zosocane

So, basically, with Premium, for the applicable year, (i) you get the right to submit and (ii) you get your $149 membership fee refunded as long as you submit.  With Associate, for the applicable year, (i) you get the ribht to submit, but (ii) your $25 membership fee is not refunded in any way. 

On 1/10/2022 at 3:42 PM, zosocane said:

 

On 1/10/2022 at 12:38 AM, DC# said:

Holy Doc Ock!    Watching some of the Heritage auction tonight when I saw this.   Caught my eye as I happen to own this same grade but in Ow/W.     This is nearly double the last sale from Dec and the 90 day.   
 

Last night's $15.6K hammer price on the 7.0 OW is even more remarkable given that there is an active BIN listing on Ebay for a 7.0 C/OW for a full $5K less.

On 1/10/2022 at 2:16 PM, Steviehuv66 said:

Purchased two years ago raw but newly CGC’d.

 

Gorgeous and tough in grade.

On 1/7/2022 at 10:37 PM, Eddy707 said:

 

 

I’ll take them. 

Glad to see you're back at it.  

On 1/4/2022 at 9:42 PM, FlyingDonut said:

Deposits over $10,000 have to be reported per the PATRIOT Act. That hasn't changed since 2001.

Actually, under the Currency and Foreign Transactions Report Act (aka the Bank Secrecy Act).  The $10K reporting threshold has been in place since 1970.

On 1/7/2022 at 2:24 PM, KPR Comics said:

yes, and by law, exempt

You are correct that it's exempt, but that's not what I'm getting at.  My point is that the fisc has to be replenished one way or another.

On 1/7/2022 at 2:28 PM, snitzer said:

The one or two IRS / big government apologists here never cease to amaze me 

Not sure if you're referring to me, but if you are, I'm simply stating that nothing free is ever truly free.

But, but ... weren't those 2020 and 2021 federal stimulus checks free money?  

On 1/5/2022 at 3:15 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Well in my experience (upgraded my run to 9.4 a few years ago) the prices for the JIM run have always been a noticeable step up from the Thor prices.

Plus, JIMs have that smell, you know, that vintage smell to them.

I know that Stan and Jack tried hard to make him seem cool and groovy, but before he became Bucky, he was annoying.  Rick was also annoying in those Marvel TV cartoons from the 1960s.  He only became useful, and thus interesting, when he became fake Bucky for several issues in the late Silver Age.

On 1/4/2022 at 1:09 PM, Bosco685 said:

done!

May he save the world from racists and misogynists on other sites

The ignore function is awesome.  Instant Phantom Zone!

On 12/30/2021 at 10:08 PM, Dale Roberts said:

Spidey Super Stories #1  NM   $150

Take.

On 12/28/2021 at 2:54 PM, chrisco37 said:

I set (at the time I bought it) a GPA high for ASM15 8.0.  That was probably 8 years ago. 

Hah.  Small world.  I set at the time I bought it a GPA high for an ASM 15 8.0, about 7 years ago. So I broke your then-chart-buster.  At the time, i thought it was nuts, and that it would take years to show equity in the book.  Now i regret not buying a 9.0 or higher of that book.  

The person getting the GSX1 and FF48 come out winning by a lot, especially long term.  If the GSX1 and FF48 are yours, and you really want the SC22, ask for cash to be thrown in with the SC22.

On 12/28/2021 at 12:18 AM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

 

Hello, since it's getting some attention I figured I would raise my hand as the guy who dropped over $20K on that Silver Surfer #3 back in May.

I've been upgrading the Silver Surfer run from 9.4 to 9.6 WP, and #3 was one of the toughest in the run even before people started speculating wildly about Mephisto.  I knew I was buying in the midst of a run-up, but here's the thing -- I also knew that I had a 9.4 WP undercopy to sell.

I am a collector, not a speculator, by which I mean I buy to hold, not to flip.  Of course I would like to buy each book as low as I can and sell as high as I can, but I don't get too caught up in the economics of a specific purchase, I think about the overall "portfolio" and I can feel just fine with aggressive purchases if I like how the collection is performing in the bigger picture.

So, here's the full context (and the math) on my Silver Surfer #3 saga this year:

• I bought my 9.4 WP copy (raw) for $240 back in 2003.  I had it pressed and graded in 2017, so all-in I was into the book for $306.40.
• I then bid big on the 9.6 WP copy in May, and won it for $21,251.  I sure wish I'd won it for $15K or even $18K, but I was just happy to have the book.
• I immediately listed my 9.4 WP copy for sale, and with a little patience I was able to sell it in August for $8,464 (net of fees).  That's nearly 27 times my original investment.

So the way I see it, I put up a total of $21,251 + 306.40 - $8,464 = $13,093.40 to own a 9.6 WP.  That's well within the range of where the market seems to be right now, plus I would point out that the comps listed above do not have white pages and that was a must-have for me.  Finally, I believe that it's quite likely this book will climb again in the future.  Mephisto will almost certainly have his day in the MCU eventually.  Overall I feel good about the investment.

While I wish it were possible to always nail the timing on the buy side and the sell side, the simple fact is I am buying books at such an aggressive clip that I can't get hung up on any one purchase, any more than a poker player can focus on a single hand when they're playing hundreds or thousands of them.  (For example, my Silver Surfer #4 9.6 WP cost me "only" $4,500 -- so again, considering the whole set I like where I sit.)

