kimik

If by "petering out" you mean it's going through the natural weekly movie attendance progression, then I guess you're right, I actually think it's doing a little better than the norm. I also suspect that it's doing better than even Marvel thought it would do. And by the way.... no problem hitting 400M world wide. Well, it does have tough competition this weekend with FF opening..... By petering out I meant following the natural fall off for movies. According to Box Office Mojo right now it is sitting at just under $327M worldwide. Considering its current box office decline, with another $73M+ to go to hit worldwide it is going to have to work hard to hit that IMHO. That being said, with Ant-Man being a 3rd tier character I think it has been a successful venture for Marvel. It will be interesting to see how Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and the other 3rd tier properties do on the big screen in the future. I can't see the studios turning their back on expanding the number of comic related movies due to 1) the merchandising opportunities built in with them and 2) the fact that they spend big $$$ on other sci-fi or big budget action films that do not even cover production costs. As long as the comic movies can turn a profit at the box office they will continue to be produced.

It seems to be petering out, but if it can hit $400M worldwide it should be considered a very nice win for Marvel studios.

One of my favorite "epitome of the '90s" books but I thought it was a $3 to $5 book. It is a 3-5 dollar book, I have asked about this book before as some sales have seemed suspicious in the past. It is an easy $10 sale at shows, sometimes $15. It has two things even casual comic fans like - Venom and foil. Why do your posts always make it seem like Alberta (or just Edmonton?) is entirely populated by drooling who somehow have money? The thing you have to take into consideration is the fact that most of the LCS do not have these books. Venom and Carnage are strong characters and sell well at shows. Like we had posted a couple of years ago, ASM #361 was a good seller at $40 - $60 locally even though they were still $15 books everywhere else. Heck, I threw out a Venom Lethal Protector set at a smaller show this spring and had it sell for $60 right away. As Brian/500Club stated, it will be interesting to see how the market is this fall with the pullback in oil prices and layoffs in the E&P and services sectors. At the Calgary Expo in April one of the local collectors that was good for a few big books each year had to unload his collection due to a job loss.

I sold three of my copies way too early when they were hitting $50 - $60 on eBay. I still have one left, but wish I had kept one or two of the others.

One of my favorite "epitome of the '90s" books but I thought it was a $3 to $5 book. It is a 3-5 dollar book, I have asked about this book before as some sales have seemed suspicious in the past. It is an easy $10 sale at shows, sometimes $15. It has two things even casual comic fans like - Venom and foil.

Sounds like it is exactly what I expected........

It is available in town here as well.

I feel like most collectors from the 1990s have a lot of these books, but they either aren't in comics at all anymore (books are in storage), or they don't understand slabbing and have no experience with it. I can name 10 guys who collected comics when I did in the early 1990s. None of them are into comics now. The census can certainly grow, but until it does... a lot of collectors have to either buy slabs at current market prices or do without. I think on these boards people forget most of the collectors out there mainstream buy raw books in various conditions. The slabs are a niche market with quirks and choices within. Raw book sales are still key. Many on here tend to forget that. It takes time, but market acceptance of slabs has grown significantly over the past 3 years here in Alberta. This spring I took slabbed and raw copies of a few Copper books to the Calgary Expo - most of the slabs sold while I still have the raw books in my show wall stock. It has become easier to sell slabbed SA and BA books, especially keys/1st apps, at the shows as well as collectors want more certainty that their $2000 purchase is relatively accurately graded (taking CGC inconsistencies into account) and unrestored (most importantly). I think this trend will continue to grow.

It wouldn't surprise me if you're right about the killing... however let's hope Batman doesn't resort to using a machine gun to do it. "Intends to kill Superman" ... That would be the ultimate goal of "Batman vs Superman". It wouldn't be the same if he just wanted to rough him up a little and teach him a lesson... In Tec #28 Batman kills the bad guys, and if I recall the story in Action #14 Supes tosses a bad guy or two out of an office tower window. Back then the heroes were men......

Fixed that for ya! That's what I thought in 2004 when I started dumping my 8.0 - 9.4 stacks of Adams Batmans (I had 12 8.0 - 9.2 copies of #227) GL #76 (10 or 11 8.0 - 9.0 copies), ASM 121/122/129s, HOS 92s, etc. during the first bigger BA run up. Unlike SA or even BA 9.8s, collectors know that there are a ton of 9.8 CA (and modern) keys out there yet the prices keep getting bid up due to demand for the characters and the lower starting points.

