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What was the point to slabbing any of these?
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108 posts in this topic

On 3/20/2020 at 6:19 PM, William-James88 said:

these were just a few examples, I can find hundreds like this. I dont get either the buying or selling of most of these randomly slabbed books.

I am sure your count of worthless or money losing slabbed books is off by a long shot.  :gossip:

Since CGC has already slabbed several million books up to this point in time, I am quite sure there must be a couple million books which would fall into this money losing category by now.  doh!  :tonofbricks:

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On 3/20/2020 at 1:51 PM, William-James88 said:

So, what was the point to slabbing any of these?

Maybe hoping to get lucky during the grading process and then being double lucky by finding a CGC label collector for a book such as this:

iro1.5897a.jpg

So, if you are indeed lucky enough to have all the stars in the universe line up for you, you too can hope for getting $15K for an otherwise relatively common book such as this or a CGC 9.8 graded copy of Eternals 13 for something like $4,100. :wishluck:

  :takeit:the money that is!!!  :whee:

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On 3/21/2020 at 8:09 AM, frozentundraguy said:

This thread does raise the question, at what dollar value does slabbing a book make sense?

Well, I used to think that a book wasn't really worth grading unless it had a condition guide value of $500 or more.  Especially when you take into account the margin of error when it comes to grading along with the additional ancillary costs involved to have a book graded.  (shrug)

Since I would probably only have my GA books slabbed though, I have since lowered my standards to something like a condition guide value of $300 or more.  Especially since a lot of the GA books tends to sell for a nice premium or possibly even multiples to condition guide on some occasions, depending upon the particular book in question.  (thumbsu

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On 3/21/2020 at 3:06 PM, slym2none said:

CGC's whole business model (well, maybe half) is getting worthless books graded.

Sad to say, but actually very true.  :(

Not only that, but getting their submittors to happily have the exact same wrothless books :p optimized and regraded as many times as possible. doh!

If they were in the business of only having true vintage collectible books graded and slabbed, they would have been out of business a long time ago.  hm

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1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Especially since a lot of the GA books tends to sell for a nice premium or possibly even multiples to condition guide on some occasions, depending upon the particular book in question.  (thumbsu

Yeah, but does that only happen when slabbed? Or can you still get those good prices on raw copies?

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I mean I have no desire to own a 10.0 book. Are they rare? Sure only because you have a company deciding the difference between it and a 9.8 which to me is so minimal the money isn’t worth it. If I lucked into such a book in a collection it would be sold as soon as possible.

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A CGC-certified 9.8 copy of G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero #21 featuring the first appearance of Snake Eyes sold for $3,050 on eBay after receiving 22 bids. The CGC Census notes a total of 259 certified copies with four copies tied as the highest graded in 9.8. The book has always been a favorite with collectors, but the comic book title is seeing additional interest due to the upcoming film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

That article was in 2009.  Once it was sold at highest price then two more books were sold for $2100 and $2500 afterward. Ever since, it stays in the range of $800 to $1250.  Now, it is the total of 1121 certified copies with 11 copies tied at 9.8 but one is highest at 9.9. I just wondered HOW the buyer felt about paying ridiculous $3K for 11 years.

The worst one for the buyer who purchased Green Lantern #76 CGC 9.6 about ten years ago. The buyer thought it was a lone 9.6 until few years later, a single highest 9.8 copy was sold for little over half of $26K. That buyer buried his head in the ground for sure. Now there are two 9.8 and 21 9.6 copies on the census.

What is the point to throw their money away for the expensive copy?  I would be happy to buy the book at 8.0 to 9.0 range.

Also, I am a proud owner of Jinx Torso SS CGC copies and 1st Series of Mage 1-15 CGC 9.8 copies. Nothing value in them but I enjoy owning them. I grew up with them.

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13 minutes ago, comicginger1789 said:

I mean I have no desire to own a 10.0 book. Are they rare? Sure only because you have a company deciding the difference between it and a 9.8 which to me is so minimal the money isn’t worth it. If I lucked into such a book in a collection it would be sold as soon as possible.

That's exactly the reason I never buy a lottery ticket.  Sure, the rare ones pay big money, but if you wait until it's already a winner, you have to pay a lot more than an unscratched loser-most-of-the-time ticket, and the difference between the two is just some small number like it had a 9 in the first column and if it was a 10 it would have been worth a million bucks. :kidaround:

Edited by valiantman
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Infinity Gauntlet #1 has 47 copies slabbed with grades between 4.0 and 6.0, and if you allow grades up to 7.5, it's 192 copies slabbed.

X-Men Annual #14 has 21 copies slabbed with grades between 4.0 and 6.0, and if you allow grades up to 7.5, it's 87 copies slabbed.

There are over 1,000 copies slabbed for New Mutants #98 with grades between 0.5 and 7.5, but they usually bring at least $75 in any slabbed grade. 

Signature series were excluded from the search.

