Unearth the secrets of the comic book restoration and grading system with our special guest, Chris. This episode peels back the layers of this niche industry, shedding light on the careful nuances between restoration and cleaning, and the significance of proper grading to a comic's value. We dive into the nitty-gritty of the CGC (Certified Grading Company) grading system, whose unique approach assigns value to a comic, based on its condition.
Crack the code on the art of comic book restoration. Learn how moisture and UV flashlights play a pivotal role in preserving those rare editions and revealing hidden restoration work. We'll also guide you through the labyrinth of grading labels such as blue for CGC Universal Grade, purple for restoration, and green for qualified, each with its profound impact on a comic's value. We top this all off with a lively debate on the ethics of selling comics and the dire need for maintaining a good reputation in the comic book community.
Making your way into comic book sales? We'll talk you through the pros and cons of selling comics via Instagram and eBay, and how maximizing exposure can keep you from underselling your prized collection. We further dive into the disparities between newsstand editions and direct market editions of comic books and the importance of pre-screening books for condition and visible defects. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just starting your journey, this episode is your treasure map to the art of comic book collecting and grading.
Unearth the secrets of the comic book restoration and grading system with our special guest, Chris. This episode peels back the layers of this niche industry, shedding light on the careful nuances between restoration and cleaning, and the significance of proper grading to a comic's value. We dive into the nitty-gritty of the CGC (Certified Grading Company) grading system, whose unique approach assigns value to a comic, based on its condition.
Crack the code on the art of comic book restoration. Learn how moisture and UV flashlights play a pivotal role in preserving those rare editions and revealing hidden restoration work. We'll also guide you through the labyrinth of grading labels such as blue for CGC Universal Grade, purple for restoration, and green for qualified, each with its profound impact on a comic's value. We top this all off with a lively debate on the ethics of selling comics and the dire need for maintaining a good reputation in the comic book community.
Making your way into comic book sales? We'll talk you through the pros and cons of selling comics via Instagram and eBay, and how maximizing exposure can keep you from underselling your prized collection. We further dive into the disparities between newsstand editions and direct market editions of comic books and the importance of pre-screening books for condition and visible defects. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just starting your journey, this episode is your treasure map to the art of comic book collecting and grading.
Um, this is another episode of the Express Lane podcast with.
Speaker 2:Kevin Stan. What's going on? We got Chris with us today and now to a cool transition out of the how much I guess you could call it creative outlet. Are you getting from now it's as you, we get up to your one year anniversary of pressing comic books and Doing a little like not restoration, but some, yeah, getting, I guess, I guess, kind of restoration. But you're not, as we're talking on the phone before this, you're not painting over, or touching up anything like that.
Speaker 3:Yes, that that term restoration is like a big like, that's like they, like you know, on on on computers when you get the, the Blue screen of death. So in like the in the comic community, you get the purple label of death or the plaid for short, which is when you're like it's like you're restoring a comic, you're you're like adding things back to the comic that have disappeared.
Speaker 3:So yes the word, then, if restoration is not the it's just honestly like just cleaning and pressing you just clean it's. It's almost more like you're cleaning rather than like you're, I guess the You're you're bringing. You're bringing the comic back to its original state, but you're not adding things to the comic that were not there before. So once a comic has lost something like, for instance, restoration could also be like, let's say, the little like corner of the front cover got like torn off and then somebody takes like you know archival tape and like you know paper Fibers and things and they sort of construct their own little corner to put back on it. You get the purple label on that and sometimes I think people try to be slick with some of the things that they do, but a lot of these grading companies they like they know so how much you've been doing this for a year.
Speaker 2:Does this settling some of that creative urge, or is it just a different Process in the in the mind to you want to get this done?
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is a. This is kind of something that I don't think I've ever experienced in life previously. This to me, I would almost, I Would almost equate this in some ways to even though I know very little about cars, but in some ways it's almost like working on cars, like it's almost like somebody is bringing you this, you know 57, you know Mustang or something like that, and then you're you're trying to go through and and Make the car run. You know, but I but again, that's, I guess, a very extreme case. I would say that most of the time, with with pressing and cleaning comics, the some of some of them don't need a lot of work. Some of them do need a lot of work. It just all depends. Essentially, what you're trying to do is In the old way of buying comics.
Speaker 3:Like, we'll say, pre 2000, if somebody was buying a comic, they would basically like there would be a debate over the condition of the comic, right. So if somebody looked at the comic and they were like, okay, this, we'll say like this, this particular, like Batman comic or whatever, it's like you, this, this has been here, this is like a little bit messed up, this is a little dirty, this is this and they would like sort of point out all the defects of the comic. And then the person that was buying it would, after pointing out all those things, would say, oh well, I think it's only worth this. And the guy at the shop or the guy at the convention Like, well, no, I think it's worth this. And then there'd be like this debate about how much they should actually pay for the comic, based on the condition.
Speaker 3:And then a company came along in the early 2000s, cgc, which is a certified grading company, and they were like, well, let's just kind of do away with the middleman. If people are buying these comics, as collectibles will assume, and they're not going to read the comic, we'll provide the service. Then, where we're going to grade the comic, we're gonna have professional graders that will take out the guessing game and they will assign a grade to the comic. And then, once the comic has the grade assigned to it, well, not only is it, not only is it establishing the value of that comic based on the grade, but also it is giving a validity to the grade. Like it's not just like some Jamoke in some shop in Spokane, washington, or something who who Graded this book. This is somebody who does this professionally for this company based on their opinion.
Speaker 3:Like they might not like that comic book and it's transferring over to well, it's got this defect, or that right, or they more in their, in their eyes, like oh, this Crease on this comic is only this long, so it's only gonna degrade the comic by this much versus you know it's it versus I. Well, I think that creases more substantial. I think that's more taking away from the aesthetics of the comic.
Speaker 1:So they're like leveling it out, like creating like laws and rules for what, and like a like a standard, yeah, standard, so yeah so it.
Speaker 3:So they have a grading system that's based off of like, I guess originally like if people were grading coins right, when you hear the term like mint or near mint, they're referring to like a mint, that would straight up create coins.
Speaker 2:So I didn't know, like I've you know, oh, especially with trading cards and Pokemon cards, like, oh, I have a mint, you too, or something like that. I didn't know that it came from Coins as like, because I know that you mint a coin, but we're talking about it in other things, right?
Speaker 3:interesting and so, like there are, there are all of these.
Speaker 3:Again, they sound slightly arbitrary, but you have these like oh, you have like good or very good, or fine, very fine, fair, like there's all these various different Descriptors that they use, and then, once you get into the higher end of things, it's like you know, we sort of have this, like you know, near mint, or near mint, near mint minus near mint, near mint plus near mint, mint, that's like there's so many different types of like terms for how many like the accumulation of the like defects.
Speaker 3:So what CGC started doing was, instead of having all these like terms even though these numbers are associated with the terms, they started going with a grading scale that was like numbers and all the numbers go from like you know, like if you have your 1.0, you can have things lower than that, but let's just say, if we start at 1.0, so you have 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, all the way up through the numbers. Everything is like a point or a point five until you get to nine. Once you get to nine it's 9.0, 9.2, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8. So once you get into the nines you're sort of fine-tuning the. You know the condition of the book. Basically.
Speaker 2:So is there no 10.0?.
