Westy Steve

On 2/1/2024 at 1:34 PM, Cman429 said:

Comics became hot because of the movies. The movies are dying off so the pop culture cache of comics will go right along with it. Eventually we’ll be right back to the same small group of nerds who loved comics in the 70s/80s/90s before they became “cool.” Except instead of being young professionals with free $$$ to spend, they’ll be middle age geezers with kids that need college or a wife who wants a dishwasher or 257 more important things than spending $2k on the first appearance of Paste Pot Pete. 

OK, I know I'm "overcommenting"...sorry.  Anyway, I'm not tenaciously married to my belief/position.  But as for me, I was definitely the young professional with lots of money to spend on comics...(had every silver age marvel key).  Then for the last two decades, I've been the middle-aged guy with kids who had to slow down my collecting.  But in the meantime, I've been paying off my house, I bought my obligatory classic car, I've invested into my retirement, and I've bought every type of appliance,, tool  or doodad for my house that a family/person could need.  In a few years, my kids will be out of college, and I'll once again find myself with more money to spend and a secure retirement.  So for me personally, since I will already have most everything a reasonable person wants/needs, I'll probably ramp up my spending.  Of course, I'll need to do that to buy back the stuff I sold off to all you lucky bachelors.

On 2/1/2024 at 1:27 PM, Bookery said:

To be fair, 80 years is a bit of an exaggeration.  That would mean people began paying collector premiums for comics as early as WW2!  I don't think that's true.  The earliest ads I've seen promoting back-issues at premiums to cover price is about the mid-1960s.  . 

You could be right, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that the kid who started reading Action Comics at issue #25 might have been willing to pay a slight premium to get the first issue to read Superman's origin...especially when it wasn't available in any other format (except a recap). Or perhaps, they wanted to put together a set of every Batman comic.  I think premiums existed...they were just very small.  

On 1/31/2024 at 11:48 PM, PopKulture said:

The demographics simply don’t support the trends over the past few decades. Sure, people will point to certain key books in higher grades as continued evidence that prices will just keep on increasing, but do you think there are enough babies in the maternity ward right now who will pay $200 when they’re in their 50’s for a Roy Rogers no. 56, a Richie Rich Gems no. 3, a Betty and Veronica no. 111, or even a Marvel Presents no. 6? We’re talking about kids who will never have read a comic book, let alone bought one off the stand. What else will prop up the hobby? Intellectual properties? Because they will have made the twentieth crappy Ant-Man movie by then??

For vanity’s sake, a mega-wealthy person will buy the Church Action 1 or Allentown Detective 27 for some ridiculous sum, but that’s not going to trickle down to 99.9% of the rest of the hobby. 

In the near term, comics will do fine, but someday they’re going the way of stamps and Hummels (even if you and I and everyone else here thinks they’re cooler).  

PopK,

First, this is a cool book and it's uncommon...I wouldn't mind picking this up for my collection:  Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #111 FN- 5.5 1965 | eBay

I'm not meaning to be argumentative, but I'd like to give a counterpoint.  I collect coins.  You want to talk about upside down demographics?...coin collecting is your baby.  I remember going to coin shows in my late 40's and realizing I was the youngest there.  And yet, that hobby continued chugging along.  Do you know why?  Because like many of the collectors here, they continue to collect until their death.  Also...Unlike coins, where a low mintage coin was minted in the 10's of thousands, or 100's of thousands, many surviving desirable comics can number in the dozens or at least less than 100.  The reality is that there are just so few of the really good books out there for them to drop significantly in value until we're so old that we don't know what day it is or who our nurse is.

I have complete faith in the demographics (or lack thereof), because I read the 20 and 25 cent books that I found back in the day, but today I'm collecting 10 cent books like Betty and Veronica that I never ran across in my youth.  Realistically, almost nobody here had a chance to buy my Superman #5 in low, low, grade, off the stands, but they wouldn't kick it out of bed if the price was right because we all start out collecting the (more common) books we had as kids, and as our tastes become more refined, we start chasing things that we weren't even exposed to in our youth.  And we'll continue to do it until death.

On 1/31/2024 at 11:25 PM, Captain Crash said:

I'm looking at the market and it's extremely low in comparison to a couple years ago.  Obviously, things will go back up eventually, but who knows when and by how much.  My plan was to keep my collection into my 50's, may even closer to retirement age (in my 40's now).  But looking at the way books are dropping in value, I'm wondering how long it will take to get back to the sale prices we had a couple years ago... if ever!!  I'm just curious what people on here think based on your experience and market trends?  Do you think we'll ever get back to the insanely high sales prices we had just a couple years ago?  My gut tells me no, but I like to hear what fellow boardies have to say.

The key word in your question above is "experience".  Comic book prices have been moving up for more than 80 years, so anyone with experience is going to give you the same answer.  Historically, the only time it ever made sense to bet against the 80+ year trend was in the short term.  But you're asking about the long term.  Furthermore, at no time in the entire history of comic book collecting, was it a bad idea to buy on the dip.  So my own person logic is not to bet against the market.   

All that being said, my analysis is based on the classic books.  Not the flavor of the month in a 9.8 slab.  However, I've been around long enough to see even some of the "Hot dreck" go cold, and then get hot again a couple decades later as people feel nostalgic about the old dreck that they speculated on in their teen years.

