ft88

I had a bugs bunny four color that was a fine at best worth maybe $50.

Priority works best within your own postal zone. I couldn't find a convenient chart online but there are about 7 of them if shipping from the coasts. Only zone 1 works for priority being cheaper or equivalent. Especially with ebay postal discounts. I'm not sure if these will go away when they split from paypal. Otherwise Media Mail is by far cheaper even at 1 lb. OK at 1 lb it saves maybe 30 cents but for heavier stuff it saves up to $5 to $10 on 10 - 15 lbs. Flat rate is pretty expensive generally speaking compared to Media. Even full with comics, it winds up being the same as normal priority. I haven't done an analysis for every possible weight or postal code, but that's my experience. Ed

I like the thread(s) on the explosive growth in pricing on comics, modern and otherwise. There are valid comparisons to coins, stamps, and cards that should prove warning signs. That said, comics are different in that they represent cultural movements that coins and stamps simply don't. And unlike sports cards, they are extremely flexible. From Disney to Superhero to Horror/Fantasy, the genres covered are all things popculture. So even if the superhero movie craze goes away (and I don't think it will) like the 1960s western, there are so many different directions comics can go. The real issues with a "death of collecting comics" is the dynamic of price to collectible. Unlike any other time, the affect of price on supply and demand is really convoluted. Not to get into Econ 101 or 301 on demand and supply curves, instead I'll use simple language. In the real world demand goes up = price goes up. Price goes up signals to suppliers to make more and brings the price back down. In collectible world you can't make more but price going up brings more available for sale. And we see that no matter how hot the comic is. New Mutants 98 has found a price equilibrium or around $800 for a CGC 9.8. OK good. The problem happens when prices go down, or demand softens. In the real world as prices go down supply should go down. (Keep in mind, prices here are demand driven, not supply driven - assume a fixed supply which isn't quite true but is generally, ie no more can be produced and real world assumptions about amounts and grades are probably pretty accurate) What happens in the collectible world is that as prices go down, while real supply stays steady, supply made available for sale goes up! For one out of favor comic, no big deal. But when this happens to the comic collecting market as a whole, the downward cycle can be fierce.. So the comparison to my experience with baseball cards is valid. Sure Mickey Mantls RC and Nolan Ryan RC were and still are in pretty high demand. But even the hot two bit players RC cards were going for crazy money. The variant stuff and all that craziness is just part of it. But once the music stops, all but the very best stuff will be near worthless. Right now seemingly every SA or BA comic is a key. So was every Joe Morgan card once he went into the HOF. It really can't last and when it falls the supply will spill over with no buyers. The issue is, nobody can say when it will happen. Prices were crazy 10 years ago. got crazier 5 years ago and crazier still today. They can go crazier still. Cycles happen too. But generally in the collectible world market wide sell offs don't recover. See stamps coins, sports cards, beanie babies, you name it. Comics have survived some of these down cycles which is a strong sign for the comic market. But still, I certainly have a hard time understanding the demand for C and D tier character's Rookie Cards. Ahem, 'scuse me. First appearances. Time will tell.

That's really it so far. The overwhelming-ness has gone away a bit. The trick is to spend the time organizing the books. As these were mixed to a large degree the easiest thing to do was make categories and start putting them in long boxes. All Spiderman and related. All Xmen and related. All Batman and related and on and on. As I went through I could pull the keys. And if I missed a key I could find it later. If I missed a key and shipped it in a lot, no big deal either. Then break out the Spidermans. All the Venoms, Web of, PPSS, Amazing, extras etc. At that point when I sell a 25 box of random Spidermans I can select the issues where there are 9 copies. Again its a little bit of work and I'm not done yet but so far so good. Try to wind down the experiences on this one deal. But I do thing there are a number of folks who have just a ton of comics and don't know how to sell them. Basically give up or wait until they have to sell all. Then get pennies on the dollar. I know when I come across a 20+ box of 1980s on up, my first thought is simply, no.

