Calling All Cerebus Collectors!

Hello Dave,

10-4.

Not to beat a dead bag, but--

My suggestion on the heat-seal bag is this--Marquis (or their bindery) will most likely have access to a broad range of heat-seal products and size, so it's possible (I can ask them now if you'd like) that they could do it at any trim size at all. Because the heat-seal bags are also heat-shrink bags, so the fit isn't an issue. They just put it in whatever" one-size up is, with card, and stick it in the heat shrink whatever-it-is, and then it's done.

That's my understanding of it, anyway. I've never used or seen the industrial versions of this, only the hand-held, one-at-a-time versions. 

Once I hear back from you (a quick "NO!!! Is great :) ) I win forward your fax to Sandeep and Alfonso.

Best,
Sean

Hi Sean!

The problem with heat-seal in any form is “collector psychopathology”. If you're selling a book in a plastic bag with an autographed Christmas card the most psychotic collectors (which is who you are selling to, your primary market) will use the fact that they can't have the whole thing in pristine mint as an excuse not to buy it. It's in pristine mint if all three elements, the book, the bag, and the card, can be retained in perfect condition. If the bag is heat-sealed you have to “de-mint” it (in fact, actively destroy it yourself) in order to access the book. And if you leave the book and card in the heat-sealed plastic (psychotic collectors know from experience) the bag will shrink over time, de-minting the book and the card.

That's a later issue: what do you use to seal the bag? Unless it's resealable—and designated as such, resealable in such a way that the sticker or whatever it is can be unsealed and resealed as many times as you want without losing its own pristine mint quality then you have the same problem: a psychotic collector won't buy something that can't be unsealed and resealed repeatedly without damaging the seal. And they're going to err, mentally, on the side of “it doesn't look as if it can be resealed” (i.e. because of bad experiences with permanent seals that they HOPED were resealable and proved not to be: if they see a seal on a package they anticipate an unhappy experience and use it as an excuse not to buy whatever it is).

Alfonso has the Golden Age bag marked as resealable but I'm not seeing it (I'm not a psychotic collector myself but I do understand their psychology).

This is why I'm starting on this in April and trying to go one step at a time. I'm guessing that every step of the way I'm going to have to explain psychotic collectors and why we nave to do things my way. If the Christmas card fits snugly into the bottom of the bag WHERE THE PSYCHOTIC COLLECTOR SAW IT WHEN HE BOUGHT IT and can be put there smoothly and easily and the bag resealed into the same state it was when the psychotic collector unsealed it, then the psychotic collector will have had a happy experience with our package and the next time that he sees a CIH? collection with an autographed card in it, he will know that it's possible to keep it in pristine mint condition and will purchase it with confidence.

If that doesn't happen: if we force him to destroy or damage his pristine mint package in any way, he will have an unhappy experience with our package and probably won't purchase any future book-and-card combo if he sees them in a shop. OR will at least have a persuasive argument for himself not to do so.

And fit's not just collectors, this holds true for speculators as well. They will be more apt to buy 3 if they know it's going to stay in pristine mint condition which they will know won't be the case if the plastic bag is heat-sealed OR sealed in such a way that it can't stay in pristine mint condition.

You might want to post this to AMOC and see if we can't get verification from psychotic collectors that that's the case...

Dave