VintageComics

+1 The market has generally decided that the two companies are not like for like when it comes to grading so a noticeable discount is routinely baked in to Voldy slabs. It depends on the venue, eye appeal, type of book, type of transaction. Some books sell for record numbers regardless of the label (if people buy the book and not the label) if the book looks better than the grade or is a tough book. More common books at auction may sell at a slight discount in either label. And certainly there are notable sales in either holder. It's no different if it's a PGX holder. If there is value in the holder someone will pay strong money for it. Voldy was a bit loose when they came of the gates but that is no longer the case from what I've seen.

I wasn't referring to teachers. I was referring to the parents who use digital devices as babysitters. It's not a teacher's job to establish behavioral patterns. That's on the parent. My youngest daughter was reading at the age of about 3 and remains an avid reader to this day. Kids are VERY smart these days as they are exposed to much more with the world at their fingertips, but the social skills being developed and embedded into kids these days are not the same because there is a large reliance on digital interaction and not personal interaction. Also, my statements are not meant to be a blanket statement for all parents. It's meant for those who rely on digital devices to raise their children. It may or may not be a majority but from my experiences based on kids in the neighborhood there are MANY of them.

That's good to know. Keep an eye out for my raw sales threads. You won't be disappointed. ;-) <Yes, that was a shameless plug>

Yeah, but there's nothing else to do in Oregon. Do you guys even have internet yet? But seriously, my oldest is 22 and remembers life without a cell phone or social media. I would put the onset of social media in the mid to late 2000's s the older kids would be less affected by it than younger kids (youngest is 14 and doesn't remember life without social media). Those who are teens now really have it tough. They need their phones to feel like a part of society but it goes against everything that parents need from their kids. Good on you. That takes REAL effort!

I don't know if it would be economically feasible. You'd either need to decrease the amount of books you cover (thereby decreasing subscription greatly) or increase manpower to an nth degree to get all the work done on a timely basis (thereby increasing cost greatly). It's likely why nobody has done it this way.

I just want to clarify, in case anyone thought otherwise my laugh was meant to be light hearted and add some levity to the thread. It wasn't meant as a poke to anyone.

The problem with reading is a lack of patience. Today's society is founded on a lack of patience. Children are brought up to not be patient. If you want children to read, putting comics in front of kids will not teach them that. Parents need to limit access to digital devices and teach kids how to be patient, how to read, how to play the long game, how to learn to earn gratification through that long game. We're currently raising a society of socially inept, isolated children that are being baby sat by social media.

'Value fluidity', which is really just volatility, is a recent development in the market. Maybe the last 2-3 years. Before that you didn't have this volatility. I know I'm speaking for GPA but I'm just speaking from my perspective as to how I understand GPA works. GPA is not a site to collect sales data for hot books. It's a site that collects data for as many CGC graded books as they can. It's not a site to collect data for Amazing Fantasy #15's. They've collected sales for 2.4 million books and they do it using software. Can you imagine what it would take to collect 2.4 million sales manually? You wouldn't be paying $100 a month for your subscription. Can you imagine combing through a database and trying to coerce dealers to release sales data over phone calls? I can, but then the cost would be reflected in the price and you'd have people complain about the cost. It's a mass produced, mass appeal product. Of all the years I've been on here, I can literally count on my hands the number of people that have complained about GPA's service and about 30% of them are in this thread. The recent complaints are a recent product of a newly volatile market combined with people who want dealer level information at their fingertips without putting in any effort. Sorry, for $100 a month that's not going to happen. If you want that sort of information, it's labor intensive (which is not GPA's service model) and very expensive (which GPA is not). And I wouldn't expect dealers to really contribute openly to the general public either. Cue Bob Storms' rant about whether he's here to make money for other people or not.

You might want to check out this WTB

That is actually up to debate and it depends on international internet laws. GPA at one point wanted to follow the and publish the sales of an auction house and the auction hose sent a notice stating that the final sales prices were proprietary so GPA stopped tracking them. I'm not sure on how it all works. Even though the internet has been around for decades now, the legalities are still being debated. So just scraping sales data may or may not be legal, and if an auction house considers it proprietary you can likely look forward to a legal battle over it. eBay just recently has shortened how far back you can search sales results. Those results used to be searchable for months after a sale. Now it's two weeks. Information is the new Gold.

