spreads

And they may or may not when it comes time to sell. But if you think paying $800 for that wolverine book is smart, then by all means.

For decades, people have been paying handsomely for the highest available graded comics. That's not surprising at all. People paying that much for Wolvie 41 2nd print would seem ill advised but who knows what the future holds. Ill-advised? How about it's stupid! Paying big money for a very common book, or a book that might not be that common but simply doesn't have any graded issues in 9.8, is reckless. If you want to spend money on those items for a collection, then by all means it's your money....you be prepared to take the risk on the loss if you sell. How many copies could it take to bring that Wolvie down to $100 in 9.8? 5, 10? It probably wouldn't even take 10, and that guy that paid $800 will be facing a huge loss if he/she decides to sell.

Who invited you to this challenge? Alright Greg, fair enough. But want if we eliminate the low dollar sales, where $8 is a relatively insignificant amount of money. What about $100+?

Huh? 9.8 =/ 5.0 What's your point? Please give me an example of someone paying 1-400 times the going rate of an item outside of collecting comics, only because it's in very high grade? Again...Huh? Coins, Sports cards, cars, toys....nearly the ENTIRE universe of collecting literally anything. Unless you collect damaged things on purpose. That would be pretty fun. So you can't provide a direct example, of something that sells for 400-800 times it's value in high grade in one of these fields? Which one is the typo? The 1-400x or the 400-800x? Because that's a largggggge difference. 1-400 is so ridiculous you're being obtuse on purpose asking for specific examples. the 400-800x? No idea and don't really care to go searching. 800x might be specific to comics...you might be right but that wasn't the first thing you asked. The larger point is buy what you want? I would NEVER pay those prices for a 9.8 of that but i'm also not totally shocked someone would. People spend hundreds of dollars on a hamburger...why not some random, 2nd print comic from the 90s? How am I being obtuse? Captain Crunch's book selling for $400-800 when NM ungraded copies are available (unsold) for $1 is being exact. I asked if you could give me a direct example, and you couldn't.

Huh? 9.8 =/ 5.0 What's your point? Please give me an example of someone paying 1-400 times the going rate of an item outside of collecting comics, only because it's in very high grade? Again...Huh? Coins, Sports cards, cars, toys....nearly the ENTIRE universe of collecting literally anything. Unless you collect damaged things on purpose. That would be pretty fun. So you can't provide a direct example, of something that sells for 400-800 times it's value in high grade in one of these fields?

Huh? 9.8 =/ 5.0 What's your point? Please give me an example of someone paying 1-400 times the going rate of an item outside of collecting comics, only because it's in very high grade? Happens in coins and paper currency collecting every day. If you think grade is important in comics, go look those. Comics have nothing on them. I know nothing about that field, can you give me a specific example. I never advocated that grade in comics is the be-all-and-end-all; I see people paying good money for an ultra high grade of a relatively 'worthless' book dumb. There was a buyer on the VF boards that had huge runs of all the common books in 9.8 slabs. When he tried to sell these he couldn't find a buyer for a lot of them, and they were for basically nothing, some unsold at 99 cents. I always tell these buyers that paying big money for these books is a huge risk...

Same can be said about people paying 300K for a NM copy of AF 15, you can buy a 1.0 for $4500 instead. I don't agree with that either, but at least with that example you cited there's far fewer high grade copies available, and a 'cultural significance' intangible has to be factored in the pricing. Wolverine #41 second print...what did Whetton say they sold for, $300-400? Holy christ. Edit: Just saw the post by captain crunch above. $400-800, oh man! Good for the seller, if that was me I'd be laughing non-stop like Monty Burns over a period of a few days (from that scene from The Simpsons).

Huh? 9.8 =/ 5.0 What's your point? Please give me an example of someone paying 1-400 times the going rate of an item outside of collecting comics, only because it's in very high grade?

People paying that for a 9.8 when low grade copies are available for a buck are completely insane.

Something smells shilly.

That's good info. Was it mostly mainstream stuff that moved, or did anything surprise you? I sold more than I thought...but it did help I had solid runs/chunks of popular marvel titles. I had other stuff I forgot to put out; I think I might do this once or twice a year. Next time I'll shoot you a pm and you can check it out...

I had a garage sale on Saturday, sold over 1000 comics at 50 cents a pop in under 90 minutes. And I've gotten a lot of inquiries about other stuff I have, and from people that missed it. It was a lot of fun, great way to clean out unwanted books.

I was watching them, the prices were more or less in line. The number 2 red went a bit higher than usual, but it seems to be the rarest of the second tier maxx ashcans.

