Danno616

On 3/2/2024 at 3:41 PM, WOLVERINE335 said:

For example, if I buy or sell a CGC book at a convention, can I go home and input that data into GPA?  I don't mean, update my personal collection on their website... I mean, indicate the date, and the serial number of the comic, and the sale price, so that they update their data for all to see?

 No. GPA doesn't take sales data from individual subscribers.
 

On 3/2/2024 at 3:41 PM, WOLVERINE335 said:

The reason I'm asking is because I wonder about some of the sales data I see there.  Some can be confirmed by direct link (Heritage and ComicConnect, for example); some can be found from eBay past sales (albeit without a direct link).  But other books listed as having been sold at such and such price, be it way higher than expected -or way lower than expected- can't be confirmed anywhere.  Which leads me to wonder if it's possible some people are gaming the most recent sales data by inputting their own sales.

GPA receives sales data from at least 10 seller/auction sites, most of which don't link to the sale. One not listed on their site that I know provides sales data is Collectors Comics.
 

On 3/2/2024 at 3:41 PM, WOLVERINE335 said:

I wish ComicLink would include their data.  And I wish all the data that was included had a direct link.  Because sometimes a book seems off, but then you see the particular copy and understand why it went for way less.

On one hand, Comic Link providing sales data would result in a more accurate snapshot of FMV. On the other hand, FMV of many books likely would be much lower than they are now. At least that's what I've gleaned tracking many books in CL auctions over the last few years.

I'm guessing that a majority of the sales listings that don't have links are coming from eBay. If that's accurate, with a little effort, then you should be able to track down at least the recent sales or those within the last year by searching through eBay's past auction listings. I've done so a number of times.

On 2/29/2024 at 1:08 PM, SAMHILL said:

I am looking for suggestions. How to proceed – do I forgo the grading and auction the collection? Do I auction individually or by lot? Any suggestions would be helpful.

I can only speak to my situation, which was similar, and what was most important to me in selling my collection of 10,000+ raws (~80-90% of which were original owner starting in 1973), nearly a full run of Wizard magazines and specials, trades, and other assorted comic book-related magazines. For me, I wanted above all convenience, as little stress and hassle as possible, have the buyer pick up the collection, and then do all the work to sell it for me. Though a number of the books were slab candidates, going through the process of getting them graded (and pressed) would have only prolonged everything and added a cost.

Fortunately, I live in a heavily-populated area, so I had a few choices of local auction houses and a number of "known" comic buyers in adjacent states who often purchase collections. I opted to go with one of the auction houses mainly because it didn't require me to grade and assess the value to come up with figure and then likely have to haggle over the price. All I had to do was contact the auction house, set up a time for a pickup (which was an added fee but relatively cheap and well worth it), move the boxes from the spare bedroom to the living room, and then watch the guys picking up the collection carry the boxes out the door.

Three months after the pickup, I received a notification that the collection would in an auction starting in a few days, which was 2-4 months earlier than they had estimated they would be auctioned off. They provided a link to the auction and the range of lots that corresponded with my books, and I tracked the lots through the end of the auction. Ninety days after the auction, I received a check from the sale minus their fees, which was a large cut, naturally. Overall, the entire process went better than I would have imagined.

On 7/26/2023 at 10:55 PM, Beyonder123 said:

Fantastic thread. One of the most compelling I've read in a while. I think the principal problem here is an inability to agree on a definition for what constitutes a "Newsstand Edition" and a "Direct Edition". This should be a relatively easy problem to solve when you just list out all the different places of distribution and their correlating covers. 

Places comics were distributed:

By subscription - direct

I had subscriptions through Marvel to Avengers, Rom, Alpha Flight, Marvel Two-in-One, and Thing circa 1980 through the mid-80s, and all of them were newsstands with the barcode.

On 3/19/2023 at 11:01 AM, drbanner said:

One advantage of placing tracking bids vs. using a watch feature on ComicLink is that once you place a bid on a book, you have a permanent record of that sale. Otherwise, you can't look up previous auction results...just like on ebay, ComicConnect, and most auction sites (Heritage being the exception).

I doubt tracking bids affect the final sales price of very many books at all, they have so many books and such a deep bench of bidders that the effect is likely negligible.

I have 262 lots dating back to 2021 still available for viewing on my Comic Connect watch list. I only bid on a few of those lots.

I regularly track 150+ books across at least six different auction platforms, more than half of which do weekly auctions. Watch lists not only allow me to easily and quickly create a list of those lots I'm tracking, but they provide a quick lookup of the list that I can scroll through quickly and track the bidding, how much time is left, and possibly bid. With so many auctions lots that I track, I'm not going to put in tracking bids on lots that I likely don't want to bid on or that I may be undecided about.