Speaker 3:There is a 10.0, which is referred to as gem mint. Okay, it's like a fancy name. However, comic books in a traditional sense, like anything with a staple, really cannot achieve a 10.0 because there's some type of you know staple tear or some type of binary tear from the printing process. There are comics that exist that are 9.9. They're like ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra rare.
Speaker 2:So if a comic book like there's there some brand new comic book hero cuts Debuted tomorrow and the first issue comes out and somebody that works in the factory say is like off the printing press, like all of these are getting ready to be packaged and shipped to the different things, takes one as hot as you can get it off the thing, throws it in a plastic bag and throws that in another plastic bag and has it in between two pieces of wood so that it can't crank or anything, that only would get a 9.9.
Speaker 1:Yes, if it has staples say it seems like it's by default. Yeah, you can't make one correct.
Speaker 3:The only books that have really achieved the like the 10 rating are square bound books. So square bound books are held together with like glue and like a spine rather than staples, because it's I guess it's in the printing process and the production process. It's almost impossible to not not Inflict some type of damage when you're putting staples into a book.
Speaker 1:So if you got it and they're making a lot of simple right, if they're not assembled, just the pages all together, then they could be ten.
Speaker 3:So I think if that, if the book is supposed to have a staple in it, though, then they will doc you that the staples not Manufactured without a staple, but but yeah, so basically that's, that's essentially what you're. What you're doing is you're you're trying to take an existing comic and Through dry cleaning which is like you're not using any types of Chemicals, additives, any sort of things like that like all you're really doing to dry clean is basically taking a I Mean different people use different things. The thing that I use like a common thing, it's called absorbing. It's like a little like a little sponge sort of thing, and it's like a little rubber sponge that you just sort of like Move across the cover of the comic and it'll pull up any sort of like soiling and dirt like that, and that's what you kind of do for the front of the book.
Speaker 3:If there are any spots that are, you know, white as opposed to various colors, you'll use like eraser tops like the like you would have like in school, where you just pop the like the Plastic eraser onto the pencil or like the rubber eraser. However, those have to be white. If they're the pink ones, they'll like leave residue and stuff like that. So any of the white areas you just clean with that little eraser and that pulls up the dirt. Anything that's Soiled. On any of the other colors you use that absorbing sponge.
Speaker 2:Indeed, that sponge like it if you were to just sit it there overnight. Leave it on the comic. Is it going to Degrade anything in there, or is it just no? No really.
Speaker 3:It's just. I mean I Guess I can't definitively answer that because I haven't tried it, but like, yeah, it's, I don't. It might be treated with something or it might be some specific type of material that like you know fingerprints or dust or dirt or something. Maybe it's like it acts as like a Magnet for those sort of things, because you don't use a whole ton of pressure. If you start to, if you use a lot of pressure, you'll look at that, the little section of that sponge, and it'll like it'll have a little ink on it, like you don't want to pull ink off of it.
Speaker 3:There's also an absorbent like putty. It's like and this I think they started making this stuff in like the late 1800s or early 1900s to like clean books, like it's what it's specifically for. However, the putty like kind of sucks, like I. I think Now that I've been doing this for a year, I'm gonna start doing like Older books and I think with some of the older ones, like like Silver Age stuff, like from the 60s, I think I'm probably gonna have to use that putty more than the sponge because I think it might be too abrasive for some of the like the fragility of the paper. But I think that it's like play it like imagine play dough that's like half dried out, so like as you start using it. It's like there's little particles and pieces that like come off as you're trying to use it. But with that you just kind of make little like logs of it and then you just roll that along the book and then you like pull dirt up that way. So essentially, like what you're doing, as after you've cleaned that book, is that you you go into like the Humidity stage. That's like what you do right before you press the book. So let's say there's a book that I feel like is like a high-grade candidate. The first thing I'll do is you go with just like a like a cotton round, like a little like makeup thing, and you just sort of like do like a quick like once over on the cover of the book, make and definitely making sure that you keep your fingertips like on the corners because you don't want to like in In the rubbing, you don't want to like catch that and then like put an extra like band or crease into the cover or anything. So you're just using that cotton round to start and then after that then you go through Typically like the way that I end up doing is I'll put like a magazine backing board into a magazine size bag and then I'll put that on most of the comic so that I can rest my hand on it because I don't want to further damage anything.
Speaker 3:Usually at this stage I'm also putting gloves on to like avoid like sweat fingerprints and like things like that. So I'm basically leaning on that bag and board and then I'm exposing maybe like I don't know an inch worth of the book and then I'll just work with that one particular inch and then like slide the board over and then do the next inch. So you're sort of doing it in like strips. And then you have like a little Cutting board that you sort of like work on Her cutting mat, I guess is the better way to phrase it. Cutting board. I guess he would use in the kitchen. But like the cutting mat it has like a grid on it so you can like keep track of like what you've done and what you haven't. So then I'll go in with the sponge and just sort of take all that and then any of the white sections and I'll go in with the eraser and you just sort of do that usually, I mean, unless the cover doesn't have a lot of color, the back ends up taking a lot more time than the front because a Lot of the ads they're just like it's like white.
Speaker 3:And then you have like, oh, this Lego set and shit like that, and so you end up spending more time half the time on the back cover than on the front cover because you will still get Dinged for like if there's, if they're shit fucked up on the back cover, like they don't care that that's not the exciting part of the Comic. They're grading like the whole thing, right even down to like page quality, like they have a whole range of like white pages, off white pages, off white to white cream to off white, it's like. So that doesn't really like affect the value so much, it's almost more like it's just bet it's best to have like white pages. That just always like looks the best on the label. But but I've seen things that are like white pages and off white pages where the value of the book is like pretty much the same, but anyway.
Speaker 3:So once all that is done, then you put the book into a humidity tank because you want to humidify the paper fibers, you want to add moisture to the paper fibers. Because if you go to press the book and you induce all this heat into the book, one of two things, one of two negative things, is gonna happen. Either if you do have a successful press, the book will revert later, like two weeks later, it'll just sort of all those creases that have been in there for like 40 years. They'll just come back after a week or two because there was not enough moisture in the book. Or if the ink isn't malleable enough, when you do the press you could you could have what are called like color breaks. Like if anything breaks color, you're seeing the white of the paper Through the ink.
Speaker 3:So those are things where, like, let's say, you're in a comic shop and you're looking for potential Books to grade, so you're like rifling through your short boxes and stuff and you find like a book where you're like I've always wanted this or I know this is a popular book, like people will want to, you know Probably scoop this book up. So then you pull it out of the short box and if you see a bunch of like creases in the in the Book, but it has like the white of the paper coming through, then there's nothing you can do about that. It can't be fixed, it can't be there's, there's nothing to save that. Like, once ink is gone, it's gone, unless somebody does color touch and they start to fill in those little like missing spots. But then then you start to step into that restoration territory that you don't want to get into. So basically, if you're looking for candidates to do this, it's like the, the, any sort of color break you. You don't want so so.
Speaker 2:I know you're Not to. Have you ever been hit with the purple label of doom? No, no, no, they haven't like mistakenly been like oh, I think he touched up this spot. We're gonna Purple label him, so.
