Grading Advice for Newbie 0

[80sRockNut]

Now that I am almost fifty and running out of space on my side of our basement, I finally went through a box of comic books that I bought when I was much younger.  It doesn't feel like it was that long ago (I can actually remember buying them), but the calendar says that they are now 35-40 years old.  Not sure how that happened, so I was shocked to see that I stored them in plastic covers with cardboard backs.  I was an insufficiently_thoughtful_person as a kid - and my wife would say not much has changed - but somehow I kept them in beautiful condition.

I am thinking about sending some in to get them graded (and maybe pressed and/or screened), but wanted to get recommendations on which ones to submit first.  I scanned through eBay one night, and the issues below look to be good candidates for submission.  I appreciate any and all advice.

Lou

 

[marvelmaniac]

Welcome To The Boards!!!

Glad to hear you found your old collection.

I do not submit my books for grading so I cannot help you with the cost of grading, however...

My advice would be for you to come up with an estimated grade of these books either yourself or posting pics in the "Hey Buddy Can You Spare  a Grade" section.

https://comics.ha.com/tutorial/comics-grading.s?show=comicdefinitions

Once you have an estimated grade use eBay sold listings to get an idea of what books in the same grade have sold for both graded and ungraded and that will give you an idea whether to grade or not.

Just remember...Grading can/will increase the value and can be profitable as long as the cost of grading does not out weigh the value of the book.

Having a book graded and encapsulated does not offer any more protection than having that book stored in a Mylite with and Acid Free Board, both need to be stored in the proper environmental conditions (Away From ALL UV Light, Constant Temps/Humidity, Away From Water/Moisture and Heat Sources, No Unfinished Garages, Basements or Attics)

[revat]

Also, after you’ve figured out which MIGHT be worth grading, there still is a lot of math to do based on your risk preferences and financial situation.

 

but nothing you posted is a MUST grade in EVERY grade, so it will largely depend on the grade

[80sRockNut]

21 hours ago, Bax77 said:

I would check again as many of those books are not worth slabbing (unless you can guarantee a 9.8). Were you looking at completed auctions? Active listings are not good indicators.

Thank you all for your advice / guidance.  I mainly collect cards (sports and non-sports), so I am very familiar with grading cards ... grading cost versus end value.  As Bax777 pointed out, I spend 99% of my time looking through the SOLD auctions on eBay.  The hard part about researching the comic books was that (a) there were not a ton of graded comics SOLD and (b) the modern graded comics were mostly in the 9.2 to 9.8 range.  I did not want to assume that most - or any - of mine would grade out at those levels, but based on the criteria that I read on the CGC grading page, I think that several or many will.

With that said, I may have some confusion on CGC's pricing.  If I am reading their schedule correct, their base fee for grading a modern comic book is $20.  I see that there are additional fees for screening, pressing and restoration, which all seem to be based on the book's FMV.  Are there any other fees that I am missing?  Also, is it safe to assume that the additional services would probably not be a good investment for these modern comics?

Thank you again for all of your help.

Lou

[Gravin]

There are two I would estimate just from the front cover scans that wouldn't top 9.0 (The ASM Annual 19 looks pretty rough and the Transformers 1 has enough spine ticks to knock it down a good bit.)

The Secret Wars #8 could be a candidate - post that one over on the 'Can you Spare a Grade?' as someone suggested to get a good general idea on if it is worth pursuing. 

[Myowncollector]

First 3 are only ones worth selling. Really just the secret wars 8 and I wouldn't slab any of them.  It's worth 70 or 80 bucks raw. 

Might want to just sell your whole collection locally, when they try to low ball you tell them that sw8 is worth a 100 bucks by its self. 

[Kree8ev1]

On 4/21/2020 at 12:37 PM, 80sRockNUt said:

Thank you all for your advice / guidance.  I mainly collect cards (sports and non-sports), so I am very familiar with grading cards ... grading cost versus end value.  As Bax777 pointed out, I spend 99% of my time looking through the SOLD auctions on eBay.  The hard part about researching the comic books was that (a) there were not a ton of graded comics SOLD and (b) the modern graded comics were mostly in the 9.2 to 9.8 range.  I did not want to assume that most - or any - of mine would grade out at those levels, but based on the criteria that I read on the CGC grading page, I think that several or many will.

With that said, I may have some confusion on CGC's pricing.  If I am reading their schedule correct, their base fee for grading a modern comic book is $20.  I see that there are additional fees for screening, pressing and restoration, which all seem to be based on the book's FMV.  Are there any other fees that I am missing?  Also, is it safe to assume that the additional services would probably not be a good investment for these modern comics?

Thank you again for all of your help.

Lou

Lou, hello and welcome. CGC breaks down grading fees most generally on the age of the book. That is where you get tiers like modern. A majority of your books shown fall in the modern spectrum of grading. Things that can make the grading costs go up is the higher value the book, the more money they charge you to grade it. 

For the books that you want to grade you can select a pre-screen option that will eliminate books from being graded if they will not reach a certain grade. I normally select 9.8. So that means any book that does not have the possibility of being a 9.8 gets sent back to me and I don't have to pay to have it graded. Costs a lil bit but you don't end up with a lot of 8.5's and 9.2's if that isn't what you were going for. Hope that at least gets you going in the right direction. Keep posting questions when you can. There are a bunch of knowledgeable folks around. 

[Glassman10]

sadly, the collection is passionately fifteen years too late to see value in grading. By the time anyone suspected that comics would actually have serious value, the horse had long left the barn. Once Moms had figured out that she'd better not chuck them, the cost of grading and slabbing made a bunch of these things relatively worthless and collecting became an act of love, not avarice.

There are some exceptions but not many and OverStreet has the exceptions covered well. In general, if if cost more than 15 cents, it's not worth much. If .12  there's value. Then, it depends on the publisher. Marvel was king of the .12 group but you had to be there.   There aren't a lot of casual collections at ten cents.  As the collections of books with some value continue to shrink, the grading company will see a lot of resistance to slabbing inconsequential material. 

 

That's my opinion.