Are $50-$100 comics worth submitting for grading? 0

[Macrotus]

I have a bunch of those comics. Not sure if I should submit them...raw doesn't worth much. ;-(

Edited February 26, 2020 by Macrotus

[revat]

Everyone has their own preferences and financial situation.

 

you gotta do the math and examine your own heart

good luck

[theCapraAegagrus]

Too vague a question.

[csaag]

21 hours ago, Macrotus said:

I have a bunch of those comics. Not sure if I should submit them...raw doesn't worth much. ;-(

Did you plan on selling them on Ebay?     As mentioned you need to figure out shipping costs to & back from CGC, any extra service fees like pressing, Ebay/Paypal fees if going that route  There's no guarantee there's willing & waiting buyers depending on what the issues are, and the possibility of going up or down in value over time.

[Macrotus]

My plan is to sell it if I can...otherwise, I just pass it down to my 4 yr old son. By the time he is an adult...it would worth a whole lot more. But I need to preserve it the best I can.

[theCapraAegagrus]

13 minutes ago, Macrotus said:

My plan is to sell it if I can...otherwise, I just pass it down to my 4 yr old son. By the time he is an adult...it would worth a whole lot more. But I need to preserve it the best I can.

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. Just FYI.

[Macrotus]

15 minutes ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. Just FYI.

that is true...I am leaning no for now. If I have the finance I would do it...but I have other more valuable comics I need to get graded first.

Edited February 26, 2020 by Macrotus

[William-James88]

24 minutes ago, Macrotus said:

My plan is to sell it if I can...otherwise, I just pass it down to my 4 yr old son. By the time he is an adult...it would worth a whole lot more. But I need to preserve it the best I can.

Definitely not a guarantee or anything I would bet on. People are calling this whole CGC thing with the 9.8s a bubble. It can burst and by the time your son is an adult, they may be worth even less. It already happened in the speculation era. Comics that were selling for 40$ at shows can now be found in the dollar bin 30 years later because there is just so much more out there than there is a demand. Star Slayer comics are a great example of this, so is the first appearance of Tim Drake as Robin.

 

Here is the only thing worthwhile with CGC at the moment. If you have a comic in perfect shape in your collection that sells between 100-200$ (great example would be Detective Comics 880 or Catwoman 51), then yeah, go grade it. It only costs 25$ to grade a modern comic. So you have a nice 100$ profit.Of course, the point in all this is to sell.

 

But you don't seem to care about selling, and if that's the case then just put them in a mylar in a cool place away from the sun and the comics will be as nice as they are now 20 years later. They may be worth less though. Hence why if you want to have value for your son, your best bet is to do what I wrote above with the comics worth CGCing and then use the profit to buy an index fund for your son. You have better odds than betting on $100 comics.

[B2D327]

Even Action Comics 1 was worth less than 50 bucks at one time. Granted, there aren’t a bazillion copies of it floating around and Superman is a household name but who knows what that skottie young 1:100 variant will be worth in 80 some odd years

[Macrotus]

40 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

Definitely not a guarantee or anything I would bet on. People are calling this whole CGC thing with the 9.8s a bubble. It can burst and by the time your son is an adult, they may be worth even less. It already happened in the speculation era. Comics that were selling for 40$ at shows can now be found in the dollar bin 30 years later because there is just so much more out there than there is a demand. Star Slayer comics are a great example of this, so is the first appearance of Tim Drake as Robin.

 

Here is the only thing worthwhile with CGC at the moment. If you have a comic in perfect shape in your collection that sells between 100-200$ (great example would be Detective Comics 880 or Catwoman 51), then yeah, go grade it. It only costs 25$ to grade a modern comic. So you have a nice 100$ profit.Of course, the point in all this is to sell.

 

But you don't seem to care about selling, and if that's the case then just put them in a mylar in a cool place away from the sun and the comics will be as nice as they are now 20 years later. They may be worth less though. Hence why if you want to have value for your son, your best bet is to do what I wrote above with the comics worth CGCing and then use the profit to buy an index fund for your son. You have better odds than betting on $100 comics.

Thanks for the advice. I have boat load of comics above $100 that need to be graded. I guess I will do that first. 

I have a question...is the CGC grading guarantee for life if it's unopened and undamaged?

Edited February 26, 2020 by Macrotus

[William-James88]

25 minutes ago, Macrotus said:

Thanks for the advice. I have boat load of comics above $100 that need to be graded. I guess I will do that first. 

I have a question...is the CGC grading guarantee for life if it's unopened and undamaged?

Well then perfect, glad I could help. And yeah, that's worthwhile for sure. I am doing the same with my collection (example Detective 880, Saga 1, Spider-man 361, Avengers Annual 10, Batman 655, Catwoman 51, Spider-man Annual 15, ect).

