Comic collectors: I need your help (re: HolyGrail)
luck
4,077 Posts
I have been entrusted to sell an item I thought I would inherit:
I am going to get it CGC'd soon; I'm hoping for at least a 6.0-6.5. What should I be aware of when selling a comic book? I'm told the eBay might not be the best forum for high-level comic sales.Would-be thieves: this comic book is currently residing in Mississippi with my father. Don't even think about it.
I am going to get it CGC'd soon; I'm hoping for at least a 6.0-6.5. What should I be aware of when selling a comic book? I'm told the eBay might not be the best forum for high-level comic sales.Would-be thieves: this comic book is currently residing in Mississippi with my father. Don't even think about it.
Comments
that looks to be in pretty decent shape too!
i had nos. 4 thru about 7 i think back when i was a youngin (no i'm not THAT old that i was around when they came out... i used to dig for old comix years before diggin for records
yup. Pray this never happens to records. I don't mess with comics anymore. But i still read Wizard or whatever. anywaysssssssssss....
The grading is bullshit. If you have some turd comic that's like 30 bucks.. and you get it graded like a 9 or ten it's worth about 500 bucks now. Even though it's still a 30 dollar turd.
Isn't that he Mono Butcher Cover of the comic book world?
I haven't been into comic books for 20 years, but even in the 80s it was several Gs.
one of the big dealers - they can get the most $$$
for it, and will handle the grading, etc ... you
could easily end up with the same amount of money
as a percentage of consignment that you would get
as a whole if you tried to sell it yourself, without
the hassles of selling.
id be ok with this.
really. You wouldn't mind paying 300 dollars for a ten dollar common record because it's been graded?
first of all i wouldnt do that, second of all that sounds a bit overexaggerated.
if it didnt jack up the price too much though, i think lots of sellers would be more comfortable using a grading service, and there'd be a hell of a lot less bitching from people who got a VG- record that was marked NM...
oh it has. There is a well known Beatles dude who people send their stuff too. For a fee, he will grade it and deem it authentic or not. I dont know his name, but Ive seen it mentioned on some heavy duty Beatles auctions... 'so and so has graded this record and blah blah blah'.
comics grading is semi-exponential. a "good" (equal to about a g+ or vg- record) copy of FF1 guides at $1050. the top grade is a NM- 9.2 (out of 10), and guides at $37K. note that top grade isnt a 10. we'll come back to that in a sec.
when you CGC it, they check for all the hidden problems, so thats why people trust cgc comic sales - also, the seller went to the trouble and expense ($50+ for some high end books if not more) to have it graded, so it puts people at ease - way too many shady sellers of comics out there... FF1s are big deals and youd get 23458349583 suspicious questions without the cgc rating.
Ako, i hear ya. but just fyi, the CGC thing has created a hair splitting, exponential value thing with high-grade comics. (this is why it cant happen to records - theres the cover and the record, and every tiny little minor bump and crease is considered on the comic - no record, even sealed ones, would get past like a 9.0. plus the fact that youd be sealing away records into perpetual unplayability, like framing them but you cant take off the frame without killing the value that the official grade brings.
comics in the guide: the best grade is a "NM- 9.2" so 9.2 is that "perfect" comic of the old days - looks brand new! BUT, theres better than that, up to 10.0, meaning truly perfect.
the scary shit happens when people go crazy for modern books that are graded 9.8 or 10.0. books that guide for $10 NM 9.2 can get literally 20x guide - $200 easily, and often much more. for differences you really can barely see without careful careful study.
its sick. heres a good example. ok, its got a sketch and autograph, but this book is brand spanking new. retail should be $20 tops due to the special goodies. but CGC 10 = $240.
its a brand new comic book. a comic book. that you cant even read - these things are null and void if you open the cases.
on old stuff the sky is the limit, but because you never see perfect stuff pre 1980, the standard of insanity stats at 9.4 and goes up.
although its cooled in the last few years, ive seen this sort of spread on a lit of books:
9.2 = 10
9.4 = 50
9.6 = 250
9.8 = 1000
for differences you literally would need a magnifying glass to see. on books youll never be able to actually look at. its an investment market.
apply those exponential prices to books like an FF1 and youll see why comics guys are SO obsessed with condition.
personally i go for the "clean looking but affordable" stuff. your FF1 looks perfectly good to me, and if i didnt already have one (
I would suggest you talk to Pete Koch out of NY (I'm looking up his info now).