Speaker 3:I Think it only really shows up a lot in like older books, like high value, like, let's say, you had, like I don't know, something like an amazing fantasy 15, right, that's like the first appearance of spider-man, like that classic cover where he's like swinging and he's got like the dude under his arm right. So People will have those that they like scoop from like their grandfather like 30 years ago when he passed away or whatever, and they'll see like, oh, there's like a little bit of damage here and here. Oh, this will look nicer if I just like fill it in and this is again like predating Any like grading companies and stuff like that. So people would fill those in and then, like years later, they get like circulated through the comic community because a collection will always outgrow its owner, you know. So a lot of these collections that people purchase it's because somebody passed away or you know, or something happened or or somebody's like really they need, they need money, so they sell their collection. You know they have to make mortgage payments or whatever.
Speaker 3:So that amazing fantasy 15 gets passed down and passed down and passed down and then all of a sudden somebody who's gonna submit it to a grading company buys it for thousands of dollars. And Then, you know, maybe they clean it, they press it and they send it down and then, through the technology that they have at CGC, they're able or even just their eye, depending on how blatant it is, they're able to find that there was color touch and then it'll get the grade for the condition of the book. But instead of having the sort of like the universal grade, which is the blue label, it'll have the purple label.
Speaker 2:So purple label books, like, do not sell to the same level that a blue label does so if you, if you have a 9.8 Blue label and a 9.8 purple label, yeah, how much are you losing on the purple label?
Speaker 3:It's it. It really depends on the book, but I would say like it just throwing out a number like anywhere from like 20% to like 50 or 60% of the value. So if you have a book that's like a 10, like an old school silver age, like really sought, after book, the more expensive the blue label book would be.
Speaker 2:The purple label gets dinged that much more. Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Speaker 3:But again, like I said, I've never sold any purple label stuff, so I don't really know, because I try to avoid it. Like any old books that I have, the first thing I do is I'll get, I have like a UV light flashlight and so, if you like, shine the UV light flashlight on to the comic, you'll any of the places that like somebody drew on with like paint or ink or anything like that, they'll show up right away. So if there's anything that I might potentially grade that's older, like that, I'll.
Speaker 2:I'll go over it with that UV flashlight first because, again, I don't want to spend all this like time, money, effort and everything just to have it be returned as you stored, you found you have comics that have all of that in it, like, have you bought some like, and you hit it with the UV light and you're like, oh man, that has.
Speaker 3:Crossing my fingers. I have yet to have purchased anything that have that has any restoration.
Speaker 1:Oh, what if he's a black light and it's the first Storm shows up? I know exactly where you go with this.
Speaker 3:You're talking about semen I understand I get where you're going with that stand.
Speaker 2:He's great in comics, he's not grading sports.
Speaker 1:Illustrated swimsuit additions Never know man I just saw speaking of storm. I saw a Jeep. It was all X-maned out with storm all over it. Oh, nice that in the Jurassic Park Jeep down in Westchester.
Speaker 3:If people uh, you know, people do interesting things with their money. I'm sure that probably cost a lot to get all that done.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, so that's so far no restoration on anything that I've purchased. But I also think a lot of like sellers and dealers. They're like, I would say in my experience Doing this in the last year, I think I have dealt with more Ethical dealers than unethical dealers. I would say there's two that come to mind who price gouge raw books. Raw meaning just like the comic by itself before it's Encapsulated in the slab once it's graded. So slab books are like where you have them in the plastic and like in the hard plastic.
Speaker 2:Case is like tamper proof, or can you get that out of there if you want to?
Speaker 3:Kevin, you ask such good questions, you can, and in fact there's a whole big part of the comic community that basically is cracking these to do a better job, cleaning and pressing and then getting a higher grade To the, to the effect that there is a term which is called comic book cpr. You crack press resubmit. In fact I have a. I have a cpr candidate that that I'm going to do a video on soon. It is A Neil Adams green arrow, green lantern comic from the early 70s when they did the, the heroin story, like the drug addiction story. That like it's like the significant thing where, like the I think it is green arrows like sidekick they like find out he's like doing heroin. So it's like this first time that there's like a real like drug issue in comics.
Speaker 3:And I found I found a 5.5 for like 50 bucks on short box, which is like an app where you can buy like slabs now they do raw books too but it's a 5.5. Actually I think it was at 65 and I sent the guy an offer for 50 and he accepted it and so, like when I was zooming in on these photos, like this book was never no one did anything to it, they basically just found it in like somebody's collection. They were like, oh, this book is significant, I'm going to like send it out to get graded. So they basically just plucked it out of the box and got it graded. So I spent 50 on that book. So I think through, like cleaning it and pressing it I mean I don't know if I can get it up into the nines, but I could probably get it into the eighths and so that book at an 8.0 or an 8.5 will be a couple hundred bucks, whereas At the 5.5 it was like 50 dollars.
Speaker 3:So that's where the investing quote-unquote comes in, where you know, if you build your skills and you feel like you can do them well enough, you can actually like go out to comic shops and it's like, oh, that issue right there, that's that they're selling for X amount of dollars, like that's at a 7.5. But I'm seeing like that defect, that defect, that's pressable, that's pressable. They didn't even clean the back of the book. So it's like maybe I'll spend the money on that and then I'll crack it out of the case and then I'll work on the book and I'll resubmit it and then, once I resubmit it, maybe it comes back as a 9.2. So that's what they refer to as like a grade bump.
Speaker 2:So you get yeah, but I guess If you take it out of that could you put it back into the same case you took it out of so I'm sure that there are scammers who probably, like Might have a system for doing something like that.
Speaker 3:But like, if you're cracking that slab like it is obvious that it was cracked it like splits, the plastic inside of it gets all like crazy.
Speaker 2:Rippled. So, yeah, it's like a tamper proof. Yes, yes, you know case.
Speaker 1:I do, yes, and I did put in a new case.
Speaker 2:Uh well, but you don't case them. The casing comes from the cdc. Yes, oh okay.
Speaker 3:I have. I have one with me, so I'll take it out and I'll show it to you guys. So this, this may answer some of your questions.
Speaker 2:Perfect, you're just saying some slabs and a couple raw books, as we're taking a pee break, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just I figured I would Uh bring a couple visual aids that could help answer some, some questions and such.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, let's bust them out and we'll. Then at least the two of us can know what you're talking about and if people that are listening want to see it, you could check us out on youtube, yeah exactly If there's any uh viewers on youtube, it's like they might.
Speaker 3:they might sort of see what's happening here and you know, feel free if you want to um, I don't know inspect or hold things up, but yeah, so I it's, as I'm looking at it, like I've only seen these through instagram, so I couldn't, couldn't tell on if there's a latch, if there's something to when you could like Open this up to if you wanted, like as you're.
Speaker 3:you're saying that these are collectibles now, so you're not buying this to read it, you're buying this to have it correct and there's basically like, if you were to, if you were to like crack one of these to try to work on the book that's inside it, like essentially it would be like there's no, there's no lip or flap, where it's like, oh, you just open up this thing to get it like you would have to go into the, the top right here, right where that there's like a, a slight gap between the top here.
Speaker 3:You would just go in with a flat head screwdriver and just literally like crack the case until it broke. And then even inside that, um, there's what's called the inner well, like you can sort of see that right along the edge here, and so the inner well right there, that's what's actually holding the comic and that is that that is also sealed. So when you crack the top of this, you're actually taking out the inner well which has the comic in it, and then, basically, that small edge between the inner well and the top of the comic, you have to go in with like an exacto knife and Cut along there without slipping and cutting the comic. Oh, wow, so it's. It's like a little bit of an endeavor to do that, um.
