The Less Blob

maybe.

given the amount of money I spent storing a bunch of books that cost me $1-2 each, it is probably legitimate to give them a $4 cost basis if we have to go that route. My solo book sales on ebay would subject me to a lot of gains that way, unfortunately, as i tend to be selling stuff $20+ nowadays. But I'll be losing money on the lots i plan to list just because i need to clear out some space anyway, i can't move around anymore. There's no reason I can't have all my Captain Americas in one long box. So I need to get rid of about a short box of books. Multiply that by about 20 titles...

Unlike comics found in the raw, people who own slabbed 9.8s usually have a clue as to what they are worth. I'm paying about what the last auction went for, but less than the last few BINs. As a book that has not gone up really since January ( not sure what it was doing in 2020), I see some potential, and Iike the book anyway. I am basically selling a Thundercats 1 raw to buy this slab. Anyway, it isn't a census thing, this book is similar to MCP 72 and less than both X-Men 244 and 282.

no such luck. i also wouldn't think any of those books should be $250-300 in this market.

I think DC thought they could jack up prices with more pages per book? I'll be honest, I haven't looked inside them. Are the $4.99 books regular size? Don't they realize that with constant re-boots they lose folks? It isn't like Marvel, etc. haven't had jacked up prices. Secret Invasion was $3.99 13 years ago based on some thick cover stock. But they can get away with it for a special event. I'd say losing the legacy numbers on these old line titles loses folks each time, but I am not so sure anymore, Marvel does it too.

for $160 in 9.8? I wish I was such a genius.

why are those expenses different than spending money to slab a book in 2005 you bought in 2004 and selling in 2021? https://www.cpajournal.com/2017/11/13/planning-tax-considerations-collectibles/ For investors, the costs of appraisals and other items such as insurance, storage, subscriptions, and travel in connection with purchases would be deductible as miscellaneous deductions or, depending upon the nature of the expenditure, possibly added to the basis of the property. --- True, does not state what year certain things are deductable https://andersen.com/publications/newsletter/march-2014/tax-tips-for-collectors-investors-and-dealers I actually think the information here might be wrong: https://www.bnymellonwealth.com/articles/strategy/can-you-deduct-expenses-related-to-purchasing-or-selling-artwork.jsp It is a tricky line between dealer and investor and I suspect if you ask 10 different CPAs how to classify a $1,000-$1,500 a month ebay enterprise involving 30-60 sales a month you may get a variety of answers.

I still have it on my laptop. It is the primary means of communications of too many 40omething i know.

actually it is a little later than early 2000s, but not 2010s. i might be buying another one, so I am not going into details just yet.

I got a new phone. i have decided not to have facebook on my phone. i don't know my password, so i can't look at it on my phone. it cuts the amount of time wasted by a lot.

@1Cool & @fastballspecial didn't we just spend the last page discussing that you only deduct inventory as an expense when the item sold? How does remaining inventory factor into the equation? Deducting the expenses of the other comics you bought with the money from sales that didn't sell to offset profits is not correct. You don't realize the gains, or declare the loss until that item sells. So if you sell $10k, Profit $5K, spend 3K of that profit on more books, your profit is still 5K and that's what you are to be taxed on. Next year if you sell that $3K worth at a loss of $1K, and sell an additional $8K at a profit of $4K, you can deduct that $1K loss, for a next profit of $3K. that seems like pretty simple math to me but the tracking of what rate it's taxed at if the asset was held less than a year seems like a giant PIA. Is that the part you are referring to in factoring in the equation? You may be doing it all right, but many people are using the straight up purchase of books for their collections as "expenses" to basically fund their hobby as a zero profit pursuit. But isn't that exactly how a store would be doing their taxes? Sales - expenses/cost. They're not looking at is book by book.

it used to go back further, but you're right, and I cleaned up my e-mails, so i don't have those anymore

No, I used to make money. I work for the government now. It took me almost 17 years, but I now make 60% of what I was making in 2004. When I first started I was only making 1/3 of my former salary.

I have exposed my 9 year old to so much inappropriate stuff he is broken at this point. We watch Invincible.

