Collectors who wish to collect a  20 year old series in 9.6 and 9.8 are finding that dealers are simply offering #1 when they can and not much else. For example, if a collector wished to collect  Crisis on Infinite Earths, they might find key issues 7 and 8 readily available however the others just don't seem to magically appear. In many instances a collector could send in his own collection to be certified and hope for the ultra grades.

Searching eBay and dealers shelves for the missing issues isn't going to work in most instances. Dealers tend to go for the easy sale and offer the items that have a wide appeal. Few customers are interested in collecting complete runs of CGC comics as they are expensive and cannot be easily read.

However, for collectors who wish to collect a run of comics can do so by special ordering here. Visit our special order page which is informal and send in your request. No up front moneys are required and the price is set in our price list page.  Special orders are now over 50% of our entire business and if trends continue, it will eventually be 90% of our activity. This means that most customers who collect 20 year old books in 9.8 will either special order or search endlessly on eBay for books that will never appear.

Expect fewer thinly traded books to be offered at eBay. We'll  be concentrating on working with serious collectors completing their collections.

We will offer X-Men and Amazing Spider-man runs to collectors from our inventory of certified comics. There are many collectors of these issues and special orders , in many instances will not be necessary. However, if a collector cannot find a particular issue in the marketplace, that person could simply bring it to our attention and we'd be sure to place it into our pipeline.    

STARTER COLLECTION?

 We do offer starter collection offerings for many 70's and 80's titles. For example BATTLE STAR GALACTICA  has many faithful followers who would like all 23 issues published in 1979. We offer 1-10 from our inventory and can offer the rest of the set to anyone who would take the time to special order these. What are the odds of finding issues 11-23 at eBay? Well... about zilch. A quick look at the CGC data base will indicate that these are nearly non-existent and most that are there clock in at 9.2 or so.  In fact we know that nearly every B.G. in the data base came from  our inventory.  

GETT'N SERIOUS

When it's time to get serious with your collection and complete those runs, plan to drop us a note about your plans and we'll begin working for you filling the gaps. Expect long 3-5 month waiting periods and fair prices. We'll always quote you fair prices before you make any decision and work with a time plan that will fit your budget too. For example, if you were ordering 11-23 BG , you might want 3-5 issues at a time. 

It's likely we will ask you to make some purchases from our inventory before we begin the pipeline with your issues, simply because we don't want to be left holding the bag when items arrive. Your upfront purchases are an indication that you plan to follow through when the ordered comics arrive. We charge no pre-order fees , so we are really trusting our customers to make the payments and take delivery when the special orders arrive.

Only recently  have we been willing to take orders for the 9.8 grades. We are now fairly experienced in obtaining the ultra grades and can pretty much obtain 9.8 for most anything in our raw inventory. It's not an easy task to obtain this grade as it's likely we will submit several issues in your behalf in order to get the 9.8. We pay all kinds of special fees  and work closely with CGC in order to secure comics for our customers.

PRICES ON CERTIFIED COMICS

Simply go to BicComix.com and find the CGC price lists. You will find a general list , an  Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men  list. Grades for 9.4- 9.8 can be found quickly and sometimes 9.9 prices. These prices change all the time, however you'll see that most of the prices are fair. A * indicates that the price is based upon an actual sale.

Prices you find are always going to be very close to price RJ will quote you. Simply write or call with a list of comics you want and a firm price will be quoted to you. You always have a choice of grades too. If you only want a 9.8, for example, your request is entered as such.

You'll get advice on various issues as some are "problem books" and often there is a reason why 9.8 is not in the CGC data base. Most often it is a printer's problem and entire runs contain a defect. RJ will report that info to you and you can make decisions accordingly.

IS IT ON STOCK?

Look over the MODERN COMICS section of web site to see if your comic is listed. If you find it, that means it is a potential CGC grade item and could be ordered immediately. If you don't find it listed, it could still be on stock as not every comic we have is listed. We'll do a search and if we find it , we will begin working  with you to get an ultra grade.

 If we do not have it, we'll contact our warehouse suppliers who may come up with it for us. This often takes  a  week or more, however we feel it is worth the effort. Often we will come up empty handed. Last resort is for the customer to secure a comic and send it to us for evaluation and submission.     

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRICE LIST
X-MEN PRICE LIST
GENERAL PRICE LIST CGC

 Special Note

Many collectors are responding and asking for 90's comics which have guide values of $2-5. IF we have the issues on stock expect to pay around 9.6 $29.95  ....   9.8 $39.95.

Upgrade your Collection to MINT with PGX SPECIAL ORDER SERVICE

BIC will be submitting more and more books to PGX. This company is working hard to get out the product and everything is first rate. We encourage everyone to try at least one book and then we would expect our customers to be hooked.

Rather than settle for 9.8 grades for mint books, RJ wants to ask everyone who would like to own 9.9/10 mint books to send a request for a free quote for 1-10 comics. ( More than that will overwhelm us).  Books published 1990 to present will be priced $69.95/ $99.95 for many. Mint grades before 1990 are very rare, however BIC has the raw stock from this time period to obtain 9.9 grades. DC comics generally do better than Marvel. See Best of Best page, and last week's bulletin to get an idea of what is possible in obtaining the rare 9.9 grade. The 10.0 is most often reserved for the 1990 to present comics with superior grade printing. Chromium books, and Graphic Novels perform well.

   IF you take time to send a want list of 10 comics that we list as being on stock, it's likely we would have 0-2 that may be mint and we would take your order from that point. Anticipate that most selections will come up empty.

From this point, we will be submitting books that look like mint candidates to PGX with MINT 9.9 pre-sort minimum.

When you send a 9.9-10.0 wish list, we will write back and advise which ones may be MINT candidates, quote a price for each and then send off your Special Order to PGX. There is never any guarantee that comics will return with the anticipated grades. Comics before 1990 should anticipate 9.9 as the best grade and the same for non-chrome, non-ultra print comics. As with all our Special Orders, you pay nothing until the comic arrives with the 9.9-10 grade and is ready for delivery to you.

SEE A TREND? MAKE A COMMENT. GOT AN OPINION?  Please write and add to our Forum.

 SEND MAIL OR SPECIAL ORDER INQUIRY TO PAT AT A-1 COMICS    INQUIRY ONLY: No obligation

March 2003 Report :Updated '04

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Here's a letter from David who was our first customer for the service.