Anyone Use MCS For Consignment 3 3

[Hamlet]

2 minutes ago, mycomicshop said:

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.

One thing I’ve wondered is what training your graders have to catch restoration?

[mycomicshop]

21 minutes ago, Hamlet said:

One thing I’ve wondered is what training your graders have to catch restoration?

Don't really know how to answer that other than to say that there is lots of training, practice, and teaching and review by senior graders as part of the training process, as graders move up to handling higher tiers of books.

Edited December 6, 2019 by mycomicshop

[mycomicshop]

To those asking about best offer, it's now available to all consignors. From within the page where you would set an item's price, you'll see options now to allow offers to be made. If anybody has a large number of consignments and wants me to turn offers on for a lot of stuff all at once, please PM me. Planning to add a bulk edit ability later to let you do that yourself, but that's not done yet.

Once you've enabled best offer, you'll be able to receive offers placed through our web site and through eBay. Integrating make an offer with eBay wasn't the easiest but it works and I'm proud of it.

And if anyone has questions or suggestions for improvement, please PM me or email at conan@mycomicshop.com.

[Black_Adam]

1 hour ago, evilskip said:

 

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 also had more than one comic languish (for months) in their for sale section with zero interest, even after dropping the price over and over by 5% to keep it in the new listings, only to finally give up and toss it in the auction and have it sell for higher than I had it listed for. 

[Black_Adam]

12 minutes ago, mycomicshop said:

To those asking about best offer, it's now available to all consignors. From within the page where you would set an item's price, you'll see options now to allow offers to be made. If anybody has a large number of consignments and wants me to turn offers on for a lot of stuff all at once, please PM me. Planning to add a bulk edit ability later to let you do that yourself, but that's not done yet.

Once you've enabled best offer, you'll be able to receive offers placed through our web site and through eBay. Integrating make an offer with eBay wasn't the easiest but it works and I'm proud of it.

And if anyone has questions or suggestions for improvement, please PM me or email at conan@mycomicshop.com.

Thanks for the Best Offer option! I have now updated 22 of my 23 consignments. But for some reason Best Offer was not allowed on one of my comics. 

[Michelangelo]

On 12/5/2019 at 5:25 PM, 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.

Hi MCS. 

What I meant by "don't consign high value (raw) keys" is simply that MCS grades very tough. A book that might be FN/FN-, might be VG+ to MCS. When going to resell high value books, we all know that the difference between even 0.5 can sometimes be several hundreds of dollars.

If a seller choses to list a high value raw for sale, they might have better luck consigning with a dealer who will sell a FN as a FN or FN-

There's always eBay, but that's rolling the dice as we all know.

However, I would never consign a high value raw in the first place; never have. As you suggested, get those keys graded/slabbed prior to selling. it's great that MCS can get books graded by CGC for the consignor. I didn't know that

In my opinion, MCS is great for selling fairly common/non-key raws and great for selling slabs of any value. Commission rates are great for books valued over $300 and the standard 10% for under $300. 

Edited December 6, 2019 by Michelangelo

[mycomicshop]

4 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

Thanks for the Best Offer option! I have now updated 22 of my 23 consignments. But for some reason Best Offer was not allowed on one of my comics. 

Best offer isn’t available on some lower valued items. The thought was that we didn’t want people haggling (or pricing higher in order to haggle) on a $25 item. 
 

It may end up being simpler just to allow it for everything, we’ll see as it goes along. 

[Black_Adam]

1 minute ago, mycomicshop said:

Best offer isn’t available on some lower valued items. The thought was that we didn’t want people haggling (or pricing higher in order to haggle) on a $25 item. 
 

It may end up being simpler just to allow it for everything, we’ll see as it goes along. 

This item is listed at $150.

[mycomicshop]

18 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

This item is listed at $150.

The decision is made based on what we think the item is worth, not the price the consignor sets. There's not much historical sales data for that issue in 9.4, but the data that we do have produces a value estimate lower than $150.

I went ahead and turned that off for now anyway, so the best offer option is available for all items if the consignor wishes to use it.

[Hamlet]

9 minutes ago, Michelangelo said:

Hi MCS. 

What I meant by "don't consign high value keys" is simply that MCS grades very tough. A book that might be FN/FN-, might be VG+ to MCS. When going to resell high value books, we all know that the difference between even 0.5 can sometimes be several hundreds of dollars.

If a seller choses to list a high value raw for sale, they might have better luck consigning with a dealer who will sell a FN as a FN or FN-... There's always eBay, but that's rolling the dice as we all know.

However, I would never consign a high value raw in the first place. As you suggested, get those keys graded/slabbed prior to selling.

In my opinion, MCS is great for selling fairly common/non-key raws. 

It has been my experience that people generally figure out the relative tightness of a seller’s grading and factor that into what they are willing to pay.  I bought a “2.0” from MCS for the price I would have paid for a 3.5 from a standard grader, because I looked at the book and decided it was really a 3.5.  If you look at the actual scans of books and the prices they are selling for at MCS, I really don’t think sellers are really getting less for their books than elsewhere.  If they were, then the buyers would be getting nothing but bargains and no one would buy from anyone else

Obviously, at a high enough price point, most people want the certainty of certification, and a seller probably loses value selling raw through any venue.  MCS calling a book a 4.5 that CGC would call a 5.5 doesn’t decrease the amount people will pay for it anymore that a dealer calling it an 8.0 would increase it. People are looking at the scans and paying what they feel a book is worth, because every dealer grades differently and substituting a dealers’ opinion of a book’s grade for your own is a sure method of getting books you are ultimately unhappy with, IMO.  The nice thing is that MCS does a good job of highlighting the interior defects of a book so that you don’t receive a book with a centerfold loose at one staple without knowing it.