On 1/24/2024 at 1:01 PM, comic_memories said:

I gotta say, I’m not a big fan of Ghost Rider necessarily, but the covers are always spectacular bursts of color.  

On 1/23/2024 at 10:29 AM, namisgr said:

Circle 20's are from the brief period at the end of 1971, when the transition from 15 to 20 cent cover price, or 25 cent giant to 20 cent, took place.  Afterwards, the 20 cent price was put in a box adjacent to the issue date box.

 

 

Interesting.  I didn’t know about them. I assumed they were all in the box.  

Let’s do it. Sign me up please. 

These are so great!  Each one I look at is just begging to be read.  Good stuff!

On 6/22/2023 at 8:01 PM, catrick339 said:

Gang Girl

No, not THAT  one, this is Nightstand NB 1504.

Don Elliott was the pen name of Robert Silverberg, who wrote a bunch of smutty novels before gaining popularity as a science fiction author. 
I figure you can't go wrong with lust-cats of the gutters,  
What with this being a smut book and all, I will need an age statement from the buyer before I will ship.

Minor general wear lies flat, tight, and square. Chip out lower BC
Spine photo coming shortly.

Asking $30
 

 

Did you sell this?  Sending PM. 

Cross posted in the Are prices easing up a bit? thread. 
 

This sold in about 1 day on EBay. Kind of surprised me. 
 

Ok, this can’t be any more off topic than what’s transpired here lately. But this comicbook adjacent sale surprised me. Was going to post this in the hidden paperback thread, but it’s relevant here. This sold within a day or so. Very strong money for this book. 
 

On 5/6/2023 at 7:48 PM, OuterboroGuy said:

Take for $150 donation

Thank you sir!  Pm me proof of payment and your address. 

I wonder what the gross will be after this weekend?

I like to set up as a dealer at comic book shows to sell comics and video games.  When I first started doing that, not many people were interested in the games.   Over the last couple years it became apparent that it was not possible to buy games in cardboard boxes anymore (in the wild). Most all of my boxed games came from a single collector who was meticulous with his boxes. Then I started to add to that collection with mint in box games.
 

Today, I can only get the later generation games in the plastic  clam shells (in the wild).  I still sell those, but I’ve been noticing that it’s been harder and harder to find those at flea markets and thrift stores so now I’m going out of my way to try to buy collections to resell. Some of my old  “cardboard box” inventory (below) still has price stickers on them but those stickers are going to be removed. Not really interested in selling any of my boxed games anymore. At this point they are a hoard that I’m slowly adding to. 

Yep. By the picture/chart of IG181 above, nicer Bronze might be under priced. When markets correct, they overshoot to they downside

I’m in. Maybe I’ll have better luck this time. 

A couple of thoughts:

I liked that this movie didn’t rely on Orcs and Goblins. The monsters were varied like the game. 
 

I also liked how the dialogue mirrored the kinds of conversations you might hear during a D&D game…”Exactly Five questions?  That sounds kind of arbitrary”. 

On 3/31/2023 at 9:51 PM, batmiesta said:

Now we just need 99.99 % of ebay sellers to realise it. 

I used to have a mantra in a market upswing that “the perception  becomes the reality”. In an upward moving market, if the fair market price is $1,000 and some fellow prices his at $1,200 under the delusion that it’s worth his price, a desperate buyer may eventually buy it if they can’t find a cheaper copy and that sets the market price. 
 

If the weak hands sell, leaving only delusional sellers, that could become the new floor.  The complication is they won’t sell anything as the market stabilizes. All boils down to the mood of the sellers…are they willing to hold the line?  
 

I am fortunate that I’ve been swapping out my Bronze Age books and even my late silver age works for early silver and gold merge stuff so this downturn isn’t really bothering me much. But I do have a copy of the first appearance of iron fist. That book has dropped so much that when I consider selling it to buy more golden age I looked at the price of it and just decided that I’d rather keep it than sell it at those prices.
 

The books I most regret selling the most are those I sold too cheap. An X-men 94 for $50. A low grade X-men 1 for $150, etc. I can’t regret selling expensive books for big $$$.  After seeing prices for MP15, I started thinking about upgrading since prices are so low. Right now might be a good time to upgrade bronze. 

Hey guys,

I got this today. I traded for it.  My trading partner disclosed in advance that in the past a kid apparently darkened the teeth of the monster and the heroes suspenders with a black pen. It probably doesn’t matter whether the grading companies consider this a color touch or not, since it’s just a low value cool book to be read and enjoyed.

 But out of curiosity is this considered a color touch by CGC standards? I’m guessing no since the intent was not to make the book look newer, I do think the young artist that used to own this book thought it made the book look cooler. Perhaps so.  I kind of agree with the kid that dark teeth makes the monster look more menacing. What do you think?  Is this a purple label candidate?

On 3/17/2023 at 12:05 AM, jimjum12 said:

 ... life is short and happiness fleeting. Don't let "Karen" rob you of your dreams. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

Lol.  Thanks, but when I read this I laughed out loud. My wife’s real name is Karen.