I hope this context is helpful for anyone who wants to understand how a collector like me thinks.

Lou, you manned up twice, not just in executing the purchase back in May, but in sharing with the community your thought process on the big purchase.  In 10 years you will have another healthy ROI, because the MCU is going to be doing the same thing into the 2030s.  That's the beauty of being collector-investors in this hobby (who are in it for the long term), and not investor-speculators or outright speculators (who are in it often for a year or less (frequently much less)). 

On 12/27/2021 at 5:45 PM, Bird said:

stoners? they hit 420 and were doing bong hits when auction ended?

Worse.  The wife of one of the two called them to take out the garbarge Sunday night.  The ultimate distraction.

On 12/22/2021 at 1:37 PM, Venomous72 said:

I went a little too crazy in 2021 so I am reigning it in a bit.

This was my 2021 in summary and that is my 2022 goal.  Discipline.

On 12/21/2021 at 10:45 PM, Broke as a Joke said:

I guess most people don't realize that Ned Leeds was never really the Hobgoblin except for one issue in which he was framed.  (ASM 289)

Yes, but generations of comic book fans have repeated enough over the last 35 years that Ned Leeds is the Hobgoblin, and thus he is.  And Mikey did choke to death on Pop Rocks.  

On 12/26/2021 at 10:29 PM, Dale Roberts said:

Logan's Run #6  NM   $50     1st Thanos solo story

Take.

On 12/26/2021 at 9:56 PM, Dale Roberts said:

Avengers #21  8.5/9.0    $200     1st Power Man

Take

On 12/23/2021 at 5:36 PM, DC# said:

I finally finished my version of the "DOW 30" for comic books for those interested in a more aggregate look at the trends.    I am sure any statistician here can find the errors in the development my sample pool but it is what it is.    Here is the general breakdown:

• 10 books each from Silver, Bronze, and Copper/Modern and 3 CGC grades per book.   So total view is across 90 graded books.
• I tried to pick titles/issues at grades that had sufficient sales velocity - and picked books that have been consistent "key issues" over the years (no hot today - dead tomorrow).    Balance of big keys and every-day keys at a range of values.    So there is not an Avengers 1 or X-men 1 in 9.6 for example.   But for Modern/Copper included a lot of 9.8s since that is really where the market is.   
• This is a quarterly snapshot (Jan, April, July, Oct) between 2016 and 2021 so it won't necessarily show the monthly peaks.   Took the average of all sales in the month of Jan/Apri/Jul/Oct - except in Modern where I took the average of the last 2 sales in that month (just too many damn copies sold per month and I ran out of steam).   If there was no sales in that month - I took the last sale regardless of what month it occurred.    

Here are the books/grades this tracks (apologies to Gold collectors)

Silver

• Avengers 1 5.0/4.0/3.0
• X-Men 1 4.5/4.0/2.5
• Tales of Suspense 39  5.0/3.5/3/0
• Fantastic Four 48  8.0/6.0/4.0
• Batman 181 6.0/4.0/3.0
• Daredevil 1. 6.0/5.0/3.5
• Spider-man 50  8.0/6.0/4.0
• Silver Surfer 1 8.0/6.0/4.0
• Iron Man 1 8.0/6.0/4.0
• Flash 139  7.0/6.0/5.0

Bronze

• Hulk 181 9.2/8.0/6/0
• Giant Size X-men 1 9.4/8.5/6.5
• Marvel Spotlight 5. 8.5/7.5/6.5
• Spider-man 129   8.5/7.5/6.5
• Tomb of Dracula 10   9.2/8.0/6.5
• House of Secrets 92.  8.5/7.0/4.0
• DC Comics Presents 26.  9.8/9.6/9.2
• Batman 232.  8.5/7.5/6.0
• Iron Man 55.  9.4/8.5/7.5
• Star Wars 1.  9.8/9.6/9.0

Copper/Modern

• Spider-man 300.  9.8/9.4/9.0
• Ultimate Fallout 4.  9.8/9.6/9.4
• Batman Adventures 12  9.8/9.6/9.4
• X-men 266. 9.8/9.4/9.2
• Young Avengers 1.  9.8/9.6/9.4
• New Mutants 98.   9.8/9.6/9.4
• Swamp Thing 37. 9.8/9.6/9.4
• Edge of Spider-verse 2.  9.8/9.6/9.4
• Hulk 340.  9.8/9.6/9.4
• Wolverine 1 (88).  9.8/9.6/9.4

 

Overall this analysis looks a lot like the performance chart of any single book you look at on GPA.    The January results will be an indicator of much of a correction the market started to show as of Oct.     The returns here have been very strong since 2016 with a bit of a pause in 2019.  Even if 2021 had been flat-ish it would have been a good 5 year run.  

 

 

  Very helpful ‘big picture’ analysis.  

On 12/23/2021 at 11:42 AM, LowGradeBronze said:

Fear 20, first solo Morbius. Ticks a lot of boxes as a minor key. 

And a classic Bronze Age cover.

On 12/19/2021 at 10:13 PM, Dale Roberts said:

Giant Size Creatures #1  Fine+    $100   1st Tigra

Take.