lou_fine

Don't really see too much strange here, as in a lot of cases, aren't BIN prices on eBay auctions also often higher than the true open bidding auction results on eBay.

So strange! And the 230 on the 9.8 also strange. Not really that strange at all since the book was already right up there at pretty much current market value prior to auction end. Definitely boring though and would have been a lot more fun pre-auction end bids were a bit lower and the extended bidding went for at least a few more bidding time periods. Nothing that we haven't seen take place with some of these books on all 3 of the major auction platforms though as it can be a bit of a snoozer when this happens. Not a real surprise though when you are talking about a book with a relatively high population count relative to this current market value where I am sure that the number of sellers willing to sell at this price point is most likely higher than the long term collector (i.e. excluding short term speculator) demand at the current price point for this book.

Well sadly, since we are talking about most unaffordable cities relative to average income, it would be Vancouver.

What city is this ?? -J. Just Googled it and found the following 2 links which have basically the same rankings: https://www.geographyrealm.com/these-cities-are-the-most-unaffordable-places-to-buy-a-house-in-the-world/ https://www.lendi.com.au/inspire/property/the-most-and-least-affordable-cities-for-housing-around-the-world/ Not sure about the second Australian sourced link unless you are including the Greater Metropolitan area and not just the city itself, since lot value alone on the poorer East side of the city would run you up to their average of $1.4M, let alone needing to factor in the much more expensive West side of the city. Not sure about the quality of life there, but Pittsburg sounds like a much nicer city to live in from strictly a housing affordability point of view.

Well, sounds as though you are lucky compared to my kids then who have practically no hope of finding a house for themselves in the city. Especially when you are looking at something like close to $2M for a dump on the East side of the city and probably closer to $5M for one on the West side of the city. Heck it costs even well over $1M for one way out in the boonies that takes you more than a hour to get into the city. Definitely nothing to boast about when you have the second most unaffordable city in the world relative to average income, after HK.

Well, all I can say is that the CCG ownership must absolutely love this game because they are the ones making the guaranteed locked in money by the time you get your book pressed and graded. Especially since you would be the one left on your hands and knees praying that it comes back at least in CGC 9.6 or hope against hope in CGC 9.8 so that you can make seemingly pennies on the dollar once you factor in your original purchase cost of the book along with any ancillary charges like shipping plus your own time and labor. May have just been a creative use of words to introduce the topic. That being said, December 9.8 Direct sales are averaging $200 and one just sold yesterday on ebay for $250. Considering you can buy 9.8 potential raws for $25-30, seems like a nice little flip to me. Are these your typical BIN sales (as opposed to true auction format sales) where you are competing with hundreds of other flippers who are trying to unload their equivalent graded copies at these same GPA price points for months on end. Makes me wonder what it looks like if GPA also kept track of the number of copies that's actually listed for these BIN price points, but don't actually sell until you can find that one lucky sucker buyer to click onto your book. Well, hopefully, all of them came back in for you at a money winning CGC 9.8 also, as opposed to a money losing CGC 9.4 or hopefully breakeven CGC 9.6 for all that time and work.

Too much reading and a lot simpler just to listen to Vinnie's YouTube video that's attached to the bottom of the auction listing here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/928850

That all depends on if they expect you to pay Shouldn't you be working on the assumption that some other "fool" is going to toss in a higher bid on top of yours, so no worries about paying. Makes it a lot more fun and interesting if you are sitting there with the high bid and ready to pee your pants hoping against hope for somebody else to come in and beat it.

Yes indeed, as 2 more bids will put this book into new record setting territory. So, who's up for it and happy and willing to toss their hat into the ring by throwing in a bid here?

Yeah, is this going to be the big cool down from the $15K or so another CGC 9.8 graded copy had sold for earlier or was it the other $25K sale or thereabouts that a signed copy had sold for?

My thoughts exactly..........looks like some people have all the luck in the world as it's certainly a lot better to get an unique slabbed book like this here, as opposed to just another common as dirt 10,000+ similarly looking 9.8 graded and slabbed virtually worthless copies.

The cost was high - walkthrough, pressing, certified mail and insurance.....serious primed to cash it in for a huge house downpayment B-) Well, if it was both pressing and then grading which you had to pay for, then it definitely cost you way more than what the entire print run for the first edition of TMNT 1 would have cost you when the book first came out back in 1984. Looks like you must live in an affordable part of the country if you can cash this in for a huge house down payment because where I live it would probably be good enough only for a down payment on the down payment for a house.

Would that also include all of those now worthless B&W comics from the late 80's along with all of those even less than worthless Wizard hyped toxic books from both Image and Valiant from the early 90's?

Hey Clark; Since these two auctions for the exact same book in equuivalent grade are pratically running right on top of one another, you probably should give it a shot anyways. Especially since the high bidder will not be bidding on this go round, so it probably really comes down to how high the third bidder in line was willing to go last week, which in theory should be lower than the 17.5X OPG condition guide value.

Buy another one at the bottom. They're for sale every day. Although it's rather common to have equities make the full round trip when prices shoot up parabolically, it would appear that this doesn't seem to happen in the case of comic books as they seem to stop off somewhere along the way back, instead of doing the full return round trip.

So, what changes are they going to be making that's going to make sellers so much more willing to pay their taxes next year, when they don't necessarily pay them this year? I personally think the reason that more high end quality books are coming into the marketplace is due to potential sellers seeing new buyers entering into the marketplace and paying what appears to be irrational crypto like money for books that are actually not that hard to come by.

