Douglas W. McCratic

Thank you for this. I'm not a computer guy so I get lost in the jargon. I believe what you are suggesting is exactly what I have in mind. That said, it concerns me a bit that I had the same thought because HC has people trained in this and that have actually built all of this. Wouldn't they have already hit on it?

My interpretation as well.

Mine works as well!

Wow, I never imagined it would go 100, 200, 100,000! Thanks for the info!

Just curious, does anyone have the badges in their profile between "200 correction points" and "Making the Charts"? From where I sit, it looks like they should likely be related to correction points and I should probably have made at least one of them in between by now. I'm not trying to spoil the mystery, so if you prefer you can PM me.

No dice. What is the difference in the Collection Report- Comic Books and Collection Report - Comic Books (Auto)? I would have assumed that they are the same thing.

On Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, there is a Bk 1-HC. I feel confident that a hardcover doesn't exist with that cover or UPC. I have a softcover with the same cover but a different UPC but the UPC listed in CB appears on the inside front cover inside a box that reads "DIRECT EDITION". The price for my softcover matches the one listed in CB as a hardcover. mycomicshop.com Mile High have the same pic as a tpb from 2005 and both list it as a tpb. Same title has a SE 1 which has a price in British pounds on the cover. Should that be there?

Same here

I had a similar message come up under different circumstances although I don't recall what they were. This thread fixed it for me:

Based upon previous discussions about signed books and what earns them a variant status, I recommend the removal of Amazing Spider-Man #623-D based on the fact that it is not a variant in any real way. It is simply a signed copy of #623-C with no limitation, numbering, or COA.

I'm missing some random books in the reports. I feel like they would have been entered between December and February but am not 100% sure. I confirmed that they are in CB, they just don't turn up in any of my reports. I'm also still having the problem where some books appear in the Collection Report- Comic Books but not in Collection Report - Comic Books (Auto).

The TPB collects #1-6. The bottom of the last page reads "The End...For Now!" I feel confident that #7 & 8 do not exist.

I’m having the opposite problem Robert had. My book are not showing up in the search feature but do show up in some reports. They appear in the Collection Report- Comic Books but not in Collection Report - Comic Books (Auto). The books I entered yesterday are there after resaving to the the web this morning. Additionally, the reports have display issues. I have text on top of text, making some of it all but impossible to read and am unable to enlarge it or rotate the screen in order to try to give it more room.

Now I have this going on, too. I entered books this morning, saved it all to the web, and now the newest books did not show up. I followed the steps in the post above and deleted my online collections. Admittedly, I missed the step with the Collection Statistics, never having done it before. I rebuilt all the lists, including pictures. I saved everything to the web again and now books I entered today aren't showing up. In looking, I'm missing books from last week as well. I kept digging and found that I'm missing books online at least as far back as February 27. I'll try to get back and confirm that they are saved on my machine soon but I feel confident that they are. I have never had to do the Collection Statistics action before, is it necessary now?

I don't fully understand this statement but I believe it follows with my earlier comment about an identifier on each title that was not the title itself. Again, I'm not a database guy but what if the titles as they are now were to become the "foreign key" on some titles? It would only need to be done on titles that are being updated. I seriously doubt we are doing presenting anything that hasn't been looked at before but sometimes this kind of discussion is what it takes to come up with a new solution.

I haven't moved on to putting my own titles in but moving the FCBD issues doesn't matter much. Thankfully the FCBD issues don't see a lot of action in their pricing. There are a few that have climbed a little but the vast majority stay at "cover price." I get what you're saying though. The lack of pricing would be a complete nightmare especially on long runs. The FCBD issues that make me really crazy are the ones that reprint some or all of a regular issue. The first one I remember finding (or not finding, technically) was Savage Dragon #148. I may even have submitted the FCBD version as a correction a few times. I understand that it has #148 on the cover but it's a FCBD issue. I listed mine as FCBD #2009.

You're right on all counts here. There is a ton of complicating factors. Generally, slabbing a low end book adds little to nothing to the resale value. 3.0 and below is a good example. If the book is a super key though, like Captain America Comics #1, the difference can be significant. I got hung up on the signed books but scarcity in grade can influence price too. If 97 copies of a particular issue grade out at 9.0 or less, but there are 5 9.8s, 7 9.6s, 10 9.4s and 3 9.2s, the top 25 will bring a disproportionately higher price than if the grades were more evenly distributed and the multiplier goes out the window again. It could also work the other way, if those 975 copies graded 9.4 and up but there were a 25 copies at 7.5 and below, those 25 wouldn't have the value projected by a multiplier that applies to the majority of other titles.

