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Overstreet guide - grades not listed?
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I am playing around with the Overstreet guide and was looking to apply the values to my collection, but wasn't sure on a couple of items:

1. What should I value a book graded at 7.0, when the guide only lists 6 and 8?  Meet halfway?

2. What should I value a book graded at, like, 9.0 when the guide only lists a 9.2 value?  Or same situation but the book is 6.0?  Just make them all $1?

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48 minutes ago, GlennSimpson said:

I am playing around with the Overstreet guide and was looking to apply the values to my collection, but wasn't sure on a couple of items:

1. What should I value a book graded at 7.0, when the guide only lists 6 and 8?  Meet halfway?

2. What should I value a book graded at, like, 9.0 when the guide only lists a 9.2 value?  Or same situation but the book is 6.0?  Just make them all $1?

Overstreet is fine as a guide

but it’s just to get you in the ball park

 

consider eBay sold prices too

 

but it’s ultimately up to you

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If you plot grade vs value, you'll see between 2.0 and 6.0 it's a straight line, so any unlisted grades in between them can be assumed to have equal intervals.

Above 6.0, it's a curve. Pick one book and plot it in Excel if you know how, then fill in the missing grades to make your curve smooth.  Then you can work out multipliers that make sense to you.  I think it's worth the effort, since making wrong assumptions can sometimes cost you money.

3.0 is halfway between 2.0 and 4.0 but 7.0 is more like (6.0 value + .32(8.0 value minus 6.0 value))

Even then, it’s just theoretical and sometimes realized prices of lower grade books can move while higher grades remain stable and vice versa.

Then throw in PQ, presentation and wind direction and you have yourself a good approximate guess of value that can be 100% off when your book finally sells at auction.

Edited by Heronext
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It may be helpful to you to go to dealer's sites and find out if they have a copy with the grade you are looking for. There are a bunch of them to check with but it gives you a reality check on what they ask.  Salability is relative to supply and demand.  My Comics, Metropolitan comics, High Grade Comics all come to mind. All of them have both raw and slabbed comics. 

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I am actually grading my entire 42,000 issue collection for insurance purposes. So not really a situation where I would want to do a lot of research for each issue. I have been using comicspriceguide.com but interested in using the more venerable Overstreet name, if I can figure out how to handle the grades it does not list.

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38 minutes ago, GlennSimpson said:

I am actually grading my entire 42,000 issue collection for insurance purposes. So not really a situation where I would want to do a lot of research for each issue. I have been using comicspriceguide.com but interested in using the more venerable Overstreet name, if I can figure out how to handle the grades it does not list.

I recomend using https://collectinsure.com/what-we-insure . It will only be necessary to list expensive books.  Good company.  

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That is who I have them insured through.  My current system is within comicspriceguide.com I have a "box" for comics that are "not insured".  I put comics with a lower value there.  That said, the problem with comicspriceguide.com is that they keep everything NM as cover at least.  So some random $2.99 issue from the New52 is listed at $3.00, when it is probably a dollar-box book.  I was rather hoping that if Overstreet didn't have a value at a given grade, then it would be assumed to be a "dollar book", which would be a more realistic sort of thing.  But so far not able to find any documentation that that is what was intended by Overstreet.  All of this is rather moot unless something were to happen, but would want to be able to defend the valuation.

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4 hours ago, GlennSimpson said:

I am actually grading my entire 42,000 issue collection for insurance purposes.

I hope the contractor you hire to put the extension on your house is reliable

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4 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

I recomend using https://collectinsure.com/what-we-insure . It will only be necessary to list expensive books.  Good company.  

I am intrigued. I have a few thousand comics, so going thru and pricing all of them would be a daunting task. There are not too many, however, worth more than a few hundred. Could you define 'expensive books'?

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I would say $200.00 and up. You wouldn't likely throw two C notes in a dollar box.  The lower values are simply harder to sell and get anywhere close to retail.

