gpanalysis

I understand that, it's not that there is a complexity in automating it or the scripting behind it, but that you would need to hit the site constantly to check on the status of 200 or so pages of CGC lists. You would probably want to do it at least once per day and then make an assumption that the sale pending items would indeed be settled (i.e. the sale was carried through).

I'm not sure if you read through what I wrote above, but it's not a case of sales being reliable with respects to the regular consignment listings. The consignment listings have no set time to end so there is no way to monitor these (there is no "ending time" like an auction). With respects to CL's auctions, for the moment these appears ok to monitor after they end (bacause they have a defined end point). So we'll include these as long as we can see the price realized after auction end.

Hi Roy and others. There's no problem in including CL's auction results, in fact the latest focused auction has been recorded and categorized, ready for inclusion in our analysis. What we can't include are the regular consignment style listings which do not have an end date/time and there's no way of checking a finalized result. It's here were I've been hoping CL would report to us, so rather than just us reporting on auctions (which we can collect ourselves), we would have all sales data reported through their site. Some collaboration would also mean that we could be informed of sales that fell through, which means we're in turn better informing our subscribers. For example, Doug at Pedigree Comics automated sales feed to us only includes books that have been physically shipped. With Heritage's auction results, we have automated scripts that check sales a month or so after the initial results, as some of these can fall through, or an offer occurs after the auction. Others let us know from time to time by dropping us an email to inform us of the same. What I like to have is as complete a picture as possible from each contributor so that we're not reporting sales incorrectly, etc. But as I said, the 1600+ sales that just occurred through their (CL's) latest auction are ready to include if we choose to do so. The question is, would you guys be happy that only some of CL's results are included (auction style) and not others (consignment style). George.

Actually we do reference these (thumbs u In the notes section we will note "Double Cover" - I think there are a couple of WWBN double cover issue sales recorded if you check.

It's on "The List".

Is it possible to fix the search so we can use short keywords, and part keywords?? I can search on "gpanalysis", but none of these keywords work: "gpanalysi" "gpanalys" "gpanaly" "gpanal" "gpana" "gpan" "gpa"

utility belt... pretend to be lawyer by day... on the red phone to the commissioner...

Did tha Scrooge book sell in the end? We went by whatever the Hakes site reported on the final result - let us know and we'll update the results.

I'll be accused of nit-picking, but your exact comment was : "I actually recently offered to start supplying some realized prices (selected higher dollar sales) to GPA and they did not appear to be interested ." Not exactly how our email conversation went. But either way, I'm ok with your decision also, after all, you contacted me and I explained why I wouldn't take just selected sales. As I said, we are both set in the way we operate and that's fine People place a ceiling on what they will pay for a book for many reasons. One might be GPA. Before GPA there was information gathered by specific individuals that had the time. Either way, whatever the basis for a sell or buy decision, dealers/buyers/sellers negotiate one-on-one and can come to an agreement on the merit of their argument on why a price is fair. I'll clarify my statement for complete accuracy - "I actually recently offered to start supplying some realized prices (selected higher dollar sales) to GPA and they did not appear to be interested" ...in receiving select sales data from us. Agreed? Anyway, no attack launched here and no defense necessary. Good luck in 2007 with your business. -Josh Nathanson, www.comiclink.com Josh, likewise - I'm here to defend our service where necessary and not pass judgment on ComicLink All the best.

I'll be accused of nit-picking, but your exact comment was : "I actually recently offered to start supplying some realized prices (selected higher dollar sales) to GPA and they did not appear to be interested ." Not exactly how our email conversation went. But either way, I'm ok with your decision also, after all, you contacted me and I explained why I wouldn't take just selected sales. As I said, we are both set in the way we operate and that's fine People place a ceiling on what they will pay for a book for many reasons. One might be GPA. Before GPA there was information gathered by specific individuals that had the time. Either way, whatever the basis for a sell or buy decision, dealers/buyers/sellers negotiate one-on-one and can come to an agreement on the merit of their argument on why a price is fair.

Bob, I was only making the point on how our service can be used: looking at prices across all grades for a specific book - although sometimes only a few sales exist for any one grade, taking into consideration all prices for all grades and looking at census info can give one a better idea on how a book is being priced.

Your GPA sources should also be able to tell you that the 7.5 has had a fairly consistent price of between $350 and $420 - the $420 price (or $418.25 to be exact) was one sold only a month ago on Heritage and was a nice off-white pager. Looking at a couple of grades either way sometimes gives you a good overall idea of the CGC prices for a book.

Josh, we can continue going over this. You want to report some sales to us, we would rather you reported all sales. Other than the chart busters section on our home page, there is no identifier as to where the sale comes from. I can't force you to report to us, you can't force me to change my policy. Dealers are free to do what they want, buyers are free to do what they want. I stand by my service and don't believe it misleads in any way. If that is your opinion, well, that is your opinion. You ultimately deal directly with your customers and you are best placed to put your argument forward for whatever position you hold for any and all issues.

I would agree with you 100%

I don't know how that has anything to do with GPA though Some people will use all kinds of arguments when they are dealing with anyone.

How to do you come up with a price on a book you haven't offered before, or don't have any sales information on from show cons or any other venues?