 

Edited by valiantman
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On 3/20/2020 at 1:51 PM, William-James88 said:

I am sure there is nothing ground breaking in stating that sometimes (often?), getting a book slabbed is not worth it. We all have our reasons (mine is that when it comes to really pricey books, I like knowing exactly where my comic is valued at and the current collecting landscape with CGC grants that), but when looking at what some of these go for on the market, I really wonder what was the point of slabbing random books. Here are examples below of books all selling at either a loss or very marginal gains. Slabbing costs 20$ plus you have the shipping fees for both ways (or submitting at a con, which has it's own costs), plus invoice fees, taxes, and extra fees you may opt for (pressing/fast track). And then there's the fees related to selling (e-bay/paypal fees or consignment fees on auction sites). And of course, all this does not take how much the actual book cost into account, which could really amplify one's loss. At least selling a comic raw would minimize one's losses.

So, what was the point to slabbing any of these?

image.thumb.png.036529f091b27461b0f59db4bbd03906.png

 

 

Books needed to be quarantined 

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1 hour ago, William-James88 said:
2 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Especially since a lot of the GA books tends to sell for a nice premium or possibly even multiples to condition guide on some occasions, depending upon the particular book in question.  (thumbsu

Yeah, but does that only happen when slabbed? Or can you still get those good prices on raw copies?

I believe books will always tend to sell for more when it's been graded and slabbed as there's an additional so-called independent 3rd party opinion as to its grade.  With respect to GA books, another key factor is the restoration check.  :applause:

The most important thing for GA books (especially keys and/or HTF classic covers) in terms of their valuations, however, is that they tend to have underlying value in all grades across the entire condition spectrum, as opposed to more recent books which have value only in the uber HG's and no real value in anything below that.  hm

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7 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

I believe books will always tend to sell for more when it's been graded and slabbed as there's an additional so-called independent 3rd party opinion as to its grade.  

Maybe with GA.  With BA/SA, there are bargains to be found in slabbed books.  I often buy slabs, as they are often cheaper than raws.  I think it is the "no hope left" effect.

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3 hours ago, lizards2 said:

Maybe with GA.  With BA/SA, there are bargains to be found in slabbed books.  I often buy slabs, as they are often cheaper than raws.  I think it is the "no hope left" effect.

Yes, I've seen that effect with silver age keys and Neal Adams Batman keys. Though I wouldnt call them deals, they simply sell closer to guide than the raws.

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Looking at other auctions and came across stuff I really can't believe was slabbed. Non key fawcetts are the cheapest GA books around, with low grade copies being worth rather little. The only reason one of these would be worthwhile raw would be for someone who has just the cover. So slabbing these are beyond me.

 

Whiz Comics (1940) 29 CGC 0.5

Whiz Comics (1940) 30 CGC 0.5

 

Whiz Comics (1940) 72 CGC 0.5

 

 

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I can understand if someone paid to have it slabbed or signed just for their personal enjoyment. i have to admit i have three graded/signed books that cost more than they are actually worth. But they are more valuable to me than the money i paid for the services. They are certainly nothing im going to try an flip but rather I proudly have displayed. 

So I can understand people that have this same mentality but would i go out and get mr. and mrs X or any of the other ones listed in the original post slabbed, hell no. that is a waste of money. 

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For every person in this thread expressing the opinion that slabbing these books was dumb, I hear an equal number of customers every week asking me why we don’t “get all these books graded”...

They’ll flip through a box of mid grade Silver Age and see 12-center after 12-center priced at $30-50 and in all seriousness will say things like “man these books are gorgeous you should get them all graded and you’ll make a fortune!”

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Reading the comments of those who are saying ‘the person who slabbed these is dumb’ gives me the impression - and maybe it’s just me - that there’s an assumption being made that all the books in the initial post are from a single submission. 
 

I’d be willing to bet that those books are the culls from a number of different submissions where the vast majority of the books in each submission were 9.8 “wins”.  And that the submitter gets enough “wins” per submission that he figures it more cost effective to blow out the “losses” at auction rather than pay prescreen fees. 
 

I mean, some of these books clearly performed poorly, but it seems like several that at least made back the cost of slabbing. And depending how much he made on his 9.8 “wins” he could still be well in the black even when accounting for all the ones that didn’t completely make back their grading fee. 

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2 hours ago, Number 6 said:

Reading the comments of those who are saying ‘the person who slabbed these is dumb’ gives me the impression - and maybe it’s just me - that there’s an assumption being made that all the books in the initial post are from a single submission. 
 

I’d be willing to bet that those books are the culls from a number of different submissions where the vast majority of the books in each submission were 9.8 “wins”.  And that the submitter gets enough “wins” per submission that he figures it more cost effective to blow out the “losses” at auction rather than pay prescreen fees. 
 

I mean, some of these books clearly performed poorly, but it seems like several that at least made back the cost of slabbing. And depending how much he made on his 9.8 “wins” he could still be well in the black even when accounting for all the ones that didn’t completely make back their grading fee. 

100% this. The Fantastic Four 161 - a title I'm very familiar with - in 9.8 will sell for $175-250, depending on the marketplace. I've done this many times - you submitted a whole bunch of books and three of them missed, so you dump them on eBay and move on.

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