The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is looking for feedback.

[juggernaut]

1. Review of every comic book in the Overstreet Price Guide. Fix notations, groupings and pricing were needed. (1 year intensive) Just get the information correct!!

Note: Adding some new "classic cover" notations couldn't hurt!!

 

2 Remove Victorian, Platinum and BLB's from the price guide. Add comics or issues from GA, SA, BA, CA and MA that needs to be added in the OSPG. Note: Some areas needing more attention is promotional, ashcans, variants, hardcovers, tpb's and signed/numbered editions, etc....

 

The Overstreet publishes two seperate books.

Book 1 - Victorian, Platinum and BLB's (Every 2 years)

Book 2 - GA, SA, BA, CA and MA (Every year)

 

3 - Website!! Develop a website within the next three years were the Overstreet is updated quarterly. Collectors pay for the updated version. Include in the website feature articles or historical information that is related to the hobby.

Note: The OSPG is still published yearly!

 

 

[marvelcollector]

1. Review of every comic book in the Overstreet Price Guide. Fix notations, groupings and pricing were needed. (1 year intensive) Just get the information correct!!

Note: Adding some new "classic cover" notations couldn't hurt!!

 

2 Remove Victorian, Platinum and BLB's from the price guide. Add comics or issues from GA, SA, BA, CA and MA that needs to be added in the OSPG. Note: Some areas needing more attention is promotional, ashcans, variants, hardcovers, tpb's and signed/numbered editions, etc....

 

The Overstreet publishes two seperate books.

Book 1 - Victorian, Platinum and BLB's (Every 2 years)

Book 2 - GA, SA, BA, CA and MA (Every year)

 

3 - Website!! Develop a website within the next three years were the Overstreet is updated quarterly. Collectors pay for the updated version. Include in the website feature articles or historical information that is related to the hobby.

Note: The OSPG is still published yearly!

 

 

...and downloadable to a PDA...

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

1. Review of every comic book in the Overstreet Price Guide. Fix notations, groupings and pricing were needed. (1 year intensive) Just get the information correct!!

Note: Adding some new "classic cover" notations couldn't hurt!!

 

2 Remove Victorian, Platinum and BLB's from the price guide. Add comics or issues from GA, SA, BA, CA and MA that needs to be added in the OSPG. Note: Some areas needing more attention is promotional, ashcans, variants, hardcovers, tpb's and signed/numbered editions, etc....

 

The Overstreet publishes two seperate books.

Book 1 - Victorian, Platinum and BLB's (Every 2 years)

Book 2 - GA, SA, BA, CA and MA (Every year)

 

3 - Website!! Develop a website within the next three years were the Overstreet is updated quarterly. Collectors pay for the updated version. Include in the website feature articles or historical information that is related to the hobby.

Note: The OSPG is still published yearly!

 

 

...and downloadable to a PDA...

 

To point # 3, it already exists...its called GPAnalysis.

 

And what good will a quarterly online Overstreet really do if their pricing algothrims are based on set annual percentages as opposed to ACTUAL SALES?!?

 

I think the best thing the publishers can do is combine forces with GPA into a combined website effort where both "Guide" and "Acutal" prices are published side by side for comparison purposes. Gemstone doesn't have to hire new staff and invest into the price gathering mechanism of GPA, they would simply integrate their existing price information into the GPA databases. Consequently, GPA would gain the clout of the Overstreet name and could legitimately charge a higher monthly subscription. Revenue should increase as well as those otherwise skeptical of GPA would try out the service and see how invaluable it really is.

 

Of course, that might actually convince the publishers of the Guide to adjust their pricing on many books to look a lot less ridiculous, but hey..progress is a person_without_enough_empathy. In the end, its probably too much to hope for.

 

Overall, I'd say GPA is way ahead of the game right now while the big guide is slipping further into irrelevance.

 

 

 

 

[Deucedriver]

My guess is that adding Big Little Books, "Platinum Age" comics and the like in recent years have been editorial decisions designed to expand readership and possibly bolster flagging sales. I'd also speculate that selling as many copies of the Guide as possible has a lot to do with unrealistic values being assigned to generally worthless comics, and the more general trend for prices to increase rather than decrease over time. The bottom line is that Gemstone is in business to sell as many units of the their publications as possible. And providing hobbyists with accurate, real-time access to up-to-the-minute comics values may not necessarily be the most cost-effective way to do that.

 

If I were Overstreet, I'd get out of the "pricing" business altogether (leave that to eBay, GPA, etc.), and re-brand the entire book as a TRUE user's Guide to the hobby, with encapsulated series reviews, annual "collectibility" ratings (1 star for the entire run of some early '90s Image drek; 4-5 stars for "Amazing Spider-Man #1 - 122"), and--yes--market reports from top dealers, collectors, and fans, which would carry more weight (anecdotal or not) if they were not pegged to dubious pricing data. Another possibility would be to do as Sharon suggests, and for Overstreet to somehow partner with eBay and lend their name and imprimatur to an annual statistical survey of eBay sales figures for comics sold by known (and reputable) sellers (dealers and dealer-collectors alike). This would go a long way towards eliminating folklore from the pricing equation altogether, and make Overstreet look more proactive than ever before.