He's one of the largest comic dealers out there and specializes in silver age stuff.
At the very least he could steer you in the direction of some well heeled private collectors.
Other than that, maybe look into going through a for real auction house?
Anyone got >$4000 to spend for my father's sake? Heh.
Really - this could be a killer YouTube moment: I walk into a comic store with a hidden camera and some Silver Age duds and slip this in the stack, second-to-last. I ask the clerk for a price estimate and zoom in on his face when he hits the FF#1. I pretend that I know nothing about comics ("This is my father's old collection. Is it worth anything?") and wait to see if he tries to pull a fast one.
i walked into more dusty than digital (a defunct atlanta shop) with a stack of real nice, mint hiphop and i put on a country accent and acted all bumpkin. i got offered less than a dollar each for them. i laughed and proceeded to stay in their parking lot all day selling records out my car. every one of their employees came out and bought joints. might of been mean, but commeuppance is kind a fun to dish out.
that ff looks pristine!
i love comics!
this means (assuming theres no actual rips in the cover or other hidden problems - hard to tell from the pic) its worth more like $7000.
congrats b/w best of luck finding the deep pockets buyer b/w FYI it will cost about $250 to CGC something of that value - they charge 2.5% of the guide value once it goes above a certain level. but shit, its worth it, even if the markets taking a crap you should clear 4-5K...
http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=825&Lot_No=45157
Good Luck..
church
They hold comic book auctions.
pics or u soff
i realize it wasnt me who is getting called out, but i got a pic for ya anyway.
im missing 2,4,9, and 10 out of 1-15. for that matter im only missing about 8 issues
from 1-200. i got these all at least 10 years ago, they are a little rough around
the edges or they would have been huge $ even then. finding the missing ones now in
any condition for reasonable $ is pretty much impossible.
I'm actually planning on going to the upcoming Wizard World Chicago (yes, really), where they are doing all CGC gradings on-site for about the cheap, cheap fee of $15-20 per pop. At least, this is what the owner of Chicago Comics tells me.
All I need is Conan O'Brien and I'm a correspondent from GeekWorld 2000.
thats a total score, good move! while at the con, keep that book locked up tight in a breifcase or somesuch. all kind of wannabe dealers will be all over you if/when they see it, youll get a lot of offers. but until you know the cgc grade (and thus its real value), dont tell them nuthin! big time dealers at the booths (like metropolis and harley yee) will have the cash to buy it on the spot, but theyll probably be as chiseling as the low-lifes. i doubt anyone will offer more than 60% of book value, but there might be some deep pocketed collectors around who would offer enough to save you the trouble of ebay. stay sharp and good luck with everything.
Paul, do you have that info? I got the book back from CGC recently (5.0 - ehh), and I need to sell this (and the other comics) posthaste. Thanks.
Any other information SoulStrut has for me would be appreciated. Again, this is for my father's sake.
err.. why'd you say 4. You have it?
d'oh! i meant 5.
hey, sorry about the 5.0, bro, i guess there was more creases and whatnot than it looked like in the pic. But still, you are well into 4 figures...
if he had cgc'd that it would have come in worse than 4.5.
note "vg+" = cgc 4.5
5.0 = Very Good/Fine. with CGC you will get more than w/o cgc.
i still say the book should pull $2,500 to $3,000. hmm..
Wizard does keep track of present day heat pretty well and the anticipation game.
The FF movies had to help the value of certain FF issues.
Watch what happens to Iron Man's numbers once the movie drops. And real headsare already checkin their own stash of Tony Stark shit.