500Club

With all due respect to your guys' kids, I find the methodology of interviewing children and consulting instagram and twitter to determine who "the 5 most popular characters on earth are" to be irredeemably flawed, thoroughly misleading, and largely irrelevant. But hey, that's just me. I don't know if there's any accurate way to assemble and weight the data. My view is based on setting up at approximately ten shows a year, and seeing what books and characters are asked for and bought. As this is a discussion tied to HQ, sales of BA 12, and the question of the character's longevity and staying power, I'd be inclined to look at hobby data more than other sources. It is interesting to see the Instagram data, though, keeping in mind that may be more reflective of total media awareness. That's all it was meant to be I liked it. (thumbs u

With all due respect to your guys' kids, I find the methodology of interviewing children and consulting instagram and twitter to determine who "the 5 most popular characters on earth are" to be irredeemably flawed, thoroughly misleading, and largely irrelevant. But hey, that's just me. I don't know if there's any accurate way to assemble and weight the data. My view is based on setting up at approximately ten shows a year, and seeing what books and characters are asked for and bought. As this is a discussion tied to HQ, sales of BA 12, and the question of the character's longevity and staying power, I'd be inclined to look at hobby data more than other sources. It is interesting to see the Instagram data, though, keeping in mind that may be more reflective of total media awareness.

I think 99.99 percent of objective minds would vociferously disagree with your "top 5" and your data sampling. But I do not begrudge you your right to your opinion. (thumbs u -J. There's historical top 5 characters, and there's top 5 in terms of popularity. Right now, I'd have a tough time arguing with Jim's list, as far as popularity goes. Historically, Superman is top 3. Popularity wise, he may not be top 10.

Take off the tin foil hat. Shilling is done ... wait for it! ... because a seller wants to make more money. That's it. To suggest shillers in general have overall market manipulation in mind is pretty grandiose.

Does someone have a Tranny to English...um..."Trans"-lator...? Flu grammar rocks. S'ok, man. Eastern Europeans are now forewarned about Divad's grading.

Deadpool is way overexposed too. Marvel has beaten that variant horse to death. NM 98 went from a $450 book to a $1000 book and everybody went nuts then too. Now it's back down to about a $750 book, with sales as low as $675 recently. That would mean only about a $250 movie bump after all is said and done. Expect about the same, give or take, with BA 12. -J. Keep in mind that theres A LOT more NM98 9.8s than BA 12s in 9.8 Which will be the big difference between these two books, both are currently the hottest comic characters but for rarity alone, i think BA12 will always sell for more than NM98s. I agree. But the only thing that has changed the dynamic in the last six weeks was the announcement of a movie appearance. And movie hype is always fleeting thing. -J. This is true. It has created a spike above the longer term price trend.

I love that quote. It won't turn out to be accurate in this case, though. Harley's rise in popularity has been building for a while. She'll be a key hobby fixture for years. When you look at BA 12 print and supply numbers, and use NM 98 as a measuring stick, you realize there may even be more room to run for 9.8s. Five years out, $1500 for a BA 12 in 9.8 may seem cheap. Right. "This time will be different." *yawn* -J. No. It'll be the same. The same as other characters who've become leading players in the hobby and seen the values of their first appearances rise. Think Wolverine circa 1980, Punisher circa 1986, Deadpool over the past few years ... and now Harley. There's a long history of characters becoming hobby favorites to draw from. Or....more like the same pumped up movie hype, with the same subsequent crash. The market has changed since Wolverine and the Punisher, and this book is being relentlessly pumped (on these boards) and shilled (on ebay). Right. "This time will be different." *yawn*

Everything with any fan interest is overexposed. How many Avengers titles are there? Batman? Hell, Silk gets her own series based on initial fan interest, according to Dan Slott. The question going forward is: How much more Harley exposure will there be, and what will be the effect on the character? How long to oversaturate? The answer may be: longer than you think. It took Marvel years and years to water down the X-Men, Wolverine and The Punisher.

I wish I had one. I was too dumb to buy copies two years ago, when it was obvious that Harley was building a huge amount of momentum.

I love that quote. It won't turn out to be accurate in this case, though. Harley's rise in popularity has been building for a while. She'll be a key hobby fixture for years. When you look at BA 12 print and supply numbers, and use NM 98 as a measuring stick, you realize there may even be more room to run for 9.8s. Five years out, $1500 for a BA 12 in 9.8 may seem cheap. Right. "This time will be different." *yawn* -J. No. It'll be the same. The same as other characters who've become leading players in the hobby and seen the values of their first appearances rise. Think Wolverine circa 1980, Punisher circa 1986, Deadpool over the past few years ... and now Harley. There's a long history of characters becoming hobby favorites to draw from.

I love that quote. It won't turn out to be accurate in this case, though. Harley's rise in popularity has been building for a while. She'll be a key hobby fixture for years. When you look at BA 12 print and supply numbers, and use NM 98 as a measuring stick, you realize there may even be more room to run for 9.8s. Five years out, $1500 for a BA 12 in 9.8 may seem cheap.

Were you responding to my post? We have been getting $40-$60 or more for raw #361s for a few years now (three years ago it was $40, last year $50 - $60). That being said, I stickered my CGC 9.6 newsstand #361 at $250 last spring and it sold fast, then put up my CGC 9.6 #362 for $150 and it sold fast as well at the same show. Were those in Canuck dollars? If those sales were priced in US dollars you did really well indeed. Exchange rate at the time was about 8%.

