Hamlet

19 minutes ago, N e r V said:

There’s still an awful lot of Eerie #23’s raw out there I’ve seen that would fill in some numbers at or above the 9.0 number. Before I settled on my copy I considered going with a couple of higher raws that were available. I still believe mags lag badly behind comics for being slabbed/pressed in general. I think we are seeing more interest in doing this but until then I take the number of slabbed copies on mags with a grain of salt.

Whats your take on the mags to comics ratios at CGC?

Yeah, I would guess that the extra expense of grading and storage issues for slabbed magazines make them less frequently slabbed.  It will be interesting if some of the more recent slabbed sales of Eerie 23 at strong prices push some owners of raw copies to get them slabbed.

18 minutes ago, N e r V said:

MCS had a nice Eerie #17 CGC 7.5 OW/W for around $150.00 before someone snagged it. I almost pulled the trigger on it as a placeholder until a CGC 9.4 W showed up for me. They still have a couple of CGC 7.5’s in the $150.00-$175.00 range but they start with cream to off white pages which might be a deal breaker for some.

Yeah, I’d say my raw copy is in that ballpark and was about $125.  I mostly just wanted a cheap, presentable copy to fill my run, because it isn’t an issue I’m focused on.  I couldn’t really find a VG to FN copy for much less though. 

10 hours ago, Hamlet said:

I’m waiting on a check from MCS that they mailed on 8/5.  Ironically, they shipped an order out to me the same day and I got it on 8/11.  I always choose their cheapest shipping option, which ends up being UPS with the USPS handing the last mile. The package arrived when expected.

I’ve never had a check take more than 3-4 days to get here.  I’m wondering how long I should wait before I just ask them to cancel the check and put it in as store credit.

I just looked at this a little closer.  They actually paid me in store credit.  I assumed that they cut me a check and mailed it, since that is what they did with the other items on that consignment.  I've got a new consignment with them that I had set to store credit for the payment option.  They must have switched the older consignment to that as well.

So nevermind.

I’m waiting on a check from MCS that they mailed on 8/5.  Ironically, they shipped an order out to me the same day and I got it on 8/11.  I always choose their cheapest shipping option, which ends up being UPS with the USPS handing the last mile. The package arrived when expected.

I’ve never had a check take more than 3-4 days to get here.  I’m wondering how long I should wait before I just ask them to cancel the check and put it in as store credit.

Fish Police, baby!

1 hour ago, Tempus Fugit said:

I have steadily ignored their emails, and the click through warning when I post sales. I got a call from an actual human being at ebay the other day. He was nice enough, and told me that ebay could shut me down. I informed him that I have a day job, and if ebay wanted to throw away our 22 year relationship, and the few hundred dollars a month they get from me, then so be it.

He seemed genuinely  surprised at this brazen act of brinkmanship, and he was quite persistent, but I did not cave.

I expect I will eventually be shut down, but I am holding out as long as possible.

I’m pretty amazed at how painful Ebay makes it for sellers.  I buy some on Ebay, but I have absolutely no interest in selling on it.  They’ve stacked the deck so much in favor of buyers that it really seems like scammers have to be a constant problem.

17 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  If you look at the cover artwork and the amazing quality of Warrens (and other magazines), these books are so undervalued compared to other silver and bronze age books.  Grab 'em now while they're relatively cheap.  The Frazetta covers in particular are due.  

You don’t think it makes sense that you can get a VG/FN copy of Vampirella 7 ( if you’re patient ) for the price of two “Ebay NM” copies of Spawn #1 ?  Not the newstand copies mind you. Not 9.8 candidates.  Just two run of the mill nice copies of a book that they printed 1.7 million copies of.  Granted, Spawn is a popular character, but something seems out of whack there.

I joke in the Gold thread that I’m increasing my allocation to mid grade Warrens.  There isn’t any scale to it, obviously, but I’m only half-joking.