Speaker 2:So, but again, people do it, you know it's and I guess, now that we can see it this along the top edge, where it's the cgc universal grade, correct?
Speaker 1:That's in blue.
Speaker 3:It would be purple for any restoration type of work it would be purple if there was any restoration, it would be green if it is like what they call a qualified grade. So let's say if, um, okay, for example, in the mid to late 70s marvel did this thing, um, they introduced these marvel value stamps which are like little like one inch by one inch squares that look like you know, postal stamps, but they have characters on them like whether it's like spider-man or kang or or incredible hulk or whoever, and so they put them in there to be like hey, collect, clip them and collect them and put them in this like binder and shit. So there's a lot of like super valuable books that are missing value stamps out there. So if a book from like I don't know the exact years, but it's like I don't know, like mid 70s to late 70s, there's like like maybe three years or four years, um, where they just they would have certain issues that have the value stamp. So if you're selling a comic from that era, if it's raw, you want to include in the description like marvel value stamp intact or no marvel value stamp.
Speaker 3:So, for instance, a extremely one of the One of the grails of all grails is incredible hulk 181. That's like the first appearance of wolverine that has a uh, I think it's sheena the Jungle queen or some some shit like that, like that's. That is the uh, the value stamp that's in that particular book. So there's a lot of incredible hulk 181s out there that are graded. That might, you know, come back in a high grade. But the label will be green because part of the book is missing. So you'll also get a green label for, uh, the first appearance of hob goblin and amazing spider-man. That comic came with like Tattoos, like there's a little insert with like staples, so they were by this like company called like lakeside or something, and it was like these tattoos, like temporary tattoos you just pop on your arm when you're a kid. So if somebody ripped that out to put the tattoos on, if you have that book, you could get it graded. But if it's missing the tattoos, it gets the green qualified label.
Speaker 2:Are there? Is that the only three years, or another type of label?
Speaker 3:there are, um, there's a couple more. There's a if it's the gold or yellow label, that's the signature series. That's, when you like, if there's an artist that goes to cgc, they will do a like a signature, like a like a signing event. So, like there's one, there's one for ron friends and one for jim lee coming up in october, amongst other Artists too. But basically what they do is they invite the artist for like the weekend. Everybody submits all their books for the artist to sign and a cgc witness will literally like watch the artist sign the book and then when they grade it and slab it, it gets the signature series label, which is like yellow.
Speaker 3:Okay so that again like if you, if you have it like certified from the company that that particular artist signed it, again You're removing any debate of like is that really Todd McFarland signature? No, like it's. It doesn't look like it. I have this book and his signature looks this way on it. You forge that. Whatever it like, avoids all that. So it's like now some people get books signed just for themselves and they don't want to resell them. So yeah, you go to a convention, you get the artist to sign it. It's like no big deal. But I think that with those signatures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you had, like you went to a convention and you got a guy to sign your book for you and then you went to get it graded, it would be what? How would that come back?
Speaker 3:So I again I haven't done it, but I think that if you got like somebody to sign the book at the convention and then after a year or two You're like I kind of want to get this graded, I believe, because there's like writing on it it may get a green label, it could also get a blue label, I think, but it's like the grade is lower. I'm not really sure because I haven't. I haven't done and I haven't done that much research. The only thing things I've ever gotten signed has been through the signature events that they that they have in at CGC.
Speaker 3:And then there are there are also like pedigree labels, like pedigrees are basically like there are these like elite, legendary Collections, right, and I don't remember the names of any of them, but there's, like there's a handful of them.
Speaker 3:I think one of them is like out in Colorado, like just prolific collectors, like, like, like a famous person in the collector community who like collected books from 1950, whatever to whenever, and they had this like extensive, like 30, 40, 50 thousand dollar, like unit collection right, like thousands of thousands of books, and then they're all in such high grade because this particular person was a collector.
Speaker 3:Sometimes they have a stamp on them, like from that particular oh, this is one of that person's books, sometimes those pedigree books they'll get. Like it's it's almost like a I Don't know how I describe it like a pewter, like it's almost like metallic, looking like like a grayish, metal-ish kind of color label. Now, I think there's like maybe one or two others than that, but like the main ones that you see are the blue ones and the yellow ones, like the signature series and the certified grade, like those are the most common. But again, going back to the green label, with like that Hulk 181, I Mean people will still spend like thousand, like crazy thousands of dollars, even for the book that doesn't have the stamp in it. So it, yeah, I mean ideally you want the blue label.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what you're after. Have you looked up like all those stamps of like people would cut out of the book? What's a complete collection of those worth?
Speaker 3:There's actually, it's funny, one of the places that that I order, like my Paperbacks and like omnis from and stuff like that. They have a. There's a book out there that's like I forget the exact title, but it's something about like like the titles called like Marvel value stamps, the you know the frustrating Something, something of like Marvel of the 70s or whatever, and it's basic. It basically is like a book all about them, and it tells you like how many there are and which ones they are and what books they were found in, and stuff.
Speaker 1:But off the top of my head, I don't know okay, yeah, so would you even want a book signed, like where would the perfect spot for somebody that To sign at? I mean, you almost kind of want them to sign a separate piece of paper and just put it in with the comic.
Speaker 3:It really depends. There are some people that that are very anti-signature. They just like they don't want, like yeah, it's cool that the artist is like touching the comic book that they had made it right. There's some people who are just like I don't want my book signed and I think it ruins it, but it all depends, like if, if you're, if you're getting this book signed.
Speaker 2:It's like where do you do it? It's like there's not a lot of areas. So so, as you say, so we have. You have a Fantastic for number 247. That's a 9.6 right here. Mm-hmm, if you had this same book, same grade, but just from a signature series, which one would sell?
Speaker 3:more? Oh, that's a great question. I recently just sold One of the signature series books that I, that I had with the Todd McFarlane signing and that I mean that sat on that's sad on my eBay for like six months. I think a lot of times when people do the signings I think they're doing it for their own personal collection, because again you want to feel like that Connection to the artist, but I, but I but again the people purchase them just as much, but I I don't know. I think it's kind of like a mixed bag.
Speaker 3:I would say like From what I've noticed in the first year of doing this, because again there's a lot of like people in the community who've been doing this for a super long time, so they have like a better Attenuation for some of this information. I've been keeping track of what days I've sold slabs on eBay, what days I've sold raw books on eBay, just as sort of like, almost like. Let me look at the whole year and see like what, if there's any sort of like rhyme or reason as to like when are popular times to buy, and it's all fucking random. Like there's like in in I guess it was like March, I think I sold like 11 or 12, like Raw books, like almost like one a day, like every other day for the month and like again. Some Collectors and some you know dealers would hear that and be like huh, I do that in a day, but like, of course, but this isn't like my full-time job.
Speaker 3:This is like a side hustle but like To do like a 11 or 12 raw books in one month and then the next month I just like sold like a book and it's just like I don't know why. I don't know why everybody decided in that one month to buy a whole ton of shit. I don't know if it's like an eBay algorithm. You guys obviously both have seen the pumpkin bomb comics Instagram. I Haven't sold anything through Instagram, like you've seen that. I've like listed stuff right and I like I'm always letting people know like this is what I, this is what came back. This is a grade that it got super pumped about this. Like x, y and z. Every single sale that I've made in this entire year has all been eBay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the Instagram is just showing people like oh, this is cool. Yes, are you cool? Are?