 

[Michelangelo]

9 minutes ago, Hamlet said:

Obviously, at a high enough price point, most people want the certainty of certification, and a seller probably loses value selling raw through any venue.

I agree. Sell those books slabbed

[Michelangelo]

53 minutes ago, Hamlet said:

MCS calling a book a 4.5 that CGC would call a 5.5 doesn’t decrease the amount people will pay for it

I disagree. As a seller, I'd rather a 5.5 be called a 5.5 vs. The unwritten assumption that a 4.5 is really a 5.5, but there’s no real guarantee it is. 

Most people can’t grade accurately enough, so I won’t bank on a buyer looking at scans. 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Michelangelo

[Black_Adam]

1 hour ago, mycomicshop said:

The decision is made based on what we think the item is worth, not the price the consignor sets. There's not much historical sales data for that issue in 9.4, but the data that we do have produces a value estimate lower than $150.

I went ahead and turned that off for now anyway, so the best offer option is available for all items if the consignor wishes to use it.

Not sure how you knew which comic I was referring to (or who I am) but the auto-decline option still isn't available on that listing.

[VintageComics]

2 hours ago, Michelangelo said:

Hi MCS. 

What I meant by "don't consign high value (raw) keys" is simply that MCS grades very tough. A book that might be FN/FN-, might be VG+ to MCS. When going to resell high value books, we all know that the difference between even 0.5 can sometimes be several hundreds of dollars.

If a seller choses to list a high value raw for sale, they might have better luck consigning with a dealer who will sell a FN as a FN or FN-

There's always eBay, but that's rolling the dice as we all know.

However, I would never consign a high value raw in the first place; never have. As you suggested, get those keys graded/slabbed prior to selling. it's great that MCS can get books graded by CGC for the consignor. I didn't know that

In my opinion, MCS is great for selling fairly common/non-key raws and great for selling slabs of any value. Commission rates are great for books valued over $300 and the standard 10% for under $300. 

Just my opinion but I hardly remember an auction where people actually trust the grade and pay full market value for a raw book. It`s an anomaly.

Sure there are a few `trusted`sellers (and most people keep that sort of information close to their vest) but as a general rule it`s expected for most sellers to overgrade.

So the fact that MCS under grades and gets over their customer`s expectations is actually something that is not the industry norm.

Also, I`d add that many buyers (and most savvy buyers) don`t even care what the listed grade is (I don`t). They use scans and description to value items themselves and bid accordingly.

MCS has a very interesting business model and it seems to work. From what I`ve read, most consignors get prices well over expectations and that is hard to do in this savvy market.

Edited December 7, 2019 by VintageComics

[VintageComics]

1 hour ago, Michelangelo said:

I disagree. As a seller, I'd rather a 5.5 be called a 5.5 vs. The unwritten assumption that a 4.5 is really a 5.5, but there’s no real guarantee it is. 

Most people can’t grade accurately enough, so I won’t bank on a buyer looking at scans. 

If you grade it a 5.5 accurately, people still won`t pay 5.5 for it unless the seller has a reputation as being either a good grader or an under grader.

And the proof is in the results for MCS. They get well over market for their books (just going by what I`ve read on here - I`ve never used them).

I don`t know how you can argue with results.

[Michelangelo]

46 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

If you grade it a 5.5 accurately, people still won`t pay 5.5 for it unless the seller has a reputation as being either a good grader or an under grader.

And the proof is in the results for MCS. They get well over market for their books (just going by what I`ve read on here - I`ve never used them).

I don`t know how you can argue with results.

I like using MCS and I do use them to sell slabbed books. Or, I now just directly sell them common/non-key raws

MCS does well because of their reputation..

OP asked for honest feedback... I’ve sent common/non-key raw books and they under graded them. I consider myself a decent grader.

My point is, I’m not sure an under graded high value raw would sell for top dollar. As a seller, I would do what yields the highest return. I get my better books slabbed, which is what I’d advise the OP to do.

I’m only speaking from my experience. I’ve consigned quite a few slabbed books, ranging from high value to some in the $100 range, and it worked out well.

Edited December 7, 2019 by Michelangelo

[mycomicshop]

1 hour ago, Black_Adam said:

Not sure how you knew which comic I was referring to (or who I am) but the auto-decline option still isn't available on that listing.

You said you had it priced $150 but not showing as eligible for best offer. The item that I assume is yours was the only one that matched that. Forgot to update the auto-decline option, that's shown for that listing too now.

[evilskip]

I'm going to beat a dead horse here and bring up something I posted and can't find, even though I posted it at least twice.

I cropped out the cgc label of a Rip Hunter 6.0 and with it posted a picture of my Rip Hunter 1 graded 3.5 by MCS and asked which book looked better, not offering any info about either book. The MCS issue was the winner on these boards. Strange, but true.

[mycomicshop]

Our perspective is to support consignors whichever way they want to sell. If they want to sell slabbed, we take slabs; if they want us to get stuff slabbed for them we do that; if they want to sell raw, they can sell raw. Some of the other venues are more slab centric and require that everything or nearly everything be slabbed. We try to be flexible in the options we offer and leave it up to the consignor unless they want our advice. Getting a book slabbed has a non-trivial cost plus the wait to get it back. Every book and every consignor's circumstances are different in terms of making the decision of when it makes financial sense to slab and when it doesn't.

[Black_Adam]

How do we consign raws that we would like slabbed before they sell? Do we go thru the normal Sell My Comics page or do we contact Este? And is it just the normal fees for slabbing (MCS takes care of the shipping)? And when they return from CGC they are consigned as if we have submitted them graded (10%)?