Douglas W. McCratic
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Posts posted by Douglas W. McCratic
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I got the pic to upload, I had misnamed it..... 🙄
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Hellboy: The Lost Army (Novel) had its information lost in translation. It had been correct for more than 20 years but now has a more recent version's cover displayed with an incorrect price. The original cover is below and I submitted information on the original(?) version's information that I assume should be the TPB. I'm unsure because all the information on both versions is identical now, including the pic. I tried to submit what I believe to be the correct pic but for whatever reason, it doesn't appear to get accepted.
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As mentioned before, I like to add my own pics on some special issues so that I have easy access in one place to all my books. These are generally blank covers with sketches on them. Additionally, I much prefer to enter FCBD issues as such in their respective titles using the year as the issue/item number. While convenient and easy on one hand, it creates a very lengthy "Unrecognized Items" report on the other. Could a field or check box be created where items would be skipped during the updates so that they are left in place and don't show up in the "Unrecognized Items" list? They already don't get price updates which is more than okay with me as I don't plan to sell the high end items and the low end items rarely change enough to warrant a second glance.
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I like this too. I've manually done searches like this in the past and wished for something similar.
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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?
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3 hours ago, Steven L. Dasinger said:
I would assume, creating a report, then saving it to the web site.
My interpretation as well.
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Mine works as well!
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Wow, I never imagined it would go 100, 200, 100,000!
Thanks for the info!
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Same here
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I had a similar message come up under different circumstances although I don't recall what they were.
This thread fixed it for me:
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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?
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26 minutes ago, Walt Grogan said:
I was stunned to learn that the foreign key that links titles and items together is the title itself and not a unique identifier of some kind.
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.
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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.
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1 hour ago, Gregory Hecht said:
I think that your example here is a good one. However, I suspect that the market may be working a little bit differently for slabbed high grade issues vs. slabbed low grade issues.
If you were to graph out the raw copy price of what would be a 9.8 comic vs. the slabbed price of a 9.8 comic, you would get a curve of a particular shape based on the % premiums that you list in your example.
But I think that a complicating factor is that the % premiums may be different for lower grade comics (e.g, a 3.0 raw comic vs. the same 3.0 comic in a slab). In other words, the unslabbed price might not be sufficient information to know what the slab premium should be. I suspect that you need to know both the condition *and* the value of the unslabbed comic.
If you were to graph out the raw copy price of what would be a 3.0 comic vs. the slabbed price of a 3.0 comic, I don't know that the curve would necessarily have the same shape as for your condition 9.8 example. In other words, would the slabbing premium for a $5,000.00 to $9,999.00 comic in 3.0 be twice that of a $50,000.00 to $99,999.99 comic in 3.0? My prediction* is that slabbing low value comics in low grade gives a lot less "% juice" than slabbing a more valuable comic in exactly the same low grade.
*(from a gut sense only... I have no data to back up my prediction, I admit that I could be completely wrong)
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.
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1 hour ago, Steven L. Dasinger said:
You are missing my point. All the things you mention apply to the comic whether it is slabbed or not.
I agree that they all affect the pricing of a comic.However, the act of slabbing doesn't multiply all of those items. There is not a premium for slabbing and being signed and 1st appearance. There is just a premium for being slabbed.
The main problem that Pete is trying to address is that a flat rate percentage when applied to any CGC (or any graded comic) doesn't give a realistic example of the pricing with vast differences in pricing.
Currently CB has a CGC 9.8 at 1200% of NM.
Take a comic as graded by CGC at 9.8
Take the same comic out of the casing.Example 1: Low priced comic
If the un-slabbed comic sold for $100.00, the slabbed version would have a value of $1,200.00.Example 2: High priced comic
If the un-slabbed comic sold for $1,000,000.00, the slabbed version would have a value of $12,000,000.00.For example 1, the $1,200.00 may or may not be accurate but it is probably near correct (plus or minus a few hundred).
For example 2, the $12,000,000.00 is no where close to being an accurate representation of the price (plus or minus several hundred thousand dollars).That is the problem being addressed.
One way I can thing of is to have different percentage of NM for various pricing ranges.
For example (just making up numbers and is not meant to represent actual values):Between $1.00 and $999.00 have percentage of 1200%
Between $1,000.00 and $4,999.00 have have percentage of 1200%
Between $5,000.00 and $9,999.00 have have percentage of 1000%
Between $10,000.00 and $49,999.00 have have percentage of 750%
Between $50,000.00 and $99,999.99 have have percentage of 500%
Between $100,000.00 and $499,999.00 have have percentage of 250%
Between $500,000.00 and $999,999.00 have have percentage of 175%
Between $1,000,000.00 and $1,999,999.00 have have percentage of 150%
Over $2,000,000.00 have $125%Again, these are just 'random' numbers and are just meant to show the general idea. They are not meant to be exact numbers.
Using these numbers Example 2, at $1,000,000.00, when slabbed, would have a value of $1,500,000.00.
Still significant but not outlandish.(And I will state this one more time. Any feature that would affect the price, would apply to the un-slabbed comic. They are important and affect the price. However, once that un-slabbed price is determined, the act of slabbing does add extra premium value beyond the act of slabbing.)
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.
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1 hour ago, Gregory Hecht said:
The premium for slabbing is probably not a linear relationship. CGC 9.8 books from one price range in their "raw" state won't necessarily get the same % bump as CGC 9.8 books from a different price range for their raw state.
And, of course, the slabbing premium also depends on the grade. So the "premium curve" for CGC 5.0 books might not have the same slope and/or shape as the premium curve for CGC 9.0 books. That means you may be looking at two variables when trying to determine the CGC premium: what is the expected price for the corresponding raw copy and what is the graded condition for that copy.
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?
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1 hour ago, Steven L. Dasinger said:
Note: I am not saying key/signed is not important overall, but that is already accounted for. i.e. the non-slabbed 1st appearance or a important character is already going to be priced higher then later appearances. Slabbing is not going to increase the value because of that 1st appearance any more than it already is.
If you have issue #1 first appearance priced at $100.00 issue #2 priced at $50.00, the increase in value is already there.
If both issues are slabbed and get a premium applied of 110%, they would be would be $110.00 and $55.00, respectively.
There would NOT be 110% premium for being slabbed plus a premium for being 1st appearance.The main problem as I understood it is high value books.
If Action Comics #1 sold for $1,000,000.00, being slabbed should not blow up the premium to 2 or 3 million dollars.So at lower prices, the plus/minus range for the percentage increase isn't all that great.
Using the same percentage on higher priced items creates a very large plus/minus range (almost to the point of being useless).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.
Hellboy: The Lost Army
in Content and Corrections
Posted
Sorry, I’m more than a little out of sorts. Headache is back, not as intense but just as steady as the last one. Thankfully, it looks like this has been pulled together. I have the original prose book and had no idea that there was a MMPB until I had to move mine into that title.
Big thanks to everyone that helped clear this up!