Glassman10

So, Bob sold my AF15 5.0 yesterday and has a deposit. . So much for a mid range stall. It will never be on GPA. Thanks Bob, You know your stuff. It does make one question whether auctioning is actually a good idea.

or the biggest fantasy?

So, Blazing Bob has my 5.0 and I was there at the moment a chip fell off just before it went in to be graded and slabbed. It's the only chip ever off the book and I bagged it up and included it with the submission. That was the last I ever saw of it. It might be between the pages unseen, I really don't know. I was told that if that was reattached it would not be viewed as restoration in it was only tape and I don't know if that's true. It's a moot point now but a .5 difference might have happened if it hadn't drifted off the book that sad morning. I've had that book fifty years. As in real life, getting old is hard.

where do you get he number 10,000? I don't think the census reflects that, so what other information might you have.

I'm sometimes reminded of a review of a high end resort on the tip of Maui in Hana where the "Ranchers breakfast" was $23.00. . It said "You are the cow, you will be milked"

Or even further, in the interest of marketing, I've noticed that the age and condition of the holder itself , not the book is being brought into the evaluation? Man, that's marketing.,..

Well, Lou, Do you think the 4.0 going for $35K was the beginning of the escalation on lower mid grade stuff. I suspect that 10K per grading point will be the entry level soon. Right now, it's snap the ones up you can before the stampede. Bob's 7.0 was remarkable at the price it brought.

well, it gets even worse if they then do tighten up their grading since the perception will be that the street perception will assume it's still high and now it gets a double whammy having gotten a lower grade that is assumed to be higher than it should be.

It seems to me that it's not difficult to see what you sell Bob.You do advertise it. I only have to go to your recent sales section and I can find ballpark figures for hot books. Clearly it relies on honesty in those listings but there it is. Your sucess helps draw people wanting to sell books through you. The recommendations I got to sell through you were excellent. Someone here knew very quickly that you had sold a 7.0 for around 130K? Was that a private discovery or someone who knew you, or was it the buyer? As to GPA, the implication has been that a bazillion book sales would have to be tracked. It seems to me that in other threads that people have been disappointed to see no movement on books they own from last year, so, those aren't the books I'm talking about. How about the top 50 or top 25 movers. I suspect they make up the bulk of regular sales for people buying and selling comics. Would that be impossible to track do you think? Now it may be as you say that if book prices shoot up, it makes it harder to buy books economically. I don't disagree but you can't simply price in a vacuum. I just find it hard enough that Overstreet is so far off on top sellers but for GPA to be so far off is equally if not more disconcerting. I don't think GPA is off on most of their sales, just things like AF15. Maybe it's true that it's a hopeless cause to seek market value and that's part of the game. The trick here is to buy up all available stock before anyone else sees you doing it.

I keep hearing that GPA simply records what sites choose to submit ? Then they collate that information and sell it. It's useful on most books but on the books with value fluidity it simply does not reflect value at all. Neither does Overstreet . I just have to stop there and see what kind of effort it actually takes to go to Metropolis, Highgrade,SoCal, Dave and Adam's, whichever and count up the AF15's and note what prices those sites are asking. There just aren't really that many copies in play at any given time. It's not like we're talking 400 books. It seems to me that if GPA really wanted to supply the information, they could just get on the phone and call any of those dealers. Now, the dealer might just tell them to stuff it and they don't disclose their sales period. But maybe they don't do that. It seems to me that a rising tide raises all boats. If dealer "X" sells a 6.0 for 95K as an example, all dealers would be most interested in seeing that publicized since it reflects the value of their own holdings. Owners of the book would, I imagine like seeing that as well. In my case, if I was seeing 5.0's suddenly pulling 80K, I would want my selling price to take that into consideration. The only people who would not want to see that are buyers trying to make lowball purchases and then to sell at the previously cited price of 80K. The core value in any business is customer service. It should not be any different at GPA. I see a lot of people here that aren't really happy about the service at least as it affects the AF15. I also see some who just say "It can't happen". I don't see that degree of difficulty if I look at the task.

