Jesse-Lee

Me as Captain America at a Halloween party back in the day - happy Halloween!

I've posted about GoCollect's seeming inability to keep up with this book in the past, but now I'm honestly starting to wonder if something shady is going on with them. Before I thought they maybe couldn't keep up with this book, since it seemed to continue to climb at an unbelievable rate - that was at least plausible and maybe understandable. But now... in the past couple of days they finally upgraded FMVs a bit - 9.8 was at $3,400, 8.5 was at $475 (I paid attention to these two as basically the top grade and the grade I own). But today they updated again. They downgraded FMVs across every single grade. For example, they downgraded 9.8 FMVs to $2,700 and 8.5s to $375. The last 5 eBay sales of CGC blue 9.8 were $4,999; $4,124.95; $4,451; $4,368 and $5,200. The last 5 eBay sales of 8.5s were $500; $585; $500; $675 and $600. Up to now, it was a point of annoyance in what seemed like a situation where GoCollect couldn't keep up to the FMVs of a fast-increasing book. At this point though, after a half-measure upgrade two days ago and then a seemingly blatant downgrade of this book's FMV on 10/31, it begs the question if there are ulterior motives at play to suppress the true value of this book. I know GPA is the standard, but for a lot of people (like myself) who don't deal in a lot of graded books, GoCollect was billed as the best alternative. But if FMVs are this far off, and especially if they're being manipulated, that's a big problem.

We need a Puppeteer Lee appreciation post, this guy is an insane artist.

Puppeteer Lee is an absolute genius artist...

Sure, the total census amount is definitely a difference, but I'm not saying that ASM 300 is going to become a $40,000 book or whatever 181 is now in a 9.8. I'm just saying that there are parallels that can explain why ASM 300 is growing in price, if my theory is correct that people don't want to miss the boat on a relatively affordable key that still has some meat on the bone in terms of realizing more value. I think available supply is a better metric than total overall census too - and there are more total available copies of ASM 300 for sale than IH 181, but the comparison ratio starts to go down when you look at that in relation to total existing copies. For example, there are currently 126 blue label CGC 9.8s of IH 181 on the census. 2 are for sale right now on eBay, which is 1.58% of existing copies for sale. And there are 1,048 blue label CGC 9.8 ASM 300, and 13 are available on eBay for sale - that's 1.24% of existing copies for sale.

I've mentioned this before, but one interesting thing to note is the comparison of ASM 300 to Hulk 181, in the sense that 181 was a slow increase on value for years and then seemed to take off about 30-35 years after its initial release. We're currently at 32 years on ASM 300. Both books are the first full appearance of what became massively popular characters, and 300 has the extra kick of a massively popular artist and an anniversary issue. My take on it is that there were people who missed on out major keys in the past like IH 181 when they were still affordable, and they don't want to make that mistake again with what is arguably the top mass-appeal key of the Copper Age that is still widely attainable (yes, I'm aware of TMNT 1, but that is also not affordable for many/most at this point). For me, I bought in on ASM 300 in the price/grade I felt comfortable affording, which was an 8.5, in mid-September (happened to be a newsstand). I paid $380. The last 5 sales of a CGC blue label 8.5 on eBay were $585, $500, $675, $600 and $536, between 10/20-10/26. I wrote the below in an earlier post, highlighting a post I found from 2010 where people were saying Hulk 181 was overvalued, prices were skyrocketing for no reason, the bubble would burst, and if you paid $1,000 for a copy you wouldn't make your money back: "In 2010, $1,000 would have probably gotten you a VF or 8.0 copy of IH 181. FMV on that copy today - 10 years later - is more than 4x that at about $4,300." So my opinion is that we're seeing people who want to get in while it's still relatively low, who may have missed out on other keys before they went high - GSXM 1, IH 181, etc.

I feel like it's right near the cut line, but when I think of that change over from Bronze to Copper, I tend to think in terms of Crisis on Infinite Earths which came out in 1985/86. I guess maybe Secret Wars would be the Marvel equivalent cut line between the two ages?

Another astounding sale of this key book

X-Men #1 in a 9.8 is like an $85 book, you could buy a bunch: https://comics.gocollect.com/guide/view/156541 (Hey, we are in the "modern" forum after all...)

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is it possible to get a snapshot of new graded books within a specified date range? Like could you see only all new graded books from Sept. 1, 2020 to date for example? I know they don't differentiate newsstands vs direct, but it'd be interesting to see the amount of new books graded in a given timeframe.

I think of this as Bronze based on when it came out, but some people consider it Copper - what's the consensus?

Such an outstanding cover.

I'd argue that Bebop and Rocksteady's first appearances are in 2, not 1 - they don't have names in the first issue and they're still human. They first show up in their mutated forms (and are first called by name) in issue #2. But it seems the masses feel differently...

I really hope you washed your hands...

Sounds like my collection...

I thought the older books were basically newsstands that had the bar code disrupted in some way if they were a "direct market" (i.e. comic shop) copy? Like this:

Thanks, comic fam...

I've seen just the two copies of Venom 25 alone sell for as much as $30 combined on eBay, and then 26 can go for $10-15. There are a couple of first appearances in there that could heat up more. But in general, I like the character, it's an interesting run and I really like a few of the covers, and 13 books for $30 is a nice deal.

I'll admit I'm not a paid member of GoCollect so I can't dig down too far, but their assessment of FMV on this book continues to baffle me. Here's the link: https://comics.gocollect.com/guide/view/150744 And here's a screenshot to capture the current FMV:

Nice little $30 eBay lot win!

Got a decent deal on this, and I love Plop! The story "The Gourmet" is still one of my favorites - if you haven't read it, seek it out. It's short but classic DC horror with art from Bernie Wrightson.

So, I don't want to sound like a jerk (because I certainly don't have a 9.9, or even a 9.8 or a 9.0), but I'm just not a fan of how the inside copy "bleeds" through the front and back cover on this. I've seen that on other books with white or light-colored covers. Is that a product of pressing?