Rob

Yeah, I'm a CAC member. I just didn't know if it's caught on as mainstream in comics or is it considered a gimmick?

Is CVA becoming a thing now? I roll my eyes at it, but CAC stickers on slabbed coins is seen as a legit indicator and collectors pay more for it. Of course it's headed up by the guy who started PCGS. I'm not sure who's behind CVA.

CZUR owners, can you let me know what settings you use and show some examples? I bought one last year, and hate it lol. I want to give it one last try, before ditching it and getting something else. My scans come out pixilated, which I assume is due to using too low of a DPI. I went with their highest default setting (don't remember what it is) but maybe I need to go into the custom settings and input something higher. Jumping ahead, if I do decide to replace it, what is a good one to use with a Mac? Looks like maybe the Plustek A320?

Please leave feedback for me here if we've completed any transactions. I have an old archived kudos thread here: https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/275479-robs-feedback-thread/ And you can reference my eBay feedback here: https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/reliveyesterday Thanks, Rob

I think there's a natural life cycle to collecting. We're into certain items (toys, comics, etc) as kids, then lose interest as we get to high school and college. Then we become adults and get nostalgic for those things again, but can't really afford them in our 20's and 30's. So we collect when we're in a better financial position in our 40's. Every generation goes through this, which is why collectors are typically older. Coins have been an old man hobby forever, and will probably always be. My concern with comics are whether kids are into them today. Comics have changed since we were buying them off the racks. They seem geared towards the 40+, the guys with the money. But is the comic industry investing in the kids for the future of the hobby? Maybe the movies are keeping them interested, but as someone else said, that doesn't always translate into comic sales.

Take both X-Men #6's at 20% off

A non-existent book that looks like the one you cropped. It's not unimaginable that someone might think that cover was the original cover.

Makes sense, but do you think the prices of comics increase due to inflation? I would assume the increase is more due to an influx of new buyers in the market, looking for an investment to spec on during the pandemic. Saw the same in coins, crypto, trading cards, etc.

Does inflation affect discretionary spending the same as it does other spending? Serious question, as I have no idea. I would suspect the opposite, that as inflation increases the costs of necessary items, people have less to spend on comics.

which issue, #8?

I agree. If you look at the trends of the highs in that table, it increases from $261 to $275 from 2015-2018. Then sharply rises to $665, which is the pandemic bubble. No one knows what the true post-pandemic value is, but my guess would be around that 2019 price. That $336 is still a steep increase from the year prior of $275. $61 (22%) in one year vs $14 over 4 years, prior to that.

Speculation is fun when you can get them on the cheap, but it has to be pure speculation like this. Off to my LCS now...

I agree. I have several saved searches that I check several times a day, but rarely are they very fruitful as most BIN listings are sellers with pipe dreams of getting pandemic prices. They're nowhere near GPA last sale or 90 day avg. That ship has sailed.

Yep, I think current price for this is around $300, until we get more details about the show. Unfortunately, I overpaid due to FOMO. Always liked Damian and kicked myself for not having these before the announcement. Talked myself into snagging a 655 9.8 "while it was still cheap". Yeah, I need some $1 bin comics to snag before they hit $20, to cut my losses on the Bats 655.

Thank you for the thorough response. Loving the discussion about this. Whereas I agree that you can't really compare the comics market to other markets, I do think there are similarities between this bubble and other bubbles. That being, prices are driven up by speculators who join the market, driven by greed. They're buyers who have no sentimental value to the purchases their making, but rather see them as investment commodities. And when they see prices dropping, they get out and get into the next thing. Granted, not 100% of the speculative buying were non-collectors, so I'm sure this correction has more of a sentiment factor than say a housing or stock market bubble, so the trip back to normal may take a little longer. I just don't see any reason to think this isn't like any other bubble we've seen in history.

Just noticed that X-Men #1 in 2.0 continues to drop: $5520 on 1/30. I've got my $3000 ready to go.

I think these are the two thoughts behind the craziness we've seen since 2021. Has the market changed forever, or is this a speculative bubble that will pass and things get back to normal? I'm betting on the latter, but respect your opinion as well. Time will tell. I'm basing my assumption on what we've seen from other speculative bubbles (housing, silver in 1980, crypto). My prediction is that in 5 years, all GPA historical charts will see this 2 year blip from '21-'23, then things went back to predictable after that. We'll see.

Sorry, didn't mean to misquote you. Just meant to reply to the statement. I don't think comics are as volatile as stocks (save for this bubble). I think once we're out of the pandemic bubble and the market comes back down to earth, we'll see the typical 3-10% increases per year that we've always seen. So if this book bottoms out at $6000, we should be able to get it for $6000-$7000 for several months. Look at the 20 year chart I posted. Most titles have a similar trend. No crazy spikes like we saw in the pandemic, for the last 20 years, and probably longer. (Exception to this would be speculative rises due to movie announcements, which would apply to X-Men #1 as they should get an MCU movie soon. So maybe I picked a poor title to make my point )

OK, I get that, but we're not talking about investments with a history of high volatility. Outside of this bubble we're in, most comics stayed pretty flat for years, with a steady increase YoY. Take the example below (X-men #1 in 4.0). The price has been on a steady decline for the last 12 months. I don't need to time the bottom perfectly, but I do know that all signs point to it being cheaper next month. Well, I can afford quite a bit. But I'm not paying $10k for a comic that I can likely get cheaper in a few months. That's just not smart. Six months ago someone paid $15k for this comic and last month it sold for $10k. Had he waited, he could have had $5k to spend on another comic. My money is on it dropping again in the next few months, and I'll reference this post to come back in March to gloat or eat crow. My theory is that some collectors (speculators) think prices are going to skyrocket again, and they don't want to miss out. As for me, I'm waiting it out.

Serious question: with recent sales data showing most prices coming back down to earth from the pandemic bubble, why is anyone buying now? Good chances you can get the same book cheaper later. Or to put it another way, next month your book is going to be worth less than what you paid.

The CGC label on 655 says cameo on 2 pages. That sounds like Hulk 180 to me. 656 says "1st full appearance".

That's the thing, $300 has sailed. Now they're being listed for $400 & $500, and I don't want to buy the hype. I'd buy the next $300 I saw in a heartbeat. (Yes, I'm aware $300 is also buying the hype lol).

As soon as I saw the announcement, I ran to the 'Bay to see if there were any deals on Batman 655 in 9.8. Not a book I track, I noticed they sold recently for $160-$200, so note to self, target around $200. Others were listed BIN for $300, but they're dreaming. So I thought. I checked back later tonight, and the $300's all sold, and now someone's listed a BIN for $500. Now I'm having FOMO about not getting the $300 ones, but hoping maybe they overpaid on spec hype (only because I didn't get one).

Makes sense. I got the message you were explaining the drop for Xmen 1, as if that was an anomaly.

Well, X-Men #1 in 2.0 was my example because that was a book that was within my reach pre-pandemic, that I was hoping I could afford when I came back to comics last year. I don't think this drop is exclusive to X-Men books. Did you see DC#'s update the other day. Red across the board.