I think the notion of dollars on the table strips away the "Hobby" notion at this level. We're not talking ASM 129 . It's not a hobby when there are five to seven figures on the table. I just think that needs clarification. So, when I leave the happy hobby , I look to international professionals. I'm not selling mine because I'm bored with AF 15, I'm selling to enrich someone else's life who simply needs the standard international currency, Cash. .

I disagree. You are not out of topic at all. When a book sells for 10-700K, it's quite pertinent to the topic. I think the role of GPA should be as a reporter: to ferret out the facts. In the market, It's pretty important to me to know the sales of VISA in real time.

I happen to agree, "buy the book, not the grade". When I worked my AF 15 that Bob has, I took the time to shoot pictures of every page of the story and Bob knows I'll make it available. I also have shots prior to the slabbing. Bottom line to me is you should feel good about the purchase. I too think GPA could be a whole lot better. I've heard from an undisclosed source that there are some houses which aren't recorded because they tinker with their real bids. I don't know that but I wouldn't doubt it. My gut feeling is that the company store aspect is way too close. I may be kind of new but I'm not stupid.

FF1 but Really, first, AF15, then down the spiderhole. Contestants to their corners! ASM simply creates demand and demand is the arbiter of the dog and pony show. For me VISA stock.

Well, it was actually worse than that. I did like the man who made the offer but I couldn't afford to take his offer. The offer was 25K for the entire collection actually. . This was 950 books most from the silver and early bronze age. I said no, he was not happy and my friend from Shanghai handed me a pile of money and she simply said "Don't do it", so I didn't. Eveline, my best friend in the world. I did sell to Bob on the entire collection, short of my keeping the JIM and the Thor and I'm sort of stupid that way. I kept the AF15 and Bob has it on consignment. It's a very nice 5.0. I'm quite sure he'll sell it and I'm not desperate for the money which seems to determine a lot of prices. I'm relieved the collection is gone in many ways and then again, sometimes I miss it terribly. But it is an interesting example of crowd buying fever. It's not a rare book but there are still way more people who want it than there are copies. I think the high end ones will be held and the new frenzy ground that's coming is 4.0 to 5.5. You all know so much more about this than I do. I just loved Comics and when I found the thing in that school bus fifty years back, it was an.... amazing fantasy... I found a 1909 s VDB once in a roll of coins in Ohio. It still had mint luster. Does anyone out there know about the real meaning of the fool tarot Card? I'm it. The presumption on the card is the fool, walking towards the cliff will turn away at the very last second never realizing that he was in danger. Anybody who want's a nice 5.0, call Bob. I'm giving the money to my son as a down payment on a house.

Blazingbob just sold a 7.0 for $130K.

There are some really terrible examples of AF15 out there in that 4.0-5.0 range. I saw a 5.5 that for me looked a lot worse than mine and had a lot of stains on the back. I am certainly impressed at what the 7.0 did if the sale is accurate and I was also impressed when a 4.0 went at $35K earlier this season. I had someone offering me $25K for my 5.0 at the beginning of this year and he seemed irritated when I passed. There certainly are a fair number of the books out there in that 4-5.5 range and chipping seems the rule rather than the exception. Going up? It may be like land. They're not making anymore of it. In the right locations it doesn't seem to ever go down. CGC doesn't break down general categories of defects in the census all that well. Clean covers seem a premium. Blazingbob certainly seems to have a good feel for his market.

I do have to wonder how the sale of the 7.0 not getting into the GPA (or I presume that) register affects the perceptions of current market value on high end books. It seems to me there are two differing tiers that don't have much effect on the real world market. Your website lists the sale as a "Notable" with the price somewhere in in the $130K range if it is the same book. . I'm not surprised at all. It just feels like two entirely different worlds.