Well, how apropo and timely for you then, as I was just scrolling through the Wednesday offerings in CC's Event Auction for this coming week and noticed the following: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/919666 Looks like this copy here is possibly still within your price range (for now at least), as it is sitting at just an even $4K or about only 9X its condition guide value, as compared to the equivalent graded copy that sold a few days ago for some 17.5X condition guide.

I remember doing that with Nvidia back in the day when I brought it for something like $22, only to see it sink back down below the teens for the longest while. Decided to cash out out my portion when it finally got back up into the $20's some years later. Told my better half that she should take some off the table by selling half of hers when it shot up to something like $48 a few months after that. She grumbled and complained and said why in the world would she want to pay transactions fees twice when she need only pay it once. Of course, we ended up owing zero shares of Nvidia as a result of her goal and desire to save the $9.99 transaction fee and now as we all know, Nvidia is sitting at something like over $1,200 on a pre-split basis and considered to be one of the top technology stocks to own going forward.

Yes indeed, as isn't this what happened with the Alfred Pennyworth books and the owner was extremely fortunate to recover them all in the end. Sounds as though this was the primary reason why he ended up putting them into the auction marketplace through Heritage after that fiasco. Hopefully, Richard is also able to recover his stolen books, even though they clearly aren't in the same caliber as the Pennyworth books as Richard was astute enough to have his more valuable books kept somewhere off-site or in a more secured vault.

Why, since it's considered to be a must have for X-Men collectors as it's the first appearance of the New X-Men and a key BA book? I still remembered spending a long time passing on copies until I finally found a true minty fresh copy for my own personal collection back in the day. But sadly, can't seem to find it anywhere now and have absolutely no idea where it would be.

If you are referring to the multi-epsiodes Dominion Wars sage on DS9, you are definitely bang on as the first thing that crossed my mind when I watched those episodes was a big budget dollar B5. Especially since B5 was always well known to run on a low dollar budget per episode, as it definitely didn't have the same big studio production money behind it which the Trek shows did. Really didn't care much for the characters in DS9, but probably need to rewatch the Dominion Wars saga as that is definitely one of the Trek highlights and probably right up there with the Borg Best of Both Worlds espisodes in The Next Generation. Yes, the storylines and plot for B5 was more than any true si-fi fan could expect with the introduction of the Shadows and their millenium long war and the existence of the Vorlons and the First Ones which hearkened back to the beginning of the universe. Cancellation threats definitely had an impact on the series near the end as I felt that Season 5 was the worst of the run as they had to put everything into the final episode of Season 4 in expectation that there would not be a Season 5. Yes, sad to see Commander Sinclair leave at the end of Season 1 due to continuing health issues, but JMS's wife wrote an absolutely amazing book (To Dream in the City of Sorrows) on what happened to him after he left B5 at the end of Season One and before his critical cameo returns in both Seasons 2 & 3, and is considered to be canon and a must read to the extended B5 storyline in their war with the Shadows.

Well, if you are speaking about GSXM 1 in your example here, then I would have to say that it has also soften in the uber high grade copies. Looks like it peak out for CGC 9.8 graded copies in the spring and summer with sales in the $60K's and one for $72K in June, which was then followed by an easing in sales with a very short pit stop in the $50's before settling down into the $40K's, and now looks headed even further down into the high $30K's. Still, no real complaints for the long term holders of this book as it was selling in only the teens back a short year ago for a CGC 9.8 copy, and no doubt the huge huge supply of this book in uber HG condition is having a dampening effect on prices up here. On the other hand, it looks like X-Men 94 is still firing on all cylinders and continuing to run in overdrive as evident by the bidding on this copy in the current CC Event Auction: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/935594 Already at $62,212 with still another 5+ days to go and looks destined to pass the record $63K mark that HA was able to get for this book in CGC 9.8 back earlier in the Spring of this year. Only a short matter of time, but any preliminary guesses from the boardies here as to where this copy will finish up at by the time it's all said and done in a few short days from now.

I would also tend to agree with you here and as a result, would not even consider ever consigning any of my books to an auction house that limits bidding in this format. Although it probably works for Goldin as their bidders are probably used to it, I believe the main MO for the large majority of comic book bidders is to watch from the sidelines and at most to place some tracking bids before coming in at the end to place their serious money bids depending upon where the bids are at that point in the auction.

Yep, sad to say..............but I also expect this is pretty much how things are going to work out longer term for these "common as dirt" books. Another perfect example would be Ultimate Fallout 4, as I certainly don't expect buyers to continue paying out over $30K longer term for this so-called variant edition when there are already hundreds of copies out there in equivalent top of gradecondition. Especially when there are possibly hundreds more to be slabbed at this same top of grade level once CGC digs their way out of that dump of books they've already got piled high to the ceiling in their now expanded 100,000+ square foot storage holding facility. I guess it's really a case of to each, their own. Being a longer term collector though, I am definitely less interested in books that are about trying to time the market, as opposed to being much more interested in books that's more about spending time in the market.

Well, that's probably because it's listed on their much less travelled Exchange where a lot of potential bidders don't even bother to venture into. If they want it to sell for top dollar, probably better to put it in a Featured Auction where there would be a lot more deep pocketed eyeballs lokking at the book.