Also sadly, the grade is not guaranteed for life. CGC has changed their grading standards since they started 20 years ago (for instance, more likely to give green labels than lower grade blue labels back in the day) and that can happen later too. So in the long term, it could be that there is a trend with grades given and particular eras and books of the same grade slabbed in one time period could be worth more or less than books slabbed in a different time period. Obviously the number on the slab wont change, but the value attributed to that number can change.

It's like that Jim Jeffries joke about attributing grades to women's looks, a Michigan 8 is like an LA 6.

Edited February 26, 2020 by William-James88

[Macrotus]

29 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

Well then perfect, glad I could help. And yeah, that's worthwhile for sure. I am doing the same with my collection (example Detective 880, Saga 1, Spider-man 361, Avengers Annual 10, Batman 655, Catwoman 51, Spider-man Annual 15, ect).

Also sadly, the grade is not guaranteed for life. CGC has changed their grading standards since they started 20 years ago (for instance, more likely to give green labels than lower grade blue labels back in the day) and that can happen later too. So in the long term, it could be that there is a trend with grades given and particular eras and books of the same grade slabbed in one time period could be worth more or less than books slabbed in a different time period. Obviously the number on the slab wont change, but the value attributed to that number can change.

It's like that Jim Jeffries joke about attributing grades to women's looks, a Michigan 8 is like an LA 6.

thanks William for the info...much appreciated. 

[revat]

Make sure you've done the full math considering ALL factors (including risk of not getting the grade you want) before submitting ANYTHING.  There's plenty of comics worth $100-$200 in 9.8 that are worth $40 or less in CGC 9.6. (your assertion that your comics will automatically be worth more when your son is older suggests there are possible factors you haven't considered). 

Obviously the more research you do and the better you are at grading, the better your decisions will be.  Of course that research time has value too.  But that's true with any endeavor, the more time and effort spent, the more likely your odds are of success (though still not guaranteed).

Good luck.

[Macrotus]

2 minutes ago, revat said:

Make sure you've done the full math considering ALL factors (including risk of not getting the grade you want) before submitting ANYTHING.  There's plenty of comics worth $100-$200 in 9.8 that are worth $40 or less in CGC 9.6. (your assertion that your comics will automatically be worth more when your son is older suggests there are possible factors you haven't considered). 

Obviously the more research you do and the better you are at grading, the better your decisions will be.  Of course that research time has value too.  But that's true with any endeavor, the more time and effort spent, the more likely your odds are of success (though still not guaranteed).

Good luck.

yeah...I need to do more research. Obviously, I can't afford to send in all my comics above $100. I really have to narrow it down to maybe the top 10 or so.

[StillOnly25Cents]

2 hours ago, William-James88 said:

then yeah, go grade it. It only costs 25$ to grade a modern comic.

maybe if you want CGC to keep the book 

 

there are other costs to account for such as shipping both ways and if instead submitting at a con/show or such the cost of admission to that 

[JollyComics]

34 minutes ago, Macrotus said:

yeah...I need to do more research. Obviously, I can't afford to send in all my comics above $100. I really have to narrow it down to maybe the top 10 or so.

There are plenty to research. You can go to your library to pick up the most recent Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.  You can subscribe $10 a month GPAnalysis or GoCollect until you cancel it.  Otherwise, you can check eBay sale history on the left column after you search the specific book.  It will save you money while you do your homework.

[SkintDoctor]

Read the books and enjoy them

[Lazyboy]

50 minutes ago, SpeakUpSonny said:

The only thing guaranteed by CGC is that the comic in the slab is a genuine comic that will get checked for restoration, and that 1 pre-grader and 2 graders will look at it.  authentic and has been inspected by at least two professionals. That's all they guarantee. 

Fixed.

[Lazyboy]

2 minutes ago, SpeakUpSonny said:

I took my info directly from the back of a CGC slab. Have things changed, and if so, please post a link to the announcement.

https://www.cgccomics.com/comic-grading/cgc-guarantee/

[revat]

28 minutes ago, SpeakUpSonny said:

33 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

https://www.cgccomics.com/comic-grading/cgc-guarantee/

Aha. So does this mean you don't get a restoration check unless you pay extra?

And why are CGC's policies and announcements so poorly written? Don't they have a PR person?

They do check for restoration, but CGC doesn't guarantee the results, meaning that they can't guarantee whether or not their restoration results are accurate.  They are ostensibly experts, but they are still humans and they are still giving opinions, even if based on their knowledge and experience.

 

And yes, the writing could be more clear, but they also get caught in legalspeak, which for which the average customer is not the intended audience.