Now THAT is a very good point. It is very likely more newsstand copies of 361 (and 362, 363) got swept off the racks than surrounding issues of ASM. Thus, the actual supply may be skewed away from print run data somewhat.

Thank you for using facts to dispel what is a commonly stated idea. (thumbs u

Not if there were a grading service with signature authentication.

Now THAT'S getting old school!

This. The bloom will be off the rose somewhere between issues 6 and 12, this thread will be on page two, or lower, and the speculator/momentum crowd will have moved on to the next hot concept or character.

Oh, this is going to be good. We need a separate thread so outlier sales can be reported.

A lot of rapping in a monotone, croaky voice.

I am really interested in this particular topic. I think some of what I said does have merit, but I can be wrong too. There is a lot of guesswork with not much real proof here. I simply think assuming 361 was printed nearly the same as 358-360 is flawed is all. I also think not factoring a lower return on the newsstand due to a sellout at the retailer level is a huge flaw as well. Just me personally, I went around to about 20 convenience stores and bookstores around my town to buy what they had. A few days later a friend of mine told me he did the same thing and we laughed as we tried to figure out who beat who to which store, and which ones were already sold out. There is about 50 less returns from Killeen, Texas alone. That's one small city. It adds up fast. About 50 less newsstand copies got returned from Calgary, as well.

The aforementioned Rocket Raccoon. If they can do something with him, they can do something with anyone. The problem with Tec #400 is that it started at an unsustainable price to begin with as it was perceived to be hard to find in high grade. As more HG copies have come onto the market the prices have adjusted accordingly. In addition, the Man-Bat is a rather lame character....... With Ra's playing a prominent role in Season 3 of Arrow, it looks like WB/DC will start to feature the character more which will help to increase the value of Batman #232. The book has always been undervalued due to the perceived availability of copies, but they are few and far between with other dealers at the shows up here............ I'd still like to know how you're posting from the future. Answer the question, kimik. And, are the Oilers still in last place in your time.

You want a tip...? Buy Detective #311s. Wait for some sort of "announcement." At worst, you'll have a few extra Detective #311s lying around. And a few 100 dollars lighter. FF #45 FF #36 FF #46 FF #52 Strange Tales #126 Hulk #271 Marvel Preview #7 Marvel Super Heroes #18 New Teen Titans #2 Preacher #1 Sandman #1 DC Comics Presents #49 Batman #417 Micronauts #8 The list goes on of books that had little relative value 2-3-4-5 years ago. This is strange, new territory we're in, but it's also very familiar territory. Everyone's rushing to get the next hot thing. The key to making "money" in comics is to resist the temptation to follow the crowd, to run out and spend money on the next hot thing, and buy what everyone else is not. At the prices that Tec #311 is selling for, you have essentially nothing to lose. It's not like it's a book that is going to plummet to $1 for NM copies after you've spent those hundreds of dollars. You're not likely to see a loss if you HAVE to sell, which is a wonderful aspect of many collectibles. Don't like Tec #311? How about Tec #400? Green Lantern #59? Spidey #101? DC Comics Presents #87? Flash #112? Justice League #1 (1987)? Showcase #79? (Showcase is littered with potential, actually.) Blue Beetle #1? Booster Gold #1? All books that were fairly "hot" at one point, but have settled back down to low levels relative to the non-keys around them. If Legends #3 can "hit"...this crazy market can do anything. Sure, you don't know what will hit, and when...but picking books that were "once hot, now not" is a lot easier than trying to guess what the next Batman Adventures #12 is going to be (if there ever will be another one like that.) You are off by 100 issues with the Tec #311 play. The smart money was accumulating Tec #411 over the past few years before the big jump. Right now is a good time to still be snapping up Tec #405 (tough in high grade and undervalued - 1st League of Assassins) or Batman #232 instead (this one keeps moving up). Buy all of them. Although, I wouldn't be buying Bats #232. But the rest...yes. At the prices they are at? Yes. Snap away. Bats #232 at a discount to GPA is a good buy long term IMHO. That book sells fast at shows, is requested all the time, and is still undervalued even after the gap up over the past year. It was a great buy at its prices 2-3 years from now and will continue to move up. I am not as certain about the future for books like Tec #400. It was higher in the past due to perceived scarcity in high grade. As more copies have come onto the market in 9.0+ the prices have dropped as they should. The Man-Bat is a nothing character as well, which hurts it in the 1st appearance category. Another book to keep accumulating while it is still readily available at low prices is Batman #357. I still can't believe how low some dealers price it at relative to what slabbed copies are going for. I am also wondering if the 1st Nocturna won't jump up at some point as well. That was a decent story arc. Quite possibly the worst "1st appearance" in all of funny books...some guy in a trenchcoat in 3 panels...

+1 I started buying them in the early 90's. It was clear even then that there was a grassroots love for the character in the hobby. I never thought it would take 20 years for the book to really take off. Harley Quinn? There was a window, albeit much smaller, where you could see the love for the character building, and act upon it. Follow RMAs advice. There are still many cool and under appreciated opportunities to be found.

-J. +1 I see that stupid comment, and raise with 'he must be pumping the character just because he is sitting on a boatload of EoSV 2.' He is a known shiller of his own listings on eBay so you probably want to avoid whatever advice he gives anyway. It's not Symbiotic again, is it??

Please tell me you didn't get this far with your analysis, and then somehow miss the whole reason for my comment - to try to give you the insight that anyone expressing doubt with the concept didn't necessarily 'miss the boat'.