What If 10 - 8.0 OW $4 did you intentionally underprice that by $80?

My teenager might be watching it now on HBO Max, he said he was watching batman cartoons (I never liked the boxy style those cartoons used). As he was not born until 2005, no, i was not watching it with my kids in 1999. In 1999 I was a 27 year old corporate lawyer working 80 hours a week. No time for cartoons. Not much time for anything then. Anyway, we're paying for HBO Max, so bit by bit we will be working through the archives. The 90 minute cartoon movies are a nice "movie night" thing, especially when mom has passed out for the night.

It is one thing to have some "event" books with premium pricing like the batman dark thing a while ago, but to do it all the time... with that said, logically, if they are putting out 48 page comics then folks should be cool with $4.99 or $5.99 if they were ok with $2.50 or $2.99... but don't expect them to buy the same # of books. With that said, Marvel is managing with mostly $3.99 cover prices, not exactly cheap. Of course, I am not the right guy to talk to about these things as I've never had a pull list and never had the patience to stick with a title off the rack for more than 5 or 6 months since the mid 90s. That's about how long I lasted with Walking Dead reading it in the 50s and 60s and the Goon.

BB is something I was barely aware of. indeed, i probably avoided it in dollar bins because it looked cartoony (not #1, but later issues). i did manage to find a nice #3 in my boxes that I sold for over $50. And it is totally rule of 25. This came out when I was an adult and I was not paying attention. But if I ever saw Thundercats #1 in a cheap box I definitely bought it. Yes, I was 13 when it first aired, so i was a little old for it and did not watch it (my younger brother did), but still. And I did not realize the comic came out so close to the cartoon.

it is a book I assumed would be $250-300 in this market and it wasn't. it really hasn't done much at all since january (the ebay data I can see). although i guess this market is slightly less interested in classic covers because folks new to the hobby don't appreciate them for what they are and are thinking monetized first appearances ("rookie cards") and such. if i could just get a catwoman 51 for $160 I'd be pretty happy. i picked up a 9.8 46 for $50.. that is one of my favorite AH catwoman covers, although it doesn't push the cleavage, so fanboys don't care as much. it is hard figuring this market out. why is MCP 72 basically no more than a $20-25 book raw and is well into the $300s in 9.8. i just have a tough time believing something makes it hard in 9.8 as it has always been a "special" enough book to get a bag and board.

I feel like even me, a penny pinching miser, has gotten sucked into the madness here. I just paid $160 (shipped) for a CGC 9.8 copy of an early 2000s modern classic cover marvel (won't say which). While I think I got a decent deal, it was on par with recent auction results, but lower than recent BINs. I look at the book, which regularly sells for $50-65 in raw nice shape, and wondered why it is that price in 9.8 when there are"$20 raw" books like MCP 72 that are well into the $300s in 9.8 and $35-50 raw books that are hitting $400-500+ (x-men 282, 244). Admittedly, each of those is a little younger than the book I am looking at, which might impact things. 20 years ago the thought of paying that kind of money for a modern would never cross my mind, but here we are!

You're in France, right? Marvel and Image (Spawn at least) have been reporting good U.S. sales in the last 6 or whatever months since lockdowns started easing. Actually, i am pretty sure comic shops here in New York City opened up in June and we were one of the most restrictive (and hardest hit) areas, although there were probably capacity limitations (4 people in a small shop or whatever) and mask requirements (still are). DC seems to be in a lousy situation. They thought they could go the premium pricing larger format route and it seems to not be working. How is it that image managed to keep $2.99 cover prices through all of this?

I have no idea. But the way prices are going a lot of casual sellers will be hitting $20K anyway unless they just focus on selling $3 books.

Except many of the sellers are folks buying your CGC 9.8 X-Men 244 for $500 thinking it will be a $1000 book (and maybe it will be). Most of my buyers are also sellers.

Sure, I can come up with something, of course, but do I have those storage room bills from 14 years ago if I have to prove it?

I do my own taxes. I was not happy with the accountant we hired one year. According to ebay I have averaged under $1,000 in sales per year in my 22 years on the platform. I easily spent more than double that on comics each year. But this year is different.