A further update on this latest collection. Still have about 55 long boxes, so just over half. Good part is, there's only 15 long of schwag, the rest are pretty good runs of things like Wolverine, Mew Mutants, GI Joe, Superman Xmen Batman etc. A couple methods I've used to sell bulk and I rate them on a scale of 1-10. Craigslist 7/10: It's going to be hit or miss but to sell in bulk this worked pretty well. Sold a dozen better long boxes for $90 each. Sold another 10 below average long boxes for $60 each. I only had to field a few no shows or emails chains that led to nothing. I was close to a guy who wanted to buy the remaining 30 long boxes of common stuff for $50 each. He simply wanted them for $40 each and I stayed the course. The ease of that would have been nice but this was before I started moving them on ebay. Ebay 8/10: Simply put, ebay just has so many eyeballs. My method here was to sell them in lots of 25 or 60 by character. It was and still is very effective. 25 were priced at $15 to $24 and lots of 60 were $30-$40 w free postage. I was shocked at the variety of selling. It wasn't just Spiderman or Batman that sold. New Warriors sold, Sleepwalker sold, FF, a few lots of Daredevil, Firestorm etc etc. A 25 lot of TMNT sold for $50. This is all without scans or pictures, just the one generic pic shown in this thread. Sure these are netting me 35-40 cents each after fees and postage but I've seen similar long boxes at shows selling 3 for $1. A number of times, one buyer would pick up 4 or 5 lots which pushed the net to 50 cents a book. The downside is that it is slow going and the hit rate is maybe 3/20 per week on ebay listings. That can eat up the free listings but if I had a monthly subscription it wouldn't be a big deal. And it takes 10 buys to sell a long box, that takes a while. CGC boards 6/10: Generic stuff is slow going. Board members want a good deal just like any of the methods. But because communication is so easy buyers send tons of PM which have to be answered and answered well. A few long boxes sold here but higher end. Uncanny Xmen, Amazing Spiderman. 3 long boxes of specific runs of DC, Some runs of Silver Surfer, etc. Basically folks here on the boards will pay for good stuff but want to know what's in it. I think I sold only 2 long boxes for generics for $80 each shipped.

OK I give up trying to see auction results after they close. How'd the 4.5 sell out?

The 4.0 I listed on the boards sold privately for $13.5k w time payments as a marker. I'm thinking $3000-$3500 a point at the sub-Fine grades is a base. Above that, tough to say.

Great purchase, no problems at all. Ed

They are all common enough, the Astonishing Tales Kazar might pull a little extra but the real money is for higher grade stuff VFNM or better.

Another component about collectibles, price and fluctuations. If the market stagnates or corrects to any degree, I have to imagine the number of AF 15's that would come to market would bury the number of SC 4's. As long as prices go up, demand will overwhelm supply. Once prices settle or drop, supply starts to muscle in on the whole equation.

I do like the Hulk 1 v SC 4 comparison. AF15 sales are regretted because the price went up. SC 4 and Hulk 1 sales are regretted because the price went up and you can't find another one. I can see a hard core ASM collector selling his cherished CGC 5.0 because it has a marvel chip that he can't get past. Sell it for FMV and then spend a few months looking for a better copy. The Flash collector simply wouldn't do that or wouldn't be wise to. He'd buy the 4.5 first that he liked, then sell the 3.0 to help fund it. Otherwise you could wait 2 years to find the right copy and what collector can go without for that long.

Man page 8. Hope this link show up as I can't see pics at work.

