with a grade slightly higher or lower upon some future regrade, but the same thing happens with CGC or any other operation where the grading is done by a team of people rather than a single owner-operator.

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