lou_fine

The answer should be no, but I think the true answer is “sometimes”. There are sellers that seem to have assigned a guide multiplier number for their books, and when the guide value goes up, so does their price. If a book regularly goes for triple guide, and the guide base value goes up, so does the sellers price until it’s triple the new guide value. Great minds think alike as that's it exactly, as the guide valuation is used as the base to determine the multiplier to the condition guide value. I tend to joke that I like to buy at a discount to condition guide value and sell at a multiple to condition guide value. I guess I am actually showing my age here because it actually was possible to buy books at discounts to guide back in the old days, but pretty much everything GA tends to sell at multiples to condition guide values nowadays. Of course, this multiplier is different for indiviaul books, but if you go back into previous auction results, tend to have a pattern of consistency to it and gives you some basis to see if you are getting a good deal or overbidding on a particular book. Plus you can also see the trajectory or trend of a book's multiple over time. Well, at least that's my take when it comes to the guide valuations, although I am sure that everybody here has their own use or non-use for it.

Can somebody please explain how Detective 225 got into the Overstreet's Top 100 GA Chart tied for 80th position when I thought it used to be considered to be the start of the SA back in the day along with Showcase 4?

Ahhhh...............that means the perfect sweet spot for all the lucky owners of Chamer of Chills 19 since there's still ample safety margin built into the current Overstreet $40K top of guide valuation. In other words, also the perfect sweet spot for the Overstreet team as there's many years of pending valuation increases set to put in place and even some left over to show a nice longer term increasing trend over time, even during some potential down periods. Perfect case in point being Amazing Fantasy 15 which still managed to show a strong 18% valuation increase to $650K in 9.2 NM- top of guide, even though we all know that it was really a down year for AF 15 in the real marketplace. Now, you certainly wouldn't want to be caught in the much dreaded sour spot of holding books like Tomb of Dracula 10 or Werewolf By Night 32 with substantial enough real world declines below Guide that even Overstreet had to drop their valuations dropped by 20% and 29% respectively this year, after raising them by a rather staggering 203% and 169% respectively in last year's edition of the guide which I guess raised their safety net to an unsustainable level given the post Covid/crypto collectibles crash. Seriously though, I do own a nice copy of TOD 10 myself along with a recently discovered mid-grade copy of WWBN 32 which I never even realized I had in my collection. Being a longer term collector though, drops like this don't really tend to bother me since I brought books like these (eg. TOD 50 and WWBN 33 being the only other issues I owned in these 2 titlles for some odd reason ) at much lower price points decades ago.

The beautiful angel in the room though...........how many of these books would actually sell for these listed top of Overstreet guide valuations if they are in accurately graded true 9.2 certified graded and slabbed condition?

Hard to tell from the slight mix-up they have in last year's rankings, but I believe this is the single only new entrant into Overstreet's Top 100 for this year's guide, with an big bump up of exactly 100% to slot itself into a tie for the #96 position on the chart.

Well, if you go by Bob's own personal "signed" market reports for the past decade plus, I would definitely tend to agree with you here. Perfect case in point with this year's edition limited to only one introductory paragraph with some 20 odd words extending thanks to his advisores before he launches into 5 pages of cut and paste excerpts from some of his advisors' market reports. He then closes it off with his obligatory disqualifier paragraph that the advsors' reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the Overstreet Guide or anybody related to it. All I can say is definitely not as interesting to read as his more personal and insightful takes on the marketplace which he used to give decades ago, but no longer nowadays. Skimmed through it very very quickly and landed on the last excerpt from CC's Rob Reynolds which was kind of apropos as he summarized it rather nicely by simply stating that "the 2022 collectibles market raged in like a lion and left like a lamb".

Now, that's definitely rather underhanded and clearly gives a bad name to all of the comic book dealers in this hobby as this edition was printed way back in 1981 or thereabouts. At least you could have gone with something more current like this one here since it was published much more recently back in only 2021: Especially since it's got prices listed right up to the the Present as clearly indicated right on its cover. Of course, you might have used that guide to grabbed the 9th most valuable comic book at the time (i.e. Four Color 10 with the first Flash Gordon) in Good condition at a steal of a price for only $85, only to see it zoomed all the way to a whopping $93 in last year's edition of the guide some 53 years later. Especially when compared to the 9th most valuable comic book listed in this year's edition of the guide (i.e. Detective Comics 31) with a Good valuation of only $45,500 as compared to the $40 it was valued at in the first Guide. For the life of me and even with my superior mathematical skills, I just can't figure out which book out of these two had the better return in the end.