Speaker 2:people buying things on eBay that you're not putting on Instagram. That you're like yeah, I'm not really making a post about this so that I didn't grade and they'll have whatever.
Speaker 3:So the raw books I don't put on Instagram at all, I just put those on eBay. But even like the slabs, it's like I've sold one through short box. Everything else is through eBay, which, to a certain degree, is a little frustrating. Because eBay, all the prices that I have on eBay are higher. Because the fees are higher, right, because they take like 14% or whatever of the sale, whereas on Instagram nobody's taken anything other than Uncle Sam, you know. So it's like I feel like saying to like the people that you know Follow me on Instagram, like just buy the books through Instagram for me, like you're gonna be paying less money and I'm gonna be making more on the sale, like we both win, like don't go through eBay, but that's, that's how every single sale has been. But at the same token, it's like how many eyes are on the Instagram account versus how many eyes are on eBay, you know, are they on eBay for auction or eBay at a price?
Speaker 3:like I do a buy it now rather than an auction, just because, like, there are all sorts of different selling platforms Like what not is another one where you can do like auctions and things like that as well. And I guess if I get more followers and more People that like are aware of what I'm doing, I might at some point do auctions. But I don't know, I just right now I'm a little gun shy about auctions because I don't know if enough people know about it. So if you're auctioning something in a room full of like five people and they're just like sweet, I just sold this like four hundred dollar.
Speaker 3:Slab for like 70 bucks.
Speaker 2:I think you can set a minimum, like you have to meet this.
Speaker 1:Yes, on eBay you can you'd still want the maximum number of people.
Speaker 3:You know it's about eyes on it, for sure, and there is also a draw of just like, like I know some of the like bigger sellers out there, the bigger sellers will like start all their auctions at a dollar like, because it's just like the psychology of just like in your head Just being like whoa, only a dollar for this, like $750, like slab, like, oh my god, like. I definitely want to like be part of that auction. What if it only goes up to a hundred bucks? What if it only does this? But it never does? Like some of these, some of the real like I like the term that they use are keys, like key issues. So like a secret Wars number eight, like the first you know black spidey costume, or like the Hulk.
Speaker 2:I don't have that comic, I don't have that specific book, but I have that whole run of secret Wars and like a paper, yeah, dude, that is.
Speaker 3:That is just. That's like my wheelhouse being like a child of the 80s. That's secret word. Stuff is like so good, but like those books, like you'll always, you'll always get full value for those books.
Speaker 3:Like I think one of the mistakes that I made early on when I first started doing this, because the first comic that I cleaned when I was trying to build the skill was September 15th of last year and then my first press, I think, was like the first week of October and so Like in the first year that I've been doing this once, I first like was seeing results of like whoa, this comic looks so much better now. Like all that, all the dirt and fingerprints are off of it and also all those little like creases and stuff. I was able to press all of those out, so it like looks really like it looks really nice. I just went like I Feel like I went like slab crazy where I was just like like I just wanted like this book is so cool, I want to. I want to slab it. This book is so cool, I want to slab it.
Speaker 3:And then I realized that like it's, it isn't really not every book should be slabbed, even if it has like like oh, this random, you know Super villain team up from the 70s, it's like the cover is so awesome and it's like such a like visually stimulating, like piece of art, you know, like being in the slab. But not everybody thinks about comics that way. A lot of people think of it as like the value, how, like thinking of it almost like stocks and stuff like that, like how is the value of this going to increase? As you know, as I keep doing this and as I keep collecting and stuff, so like some of these, like the ones that I brought today, these are all from like, like ones that I want to keep for myself, but like I don't know if this book would really like sell, like I just love that John Byrne cover.
Speaker 3:And I think it came back in a high enough grade where I'm just like, sweet, awesome, that was a book that, like, I bought for ten dollars and then I worked on it and I got it up to that 9.6. It's like I'm proud that I got it to the grade that I got it to and it will be nice to have in my collection. But if you know, let's say, decades and decades in the future, if you know Kristen or a family member or somebody when I'm not around is ever selling these books like this isn't gonna, that's not gonna get anything. But I still wanted to get that book slab because it's like it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Maybe not, but you never know. Like, the more you do it, I feel, the more you're gonna run into somebody else. That's like yourself, that's like do you have that one daredevil cover that has like the? I know you did it through Instagram, where it's he's just like the barrel of the gun pointed straight at you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's an awesome cover is cool as shit. Yeah, that's an.
Speaker 2:I don't have no idea if that comic's worth any money, but you might run into somebody that's like. I'm looking for this book.
Speaker 3:You're. You bring up a good point because, again, I'm still getting to know the comic community over the last year. But one of the things that I do hear a lot within the community is like collect what you like, like get the things that you like and the things that you know. Because Maybe, yeah, maybe there are those like particular grails that, like everybody wants, but then there are other people that just are like no, I need to complete like a run, like maybe somebody wants like the first 250 issues of Fantastic Four, like that's their run and they're missing 247. So it's like then they would, they would scoop a book like that. But I did also bring like a raw book or two, just because I wanted to Kind of show you guys the difference between like what would be like a gradeable Candidate and these. These are ones you are going to work on so well. One you'll see. You'll see why I'm not going to and then one You'll see why I might in the future.
Speaker 3:So I wanted to bring in two that had Predominantly black covers, because the ink, like the black ink, like any defects, will show on that more than anything else. So the biggest thing that I'm looking through, as I'm like rifling through short boxes is. The first thing I'm going to do is Look at the top corners. So if you look at this particular Hulk comic, that top corner there and that top corner there is really clean. So that would be one where, like, once I see those corners and the top like looking pretty clean, like that, without any defects to it, I'll pull that one out to look at the rest of the book. Whereas, like if I pulled out this book, if you look down the spine there, all those white lines there, those are all would have referred to as spine ticks and they are all spine ticks that break color. So you see the white coming through, whereas when you look at the spine of this one, it's like totally there's nothing wrong with it. So this would be like a candidate to potentially clean and press because you're going to get a high grade here.
Speaker 3:But this comic definitely would not. And especially if you look in the bottom corner there, all of those like little creases there, those all break color too. So those, all those white lines against the black ink, every single one of those would deduct from the grade. So if the grader is looking that at this book, like if they're starting in their head with a perfect 9.8 score Every time they see one of these and depending on how long it is like. If this Particular one right here was like really big like across there, it would it would, you know, detract from the grade even more.
Speaker 3:So a book like this I would. This is from my own collection from when I was like 10, right, so you can see that like clearly a 10 year old Read this book, right, whereas this is one that I bought in a comic shop. So this was clearly one that a collector had that they didn't really touch. So I wanted to bring like two extreme examples like that. So at least you guys, as I'm talking about this, I know for the in the podcast format it's not exactly a always visual, apart from the YouTube video.