GPA shows prices realized for sales that they have recorded. Currently, no ComicLink sales are reported to GPA and GPA also lacks retail sales from many other sources. Therefore, their numbers are incomplete, and collectors preaching them as gospel is inaccurate and misleading. One high profile example of is the sale of Hulk #1 CGC 9.0 with white pages which sold in a recent Mastro auction for $33,378 and was reported to GPA. In March 2005, a Hulk #1 in 9.0 with off-white to white pages (I think it is the same book before the page quality upgrade) was sold by a consignor on ComicLink for $50,000. So, what is it worth? Taking the GPA number only, a collector would conclude that it is only worth $33K. Taking the ComicLink number only, a collector would conclude that it is worth $50K. Knowing what it sold for in both places, a reasonable conclusion is that what it is worth depends on who is looking for the book at the time, the client base of the selling venue, the scarcity of the book, and what the buyer (and underbidder) is willing to spend to obtain it. If you are a seller, what the book is worth will also have to take into account, keeping in mind the above factors as well, the total commissions (buyer + seller) of the selling venue. What the seller nets = what the buyer ultimately pays for the item minus the sum of the buyer and seller commissions retained by the selling venue. There are countless examples of items selling on ComicLink for higher than the average GPA numbers (the vast majority of which are comprised of eBay and Heritage sales) or even higher than the book just recently sold for in another venue. Of course, there are also examples where a seller is willing to accept less than GPA numbers for a quick sale (or doesn't know that a book can sell for more than their list price) and the astute buyer can obtain a relative "bargain." Alternatively, an uninformed or greedy seller on ComicLink or anywhere else may overprice a book that is not scarce and it is therefore a pitfall for any buyer that is going to resell in the short-term. Josh Nathanson www.comiclink.com What's behind your decision not to supply sales data to GPA? I actually recently offered to start supplying some realized prices (selected higher dollar sales) to GPA and they did not appear to be interested. Thanks, Josh Nathanson www.comiclink.com I'm sure that's because GPA wants all the sales or none of them. . Totally correct, it's all information that's required - I am a bit surprised Josh, I thought I put forward a compelling reason for you to include all sales if you were to report to us, not to cherry pick only a few - and I also explained that's how everyone who reports to us does it so I could not make an exception for one data supplier. BTW, I don't think collectors quoting values from those books traded more often are inaccurate or misleading. From what I see, they're within the range that's realized on ComicLink. And anyone looking at GPA or anything else to price a book based on one or two trades, well that's no different to a collector trying to gauge whether a book being offered by a dealer is fair if there is no historical information to give them some guide.

From 2005 onwards - some a little earlier for those books sold through venues that report the certs directly to us (for example for heritage, since about 2003/2004. Not all books sold through eBay will have certs - either not listed in the auction or label too small.

you mean do we have the serial numbers already?

At this stage the plan is to include the serial number where available. With the relase of GPA for Coins, we will be redevloping GPA for Comics, with the addition of serial numbers on the list.

Hi Sterling, for the record I don't think we've ever pushed our service as a guide on what people should or must pay for CGC books, nor what the upper limit should be - I'm not saying you are suggesting this is the case - what you're most likely saying is that some collectors who use our service may like to quote prices and hold these up as gospel. Frankly I haven't come across anyone who would use GPA in this way - instead, and this is how I was using GPA before it was ever made public, they look at GPA as a historical snap shot of prices paid, and in the more recent sales (and more often traded books) pretty much an indicator of price movement. (BTW, my comments here have no bearing on ComicLink or any other buying/selling venue, nor do I (or my staff) pass judgement on where collectors should buy or sell their books.) There are many factors that will influence one collector's price entry over another's. And there are as many factors as to why some collectors/dealers start a book's asking price at above or below GPA. Many of those reasons are hotly debated: page quality, QP, short-term/long-term influences, emotional factors, etc. At the end of the day though, I would be hard-pressed to understand why some people would pay well over a median price-point on a regularly traded, and often easily available book. And this is the main reason why GPA came about - to assist in determining a FMV for books and hopefully set some idea of a price boundary. For example, let's look at Incredible Hulk #181 in CGC 9.6. A regularly traded book, often comes up at least once per month and sometimes 2-3 times. Looking at the last 12 months, this book has traded as low as $3350 and as high as $4800 - a pretty decent spread. White Pages and good QP abound at both price extremes, but let's for argument sake suggest that the $4500+ sales were due to white pagers with great overall eye-appeal. Another comes up for auction with an asking price of $6000+. Could you see an argument as a dealer that this is a fair price? What about as a collector, would you consider that buy price as reasonable in the wake of historical data at hand? As a collector I always knew that selling was a necessary part of the collecting mix. For so many reasons, at some point in time, both short term and long term, you might need to sell a book. No one likes to cop a 20%+ loss. It is here where GPA helps most, and it's what I hear time and time again from our subscribers. They use GPA to determine a FMV spread, take the current market into consideration, and their own personal position, and then make a final, calculated, individual decision on what they are prepared to spend. Likewise, many dealers who are members use it in much the same way when buying and selling.

BTW, love those Dan Dare Covers you have up on your gallery - very cool

I was looking at some of the prices his horror covers were going for a couple of years ago and they were around $2-3k range - I guess his Captain Atom stuff must fetch way more. I owned a Ghostly Tales a while back which I bought for $2k and I think realized a bit over $3k a few years back.

I guess without any comparable sales that's all I had, a guess...