With the volume of lots in Comic Link auctions and with no watch list option, to track all the lots that I normally track, I have to create browser folders and bookmark every lot. Then, when I want to go back to look up a lot, which I do a lot over CL's three-week auctions, I have go into a folder and double-click the bookmark for the lot. I have to do this for every single lot. Adding to the adventure is the default bookmark name is always "Comic Link :: The Online Vintage Comic Book and Comic Art Auction and Exchange" and not the book name and issue, like you get when you bookmark a lot on a My Comic Shop or Comic Connect auction. A watch list would make my tracking more efficient and a lot less time consuming.

On 3/17/2023 at 3:31 PM, dikran said:

ComicLink would be so much better if they had a watchlist option... 

Of all the things I don't understand in the universe we live in, Comic Link not having a watch list is easily in my top 3.

On 3/4/2023 at 4:58 PM, Primetime said:

Feb 1980 - FF 218 was the first Marvel I can recall selecting off the spinner rack at my local 7-Eleven. This is my original copy which, oddly, is a direct copy. I did buy it at 7-Eleven which means it should have been a newsstand copy with a barcode. I asked Steve Geppi for his explanation since the direct market was introduced in 1979 and he said it was still possible back then for retailers to buy direct (larger discount but no returns) or newsstand (some discount but able to return top 1/3 of cover for a credit on the next order). The FF218 could also have been left over unsold stock from another 7-Eleven or retailer that was resold to the new retailer. 
 

I can recall being attracted to Spidey and the busy cover that determined my selection. I also had the opportunity to purchase one of the best OA pages from this book a few years ago. I love the Sandman/Electro last panel with interior pencils by John Byrne and inks by Joe Sinnott. 

I would've been jealous of you back in 1980 for having that issue. I had the first part of the story that was published in Spectacular Spider-Man, but I missed the FF issue with the second part when it came out. I didn't live anywhere near a comic book shop, which would've been a foreign concept anyway since I didn't know they existed then, so if I ever missed a comic when released, I was out of luck. Didn't get to read this issue until I was able to buy it at the first comic con (another foreign concept at that time) I ever attended in 1985.

On 3/2/2023 at 11:13 AM, Gonzimodo said:

My grandma bought us some old Disney stuff (Beagle Boys and Chip & Dale) when I was little, but I think she kept them at her house, and they finally disappeared at some point.  My brother had Star Wars 1-6 and Battlestar Galactica 1-3, but he never got into comics more than that.

The first comic I actually bought was GI Joe #7.  I still have it, and it's a beater, but it holds a special place in my heart.  

 

It's ironic that you mentioned your grandma and posted GI Joe 7. Every Christmas Eve, I always got a stack of comics from my grandma. GI Joe 7 (newsstand) was in the stack that I got from her on Christmas Eve in 1982.

Was in a confectionery in 1973 eyeing one of the spinner racks of comics when my dad said that I could pick one. I grabbed Superman 271 ("The Man Who Murdered Metropolis"). Sold my large raw collection last summer but managed to not throw out the issue that started it all. It's been coverless since the 1970s.

Based on my perspective from when I was a kid (and later a teen) reading FF in the 1970s and through the 1980s, the FF and, to a large extent, The Thing, were a prominent part of the Marvel Universe until the end of Byrne's run in the summer of '86. By that point, the focus had shifted squarely on the X-Men and Avengers, with Spider-Man always leading the way. By the early '90s, it was all mutants with a triple order of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and the Bronze Age revival characters (Punisher, Moon Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deathlok, Ghost Rider). To me, it seems like the FF have been an afterthought for Marvel ever since then.

I think many of the reasons cited in this thread are valid explanations for the decline or lack of popularity in the FF. For me, the two biggest reasons were the exploding popularity of the mutants swallowing everyone and everything whole and the FF comic never really having hit runs post-Byrne.

On 12/14/2022 at 11:44 PM, ThatNerdyCanuck said:

Does anyone know if either platform allows you to keep track of the graded books you OWN and their current FMVs

You can add your graded books to GPA and they'll be listed in your My Comics area, which displays the cost and valuation of each book along with the total cost and valuation of your portfolio.

On 12/2/2022 at 4:22 PM, namisgr said:

I bought Dazzler #1 off the rack.  

I bought Dazzler 2 off the rack, along with many of the issues in the first year of the series.

On 12/2/2022 at 11:36 AM, marvelmaniac said:

I loved the complete storyline, bought most issues new, non-stop continuation from issues 1-75, Annuals 1-4 and one crossover (that affected the original storyline) Power Man and Iron Fist 73, almost everybody from the Marvel Universe appeared at one time or another and you did not need to but multiple titles to keep up, plus, I found the storyline to be very entertaining.

My favorite cover...

 

I have CGC 9.8s of the Power Man and Iron Fist book with Rom and Incredible Hulk 296, also with Rom.

On 12/2/2022 at 8:19 AM, djpinkpanther67 said:

I liked Rom. 

I had a subscription to Rom through most of the run.