mrtank

I have some baseline pricing information from the last 259 High Times #1 Issue sales on eBay and I wanted to share them here to give everyone a good idea of what you're High Times #1 has been sold for in the past few years. Each printing of the High Times #1 Issue has been grouped together into one of four printing groups. Then each group had all their sale prices added together and then divided by the number of magazines in each group.

I have been tracking each sale if High Times #1 Issues using the Saved Searches feature in eBay for awhile now. I am pretty confident I got 99-100% of them. I had 12 different Saved Searches setup to catch all the #1 Issues out there.

The actual First Printings added up to be less than I expected, but that's because one of them was listed and the person didn't know what they had and someone snagged in for $100. The rest were sold for much higher. There is a real First Print for sale in eBay right now, but they're asking $5,000 for it and it's a 4.7. If they're able to sell it for that much, it will really put the average up a lot higher. But looking at all my research, including private sales through other places, the $5,000 price tag should be more of a reality once the printing hits the 32-35 year marker. 

The post I had made earlier (up a few posts showing close to a thousand sales) I am still trying to put prices on. I was able to only get 259 of the most recent sales done and these are the numbers firm them.

For instance, if in group 4 (the Fourth Printing of Issue #1) had 5 sales and the final sales prices were $10, $20, $20, 20, and $5, I would add all 5 of these prices together and then divide them by 5 (because there were 5 issues in total in this group):

10+20+20+20+5 = 75

75÷5 = 15

So the average price would be $15

The Real Stats:

4th Printing - 122 Total Sales

Average Price: $68.91

3rd Printing - 81 Total Sales

Average Price: $161.29

2nd Printing - 53 Total Sales

Average Price: $276.88

1st Printing - 4 Total Sales

Average Price: $1,821.63

Remember, these numbers are only averages from eBay. They took a lot of time to get together, but still, they are only averages and based on my own research work at eBay. I do also have a direct connection with a collector that has been working at High Times for the last 20 years, and I have ran all this by them and they agreed with the baseline prices for the different #1 Issue Printings. Don't get discouraged if you were hoping they'd be more. These are already going for huge amounts of money compared to many other collector magazines. I have found first issues of other magazines and comics going for really high prices. At the same time, there are even more collectibles of first prints and first issues that are closer to 75-100 years old that are still selling for under $100. High Times #1 Issues are selling for a lot more than many had initially thought they would and they are on the right path to continue becoming more and more valuable over time.

I've had professional appraisers quote me $9,000 for my High Times #1 First Printing, and I've also had an appraiser quote me $350 for my High Times #1 First Printing. Another appraised it at $1,500, another at $900, and then another at $2,500.

This is one of the few reasons I wanted to start tracking the sale prices of the High Times #1 Issues myself, as I didn't think it was fair to depend on the huge differences between all the prices the appraisers gave me. Even though the average sale prices fell way below what I appraised $9,000 that one time, it's a lot better not to depend expecting it's worth that much and one day trying to sell it just to have it sit there for years and years and never be purchased.

The averages I have set forth take many things into consideration and are even more vast than what I posted here. Recently I haven't been able to find the time to present the entire findings here, but I hope I can soon. When I do post the entire reports, they will give everyone a much deeper understanding of the pricing, sales, and consumer psychology behind the purchasing of these collectible magazines. They will give you information on what some of the key deal breakers were, along with effects of the magazines conditions, sale location, how the magazines were presented in their listings, etc. All the way down to the quality of images that accompanied the listings, the length of the descriptions, seller feedback, whether or not returns were accepted, the price of shipping, and about 20 other factors that ultimately had a direct affect on price.

On 7/19/2020 at 9:38 AM, ThothAmon said:

Only 1 Reprint on census. 
 

That's crazy. I mean, I have spoken with High Times directly, so I know for sure about the 4 different prints of the first issue. Plus, there's the article that High Times did on the subject in the November 2009 edition that explains it all (see below):

So why does the census only show the one reprint? Is there someone we can contact to confirm the fact that there were actually 4 different printings of the first issue? Please help me if you have the time. I think it would be nice for the census to reflect the facts for this issue.

On 8/1/2020 at 6:09 PM, ThothAmon said:

I'd say a first print is pretty darn rare.  I'd sure like one for the collection.

The first printing of the first issue is hard to find. But they're out there.

I have been monitoring and collecting data on first issues of High Times for years. I collect data anytime a new one is listed. Then if it's a Buy It Now, I collect the price and follow the changes to the price until it gets sold or is unlisted. If there's one up for bid, I collect the starting price and ending price.

I currently have sale data for (Winning Bid or price sold at Buy It Now) 920 copies. I wrote a -script years ago that crawls and scrapes ebay to accomplish this, and it still works to this day. I double check it every so often by making sure it picks up all listed copies and it's never let me down.

I have the Winning Bids or Buy It Now prices for:

1. 7 first print first issues
2. 149 second print issues
3. 288 third print first issues
4. 476 fourth print first issues

I am trying to compile a price sheet by year showing the price changes over time. I'll upload it soon.

I can get averages of each issue to see exactly what people are paying for them and what they have been worth over the years.

What they're worth and what people are willing to pay are two different things. I don't think there's enough solid information out there to really be able to price an issue because nobody else is collecting data (as far as I know). I see many on eBay listing fourth prints if the first issue for like $300-$900 and I try to tell them they don't sell for that much. Someone is telling them they're worth a certain amount. I just wish I knew who it was and where they got their information from. I have stats and real data.