If comics were simply being graded and slabbed, you would be right but signatures and scarcity, real or perceived, influence the price of the book. Being a key will do it as well because keys attract buyers beyond the standard market. Additional buyers create additional demand and the price becomes skewed. There are collectors that won't touch a book without CGC or CBCS grading it first. Their lack of interest in raws combined with regular collectors' interest in graded books leaves them competing for books from a smaller pool. The end result is that a 9.8 key may be valued at 1500% of its raw counterpart while the next issue in the series only draws 900% of the raw price. I get the impression you don't deal much in slabbed books. I don't intend that as an insult but rather an observation based on the attempt to create a formula for all of this. There is no multiplier that will work. Let's use Dark Knight Returns #1 in CGC 9.8 as an example. On April 11, a copy signed and remarked by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson sold for at least $3500. It was bought with a best offer that eBay doesn't reveal. On February 9, a copy signed by Miller and Janson came in at $2500 On Aprill 9, a copy signed by Miller alone brought $2078. On March 30, an unsigned copy went for $1325 There is a raw VF-NM copy on Atomic Avenue right now for $99, I'm sorry I don't CB with me at the moment so let's use $200 as the raw NM value. They are all the same book in the same grade. If you go to Mr. Miller's agent, the cost of a signature on a raw book is $50 and the cost for a book to be graded is $85. By spending $85 and getting the book graded, the seller made an additional $600 but adding Klaus Janson's signature (I don't know his fees for certain but think he's in the $30-50 range) brought in about $1000 more for the seller. Miller alone increased the price by 56%, Miller and Janson increased it by 88%, and sketches drove it up by 164% at a minimum. Using the graded 9.8 price and adding signatures we go from $1325 to $1410 which is 6% for Miller. Throw Janson in there and it goes to $1460 which is 10% higher. The cost of the signatures is left behind by the final graded price. Meanwhile the signed raw book might bring $300, I don't have one that has sold recently to reference. There are two for sale on eBay now that look like terrible fakes to me, one at $400 and one starting at $70. Because they have strict rules for their witnesses, CGC has a solid reputation in the autograph business. That reputation adds value to the final product beyond the cost of the upgrades. The buyer pays for more than some ink smeared on a book, they pay for the assurance that what they are buying is genuine. They also are paying for having the grade verified and preserved. Unfortunately, that assurance is a sliding scale with too many variables to easily quantify.

You're 100% correct on the lack of linear relationship. To be certain we are on the same page, by "slabbing premium" do you mean the price bump the book gets for being graded?

Unfortunately, signed and key make big differences and throw off the curve considerably. A 9.8 is not always, sticking with the same number here, 110% of its raw counterpart. A 9.6 price generally drops significantly from a 9.8 but if there are only 2 9.8s of a particular book and 132 9.6s, the 9.8s might go to 300% of the raw NM price and the 9.6 now holds the 110% slot. GI Joe #21 was a great example of this a decade or so ago. 9.6 was the highest graded copy for a long time so when a 9.8 hit the market the price went completely nuts. Throw in a key book with a creator's signature and what was a 110% bump is now a 150% despite the grade being the same. When we're talking CGC Signature Series, these aren't already accounted for in CB. The publishers did not release a signed edition but with an authorized witness, it can be signed and certified. A great example is available on eBay right now. Fantastic Four #48 in CGC 6.5 signed by Stan Lee sold for $6800 on February 22. Four days later a 7.5 unsigned copy only brought $5750. Strangely, the signed copy had off-white to white pages and the 7.5 had white pages. As a rule, white pages command a higher price than other page qualities and prices shrink with each drop in page quality. It can get weirder still. The signed FF #48 had a signature in black ink in a dark area on the cover and it is an ugly Stan Lee signature. Get a pretty signature in gold or silver in the same place and it will likely bring more. It might still bring more even in a lower grade. Rare signers change things too. A Star Wars #1 CGC 9.8 signed by Harrison Ford will bring multiples of its counterpart signed by Howard Chaykin. All 9.0s are not created equal. 9.0 with white pages may bring $1000. Drop to off-white and it's now $900, drop to cream pages and it might only get $750. If there is such a thing as a 9.0 with brittle pages, it might only net the seller $350. The whims of the market make all the difference. A high grade first appearance may bring 200% of the raw value while the second appearance may only command 150% of its raw counterpart. A sixth appearance may have a classic cover or an iconic artist starting on it or worse, it was short printed and it will bring 180% of the NM price. To sum it all up, in the graded comics market there are many variables in standard books. If you move into signed books, signed and remarked, signed and sketched, celebrity signers, cast signatures, and single highest graded copies and there is no computation that will ever work.