Speaker 2:I can get stand to take some pictures of these.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that that's fair. But yeah, so I just figured like, just so you could sort of see, like this is some of the stuff that you're looking for, like what, like, what could be done about this? Like nothing, like you can't really chain you, can you? That's a defect that's not pressable or, you know, reversible in any sort of way, whereas this one is like this is a book that, again, looking at this, it's like this book could come back after like just getting a little bit of a clean and a press. That book could probably come back as like a 9.4 or 9.6, whereas this would probably come back as like a 6.0, maybe even lower, because of how much is wrong with it. There's even like a little tear right there. So all manner of like finger bends, creases, things that break, color pieces missing, like there's so many different, like CGC just Last fall released a Book that like goes over all of the possible defects and how they affect the grade, which, up until that time, people were just sort of like.
Speaker 1:You know, we're at the mercy of the greater you know they have their like their system is now the key, probably, which is kind of good to keep it to themselves, so people can't find ways to get around it.
Speaker 3:Right, there's benefits and like. Part of me feels like and this is just speculation, but part of me feels like the reason that they released, the reason they like they worked on this book and they released this book and sort of like pulled back the curtain a little bit To how they grade is because I think they realized the Like they benefit from CPR in a book, like they benefit from somebody spending $25 to get this graded and Then somebody else buying it and being like, hey, you know what, I think I can do a better job with that, so I'm gonna crack it out and I'm gonna submit it again. So they just made another $25 off of the same comic. So I think they realized the popularity of the CPR process where they were like, alright, a lot of people are doing this, let's kind of, let's kind of peel back the curtain a little bit, show them how we're grading, what types of defects are Detracting from the grade and by how much. Quantify all that, have all of those metrics there so that, like, we can encourage people to continue to crack and press because again, every time somebody cracks a book and presses it and Resubmits it, they're making money again, which is also why I brought in this alpha flight because this is one of the few ones that that I purchased, like early on before I started doing it myself.
Speaker 3:I Seem like nothing wrong with this book. I don't understand why it got a 9.2, when these books like this 9.4 and 9.6 and even after the After the episode, like I can even point them out like but there are, like there are spine ticks along this one. There is like there's like damage to the paper fibers in this particular, like Iron man issue 2, there's literally nothing wrong with this book. I think a 9.2 is a fucking harsh grade for that book. So I'm absolutely going to crack and press that and resubmit it and I would not be shocked if that comes back, at least bumped up to a 9.4 or a 9.6. Now again, I would only do that for myself. I'm not going to sell this book because, like I love alpha flight alpha flight number one in a newsstand, which is that barcode there as opposed to the Spider-Man face, which is a whole other thing.
Speaker 3:Like Newstand editions. That's what. That's what every comic book looked like for a long time, until Collecting became like a thing and people were like, oh, everybody's buying comics and stuff. Let's open these comic shops where people can just buy comics instead of buying it at the grocery store or the drug store or wherever, or or a literal newsstand. So this is what's known as a direct copy, which means when it has the little Spider-Man head or little artwork in here, that's going directly to a comic book shop. So chances are, when it goes directly to a comic book shop, the person buying it is going to take better care of it because they're a collector. So newsstand copies tend to not be in higher grades, because if a kid is buying that on a newsstand or at a drug store or something, that's a much more disposable.
Speaker 3:Grabbing a form and throwing in the bag with other shit exactly his dad's taking it on the train to like bring it home when after work and stuff like that. So typically there are books. There are more books in higher grade that have the direct market Spidey head down in the bottom as opposed to the newsstand barcode down there. So there's a CGC census that allows you to see how many of each copy is graded. So like, for instance, this fantastic for 247. I can go on the website and log in with my credentials and see like okay, how many copies are there in existence that are 9.6, say? There's like 340 of them or something. And then how many alpha flight number 1's in a 9.2 in a newsstand are there. It'll have that information too. But this is but again going back to I just went off on a tangent with the newsstand edition, just sort of talk about that. But again, to have this book in a newsstand in a high grade, I think would be pretty cool. I don't think this book is a 9.2.
Speaker 2:Generally new stands worth more or less than the direct to consumer.
Speaker 3:Yes and not to like I don't. I don't want to get tacky and talk about specific numbers, but just for the illustration of your question, a web of spider-man number one that I just Finally sold, I had. I got two of them. Actually there were brave new worlds we were mentioning them a minute ago, so um, so yeah. So they were both newsstand. And then I saw these and I got them actually at their black Friday sale, so they were $25 each for the raw, raw copies, but because of the 20% off they reached $20, so I spent $40 on the pair and Then I got them each graded, so 25 each, so that's 50 bucks, and then the original 40, so that's 90 that I spent total on the two books In a newsstand. They both came back 9.8, so I was able to like. Now again, that's not just, you know, patting myself on the back for getting the nine point. These books were already like pretty good Like.
Speaker 2:I didn't have to, in good condition.
Speaker 3:Yes, they just needed a real light dry cleaning and a good press and that was it. I didn't really have to like work the spine with like a tack iron and like and and do extra stuff or multiple presses, because some of the older books that, like I said earlier, the the creases that have been in there since like 1981, they're gonna, they're gonna want to stay in there, like the fibers can be stubborn. You have to press them multiple times. But these books were really easy. So I sent the first one out in one batch and it came back in 9.8.
Speaker 3:I was really pumped because I was like awesome, this is like my first 9.8 that I ever got and it's a web of spider-man newsstand. I was like that's awesome. And I was like, well, I'm gonna send out the other one in this next batch, crossing my fingers, maybe it gets a 9.8 also. And it came back in 9.8. I was like holy shit, man, so I get to keep one of them and I'm gonna sell the other one. That 9.8 in a newsstand Was like a $550 slab.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:So I basically spent $90 To get them both graded and to buy both of them. I spent $90, got to keep one of them and then sell the other one, for I Ended up selling it. I did like somebody was interested in it on eBay and like we did like a. But you know they send offers and stuff like that. So it got negotiated down from that five, from like 550 to like I think 475, like I was comfortable doing it at 475. But either way, you subtract the eBay fees and stuff like that, I think everything when you factor in like shipping, ebay fees and stuff like that, it was a little over $400 for that book. So I ended up spending 90, making like a, you know, roughly like a $310 profit off of the transaction with the one book and then it's almost like I got the one that I myself for free yeah so to me that is the ideal scenario.
Speaker 3:That's that to me is the ideal book, where it's like you shell out the 20 bucks to buy the raw book, you shell out the 25 to get it graded. If you're able to Grate it by eye well enough in the comic shop, like you're almost like you're pre-screening it yourself. If you're able to do that Well enough to be able to spot some 9, 8 so that you pass over stuff that looks like this. And again, this is like fucking obvious, right, like there's so many white lines there. I wanted to bring in like kind of extreme examples here, but looking at something where it's like, yeah, I don't really see any visible defects, and even if I do, they can be pressed out. So I think in that regard, like that's that's the ideal thing. You want to get the raw book at a good value and then you want to get it pressed, or you want to press it and then get it Slabbed up and and get it graded and then hopefully that comes back high enough you can turn enough of a profit, so that, like what you're doing, the collecting is kind of like paying for itself, because I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there that like by comics, like crazy, and they have, like you know, like addictions to it, similar to people have like gambling addictions and stuff where it's like, oh my god, here's this deal, I have to get it, I have to get this book, or oh, I have to get this for my collection and the next thing you know, they're spending like thousands of dollars a month on comics, when they have like Families and mortgages and things like that. For me, I would much rather like Collect what I want to collect but also work on books at the same time so that I can sell them and Kind of have things like level out, like even if, even if, pressing and cleaning and and selling comics, if that Enables me to buy any of the collected editions and any like any comics that I want for my own collection, without me the expenditure of like my own bank account, I think that that's like that's okay.
