kimik

How is the valiantfans site today? I have not been there is ages. It used to be an awesome community and resource.

I wish I had gone shopping a bit before the show as there were plenty of posts on Thursday nigh and during the day on Friday of great deals/steals that were found at other booths. There was one place with 25 cent books that had a bunch of rare Whitmans, and a friend nabbed a nice stack of older 1:10 and higher ratio variants for $2/book. Several of them were $200+ books. 

Pre-Covid we used to get a number of US buyers up at the show and they cleaned out a lot of great stuff. Now it is just @joeypost and @greggy cleaning up with less competition. 

And, yes, @greggy left the Calgary Expo with all sorts of great copper and modern books again. I will be watching his posts in the what's new in your collection thread in a couple of months to see all of the 9.8s and 9.9s he pulled.

Here are some reports/comments re: moderns that were selling well at the Calgary Expo this past week/weekend: 

On 4/30/2024 at 1:54 PM, 1Cool said:

You sold a death in the family book to a 6 year old?  Hope he knows Robbin didn’t stay dead.

I told his mom it was not suitable but she said she would take it as he liked the cover. I pushed a bit more then gave up. It was definitely a child sees, child gets family looking at the other stuff they were lugging for him already.

On 4/30/2024 at 12:06 PM, 1Cool said:

Kids are getting into comics for the 1st time in Canada.  They are a little bit behind the states up there.

Nah. Kids up here are spending big $$$ again which is nice as it is sign of solid economy. They youngest buyer I had was a 6 or 7 year old dressed as Batman who pointed out a Batman #427 on the rack. His mom asked if he wanted it, he said yes, so his mom handed me the money and they thanked me for it. I am sure that meant one less high grade Batman #427 by the end of the day.  

On 4/30/2024 at 11:41 AM, piper said:

Have you watched X-Men 97 yet?

No time right now.

In addition to Todd McFarlane driving a lot of Spawn/ASM/Spider-Man sales, I noticed the impact of streaming shows on back issue purchases by the 15-25 year olds who spent a lot this Expo. The titles they bought were Moon Knight (I had a 13 year old buy most of my 1980 run), Invincible, Star Wars, Harley Quinn, and Ivy. I was out of Swamp Things, but had a ton of requests with people commenting that the show was great and they wished it had not been cancelled. X-Men was in demand as well due to the X-Men 97 show. As one buyer put it: "Disney kept the new show close to the original and it worked...."

On 4/29/2024 at 3:04 PM, thehumantorch said:

And a regular buyer who own a video game store told us about his experience with Mcfarlane.  Got a call from Mcfarlane’s nephew saying Mcfarlane would like to come to his store for a signing.  Didn’t want a lot of advance publicity to limit the crowd.  McFarlane showed up at noon and walked down the line and said hello to everyone and then signed from 12:30 pm to 9 pm.  Without a break.  1100 people.  For free.  That’s someone who doesn’t need any more money and just wants to give back and is a pretty good human being.

That is similar to other stories I have heard bout him.

One of our regulars got a standby ticket for a signing with Todd on Saturday. He asked him why he was not charging for certified signings. Todd told him if people want to do that to make money off of SS books they can do the signings through CGC. He said he was there this weekend for the fans so he was signing for free with no witness. People that had things signed and came by after had nothing but great things to say about him. He would talk and interact with each fan for a bit instead of just churning them through. 

That is a wrap for Calgary 2024. It was a busy show this year. If you dropped by our 8-booth island (1717) you would have dealt with one of @thirdgreenham @thehumantorch @500Club @Artboy99 @Quicksilver Signs or I. It was great to have @greggy and @joeypost join us for most of the weekend as well. 

It was interesting to observe the buying trends. Talking with other comic sellers, Thursday was a good night across the board which is not usually the case. I have noticed the past couple of Expos that the GA/SA/BA buyers have started to show up on Thursday early Friday to avoid the peak crowds as the aisles get jammed up. 

Friday and Saturday were more of a retail sales day with copper/modern and books tied to artists at the show selling steadily. 

Sunday was a bigger day than the past two Expos, with a much younger crowd which is great for the hobby here IMHO. It was mostly 12-25 year olds buying steadily all day. At one point, a regular customer my age commented to me while paying that he keeps hearing that the hobby is dying/getting older, yet at the time we had 20 or so teenagers - mid 20s male and female collectors pulling out stacks to buy.

There were also plenty of families buying books, with moms/dads/both focusing on their collections and their teenage children filling runs. That was fun to see.  

One comment I did hear from a few customers was that local stores in Calgary have cut shelf stock back so tight that if they miss pre-ordering they cannot find copies. While that is great for us resellers at the shows, it does make me wonder how many store owners have made a conscious decision to order too tight or if they are in financial troubles. I hope it is the former and that they are just ordering more carefully now.

The high prices being paid for Dave Stevens covers in 9.8 makes sense to me. They are not as easy to find in 9.8 as other 80s and 90s books that were considered more valuable for longer. There is a larger fan base for his work that most think, even with 20 something’s that have disposable cash. 

Classic and Good Girl covers in all genres have been seeing steady increases then popping. With the advent of slabbing the cover art becomes more important. This is not a new trend, there is just more money chasing them now.