I’m curious to see how many copies I end up with 😀

Hoarders gotta hoard-

On 8/6/2020 at 3:45 PM, Rip said:

Looking for Creepy 16 or Eerie 23 preferably in 8.5-9.4

Also looking for Eerie 7 also in 9.0-9.4, Nightmare 18, 20 9.0, Or Psycho 18 9.0 or better

 

I've got tons for stuff to trade if interested as well. Comics or otherwise. I'm working on organizing some very high grade Marvel Magazines (Hulk, Bizarre Adventures, Howard the Duck, Marvel Preview, & lots more)  and some Mad magazines between 24-75

On 8/8/2020 at 10:27 AM, chevalmeow said:

Got to be fishing for someone to make an offer at a "still too high" a price.  VF-?? More like VG.  I might consider giving him $33.30 though, but that is probably still to much. 

Yeah, the one at MCS is a lot nicer and is “only” $189.

Honestly, the one that has been listed forever at $100 on Ebay is probably nicer.

Either someone can’t grade or they are looking for a sucker.

When the heck did Spawn 1 become a $20 book?  I’m not talking newsstand or 9.8 candidates.  I’m talking about just a nice normal copy on EBay.  They printed like 1.7 million of them.  Are there really 1.7 million people that want a Spawn 1?

On 8/3/2020 at 6:28 AM, Gatsby77 said:

Believe it or not, a single "Fair Market Value" for this book exists, because we have the transaction volume to determine an accurate value.

It's $2,300 - the pure average of the last 17 sales you list.

That's what the book is "worth." -- yes -- the $1,246 sale was an outlier to the downside (a great pick-up!) but it doesn't suddenly make the book worth that much, any more than the $2,850 sale makes the book worth that much.

GPA variance is natural also because of venue arbitrage. An eBay sale might be 10-15% different from one at Heritage due to postage differences or bidding variance due to the differing house takes.

But the value of this book is $2,300 -- not "$1,800 - $2,800."

This has been standard since the beginning of the hobby -- the difference is GPA (with all of its flaws and susceptibility to manipulation) has enabled us to get more accurate vs. the single value determined by Overstreet's based on dealer's reports alone.

 

But back to the point, depending on "investors" to consistently overpay by 20-40% (as shown by Rally Road's sales prices vs. trailing average FMVs -- isn't a sustainable business model).

The problem with this is that you are assuming that all 9.8 ASM 300s are functionally identical.  They aren't.  This is ignoring pretty substantial variations in value due to page quality, centering, and eye appeal.  

If I was in the market for this book, there are books I would pay more than $2300 for and books that I would pay substantially less for.  You are going to get less money for a 9.8 with a fugly misrap most of the time.  That is a large part of why the price people are willing to pay for a particular book varies so widely.

These aren't commodities.  Each comic book has unique characteristics that make it more or less appealing than the next book, even ones that are graded identically.

35 minutes ago, circumstances said:

I tell people this all the time.

It's like "safe haven" or "very unique".

1 hour ago, MrBedrock said:

You gonna argue with a Texan from Texas about chaps?

Am I wrong?  Are there non-assless chaps I'm not aware of? 

9 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

Assless chaps

That's redundant.  Chaps are by definition assless.

13 hours ago, icefires said:

I like this one. 

Alf not so much.

The boards made me money by putting that book my radar.  I bought a rough copy for $3 at a comic shop that must not have known about it being in demand. I never would have looked twice at it, except I was familiar with it from these boards. I think at the time it was probably a $25 dollar book in lower grade.  I ended up selling it in a MCS auction for about $100 after it ran up past  my dollar threshold for amusement value of the cover.

Just now, blazingbob said:

Yes but as it has been posted earlier the "big Picture" I keep getting told is the trading of shares.  In its current form the asset manager is fully in control right now.

Even if they set up share trading, I see nothing indicating that that would involve control of the asset.  You would just own a bigger share of  the proceeds when the manager decides to sell.  You could own 100% of the shares for an asset, but that doesn’t give you control.  It just means you get all of the money ( minus the debt that they’ve incurred for expenses) when they choose to sell it.