well maybe , maybe not. Auctions are strange things and the term "buyer's remorse " didn't come out of the blue I do think that AF 15 is interesting because it's not a rare book. It does indeed seem that it's the case that there's a glut on the market right now and it will be most interesting to see what happens as the glut subsides. My copy cost me nothing as I've said before but most copies did indeed cost something and people want at the very least to not get burned and preferably would like to make some coin on flipping what is not a rare book. It seems to me that if you are in a hurry, or borrowed money to buy an AF 15 thinking about a quick turnover, it may be a bad time. I have to make a comparison: In February, I put 20 K into VISA or MC as stocks after getting out of an investment. It's up as of today 17%. Not bad on return but I'm in no hurry to sell it. It has tax as does a comic. It has risk, as does a comic and maybe the comic is worse. How many books are going under water between Sarasota and Houston in the last ten days? Risk is a part of investing. Supply and demand are real. Sometimes it's a bad time to sell, sometimes not if you don't have to. Auctions really push the time frame. Dealers don't. . Being in a hurry is where volatility finds it's bottom. I have confidence in Bob. The number of people who want an AF15 compared to the number of issues that are available is a funny ratio. Any glut won't last unless people move from AF15 to Something else. What can fill that "Something Else " void? Why is ASM 129 valuable at all, or Iron Man 55? Do we always need the unattainable or can we enjoy the books? One of my teachers in art always said to never let your art be your work. He was a really smart guy.

I have noticed that and GPA is far from an exhaustive study of pricing. They won't do unslabbed books and they don't reflect actual sales from a number of dealers for whatever reason. I've seen reported sales where the price suddenly changes after about six weeks. I've been told that some auctions aren't listed with them due to manipulation of bids and I don't know if that's true . The dealer handling my AF15 seems to think his pricing is going to move books just fine despite the GPA reporting. If it really is supposed to be an exhaustive study of value on such as AF15, it should work a bit harder in my opinion unless it's the case that those dealers don't want their sales reported.

I recently sold my entire collection to Bob Storms with the exception of an AF15 which is consigned to him, BUT the only thing I kept is my entire JIM and THOR. I love the Kirby artwork and the story lines for the most part. Having sold everything I bought off the newsstands in the '60's and early '70's, I'm looking forward to eventually turning over the Thor to my son who really likes them. None are slabbed which is a lot of the fun. It does seem to me that the JIM never really bumped up in value compared to early issues of FF4 and ASM though. I always though Hela was pretty hot.

the one that I found in the wrecking yard actually cost me almost $200.00 dollars but I got a complete differential for a Dodge Power wagon thrown in with the deal.

What I don't get is why then is it faded on both the front and the back? Did they flip it every other day?

I got tons of DC's in the fifties but my mom did what mom's everywhere did to them. There should have been a super hero storyline called "Whence cometh the Trash Man". All those Green lantern and Challengers of the Unknown gone. JLA in shambles. I started buying multiples in the mid sixties but it was always just one extra. One was a reading copy and the other put away. I usually only did that with number 1's but some runs into the '70's, I did buy extras with the notion of speculation which was not my original goal. When Kirby moved to DC and ran his trilogy, I did get a lot of them and it never panned out. Too many people with the same idea and not a captivating storyline. Safe storage methodology was an issue back then as well. Why I bought multiples of ASM 129, I can't explain at all. At any rate, Bob Storms owns them all now except for my AF 15 and it's consigned. I'm really amazed at how a group could put out so many titles, drawn, inked, lettered, off to the printers and distributed nationwide at 10-12 cents an issue, turn around and do it again in four weeks. .

"from a collecting point of view," That nails it and it speaks to the split between "love of comics' and "love of money from comics." It could not be said better or more succinctly. There's a bunch that simply love comics and if they could have the defining books, they would be in seventh heaven and the ones trying to shave 2% in this buying cycle . My heart will stay will the true collector, waiting to find what I found in a bus on Apodaca Hill in Santa Fe fifty years back. I love those of you who believe in those finds They are , i'm convinced, still out there. . I found the book on the bus but I also found a real love for this essentially stupid medium that has now to do with scarcity and condition rather than the reality of the world as we see it today. My fields are mowed, my hay is in. My livestock is content tonight. If Bob sells my book ( COMIC) I'll be even more pleased. Life for me is rather good. I need to change the oil on the John Deere. Get after it Bob!