valiantman

3K is 4 to 6 times the CGC 9.8 cost of the regular #1.

Ask yourself if you'd rather have every CGC graded copy of Action Comics #1 or every CGC graded copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. Obviously, Action #1 is worth more individually, but there are ten times as many Amazing Fantasy #15... so which would you rather have ALL of them? Try the same question for Hulk #1 or Hulk #181. Would you rather have ALL of the CGC Hulk #1s or ALL of the CGC Hulk #181s? Everybody's gonna have their opinions, but it's also possible to answer with just data. http://CGCemc.com

He's probably selling to recoup the cost of his being wrong in the first place.

Just about every comic book printed in the past 30 years is a direct edition with a barcode.

... and how many comic shops have you closed due to "the economy"?

Many of the best collectibles spent some amount of time (often decades) when they were "nothing special". Some of the very best collectibles (and collectors) were laughed at when they insisted on protecting their "nothing special". There's no need to pretend there's some big mystery with newsstand Spawn #1 anymore. GPAnalysis has separated Spawn #1 newsstand from direct edition for years. 2022 - CGC 9.8 Spawn #1 = 1,070 Direct Edition sales, 65 Newsstand sales (5.7% Newsstand) 2023 - CGC 9.8 Spawn #1 = 728 Direct Edition sales, 51 Newsstand sales (6.5% Newsstand) 2024 (so far) - CGC 9.8 Spawn #1 = 327 Direct Edition sales, 21 Newsstand sales (6.0% Newsstand) More than 2,000 sales, three separate tests that end up between 5.7% newsstand and 6.5% newsstand for CGC 9.8 Spawn #1. That's about a hundred times more evidence than any of us ever get for the more important things we have to decide each day.

You would have to pay $100,000,000 to get 1,000,000 of them in the first place.

CGC 10 and CGC 9.9 in 2024 versus all the years prior...

One thing to keep in mind is that a $500 asking price for something originally $100 is really no different (markup percentage) than a $5 asking price for a comic originally priced $1. If the item has been selling for $200 but they still keep asking for $500, it's still no different than a $1 comic which has been selling for $2, but the seller still wants $5. It's far more impressive when a $1 (original price) comic sells for $50 than to see a $100 (original price) book sell for $500. A $100 book selling for $200 is really quite boring when you think about it.

Just adding a little bit to the "watching" conversation... I usually have 300 to 500 items on my watchlist on eBay. The reasons that I watch are: 1) Price is too low at the time I click "watch", but I will unwatch when it gets to the normal price range 2) Price seems too high but I am interested to see if it sells because I might sell mine if so 3) I'm looking for "one of these" (watching four to six of the same item, to see if one might end low that I can grab) 4) Price seems too high but I am interested to see if I get a discount offer by email 5) I already own several of these and I want to see the finish price Of the 300 to 500 items that I keep in my watchlist, my eBay account shows that I made 4 purchases last month. 3 out of those 4 were "Best Offer" or "Discount Offer" versus the starting price. The other was under $10 buy-it-now.

What’s the value on this? I have a copy in this grade. Around $450 for a CGC 9.4 direct edition first printing.

GPAnalysis has been splitting out the newsstand and the direct editions for several years for important (or very popular) books. They don't use CGC's newsstand identification, GPA is identifying these by hand. For example, GPAnalysis for Spawn #1 CGC 9.8 Spawn #1 Direct Editions = 728 copies recorded in 2023 (93.5%) CGC 9.8 Spawn #1 Newsstand = 51 copies recorded in 2023 (6.5%)

Here's another interesting list: Most submitted book by CGC grade: CGC 9.8 Spawn #1 (the most CGC 9.8s in existence are CGC 9.8 Spawn #1s) CGC 9.6 Amazing Spider-Man #361 CGC 9.4 Amazing Spider-Man #361 CGC 9.2 Amazing Spider-Man #300 CGC 9.0 Amazing Spider-Man #300 CGC 8.5 Amazing Spider-Man #300 CGC 8.0 Amazing Spider-Man #300 CGC 7.5 Amazing Spider-Man #300 CGC 7.0 Amazing Spider-Man #129 CGC 6.5 Amazing Spider-Man #129 CGC 6.0 Amazing Spider-Man #129 CGC 5.5 Amazing Spider-Man #129 CGC 5.0 Amazing Spider-Man #129 CGC 4.5 Fantastic Four #48 CGC 4.0 Fantastic Four #48 CGC 3.5 Fantastic Four #48 CGC 3.0 Fantastic Four #48 CGC 2.5 X-Men #1 CGC 2.0 X-Men #1 CGC 1.8 X-Men #1 CGC 1.5 X-Men #1 CGC 1.0 X-Men #1 CGC 0.5 X-Men #1 The most CGC 10 and CGC 9.9 belong to Batman: Damned #1 (or one of those silver foil island nation cover reprints).

It's interesting to watch these numbers every six months, particularly the average universal grade. Here is Amazing Spider-Man #300: http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/search/comicid/273/6mo The average universal grade of 8.58 (2024) has dropped from 8.78 five years ago (2019), and it was 8.93 as you noted back in 2014. Here is Amazing Spider-Man #14: http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/search/comicid/118/6mo