I agree, if you were to list the hottest comics right now this one would be in the top 3 if not 1. To "overprice" a book like that where it can be inspected in hand etc., seems more than reasonable. Sure if your wall book is a Daredevil 131 and its overpriced by 25% then maybe it doesn't make sense to promote your booth. Ed

Thank you, the X-Force 2 and 11 I knew about, I pulled all the Surfers, not just the keys but I figured those Thanos books were good. Issue 50 sells pretty well on its own too. There was also a really nice near complete run of Surfers as well as dups. I just started pulling the X-Factor 23's, forgot about the cameo. Arguably I could have should have organized first then started to sell. It would have been much more efficient but my impatience gets the best of me. Should I take a full month to organize (by publisher, by character, by bulk, then by good titles and on and on) or simply offer up stuff for sale and see what hits. I chose the later as I simply wasn't educated enough on moderns to know what would sell and what wouldn't. There was probably a long box of Ghost Riders that I thought were bulk blowout books but I have had multiple sales of 25 Ghost Rider books for $12-$15. But I was glad to sell 5 long boxes or random Marvels for $450 locally. No muss no fuss. Same with the Fantastic Fours. Simply thought demand was dead but a box of 25 will sell for $15 it seems. Its nice over the past few weeks a dozen or two boxes of 25 comics and 9 or 10 boxes or 60 comics have put a dent in the bulk comics. It is funny no matter what I do though, there's a feeling of sellers remorse. Oh, what key did I miss that went into that box? But I will be glad to have them "gone". In the end my business model is to throughput the inventory as quickly as reasonably possible, especially the items I get no joy from as a collector. And by throughput I mean volume, not cash flow. I can imagine this being a different operation if I had borrowed money to make this purchase, or if it was bigger. I think it did help that I sold an AF 15 right near the time of the purchase so that arguably was a huge comic cash flow in and could justify selling bulk even for low dollar amounts. Just listed the Valiants as a bulk lot sale here on the boards, we'll see how it goes.

I believe it. Anyone with a copy gets PMs. Tough book to even find these days let alone affordable.

Great buyer, good taste in books.

1st Copycat? Who knows, some movie or something, but $5 to $10 each. http://www.ebay.com/sch/Modern-Age-1992Now-/900/i.html?_from=R40|R40|R40|R40&_nkw=1st+copy+cat&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=900&LH_Sold=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=1&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&LH_Complete=1

Haven't updated this in a while. So it's been sales mode and I've learned quite a bit about selling in bulk and modern books. A related story though. I have learned to stick to my knitting and only buy what I know. I still violate that and buy stuff in addition to comics but its usually taking a chance at low dollar amounts. I've bought lead soldiers and a 1930s monopoly game for $100 and sold them for $60. I've bought wrestling cards for $30 them for $300. Hot Wheels and Fisher Price items that were more work then it was worth. Batman statues for $600 that sold for $1000 which seems great but again a lot of work. So back to bulk moderns (by moderns I mean late 1980s to late 1990s) I really don't know them very well other than the very high dollar and obvious books. Or books that I had sold in the last year or so. Venom Protector 1 is a $5 book. Suicide Squad is about to be a movie, who know DC's Legends would ever be worth a damn? With storage is a continuous cost that I simply can't abide. Even dealing with the comics they take over space. Not to mention time. So the first lesson is to be patient. Going through 90 long boxes that are only in marginal order and some not at all takes 20 hours of continuous work. I couldn't help but sell books while going through them. Which is not smart. Guy buys 5 long boxes that I had gone through but not looked up, who knows what was in there? That said, I'm not sure I'd buy them back if you get where I'm coming from. Other responses to Craigslist ad brings out many folks only looking for keys when I am selling bulk. I don't want to be rude and I like dealing in comics so I allow them to come by and browse. Sold a decent ASM 238 that way, and so it goes. Big mistake was meeting a person at the storage unit. Sure he bought some items but again he was looking to flip some easy key books and not buy the bulk. I have no problem with that, but the problem was he know knows the storage unit and basically what's in it. Certainly I don't have the higher dollar items there but it isn't much to have stuff stolen out of a storage unit and that would not make me happy. So to relieve my worry I took about 10 of the more valuable longs out of the storage unit. And thus it is taking up other space at home. So be it though, it's also easier to organize those and eventually list them for sale. Eventually. Other thing I've done is basic organizing without total organizing. For me the time vs maximizing sales is to organize by character and sell them that way. Also by title but only the better titles or completed runs. I've done OK selling lots of 25 or 60 for $15 or $30 on ebay. Which is better than selling a long box of 250 for $80. And I need to go through them anyway so I can check for keys or egregious duplication. Learned about copper and modern keys. Miracleman by Moore I can't wait to read. V for Vendetta I plan to read again. I didn't know about Thor 411 412 or Xmen 4 and 5. Xfactor 15 24. XForce 19. Spiderman in the late 400's are good. Found out about Sleepwalker 1 and Darkhawk 1. So good stuff all around. My incorrect first impression was that I'd have to practically give these books away. Since they hadn't been picked there were some nice keys and nice runs. Even bulk common books can sell. $20 for 25 Flash or Superman, $30 for 60 random Spiderman or Xmen. In the end I will have to "give" away some books. I think the storage unit I can lose in 6 months so that's not too too bad. And then focus on the BA and SA books which I enjoy dealing in more. Funny though a VG TTA might get $3 while a NM Avengers from the 1980s can get the same. The trick is the $3 to $10 books. They really require attention to detail with scans and grading. I've mentioned that before but its really staring me in the face. 100 books can take hours to post properly. But bulk selling those might get $1 a book.

