UPDATE: End of Auction Sales Prices -- To Auction During XMas Season 1 1

[WPPJames]

UPDATE: Final Auction Sales Prices

Atom 1 CGC 4.0 - $135
Batman 189 CGC 4.0 - $117
Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane 70 CGC 4.5 - $150
X-Men 10 CGC 6.0 - $195

Had hoped for a bit more, but could have been worse.

 

So I have a few slabs on consignment with MCS/LSC that I need to move pretty soon. I put them up for their auction starting tomorrow. Then I wondered about it being the holiday season and people being distracted; travelling and needing to save money for XMas presents. Opinions on whether maybe I should remove these from the auction and hopefully expect a better return sometime after the New Year 2020?

Thanks in advance!

Edited December 24, 2019 by WPPJames
Auction Prices In

[WPPJames]

Just for the record, these are the 4 I'm considering auctioning. None super valuable, but also not total junk.

[F For Fake]

I've never sold through MCS, but my general experience with auctions is that they are pretty dead through the holidays and into the early new year, picking up again as people start getting tax returns back. Of course, good stuff will always sell, but I only do buy it nows on eBay through this season so I don't lose my shirt. Good luck!

[James J Johnson]

18 hours ago, WPPJames said:

Just for the record, these are the 4 I'm considering auctioning. None super valuable, but also not total junk.

I studied ebay closely yesterday. I do, jut about every Sunday, but more so during typically slow periods, usually October through December, looking for deals on CGC graded books on my want lists. Now in all but few cases, I'm laying in wait, scrutinizing mostly CGC 7.5 to 9.6 Universal and signature series books, so I can't say that if I was looking for 6.0 and below, my results might be the same. But for the 7.5 and up CGC Universals and sig series books, just about everything I might have bid on inched up over GP chart prices with minutes to go, and by the time of closure, the result was above the result of the previous sale and 90 day average!

So if this helps, at least on books CGC graded in the 7.5 to 9.6 range, this particular December marketplace is good to sell in with clear evidence of strong ebay results.

Though of lesser grade than I was watching, you've got desirable keys to sell, so my belief is that you can expect them to do reasonably well based on my observations stated.

Edited December 16, 2019 by James J Johnson

[Buzzetta]

I don’t run auctions any more - just straight up BIN... if it sells it sells

 

 

[James J Johnson]

1 minute ago, Buzzetta said:

I don’t run auctions any more - just straight up BIN... if it sells it sells

 

 

I don't waste time on BIN listings anymore if I'm looking for a deal or just to pay fair market value (GP chart ranges). Too many, mostly the same books with the same insane prices from month to month, year after year, permanent fixtures in sellers' listings.. And when there is an offer button, usually sellers don't respond at all, even to offers nudging the ask.

[Buzzetta]

29 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

I don't waste time on BIN listings anymore if I'm looking for a deal or just to pay fair market value (GP chart ranges). Too many, mostly the same books with the same insane prices from month to month, year after year, permanent fixtures in sellers' listings.. And when there is an offer button, usually sellers don't respond at all, even to offers nudging the ask.

That’s fair... 

I’m comfortable with what I do though.  What works for some may not be other’s cup of tea as the saying goes.  If something floats around on eBay for a couple of years it doesn’t bother me.

Eventually though everything sells. 
 

I don’t respond to the following though on any item though. 

what’s the lowest you will go? (If it’s been a “fun” day at work I will reply with what is the highest you will go?)

will you accept trades?

Lowball offers I flat out reject.  Reasonable offers I will accept and if we we are in the ballpark I will counter.  If I counter and say that is the best I will do it’s a take or leave it thing.  
 

 

 

[Krismusic]

37 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

I don't waste time on BIN listings anymore if I'm looking for a deal or just to pay fair market value (GP chart ranges). Too many, mostly the same books with the same insane prices from month to month, year after year, permanent fixtures in sellers' listings.. And when there is an offer button, usually sellers don't respond at all, even to offers nudging the ask.

I do have to say I have encountered this a bit as well, and now I tend to skip the BIN's as I can always look for something locally for BIN and with the offer button even when I am near the GPA price just trying to save my on shipping no responses a day or two after I sent a offer.. so I tend not to bother as well as much...

Perfect example was this weekend I finally picked up off the eBay my final ASM 44 to complete my 1-100 section of the new 1-300 run .. I saw one put in a OBO and I put a low bid on one in a bit better condition 2 days later auction near ending and guy who's a higher even with my offer still hasn't responded and I am very close to what he's asking just wanted a few bucks off as to compensate for the shipping. I just bid for the auction won it for a bit more than my OBO I left the offer for till the morning as I dont mind having both, no response so I canceled my offer saying no response. So my little rant of skipping BIN and offers now. 