On 4/20/2024 at 6:10 AM, Ryan. said:

Dealers have boxes of Stevens books that have been sitting in their back issue bins for decades. Now they've just graduated to being wall books. At the local convention I visited last weekend you could throw a dart and find whichever Stevens book you were looking for. 

Sounds like you are in a good market for them. There are two LCSs from the 80s still operating here.  They have/had cases of 80s and 90s Marvel and DC that they bring out regularly from storage, but not stuff like Eclipse. There was low demand for it then in our market so they unfortunately do not have any in storage. They rarely have them in back issue bins as well, and when they do they are FN to VF at best.

On 4/18/2024 at 7:11 AM, pmpknface said:

I hope Spawn is still selling.  I've got a run from 1-113 and other Spawn titles (Curse Of, Sam & Twitch, etc...) I'm looking to move!  

Greggy is always buying Spawn.

Fantastic. McFarlane is signing at the Calgary Expo next week. I have a couple of Spawn #1 newsstands that will be priced at market. Hopefully they sell.

On 4/13/2024 at 8:30 PM, MAR1979 said:

On 1/23/2024 at 9:22 AM, kimik said:

FWIW, it does make sense that the comic market is picking up with almost full employment, interest rates holding steady (and possibly being cut this year), and equities and cryptocurrencies hitting new highs. Let's hope things keep up for the entire year. 

Mid April 2024 update; nopes....

I am not sure what numbers you are looking at, but here are the numbers on on Jan 23 vs where things are now:

Dow - 4864.40 on Jan 23 vs 5123.41 yesterday (higher in April)

S&P - 37,905,45 on Jan 23 vs 37,983.24 yesterday (higher in April)

Nasdaq - 15,425.94  on Jan 23 vs 16,179.04 yesterday (higher in April)

Unemployment rate - 3.70 in Jan to 3.80 in March (so a smidge worse as of latest results)

Interest rate (Fed fund rate) - steady since January and not likely being cut until late in the year

Bitcoin - $40,245 on Jan 23 vs $67,170 yesterday

We should see a typical seasonal pullback in equities starting in May like usual, so things may change. However, interest rates are not likely going to see any changes until the late summer or fall when we may see an election inspired cut. I do not think it will be warranted as the US economy still has to work through the IRA and CHIPS stimulus packages and those dollars are just now being spent in earnest. The employment market will not see much change either if everything I am hearing from companies across a wide range of sectors continues - higher rates of retirement + more jobs being brought back to the USA should mean a tight labour market for the foreseeable future (the Canadian industry sectors we are involved in at work are already seeing employees leave to the USA and are worried it will increase). Unless we have a Black Swan event, 2024 should be another up year that likely accelerates into 2025 - it takes time to spend $800B in stimulus in the current environment (e.g. it is 8-12 months for major electrical infrastructure components now, the lack of skilled trades means construction delays, etc.). 

They will have to improve the roster significantly to stay in League One. It will fun to see how they do. It would be crazy if they could build a team in time that could make the Premier League. I would not put it past them based on Reynolds' business successes. He is quite the entrepreneur on the side.

On 4/13/2024 at 2:14 PM, Chip Cataldo said:

Crazy money. Just crazy.

Definitely. They have earned it though through smart investing or successfully starting and building businesses.

On 4/13/2024 at 1:14 PM, Chip Cataldo said:

Yeah but those people post HERE?

Some do. And there are plenty of boardies that have the means to chase these pieces as well. Whether they are willing to, or see it as a worthwhile ROI, is the bigger question.

On 4/13/2024 at 11:52 AM, BA773 said:

Huh... did i missed something? 

I mean its obviously the most valueless part of the whole batman modern run (400-700~) there is not even 1 issue over 10$, dont speak me about 497 LOL... 95% of this stuff is in the dollar bins...

I often follow the neatstuffcollectibles.com auctions, it comforts me in the fact that the seller reputation is a great factor on the price that people are ready to pay for books...

It makes sense to me in the current market. At less than $4/book, it is not a terrible overpay for a bulk lot providing that the grading is accurate. I guess they buyer is gambling on hitting some 9.8s?

Copper age books have started to pop, with more interest in 90s books as well. Another boardie (can't remember who) mentions the rule of 30 consistently, and these books are now hitting that age. I expect prices to continue to rise.

In addition, GA/SA/BA/early CA Batman have held their value well from the 2021/22 peak, with some starting to top those prices. While most titles have cratered, Batman and Tec have held up strong relatively speaking.

Just watched Episode 1 and it was fun. I appreciate them dropping 8 episodes at once. I will finish the rest over the weekend.

Good looking store. I wish them good luck and hope they do well.

It definitely was an event show each week. My wife does not care for most sci-fi shows, but this was one of the few she would look forward to in Season 1.

Thank you!

Agreed. Season 1 was brilliant. My wife and I enjoyed the entire run, season 1 was the best for both of us by far. Is there any place to stream it now?

I wonder if the crypto bros that were buying ASM 300 CGC 9.8s from a LCS owner friend for $10K at the peak are still holding them?