Ahh the shills?

This post isn't exactly the pinnacle of coherence.

How many pages ago were we talking about this?

Have not seen the show - a coworker recently told me (he has no idea I read comics, or that this is a comic property) that the show was 'awful.' No one else with us had ever heard of it, so... time will tell. If it reaches a mainstream audience, then no, there probably is not much of a ceiling. The prices right now are most likely just speculators selling to speculators. The show currently has an 8.5 rating on IMDB so it can't be that bad. I still have 1 of each of the #1 and the #1 variant, I think the price might have peaked but since I sold the other copies for a solid profit I might just hold onto the set.

I just listed a set on ebay (rare auction style), if you want to track it.

I don't mind seeing content of political issues, especially if the author is able to present an issue without including an opinion/bias. Read the new Archer & Armstrong! I had it on my pull-list until issue 10; just didn't like it. In the beginning I had it ranked at the bottom of the VE1 titles on my pull-list.

I don't mind seeing content of political issues, especially if the author is able to present an issue without including an opinion/bias.

I think price should be the prevailing factor. Who cars if 4 different auctions all sold at higher highs with just 1 bid if they're all legitimate (real buyer, real seller). Some people just buy that way. I agree... here are two scenarios: Book A Sells for $40 with one bid Book B Sells for $33 with 18 bids, 15 of those bids are under $15. If they're the same book (and the book normally sells for $40), then the second one is actually "cooler" than the first... but if you count the number of bids, it's supposedly "heating up". Price is all that matters... unless you ALSO want to count how many different (legitimate) bidders went ABOVE the previous average. In that case, it's price times bids above the average that could mean "heating up". A bunch of bids well below the market average are meaningless. For these two scenarios... if the book has been averaging $40, then the $40 sale is normal and the $33 sale with 18 bids is a drop. I am not going to disagree with either scenaries listed above. They are both accurate. I am going to assume you are both smart enough to figure that out that both would have been investigated and ruled out if they appeared. I used a generalization above and it has worked for years for me. You guys are entitled to use whatever strategy you want. Most of the time I am a BIN guy and not an auction guy as well. Again I look for a pattern price does factor into my decision, but I am also looking for activity from bidders as well. And no I don't care if I see a lot of bids for a smaller amount if its from a lot of bidders. It just tells me no one is wanting to pay a lot yet, but may later. Again this just helps the guess work. I must be doing something write because I have doing this for awhile and still enjoy it. The tougher part I think is also devining whether the seller is shilling a book, pumping up a book here, or trying to create a demand for a book that just isn't there. I think slab sellers have more problems with this then I do, but I see it periodically none the less. Modern sellers all deny this happens or its the other guy that does it, but the truth is its much more prevalent then we would all like to admit. I'll reiterate, price (again assuming the obvious these are legitimate transactions), is what's important. How many times have people bid on items they were bidding on with no real desire to own the item? This happens a lot with big ticket items that start at .99 cents and the first few bidders want to be a part of the auction (for whatever reason), and there could be multiple bids changing hands among 'weak hands' that have no real part in the auctions. Here's another scenario, I own a lot of 'market cap' (using Greg's analogy) of a book and want to maintain a floor in value, so I bid early and low to create appearance of interest, as well as doing something to protect the value of what I already own. Both of these scenarios are legitimate bids (not shills), and would involve the purchase and shipping of had the sale conducted at their bids, but because they're intentionally low bids the chance of being 'putted' to the sale is very low.

I think price should be the prevailing factor. Who cars if 4 different auctions all sold at higher highs with just 1 bid if they're all legitimate (real buyer, real seller). Some people just buy that way.

Some people just want the items to go to a good home, or really like you. If you're genuine and a nice person you might be able to get a better price than being a total person_who_is_obnoxiously_self-impressed. At an estate auction a month ago I cherry-picked a bunch of 48 key copper books for a buck a piece (ASM 298,299, Vengeance of Bane, Doomsday books, etc., etc.) and the gal gave it to me for $40. I hadn't even asked about a discount, I was just chatting with her because she was cute, haha.

I am still finding Figment #1 and #2 here at LCSs as well. I am going to be putting a few up on eBay shortly. (thumbs u I saw a stack of #2s on the rack...I see there are a ton of these books on ebay with no bids in the $5-10 range. Just like I mentioned to Leisure Suit Larry, this book will be back down to cover shortly.

Its considered to be one of the best science fiction novel series, with a first print being worth thousands. Interesting thanks...I had never heard of them before.