I didn't read the details but there was recently a huge online protest by comic book stores for the Marvel variant ordering protest. Stores actually refused to carry them in protest from what I understood.

What sort of books are you looking for? High grade, mid grade, low grade?

They record all the same books that they've always recorded. The only difference NOW is that the market is moving faster and results are taking longer to reach GPA and people are getting frustrated because the information is traveling faster than they can keep track of it themselves. Meaning they leave some money on the table. So there is a backlash against GPA because it's not helping people make as much money as they used to. Also, the market is moving faster so some dealers are not submitting information because that information can be proprietary now. Again, it's the dealers not submitting or selectively reporting data that make it so. It would be like being angry at your accountant for not having a complete accounting of your finances...except you didn't submit all the data to him. As a back story, there have been conversations over the years about dealers who selectively submitted data. It used to be considered a no-no but in every conversation, it used to be the submitter's fault. I've noticed a change recently and now people are blaming GPA for it. The times, they are a changin'

As opposed to what? Overstreet? What pricing "indicator" should I be using then? I didn't consider many of the ones I was after as "hot" SA/BA books but if they are I guess I'll have to wait until they cool off. Just curious...what do you use to price these so-called "hot books"? Seriously, I really want to know. Most people don't use GPA properly in my opinion. GPA is not a price guide. This is why it fails when you use it as one. It's a record of previous sales (as in the past). People use GPA in an effort to try to get a book at less than the last GPA. If that continues, eventually everyone's collections are worth less, not more.

There is a competitor. They're called GoCollect. But a company can only fill their database with information that a dealer is willing to submit to them. And they can't take data if someone doesn't want them to have it. GPA collects from Heritage, eBay and a number of other sources that dealers submit through going back almost 16 years IIRC. GoCollect only collects from eBay as far as I know and only going back a few years. I know they don't collect from Heritage. I don't understand what you mean by GPA being 'so far off'. All they do is collect information from submitting dealers. If a dealer doesn't submit data and you want it submitted then your beef should be with the dealer. Not with GPA.

Correct. People want real time sales data in this age of impatience. Everyone want to know everything, all at once. That's never going to happen. And why do they want to know everything at once? Because nobody wants to leave a dollar on the table. Everyone's a dealer today.

Again, what you are asking for is an impossible task. The point of GPA is to track sales of books on various sites that allow it to use it's data publicly as well as take submissions from dealers who submit. GPA has recorded 2.4 MIL sales thus far. It would be impossible to police all of the various sites to make sure data sets are comprehensive and complete. You're talking about literally 100's or even 100's of sales recorded every day. There is always space for market manipulation. No service will ever have all public sales. Some companies won't let their sales be recorded and sold. Others don't post all their sales. Currently, GPA is the best you have for what you're looking for. People want EVERYTHING in a neat box. Nothing ever happens that way. There's always some market research involved. And I don't think it's a bad discussion. It's worth having, no matter which thread it's in.

You are getting the service that you are paying for. You are getting a nice compilation of all the sales data that is submitted to GPA, including eBay and Heritage and any dealer submissions. GPA's job is not to follow around dealers and force them to submit data. They can only assume that dealers who submit are doing it properly.

Kids don't read paper books anymore like they used to. The latest generations of high school students are getting tablets at the start of the school year in some schools.

Kirby, one of the greatest comic artists of all time, couldn't draw Spider-man one of the greatest characters of all time, to save his life. Try as he might, his Spidey was always terrible.

FEMA has already estimated that 25% of Keys residents lost their homes, and most residents sustained damage to their homes. Not to mention that power is out down there and it's in the low 90s here. For that article to say everyone is happy is just not true. The article didn't downplay the damage nor did it say that everyone was happy. It just interviewed locals and some bar owners who said business was back on in spite of the damage. I'll admit that interviewing alcoholics won't give you a realistic outlook. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/12/damage-heavy-key-west-but-booze-still-flows/659868001/

I saw a news article that partying has already started on the keys. Trees are down, there is lots of wreckage, but bars are serving beer and everyone is happy. True story.

Different Silver Comics. This one is from Seattle WA.

Don't you have all of them yet?

Yup. He's a friend of mine. Solid seller but not a full time dealer.