Speaker 3:Now, if I keep doing this and I keep getting better books and older books and more expensive books, like who knows, there could be a pathway where, like, eventually, I'm like buying collections from people where it's like, okay, you have a collection, it's worth, pardon me, it's worth like thirty thousand dollars or something it's like.
Speaker 3:Well, most people when they're buying collections They'll give like 50 to 60 percent of the fair market value, because everything that you sell from the collection You're gonna have to pay 25 percent in taxes on.
Speaker 3:So basically, if you say to somebody okay, your collection is worth 30,000, I'll give you 15,000 for it, and then out of that collection you can sell what's in there you know for that 30,000, then you make the 15 back, then you pay on the taxes and any fees and stuff like that. So for every collection you buy, maybe you make a profit of like six to seven thousand dollars. And then if you're buying a couple collections a year, I think that's how, like a lot of these Dealers, even if they're just doing it on the side, they can make a little bit of like extra money throughout the year doing it, instead of just like Shelling out all their money to buy comics all the time and then it's like, all right, well, all this money is going out to buy comics and no money is coming in. So I think you just have to sort of skate the line a little bit and balance that.
Speaker 1:Well, you're like selling weed to buy yourself weed.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like that Well, you can't get high on your own supply.
Speaker 3:Exactly True but you can. I mean, I guess you can. Well, I don't know you're gonna read all of your own comics.
Speaker 3:Yes, you don't want to read them I think you can have like the, you know the, the, the dopamine that comes with like making purchases and stuff, maybe. Maybe some of that dopamine comes through like oh sweet, like I just sent out that book and you know it came back as a 9.6 and like, yeah, maybe like in a 9.8. It's like, well, shit, it would be like three hundred dollars more in a 9.8, but like a 9.6 might be still like a two hundred dollar book. Sometimes there is a big jump like that, like that web of spider-man number one newsstand that I was talking about earlier. In a direct it's it's a three hundred dollar slab, so it's like two hundred dollars more for the newsstand, just because it's so much more rare to find that in a 9.8. In fact, when I was selling mine at 550, there were only two other ones on eBay that were newsstand 9.8. One was selling for five and one a dude was selling for like 699 and it was just kind of like dude, nobody's gonna get that book at 700 bucks. Like you have to Like again, there's there's like ethics with this too, where you have it's like you want to make as much as you can to to fund the hobby, but at the same time you, I Don't know.
Speaker 3:There's something I read one time about like no matter what your business is, do not sacrifice your reputation For a short time, short term financial gain. And I think this that when dealing with this sort of thing it's this, it's the same idea like Don't go in there Just like, oh, I can like jack up the price on this one particular thing and like make a ton of money off of it, because, like I don't know, the community is kind of it's big but it's small, and I think like people Keep everybody kind of honest when it comes to sellers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So well reputation like I mean something yeah and it's just like yeah, there's always gonna be people that are doing it for money. But when you first started explaining, it sounds like you're doing it because you found something, like maybe with your OCD or whatever. Like Like you seem to really enjoy the process, so you found something that's fun, that you can also fund your hobby with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, like you guys you guys have known me long enough that, like what I'm talking about, something that I'm passionate about, I get hype.
Speaker 1:You know. So like you like sitting there going line by line and you're just like getting super involved and, yeah, nerding out about it, yeah, and it's like I'm Again.
Speaker 3:It like like I started off saying that like it's not anything that I've ever really experienced in my life, because I've always Anything that I've ever done, like when I was a kid and I was like drawing and painting and stuff like that, or like, as you know, a teenager and into adulthood, as a musician, like playing music and creating music and writing music, or even like Fucking around with my friends, like in the when we were in high school and just like make and making videos, like making movies and stuff like that, like everything was always creating from scratch, creating from scratch, creating from scratch.
Speaker 3:This is a whole different thing where it's like Okay, this thing was this like beautiful gem and over the years, things have like aged it, things have been like unkind to it and Some of those things through like again, basic science of like moisture and heat and things like that Can bring it back to its beauty without altering it, adding to it, doing anything to change the book. You're just bringing it, you're making it so that it presents as beautifully as it can, without Actually like adding anything new to the book. You're just Again it's like it's.
Speaker 2:You're pressing out defects if there's like a perfect hobby for you. Yeah, it's kind of nice. Would a Book like this that you have? That you said would not grade very well because there's so many Spine ticks and the it's missing the black ink and there's nothing you can do to get some of these things back right to it.
Speaker 2:You're going to the comic bookstore and you come across something like this, something that you want, but it only is in a State of this. Would you still grab it or are you now? I would pass on it, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like it's, I would definitely pass on it unless, like it, it's all. It all depends on the book too. Like if you, if you think about like a fantastic for number one or something from like 1961, you could find if, if you had a fantastic for number one that was in this condition, it would still be like crazy thousands of dollars. And then if you got it slabbed, it would be crazy thousands of dollars, even more than that, just because it's so historically significant. It's so rare there's, so it's. It's so difficult to find books of the Silver Age that are in good shape because Everybody's parents were throwing them away when they went off to Vietnam. So people went to the Vietnam War and it's like, oh, he's a man now, he doesn't eat comics. So they crumbled up there like amazing spider-man number one or you know the first appearance of dr Octopus. They just like crumbled up and throw it away and then and then so.
Speaker 3:So the scarcity builds value, whereas, like some of those like Because I know you're a comic book dude too, I'm sure you remember in the 90s with those like X-Men number ones, like when Jim Lee first took over, as like the X-Men artist, Okay though there's like that's like the most printed comic book ever, or maybe spawn number one is now I can't remember but like some of these books, it's like there are literally like Insane amounts of copies, so like they're not that valuable because it's like if you see it in one comic book shop, you'll see it another.
Speaker 2:That's like I can't remember I was talking about I can't remember I was talking on podcast about this or it's just with some friends of I have a Pokemon card. I have two of them, actually of mute to, but it was the card. They three of hundreds.
Speaker 2:No, actually, I actually only own three Pokemon cards and they're the three that are like these are gonna be worth money and Two of them are mute to. But they're the mute to that they gave out during the when the first Pokemon movie came out and, like 99 or whenever it was, you got, you got the movie and they Gave you a free Pokemon card and it was this mute to card and I was like, oh my god, I'm saving these because they're gonna be worth money someday. You know, exclusive mute to card. I Was an idiot. I didn't think that they were giving this out to the millions of other children seeing Pokemon at the same time.
Speaker 3:Dude, if you have, I would not be surprised because, again, this is not my wheelhouse, but I know, having, like you know, seen interviews and and different videos from like Comic shop owners and stuff talking about like the versatility of like you can't just be a comic shop. You have to deal with like magic cards, pokemon card, like all the, all the nerd columns have to be filled. I Can almost guarantee you that if you still have Pokemon cards that are in relatively good shape, there's probably a handful in there that are like worth some coin. I just don't know.