What part of "Heating up" didnt you get? But wouldn't we need a cooling off as well?

Merchandising is were these super hero movies make their money as well. Ant-Man is a brand now which can be sold on anything, while Paper Towns only has going for is it`s box office. Ant-Man will probably sell additional millions in merchandise over the years, while Paper Towns is a one trick pony. How much do films like this make from product placement/advertising in the movie as well?

Don't get me wrong, I agree that ASM #300 is a better book than NM #98, but like I said, it has had a good run up to now and will likely plateau for a bit. Out of those three, NTT #2 has more room to grow IMHO as it can still be had for sub-$500 in 9.8. Now is the time to be accumulating Copper keys in 9.8 just like the 2001-2004 period was for HG BA keys.

Personally I can only see NTT 2 going down, quite a bit down in a few years. 221 . Not a fan so no comment. 300 in 9.8 I'd hold. Lots of people grew up and continue to love Venom. Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong acronym here....but if we are talking about the first Deathstroke, why would you think it will be going down quite a bit, if at all? Slade is awesome and DC seems to be interested in pushing him. Exactly, NTT 2 will not be dropping. It has plenty of room to grow once they add him to the movie universe. Right now is a good time to be buying 9.8s as they are still sub-$500. He will be a player in their cinematic universe going forward. ASM 300, on the other hand, will likely plateau for a bit in 9.8 as it is breached the $1K barrier and there are a ton of copies to go around. It seems like this is the magic number for easy to find copper in 9.8. Look at NM 98 - even with a Deadpool movies in less than a year it is still a sub-$1K book in 9.8 due to supply.

Had some luck while out of town this week checking out a kijiji ad while on location. I ended up snagging the following small group of Copper/Modern books for $60 CDN.

it will be interesting to see where tec 359 goes now in light of the Barbara Gordon casting announcement....

Who cares when an age stops and the next one started? People are buying Supergirl #8 for the 1st appearance, not whether it is BA or CA. How many people care that AF #15 is a SA book? They buy it for the 1st appearance of Spidey.

I put in a bulk order a couple of months ago with my LCS and the Stormtrooper variant is the first one that the order was placed in time for

the answer is .... you should have sold 3 months ago. Agree at those prices I would be out. Its unsustainable. This one hasn't even started to take off. It's the Modern Marvel Key of the decade. Buy. Hold. My opinion. I know how much smarter you all are.... Do your thing. Or, sell, roll the profit into other hot books, flip them, repeat, and buy a copy later if you want to after it actually shows whether there is any staying power. Either approach will work. With most of the modern hot books, the pattern is sell at the early peak, buy a few years later when they have dropped in value, accumulate at lower prices, then wait for the run up again while continuing to roll over the initial profit.

That is the plan. (thumbs u FWIW, they were selling well at shows this spring as well.

Well, there goes the X-Men franchise.

My collection has appreciated 20% due to the exchange rate alone since the start of the year.

Pretty broad statement and really depends on the value of their 1st app. No, it has more to do with Overstreet and which appearances got listed and increased in price - look at Saberetooth, more people are probably looking for his 3rd-6th appearances than far more valuable/important characters. Overstreet? People still look at/buy that? Yes, they still look at it, but this has more to do with how many people looked at Overstreet through the decades and how that ingrains onto our hobby. A lot of current books are only worth something because OS told us they were for years. Like Sabretooth's 4th appearance. I look at it primarily to base pricing of collections. It is a standard reference that both buyer and seller can accept. It does not hurt that it usually undervalues key books relative to their online graded prices, but it is catching up.

Definitely. It comes in handy when pricing out books/collections that you are buying. Buy at a % of OSPG and sell at market rates.

The bottom line is not many people care about Ultimate FF Actually, I think it is more that not many people care about the FF period. The FF,s popularity peaked in the mid to late 60s when ASM took over as Marvel's flagship franchise and has been in and downward spiral ever since. The fact that the cast and trailers look bad from the get go does not help, but it is a 3rd tier property now that the vast majority of the general public does not care about.