[Robot Man]

The holidays up to maybe mid Jan are usually pretty bad on more expensive stuff in my experience. People are busy and usually a little scrapped for cash. Less expensive stuff can do OK though. I heard the recent HA and CC auctions did pretty poorly for a number of consignors. 

[WPPJames]

Lots of great feedback everyone! Thanks to all. And a lot of conflicting opinions which is usually the case here (and everywhere else in life). I agree with the comment of just doing BIN and if it sells it sells. I've done that. *If* I don't really feel the need to move the particular book anytime soon. I see that a lot on Ebay. People set prices that must be of the mindset of "I don't really wan't to sell this book, but if anyone is crazy enough to buy it for 3x it's value I'll sell it". That's why it always cracks me up when people have a book priced high and say that they are selling on Ebay for $500. When actually there might be one listed on Ebay for $500. Look at the past sales search and the last actual sale was for like $175. Anyway, since I really do need to sell these soon and can't afford for that one right person to come along 8 months from now, I'm going to keep them in the auction and hope for the best.

My biggest potential mistake is I sent them all to MCS raw. Then afterwords requested they send them in for a C&P and slabbing. That's an additional $53 per book. I probably would have been better off just selling them raw. The grades didn't go up much (except one) and it literally took almost 6 months for them to come back.

And just in case anyone was curious, MCS's grades (before C&P and then an official CGC grade) were as follows:

Atom - 2.5 (came back 4.0)
Batman - 3.0 (4.0)
SGFLL - 4.0 (4.5)
X-Men - 5.0 (6.0)

Edited December 16, 2019 by WPPJames

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, Buzzetta said:

That’s fair... 

I’m comfortable with what I do though.  What works for some may not be other’s cup of tea as the saying goes.  If something floats around on eBay for a couple of years it doesn’t bother me.

Eventually though everything sells. 
 

I don’t respond to the following though on any item though. 

what’s the lowest you will go? (If it’s been a “fun” day at work I will reply with what is the highest you will go?)

will you accept trades?

Lowball offers I flat out reject.  Reasonable offers I will accept and if we we are in the ballpark I will counter.  If I counter and say that is the best I will do it’s a take or leave it thing.  
 

 

 

Two distinct strategies seem to govern the BIN prices. 1) It's a book in the seller's collection, and it's priced so aggressively that if some victim stumbles into the quicksand and actually buys it, the seller can buy three just like it to replace it, and 2) Sellers who price it as though there's a reasonable expectation for it to sell. I see too many BINs priced like the former rather than the latter to even waste time surfing 2 million BIN listings each week, 99.999% of those 2 million will be regenerate again in 30 days, rinse and repeat!

[Black_Adam]

40 minutes ago, WPPJames said:

Lots of great feedback everyone! Thanks to all. And a lot of conflicting opinions which is usually the case here (and everywhere else in life). I agree with the comment of just doing BIN and if it sells it sells. I've done that. *If* I don't really feel the need to move the particular book anytime soon. I see that a lot on Ebay. People set prices that must be of the mindset of "I don't really wan't to sell this book, but if anyone is crazy enough to buy it for 3x it's value I'll sell it". That's why it always cracks me up when people have a book priced high and say that they are selling on Ebay for $500. When actually there might be one listed on Ebay for $500. Look at the past sales search and the last actual sale was for like $175. Anyway, since I really do need to sell these soon and can't afford for that one right person to come along 8 months from now, I'm going to keep them in the auction and hope for the best.

My biggest potential mistake is I sent them all to MCS raw. Then afterwords requested they send them in for a C&P and slabbing. That's an additional $53 per book. I probably would have been better off just selling them raw. The grades didn't go up much (except one) and it literally took almost 6 months for them to come back.

And just in case anyone was curious, MCS's grades (before C&P and then an official CGC grade) were as follows:

Atom - 2.5 (came back 4.0)
Batman - 3.0 (4.0)
SGFLL - 4.0 (4.5)
X-Men - 5.0 (6.0)

My experience with MCS is to price my raw comics listed with them as if they were a grade higher than MCS has graded them (I think most of their customers know they undergrade). Non-keys will take a while to sell, and you can lower your prices by 5% every few weeks or so if you want them to reappear in the new listings. But my experience with MCS' auctions is that any non-key comics always go for way less than I expected - I assume due to a lack of auction traffic when compared to the other big auction houses. I can't even imagine how dismal the auction traffic will be over the holidays - Comiclink doesn't even bother running a monthly auction in December.

