MyNameIsLegion

this is the single most useful post in this entire thread. This post is this thread answered. all discussion to throw out "outliers" should be summarily ignored. That's not how statistical analysis works. That's baked into the statistical analysis itself and is accounted for. But anyone not legally blind can read this trend line unassisted. Repeat this for the top 10 SA and BA books of the last 5 years and I'd wager a similar, if not steeper result. Only those engaged in magical thinking or dealers would even attempt to explain this away. Superheroes peaked in 2019, the pandemic, like a dying sun created a temporary flare of heat that only portends a cooling trend. there's simply no ignoring the macroeconomic forces layered in with demographics trends. Boomers are aging our of relevancy, and comics are predominately their pop-culture artifact. the Gen-X cohort is too small to absorb it in full, and millennial's are only superficially interested. Everything collectible, without exception, cycles out of public consciousness in time. Super-hero comics have 90 years. We are in the last 15. Plan accordingly.

yup. Because no "dealer" has ever taken something on "consignment" from a relatively green collector that trusted the dealer to set the prices only to have the dealer low ball it, buy it, sit on it, and flip it for considerably more. AND STILL TAKE THEIR COMMISSION. or we are describing one of the tools of the trade of certain "dealers"

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-wealth-income-concentration-resume-upward-climb-post-pandemic-era-2023-10-09/ the conditions during the pandemic and the easymoney are precisely why we are where we are today with SA and BA keys etc tanking. The entirety of the comic hobby are not the exclusive domain of the top 10% or even 30% where most of the money resides but the rest of Main Street disproportionately bears the brunt of inflation & debt.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/15/politics/covid-19-pandemic-benefits-ending-dg/index.html There are macroeconomic forces that are playing out in real time even as we speak that are going to put further downward pressure on comic prices. Many of them are all hitting all at once. This past weekend we did a one day show that we do every year at this time and did 20-25% of the sales we normally do at this show selling SA, BA, CA, some modern cheaper books and expensive books. Most everyone had a a bad show, because no one was there. The article above highlights: Nearly 30% of Americans with some college education are resuming monthly federal student debt payments this month after a three-year plus hiatus One in three children enrolled in child care programs supported by American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, grants are projected to lose their spots since the federal funding expired at the end of September. As a result, parents could be forced to quit their jobs or cut back hours and are expected to lose billions in earnings in total. Americans continued to take on different kinds of debt. Credit card debt grew from $820 billion at the start of the pandemic to over $1 trillion three years later, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mortgage debt increased from $9.8 trillion to $12 trillion. Student loan debt remained steady at the $1.5 trillion marker. While the Medicaid stat may not seem relevant to the comic biz, those kicked off will probably reply on family first, which will take time and resources away from earners. All these things combined along with interest rates mean less money to spend on discretionary items like funny books. It's gonna be a cold winter.

Well I think the 9.8 money is no object collectors play into it, as not all necessarily have the funds to do it and there are levels of the food chain using the buy press flip routine to fund their own 9.8, registry, signature or theme personal collecting goals. The speculation for profit as well as raising capital to buy comics is a natural progression of that. As they exit the market, prices come down, as boomers exit the hobby and even this mortal coil, prices come down. It’s not a matter of if but when. Just watch reruns of antique roadshow where they show 2007 prices and 2023 prices on a wide range of collectibles. Most things are flat (which means they lost money against inflation) or down 30-80%. Very few things are up, and usually by an anemic amount. The pandemic was the perfect set of circumstances to create an artificially inflated rise but it was destined to level out and contract anyway. We are headed back to 2019, which means with inflation it’s really 2016. We might not be done yet. No one wants it’ to be true for a whole host of reasons, but that’s wishful thinking and self delusion

Ok man, but your cognitive dissonance over wasting vast sums of money on multiple copies of “9.8” books doesn’t warrant you’re thin skinned response to @lou_fine for presenting a valid theory on a message board, in a topic dedicated to that very subject. Have a blessed day.

Err just because you’re offended doesn’t mean he isn’t right.

I think this is the only test tube girl cover I have, but I do have the original art to Overstreet #28 by Murphy Anderson. I took this to show at OAF-con recently. No one remembers that because it was blown out of the water by a Frazetta Famous Funnies original cover.... https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=991610 √ here's a few things that may have inspired it, that I added to my CAF page:

The correct answer is this….

wait what? MCS will submit things to CGC for you? How does that work? I wasn't aware that was a thing?

"t was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

I will will be at OAF with Weird Paper and I will be paying less than Richard, and not a penny more.

fixed that for ya!

I had an easier time finding the original art versus the actual Bronze age marvel horror mags at SDCC in the early 2000's. I mean seriously, scouring the entire convention to find issues of Vampire Tales and Tales of the Zombie etc.

I suppose you might be able to set up some formulas that track to same book over time to see if successive Clink sales were above or below previous clink sales relative to the GPA, Peak etc. Would take a little work, but I think you have a lot of data here to mine, and I find it very fascinating to read. I appreciate you sharing it, and wanted to say so publicly to contrast some less useful comments from dealers who'd rather ignore this data. I have them on ignore, but when I see them quoted it reaffirms why I'm ignoring them.

hypothesis my eye- it's a FACT. CGC stratified the market, Covid spending was the tide that raises all boats, but now that tide is gone, and the stratification is even more stark now. Now all the money wasted slabbing non-high census SA an BA keys and non-keys looks like money just as well tossed in a fire if you are the fool holding that 9.2 Ms. Marvel #1, Eternals #1, She-Hulk #1, etc , etc, or anything below a 9.0. I would laugh, LAUGH if suddenly CGC were victims of their own greed and submissions tanked. What's the point? Might as well send it to MCS and be done with it.

You ready to retire to Florida with the other geezers Mitch? I hear it's lovely down there (not!)

but beyond that, this is the most underwhelming Comic Pro's personal collection auction I've seen. I mean, all the other auction houses of note were probably approached first, and this ended up with a used car salesmen from Joisey.

To my knowledge they only have one encapsulation station to do larger items like magazines and such, and that’s not going to handle all the various sizes of OA, from comics from 3 eras, magazine OA, GA, strips for dailies and sundays, This seems like a fool’s errand, a colossal risk, and again, who the hell in the market is asking for this? Where are you going to store them? There goes those Itoyas. You think a dealer is going to haul them around? All this to flush out the Donnelly’s fakery seems like overkill.

Suddenly, half the art in HA or Clink that’s ever gone thru their greasy hands gets the dreaded PLOD

And I made a Low Rez screen shot for free!

fixed that for ya. Which was my original point. It's the least they could have done.

Le't us know when you are done editing your comment- we are up to 3 so far. Trying to perfect the perfect snarky tone? I kinda prefer version 1, but YMMV. You might consider ChatGPT.