You might consider using Dreckcheck.com 

Edited by Glassman10
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21 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

I recomend using https://collectinsure.com/what-we-insure . It will only be necessary to list expensive books.  Good company.  

Bob, I'm curious but have you ever gotten money from them to cover for a lost, damage or stolen book?  

Thanks,

John

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On 1/24/2020 at 10:27 PM, GlennSimpson said:

I am playing around with the Overstreet guide and was looking to apply the values to my collection, but wasn't sure on a couple of items:

1. What should I value a book graded at 7.0, when the guide only lists 6 and 8?  Meet halfway?

2. What should I value a book graded at, like, 9.0 when the guide only lists a 9.2 value?  Or same situation but the book is 6.0?  Just make them all $1?

Overstreet is a resource to use as are some of the other recommendations made here. Each has their own caveats (Ebay for example, can have questionable results on sales where key books are concerned). It's best to make any decisions based on your full assessment and experience as a collector. Overstreet 7.0 is the median between 6.0 and 8.0. A particular issue that is in 9.0 condition, a key for example, will list for more than Overstreet's recommended value but "commons" can sell for less if there's little or no real significance. Keep in mind that the era of books will also come into play. A 9.0 common Silver Age book can sell for more than the recommended price. Important to look at the title and whether the issue has any significance "inside" the run. The artist and/or writer can also come into play and the era they worked on the book. One example are issues drawn by Neal Adams prior to reaching his peak era during 1970 - 1973. A project like yours can be an educational experience and fun at the same time(thumbsu.

Best,

John

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5 hours ago, bronze johnny said:

Overstreet is a resource to use as are some of the other recommendations made here. Each has their own caveats (Ebay for example, can have questionable results on sales where key books are concerned). It's best to make any decisions based on your full assessment and experience as a collector. Overstreet 7.0 is the median between 6.0 and 8.0. A particular issue that is in 9.0 condition, a key for example, will list for more than Overstreet's recommended value but "commons" can sell for less if there's little or no real significance. Keep in mind that the era of books will also come into play. A 9.0 common Silver Age book can sell for more than the recommended price. Important to look at the title and whether the issue has any significance "inside" the run. The artist and/or writer can also come into play and the era they worked on the book. One example are issues drawn by Neal Adams prior to reaching his peak era during 1970 - 1973. A project like yours can be an educational experience and fun at the same time(thumbsu.

Best,

John

I think the problem is that comics valuing is very "situational" - like if I decided to sell my copy of New Mutants #98, then I might spend a lot of time looking at Ebay and Overstreet and taking a lot of factors into consideration, and then make that sale, and then later if I had another copy and decided to sell it, then I would start all over again.  Which is fine, because the results don't affect anyone other than the buyer and the seller and then it's over.

When one is trying to valuate a whole collection for insurance, one needs to move fast and not dwell too long on any one issue.  At the same time, I expect the insurer wants some sort of relatively "solid" backing for what they were worth, if/when I were to make a claim.  

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So as general guidelines

Yes, split the difference for "split grades". Split grades being gd/vg, vg/fn, fn/vf  For + and - (like say VG-) there is no real guideline. Many including myself add or subtract 10%

If a book only has a listing in the price guide at the 9.2 price, what that means is it rarely has value as a collectible in lesser grades. When books are cheap in NM, no collector really wants a less than NM copy.  So the book that is $4 is in OPG at 9.2 and lists no other price is essentially a reading copy in any lower grade. Books that comic book stores typically have in their .50 cent or one dollar boxes. So yes, list such books as no more than a buck. 

Collectinsure doesn't really require anything except you keep a list. OPG is probably the best overall guide for raw books to estimate value for insurance purposes. For slabbed books GPA would be better.  The only requirement I'm aware of is that you have to provide to GPA a list of any single book valued above a certain threshold. When I first signed up years ago that threshold was $5,000. I believe it is now $25,000. You can do this online under "scheduled items". 

Edited by Tony S
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