ES6

That is great. Unfortunately, it reminds of the only 9.9 I ever had, an X-Men 137. One of the very, very few comics I regret selling. But let me not cast a cloud on here. Congrats on the Iron Man #1 CGC 9.9. It is a beauty. So fine.

Comic art is not, and has not been, a good investment for about, I don't know exactly, but around 6 to 8 months now? I am a long-time collector, since the 1960's, and was always of the mind that OA and comics were undervalued. I was very active in the mid zeros to to mid-teens buying OA. Around 2020 my perception changed. I thought many comics and much OA was overvalued. I have not purchased any higher priced comics or OA since the late twenty teens because I do not like to lose appreciable money. Quite frankly, most of these current prices I consider daunting. I ask myself what is driving these prices. At this point in time, I consider only the top-rated A+/A++ material sound investments. If someone has the money, the love for the item, and eyes wide open, then by all means, let them go at it. As a previous poster said, if they got 80k worth of enjoyment, and the disappointment of the financial loss did not outweigh their joy of owning the piece for the time they did, then great for them. I am not built that way. I don't mind breaking even, or even losing a little bit of money. However, my personality is such that I just won't buy anything, be it a car, a comic, or a shovel, if I think I am being ripped off or making a bad investment or am not getting value for my money. Because I have to feel emotionally satisfied with my purchases. It is not so much the price, because value is value, be it a ten-dollar item or a fifty-thousand-dollar item, but more the point to me of: is their value in it? And no, I do not see the value in most OA and comics today. I think a big reason why is that on the economic side assets in general are overvalued. Maybe because of the relentless QE and stock market increases, and also probably because up until the last year or so, or less, a house, a collectible coin, a vintage car, or comic, was seen as a better investment than most stocks, or gold, or bonds. And they were. So, the cycle was perpetuated. But it has peaked. Comics and OA are no longer and have not been for most of this century the relatively small cottage industry it was. The hobby has been elevated to the realm of big-time investment, much like fine art, coins, real estate, and other well-known investment portfolio types. That being the case, I think the hobby is more typically going to experience the financial swings most traditional investments have seen over the decades. Would I purchase a 10k, 50k, or even 100k comic or OA in the future. Yeah, I would. But unlike in the past, my main parameter would not be my love for the piece. Now these days, I would focus as much on the value and price stability of the piece as I would my passion for it. That was rarely the case in the past, because I knew if I held on to it for seven, eight years, usually at most, I would always at the least recoup my money, and more likely make a handsome profit. I think prices are going to generally continue to decline. How much and how long is the question. Not just in the comics and OA hobby, but numismatics, baseball cards, homes, really just about all assets. Not precious metals. The economy is in rough shape. Worse than most realize. Lots of window dressing out there. The rich, which is the very small minority in any collectibles field, will bolster the market for only so long. It is not that they can't. They can because they have the means to. For at least a while, they usually do, in many scenarios. But even they have a breaking point where they feel it is more profitable to wait out the storm then buck against it. At that point markets usually see steep declines. And sometimes it can take many years to gain back the losses. It becomes a snowball effect at some point. Seeing price declines, the average collector, which is most collectors, the guys who cannot afford more than around 20k to 40k a year on their collections, slow down or completely stop purchasing. Additionally, collecting is a pursuit of a society that is stable, enjoys abundant essential necessities, and has enough leisure time and has a sizable amount of the population who are blessed to have discretionary income. America these days is very different from just three years ago. Inflation has eaten into people's budgets. People are fidgety due to the political atmosphere. Household debt is at (probably) all time high levels, I know credit card debt is, which is at around one trillion dollars. The national debt is at around, I think it is 32 trillion. There is just way too much debt in this debt-based fiat system economy. Something has to give, and eventually the first things to go is collecting, along with vacations, or expensive vacations, and other activities that are non-essential to everyday living. Anyway, I know that was long. I know the people on here are well informed and intelligent and love the hobby. So, I did not want to just make a blanket statement that I think OA from a financial standpoint is currently not a good place to park one's money without stating my reasoning behind the statement.

I think this is only the beginning of a long down trend. The market went up to high, too fast. It is a good time to buy. The market will eventually stabilize.

On Ebay now. No Reserve. Huge Twice Up, 16 inches by 23 inches, size. Like New condition. From 2015.