5 hours ago, blazingbob said:

You get or hope to see other sales of the same book and then hope that your shares reset to that value on the trading platform.  

I think people are missing the "speculation" part of this via the 24x7 trading platform.  The trading of comic shares regardless of the underlying assets value.  You might be one of those lucky guys who gets bought out at a higher price even though the underlying asset has been sold yet.  You could be a potential buyer of the book and if RallyRd doesn't sell you the book at the price you want you start buying up shares (hopefully for less then what you want to pay for the book) and then if you acquire a majority percentage you force the sale at your number.  

I see nothing on their site that indicates that having a majority of the share for an asset actually gives to any control.  It looks to me like the manager makes all of the decisions regardless of share ownership.

I’d suggest that anyone interested in actually doing this read their Disclaimers carefully-

https://rallyrd.com/disclaimer/
 

A few of them that jumped out at me-

• The operating expenses related to a Series of the company may exceed the revenues generated by such Series and excess operating expenses could then materially and adversely affect the value of Interests and result in dilution to Investors.
• If the Company’s series limited liability company structure is not respected, then Investors may have to share any liabilities of the Company with all Investors and not just those who hold the same Series of Interests as them.
• There may be potentially high storage, maintenance and insurance costs for the Underlying Assets.
• Members of a Series in the Company have very limited voting rights.
• In the event that operating expenses for a series exceed revenues generated by the series, the Manager may choose to cause the series to incur debt rather than look for additional sources of income elsewhere to cover the costs.
• Allocation of costs and expenses across series of the Company may be difficult. In such circumstances the Manager may be conflicted from acting in the best interests of the Company as a whole or the individual series.
• The Company’s operating agreement contains provisions that reduce or eliminate duties (including fiduciary duties) of the Manager.

These are massive red flags to me.  You’re not just buying a share of the asset.  You’re also letting them borrow against that asset to pay themselves to manage the asset.  How much?  No way of knowing.  I particularly like the warning that if their company structure is not respected, investors could actually lose more money than they put in ( “share any liabilities” ).  They have no fiduciary responsibility to you, so there seems to be a pretty strong incentive to suck as much money out of each asset to pay themselves, and then sell the asset for what they borrowed against it, leaving the investors with very little of their cash after expenses.  
 

They may have good intentions, but this looks to me like a lot of people are going to end up getting fleeced.

On 7/24/2020 at 9:02 AM, october said:

I've lots of copies of both, and I have sold them as fast as I get them....in any grade. I have zero personal interest, but plenty of people seem to want them. 

I get the appeal of the book, I just don’t see much reason to pay huge money for a 9.8.

The joke is just as funny when it’s a 6.0, so why break the bank?
 

10 minutes ago, G.A.tor said:

I don’t see this helping the hobby or value of gold and silver keys at all. It presumably initially benefits rally.  But just because someone “might” pay more for a fraction ownership than was initially paid (and that initial has a 20%? Markup over fmv already built in, again benefiting rally) it doesn’t affect value of someone else that owns same book in same grade.  
In cap 3 example last 3 public sales have been 32k, 30k and recently 24k at heritage. That doesn’t bode well for someone owning a share at 37k? And that surely wouldn’t inspire someone 90days later to now pay 40 for that 37 share that’s worth 30? 
 

great for rally, Not potentially great for anyone else 

This reminds me of the secondary market for timeshares.  I don’t know anyone who has been happy years later that they bought a timeshare.  However, I have heard stories about them having to dump them on the secondary market for a fraction of what they paid. I bet there are buyers on the timeshare secondary markets that have ended up with great deals.

I have no interest in paying inflated prices to own a fractional share of a comic.  However, I would be interested in buying those shares on the trading day at less than the market value of the comic 😀

That’s assuming I’m ever confident that this isn’t going to collapse on itself in a disaster of bankruptcy and out-of-country flights.

22 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

@Hamlet You've got some real gems in there!  Nice pickups!!

And only two of them are duplicates feeding my hoarding impulse. 😀