Like I've said before, I need the guide to determine the discount to condition guide that I am willing to pay when I buy a book. Of course, I also need the guide to determine the multiple to condition guide that I am willing to let a book go for when it comes time to sell. What more can you ask for when the guide valuations can be used to serve two opposing purposes at the same time.

I was talking last week to the owner of the LCS and he said the only version he was ordering this year was the mainstream Avengers cover.

If it's been years since your last one, rather shockingly nice from a strict visual POV last year since everything's in full color now instead of B&W.

The only problem being that although he put in huge valuation increases to reflect the Covid/crypto crazy price increases that took place in 2020 and 2021, the market for some of the SA books and readily available so-called BA and CA keys did a complete 180 degree price reversal to the poiint that some of them even dropped by more than half of their 2021 marketplace prices. To the point that the 2022 Guide is now substantially higher than the current marketplace prices on some of these more readily available books which makes me wonder how Overstreet is going to reflect this in the new guide? Especially since we all know how much he absolutely hates to put price decreases in his guide. Yep, it looks like Overstreet clearly picked the wrong year to go all out with some of his huge double and even triple digit percentage valuation increases in his guide last year.

Yeah! Unless he just wanted them slabbed to keep for himself and something happened, I don't get it either. Tot tell you the honest truth, doesn't this actually apply to the large majority of the books sent into CCS/CGC for pressing and grading?

Well, from the just completed Heritage Sunday Auction, I imagine there's absolutely zero love for the Fangoria mags as they got zero bids for Fangoria 1 - 10, without a single one of them selling: https://comics.ha.com/itm/magazines/horror/fangoria-1-incomplete-o-quinn-studios-1979-cgc-qualified-fn-vf-70-white-pages/a/122329-15243.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 I imagine the absence of the poster which affected the text had a lot to do with it, but still a big loss for the consignor who wasted both their time and mioney to have them all graded and slabbed.

Hate to say it, but this if I remember correctly, this is pretty much what my Avengers 1 looks like from a condition grade point of view. Well okay, probably a tad better than this, especially with resepct to the back cover. Was thinking of turfing it into the recycle bin years ago, but figure it would always be a good read considering it was a first issue. Not sure what it would go for and highly doubt it would be worth sending in to be graded and slabbed given the POS condition it's in plus the cost would be exponentially higher than what I had paid for the book in the first place.

Not the least bit surprising and actually totally expected since those early pre-hero New Comics and then some of the follow-up New Adventure issues are just so super tough to come across, as clearly evident by the last few books needed in your quest to complete your DC Collection.

From their auction results, I always thought CL's customer base was really geared more towards highest graded copies of BA & CA books.

True, but then it also costs more trying to get a key DC super hero book than a key Timely super-hero book from the late 30's and early 40's.

This would be incorrect as all of the REAL key DC issues cames out in the late 30's.

THEY are clearly watching you as that took less than 2 minutes.

Sadly, I cannot answer your question here or I will be sent to the CGC sin bin for another extended period of time to once again cleanse my mind of such aberrant thoughts.

No, this is the last MORE FUN COMICS in my Collection...I do have #121. I was lucky enough to find a beater copy (probably G/VG) of the supposedly scarce More Fun 127 in a box at the local comic con last year and the dealer dropped the price down to the equivalent of roughly $105 USD for me to buy it.

All I will say is that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I came into possession of either the Edgar Church Collection or this Million Book Monstronsity, but for completely different reasons. Makes me wonder if the comic book Gods are simply giving Jeff his just dues with all this MA drek after inflicting all of us with his YouTube comic book hyped videos during the Covid/crypto comic book runup time period.

As I already stated, it's still a work in progress plus you must have both patience and a sense of humor to get maximum fun and enjoyment from these boards here.

I very much highly doubt that it was the infusion of only a mere 5,000 Promise books that caused the increased TAT's during that 2021 time period. I believe the main culprit there was due to the Covid lockdowns with everybody stuck at home and the government throwing free money at them which resulted in the explosion of prices for what were otherwise common books that everybody was suddenly finding in their closets and shipping off to CCS and CGC to press and grade in anticipation of their big big payoff. Made even further worse by the pre-announcement of upcoming price increases from both CCS and CGC for their services which served only to entice potential submittors to then swamped the CCS/CGC long term storage warehouse facilities with even more virtually "worthless" drek for them to press and slab.

Just in time for the slow rise of the younger, smarter, and more sophisticasted generation of comic book doctors who are now in subtle, but virtual full control of the certified comic book marketplace nowadays. Done so subltely over time without us even realizing it, or maybe we do, as there are now even apparently year long waits for their services.