Speaker 2:I just don't, like I said, I only have three and there are two mute to's and there's one team rocket. Not a ghastly the wheezing, that's it that Aren't. I looked them up it was like the mute to's are worth like nine dollars each, which, in the grand scheme of things, is way above average for the amount of you know money worth for a Pokemon card.
Speaker 1:But they're not worth money, hmm, yeah it seems like there's two tiers of people that collect. There's like the people that are doing it for the grades and doing it for all that stuff. But you're also gonna find somebody that's like I don't. I have nostalgia about that comic and you have it. I don't care what shape it is like, I want that comic a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:And there's also like, from from what I understand and I haven't like experienced this too much, at least in this first year of doing this, but from what I understand there's like there are people who are very like Anti-slab, like people who are just like I want to read the comic and you guys that slab them your lame. And then there's people who are like die-hard slab people, who are like raw books. It's like it's crazy and there's and and again, I sort of agree with this second part you should not be charging raw book or, I'm sorry, slab prices for raw books, like the whole point of.
Speaker 3:There is a difference there is a difference, right and like going through the process of like cleaning it, pressing it, getting it graded, having it like again professionally graded, so that's like you have someone that is a grading professional, like giving you the definitive grade of the book.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like that should be more valuable than just the raw book and I think sometimes, like certain Outlets, the raw book prices are sort of out of control, like some of them. It's like like the one Hip comic is one of the like places where I'll like look at for like Like the raw auctions, like trying to see like books, like okay, this is starting at 99 cents, let me keep an eye on this and see where it gets to.
Speaker 3:it's like, oh, this first appearance Like I just picked up a first appearance of the white vision, like when vision has like the white suit instead of the the, the traditional, like green and yellow yeah so that book usually closes at auction for like 40 or 50 bucks like all the time, all the time, all the time and again, like over the year here my eye has gotten a lot better at, like, you know, prescreening and kind of like grading and stuff like that. So I'll zoom in on the photos and check everything out, front cover, back, covered, everything, and I'll look for various stuff and this one particular like Dealer that's on hip comic, I'd say I get, I participate in a lot of his auctions because his, because he tends to undergrade like he'll, he'll say that it's like this condition and then I get the book and I'm like, oh, that book is like perfect. I think he's sort of like is a conservative greater. So I yeah, I just happened to watch this auction for this book and the auction ended. I won the auction at like $20-some, whereas it's normally that raw book is like $40 or $50. So it's a good outlet to just kind of hey, if the book this is my limit, this is what I'm going to spend on it and if it gets to that $40 or $50, that's a little bit too much. I'll hold off. I can maybe get it later, but the fact that it's stuck around like $20, I was like, all right, I'm going to see if I can win this auction and I got it for like $22 or something like that.
Speaker 3:But the hip comic, like, since they have like my info and everything you know, they're sending me like emails and like, oh, here's this, this particular thing, that's my interest, you, based off your previous searches X, y and Z and I'll get, I'll get things that are like I think it's Marvel Premiere 28, the first appearance of Moon Knight, and it's like there's a 9.0 in a slab for like 300 bucks and then right underneath it is a raw book estimated 7.0 to 8.0. That's like somebody selling for 300 bucks like the exact same amount, and it's like dude, that's like I don't know. That's crazy to me. Even if the estimate was 9.0, the same as the slab grade, like, even if you're estimating that that's what it's about, it still shouldn't, it shouldn't be the equal price.
Speaker 1:You haven't done it yet. Somebody's got to do the work to get it there and then send it out.
Speaker 3:Exactly so I think, sometimes you just kind of have to be careful.
Speaker 3:And, again, despite all the information that I've shared with you guys on this today, this is still just the first year of me doing this.
Speaker 3:Like, there's still a ton that I'm probably going to learn over this next year and hopefully the year after, and everything like that.
Speaker 3:So, again, I one of the things, though, that I did notice is that, like you, you do kind of get a, you get an idea of certain books that you're looking at, often about an approximate grade and an approximate value, and then you start to get more attenuated to people who are charging too much, and then you just avoid them.
Speaker 3:And that's, again, another one of those reasons why, like, if you're going to be doing this, if you're going to be selling these, you definitely want to try to set your prices at an appropriate level. Or, if you know there's going to be negotiation right, like if you know somebody's going to send you an offer on eBay, or you know they're going to send you an offer on short box or something price it in a way where, like, you're comfortable doing that negotiating. So, like that web of Spider-Man that I was talking about before, I was comfortable selling that around 450 to 475, but I listed it at around 500 knowing that, like if somebody really wanted that book, if you're smart, you're going to ask the seller if they can drop the price a little bit. You know like.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I was. It doesn't like a Haggle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, and it's and I think so much of this, like this community is like that where it's like, hey, you have this listed for this price, like are you comfortable at this price? And then if they go, yeah, sure we could do it for that, or if they go, no, I'm holding off for that. Like one of my signature series books. Like somebody like reach out to me with like a huge low ball number, like I think it was one of the one of the Spider-Man's I had listed for like 300 bucks. He was like, yeah, he's like would you be cool at like 150? And I was like no, like I'm going to wait because he's like, yeah, he's like well, I've seen it before for this and this. And I was like, well, okay, that's cool, but like I'm going to hold off, I'm going to wait to get the full price that I'm asking for. It was awesome.
Speaker 3:I can't wait to next time we have you and talk to you in another year In another year and see, like I mean I'll talk to you before that, but when it's officially, you know on the airwaves, the next time to you know what's going on with comic books and how great you're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope the next time we talk you're like yeah, I just grabbed my first $30,000 collection.
Speaker 3:I don't think it will be that much, but I think it would be. It would be cool to start buying collections Like to the point that, like, if anyone listening knows anyone that is like you know, has a grandfather or an uncle or a dad or somebody who is looking to like sell some comics, they absolutely could reach out to me on the pumpkin bomb comics Instagram, because I don't have a Perfect plug.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah. If you're out there and someone you're related to has a ton of comics in the basement and you're like let's get the fuck rid of these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know what these are worth. Chris is your guy.
Speaker 2:Hit him up with pumpkin bomb. Comics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Pumpkin bomb comics on Instagram. Yeah, Pumpkin bomb comics after the. You know the weapon of choice of the green goblin and hobgoblin.
Speaker 2:I want to. You don't have to explain that to me.
Speaker 3:Oh, all right, Sorry, you can look at him. Yeah, that's where that comes from.
Speaker 1:Who is this guy? Planet boy, what?
Speaker 2:is it? I can't see what you're talking about the guy with the P on his chest?
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, so I'll give. I'll give you a hint. Stan Alpha Flight is a Canadian superhero team, so what do you think of when you think of Canada?
Speaker 1:French people and maple leaves.
Speaker 3:Okay, cool. And in terms of the maple leaves, or the maple leafs as some might say in the sporting world, what sport do the Toronto Maple Leafs play? Hockey, yeah. And what do you play hockey with? Oh, puck boy, his name is puck.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Did you know that? No, I didn't know who that guy was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's why he's. You know he's like that big, but yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a Canadian sock dude Fucking worst fucking colour.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Let's get out of here before we really start railing on Canada.
Speaker 1:All right, this was another episode of the Expressly podcast with.
Speaker 2:Kevin Stan. Thanks for coming out, Chris.
Speaker 1:This is awesome. Thank you again. Thanks for having me Every time. It's so good.
Speaker 2:Yep, see you.