[WPPJames]

12 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

My experience with MCS is to price my raw comics listed with them as if they were a grade higher than MCS has graded them (I think most of their customers know they undergrade). Non-keys will take a while to sell, and you can lower your prices by 5% every few weeks or so if you want them to reappear in the new listings. But my experience with MCS' auctions is that any non-key comics always go for way less than I expected - I assume due to a lack of auction traffic when compared to the other big auction houses. I can't even imagine how dismal the auction traffic will be over the holidays - Comiclink doesn't even bother running a monthly auction in December.

You just killed my box wine buzz I had going . Joking. Appreciate sharing your experience. I'll post back here after the auction and share what they all ended up going for.

Hopefully at least $53 each + 10% commission or I'll end up owing MCS money instead of getting a check.

[MGsimba77]

2 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

3 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

I don't waste time on BIN listings anymore if I'm looking for a deal or just to pay fair market value (GP chart ranges). Too many, mostly the same books with the same insane prices from month to month, year after year, permanent fixtures in sellers' listings.. And when there is an offer button, usually sellers don't respond at all, even to offers nudging the ask.

That’s fair... 

I’m comfortable with what I do though.  What works for some may not be other’s cup of tea as the saying goes.  If something floats around on eBay for a couple of years it doesn’t bother me.

Eventually though everything sells. 
 

I don’t respond to the following though on any item though. 

what’s the lowest you will go? (If it’s been a “fun” day at work I will reply with what is the highest you will go?)

will you accept trades?

Lowball offers I flat out reject.  Reasonable offers I will accept and if we we are in the ballpark I will counter.  If I counter and say that is the best I will do it’s a take or leave it thing.  

Hear Hear! Not all BIN listings are wildly overpriced and best offers are there for a reason 

Edited December 17, 2019 by MGsimba77

[WPPJames]

8 minutes ago, MGsimba77 said:

Hear Hear! Not all BIN listings are wildly overpriced and best offers are there for a reason 

Unfortunately a lot of BIN listings on Ebay that seem like they aren't overpriced are when you actually look at the photos and realize their 9.0 grade is more like a 6.5. But you are correct, I've made a lot of BIN purchases on Ebay where I felt I got a good value. And later was able to sell for a profit. Just like times I really needed some $$$ and lowered my EBay BIN price to where someone got a really (really, really) good deal.

[MGsimba77]

10 minutes ago, WPPJames said:

Unfortunately a lot of BIN listings on Ebay that seem like they aren't overpriced are when you actually look at the photos and realize their 9.0 grade is more like a 6.5. But you are correct, I've made a lot of BIN purchases on Ebay where I felt I got a good value. And later was able to sell for a profit. Just like times I really needed some $$$ and lowered my EBay BIN price to where someone got a really (really, really) good deal.

Yeah I agree on raws in the sense that I wouldn't trust just anyone's assigned grade. I'd only buy a raw from a reputable seller with a looong history and a no restoration guarantee. I was mainly referring to slabs.

I just think it's a mistake to decide all BIN listings suck just because some unresponsive knuckle heads dont care about selling their items. That seems like an overreaction 

[bug33fouf]

[WPPJames]

Still over 6 days to go on the auctions, but so far the X-Men #10 is getting by far the most $$$ interest. Least $$$ interest is Atom #1. But a lot can (hopefully) change in 6 days. Usually the last 12 hours (or less) is when you make it or break it.

And I finally have to ask. What the heck does the  emoji mean?

[1Cool]

1 hour ago, WPPJames said:

Still over 6 days to go on the auctions, but so far the X-Men #10 is getting by far the most $$$ interest. Least $$$ interest is Atom #1. But a lot can (hopefully) change in 6 days. Usually the last 12 hours (or less) is when you make it or break it.

And I finally have to ask. What the heck does the  emoji mean?

It usually is somebody who has nothing really to add but is interested in the good topic.  Or I've seen it used when a thread is getting juicy and the person is sitting back and enjoying the ride.

Edited December 17, 2019 by 1Cool

[the blob]

22 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

I don't waste time on BIN listings anymore if I'm looking for a deal or just to pay fair market value (GP chart ranges). Too many, mostly the same books with the same insane prices from month to month, year after year, permanent fixtures in sellers' listings.. And when there is an offer button, usually sellers don't respond at all, even to offers nudging the ask.

I make offers and they are accepted often enough. I accept offers.