In the Livestream today, Pete brought up the question of an algorithm or multiplier for pricing on CGC books. At least that was the gist of what I got while trying to tune in at work. I'm not certain that there is any formula that will ever apply across the board. My entry into the slabbed book realm was through CGC Signature series. The trouble is that slabbing an issue may affect the value of a relatively modern book immensely but not so much for an older book unless you're getting in the 9.0 and above range. Then you need to factor in the signatures. A great example is in my collection. I have a copy of Fear Agent: The Last Goodbye #1 Jack Davis variant cover in CGC 9.9 signed by Jack Davis. A 9.9 is already a premium and in many cases, the signature adds even more value. The trouble is the signer. I feel certain that a 9.9 signed by Jack Davis will bring significantly more than one signed by Tony Moore (no disrespect intended, Mr. Moore) because of Davis' status as an artist and that fact that he is not here to sign any more books. It can get even weirder. Stan Lee was a timid signer for a very long time. I don't think it is news to anyone that in the last few years of his life, he signed like a machine. Especially in the short time after he passed away, roughly one in three CGC SS books on eBay had Stan Lee in their description Just now, CGC SS bring up over 17,000 books while CGC SS Stan Lee brings up over 1,700 books, so one in ten is signed by "The Man." Currently on MySlabbedComics.com, there are 1179 Stan Lee signed books the next closest signer is Todd McFarlane at 353. That's less than a third! Frank Miller is next with 286 and he used to be notoriously hard to obtain. Keys never play by the rules on pricing, that's not news . It only gets worse when slabbing them. New Mutants #98 (first Deadpool) in CGC 9.8 will have a significantly larger multiplier than Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #4 (first Silk) but lower than Fantastic Four #1. Slabbing is a bizarre niche market. When I pulled together Frank Miller's Ronin years ago, #6 cost me around $250 (I think). At the time, it was the only one in the census, there are 15 now. I admittedly went high on it but it would complete my 9.8 run of the series. If I hadn't already had the other 5, I would never have considered paying more than $50 or so. The book isn't particularly rare, but it is a little more rare in high grade. All of this to say what Pete expressed so well in the Livestream. You could probably come up with some kind of algorithm if you could gather data from hundreds of sources and monitor it day in and day out but that's just not possible. I don't know that anything a simple as a multiplier could ever get close to following value on these books.

Sorry, that one makes me giggle every time. So yeah, I agree with everything above and have been bringing it up from time to time. My personal fix has been moving the various FCBD books (the actual ones) into their respective titles, entering them as FCBD 2017 or whatever year they were released. An alternative that I originally came up with was creating a "Free Comic Book Day" title for each year, putting all the titles in alphabetical order and then entering them 1, 2, 3,... I'm really glad I didn't do that now as the individual issues in their respective titles works really well. Additionally, I make it a point to add "Free Comic Book Day 20xx" to the notes so I have a fighting chance to locate all of the individual books for any given year. I've been working on pulling together every FCBD book and have been grouping them by year in my collection. I've struggled with Atomic Avenue as well. I'm frustrated with myself for never thinking of trying to add it in order to make my case.

I was young and foolish then! I've grown and matured significantly over these last two months! It's still not easy moving across formats but the thing that makes doing that difficult would be solved in renaming the titles. What I had difficulty with was that both the comic and the magazine version of "Rampaging Hulk" were titled identically so when it came time to change formats I had to pick from a list and didn't know which was which. They read exactly the same, so it was/is difficult (for me anyway) to know which was which. My solution was to name the title that would be soon deleted to "Rampaging Hulk COMIC" before transferring anything. This is still how I do it. It's not exactly fast but it is accurate. We get a notice when a new version of CB is available with a list of changes being made, why not give users a notice of a monumental shift in cataloging titles or a notice urging them to check the Unrecognized Titles list? I agree that it should be significantly easier but that simply doesn't appear to be in the cards. I honestly believe I do spend more time curating my database than my collection. Adding pics, correcting info, and so on has become a hobby unto itself.

I may be oversimplifying here but how is changing a title any different from changing a format? Comics to magazines, comics to books, and so on have been done with relative ease. When the changes began, it was a little confusing but now it's just routine. The corrected title is added, information for the old one ceases to be updated or even recognized and it comes up in the "Unrecognized Items" list following an update so users know to move the items in the old title to the new one.

This is the one that drives me flipping insane!