Here's Ian Levines post to a Buzzy 70 I "posted" on ebay for sale as a pure auction. This was when Buzzy 70 was 1 of maybe a dozen books he needed to complete his DC collection. Listed it on ebay on April 1st 2004 pretty funny 2 page thread. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=389042&fpart=2

Just be patient and you will come across one via a clueless LCS (I picked up a nice copy a couple of years ago for $4 at a LCS that pulled out a BA run) or in a collection. This one came in a collection of 1990s long boxes. Like all finds I feel fortunate and disappointed all at once. There was a run of BA with random issues from 7 to 25. No 12. Combine that there were 4 copies of 11 and 6 copies of 13. Thinking it had to have been pulled but there were other holes along the way. Then I find this 12 randomly in other DC books from the era. Other Bat Adv as well but just the one 12. And fortunate that it stayed in top shape as it was bagged but not boarded. Didn't even open the pages as I transferred it to a new bag, board and mylar. Hoping for a 9.6 with a great shot at 9.8 when I get it back from CGC.

Next to some nice 25 centers was the one 30 var is the blue starburst so translucent in every ASM 155? You can see the "Still 25c" behind it. Pic of Nova in the interior as well in the Bullpen letters.

Meantime, some common 30 centers. Spotlight is nice though.

No, looks fishy but you never know. Erased price and then stamped over? Or stickered? Hard to tell exactly but it could be legit.

Sold another 5. I started working on sorting these out and while it isn't total randomness there are a lot of boxes that only have one or two books to a title. I started taking out the FF, Caps, any Superman title etc thinking it would be an easier sale and of more interest to someone who only wanted one character. That really strated to become cumbersome as I don't have a warehouse or full basement to work in. Posted here to sell them for various prices from $80 to $120 depending on the quality of the titles. Even as that worked a bit, Media mail on a long box at 45 lbs is $23.50. That's a lot. Posted them on Craigslist and I have had excellent response. Quite a number of local dealers who need cheap stock. Most of them have very general wants. Discounts for sure but so far its been to make sure I have Marvel and DC not interested in i dependents. Makes sense, although there are plenty of indy books that are good. I've made it pretty clear that the good comes with the bad and discounts only happen with 5 or more boxes bought. So I've stopped sorting. Simply too much work and not the kind I enjoy. I'll pull Amazing Spiderman, or Uncanny Xmen and I'll make a Batman or Superman box with some of the runs; which I plan to sell later and for a bit more than $100. I'm sure there are plenty of runs or semi keys I'm letting go but this is the way I'm working it. Then I can focus on the bronze and silver, though even there I plan on lotting those out.