 

I know I b!tched about elements of the Guide for years when I was still more active in the hobby...but I still bought it, each and every year, too. How many of us are guilty of looking up our best comics every year to see how much their value has changed (as if printing a number makes it so), even though we know in some cases at least that the Guide price from five years ago is still not in synch with market realities? If we really want to send a message to a publisher, buying something we don't care for or believe in is the first thing that needs to change...

 

I agree with many of your ideas. In my perfect world Overstreet would become a hybrid. The print version you mention, with market reports maybe showing trend data from the information they compile during the year. If they want to keep all of the listings they have now, that's fine, just use it for research (1st appearances, artist, writers, etc.)

 

Using today's technology they could run a website that makes them money though subscription fees, advertising or one of many systems I can think of off the top of my head. They can follow the GPAnalysis model and record actual sales of CGC and like you mentioned, partner with E-bay for raw sales and other data. Dealers would also be able to input their actual sales. My check on the dealers would be this - when a user of this online database searches for price data the sales are annotated with input source. So if you look for X-men #1 in VG (4.0) it may say:

 

$600 E-bay Sale (11/29)

$650 E-Bay Sale CGC (12/1)

$600 Either "Dealer" or "Auction House" etc. with date

 

or some modification of the above. It would NOT be a pdf. They serve their purpose but not here. Real time updating using XML and other technology. The possibilities are endless.

 

With the sales source available we can make our own judgements. E-bay raw? Good chance of overgrading. Dealer price way in excess of the market - is this person trying to game the system? Obviously if a dealer decides to input data for their own agenda this would be readily apparent and would act to "shame" them into compliance.

 

A system like this is so ripe for profit for Overstreet/Gemstone it is amazing. They just need to be willing to think out of the box and into the future of web marketing. Don't want to give all of the tricks out here - like someone said earlier, we collectors are "cheap".

[Comicdey]

I think it would also be great to somehow capture the collector to collector sales and collector to dealer sales. Of course, then the dealers would have to admit what they pay for certain books, and the theory that "I pay the highest" would be shot for many.

 

Then you have the range that is realistic between wholesale and retail.

[innocuous]

I think it would also be great to somehow capture the collector to collector sales and collector to dealer sales. Of course, then the dealers would have to admit what they pay for certain books, and the theory that "I pay the highest" would be shot for many.

 

Then you have the range that is realistic between wholesale and retail.

 

This is genius. But will never happen.

[trmoore54]

Seriously, the editing of the Market Reports is atrocious...there was one item that meant to comment on staples and said "stables" 2 or 3 times...one would think they could afford a proofreader...

[VintageComics]

I think it would also be great to somehow capture the collector to collector sales and collector to dealer sales. Of course, then the dealers would have to admit what they pay for certain books, and the theory that "I pay the highest" would be shot for many.

 

Then you have the range that is realistic between wholesale and retail.

 

This is genius. But will never happen.

 

I'll support this. Fantastic idea. Problem is it would be very difficult to support all sales. Again, you could have people with agenda's faking sales and fudging numbers.

[cloudofwit]

Seriously, the editing of the Market Reports is atrocious...there was one item that meant to comment on staples and said "stables" 2 or 3 times...one would think they could afford a proofreader...

 

It's crazy how many errors will get into seemingly every publication. Yea, the cardinal sins in journalism (typos, misspellings, etc). Somehow, there aren't enough eyeballs to catch things or those who CAN catch 'em are either lazy or incompetent.

[TomG]

We would like to thank everyone for their posts so far regarding feedback for The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. We will be continuing to read everyone’s posts here on the CGC message boards and those emailed directly to us. If you would like your feedback to be posted in Scoop please send it to us at feedback@gemstonepub.com. We are not able to directly reprint posts from message boards. The original questions posed can be read online at Scoop .

[the blob]

I'll support this. Fantastic idea. Problem is it would be very difficult to support all sales. Again, you could have people with agenda's faking sales and fudging numbers.

-------------------------------------------------

Exactly. I routinely sell copies of Thor 339 for $25 (only 400 more to go...), but this is not reflected in the OPG, which is a travesty! People who have an agenda to make this "appear" to be a dollar box book are unfairly keeping this price down!

 

:-P

 

 

On a more serious note, I don't mind the BLB guide. Mind you, I understand it is of limited utility and interest, but BLBs do appear at shows with vintage comics with more regularity than victorian/platinum material, so I wouldn't mind a general guide. It only takes up a few pages.

[Bronty]

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is looking for feedback. If you are an Overstreet Advisor, you were just emailed an important question from Bob Overstreet and the staff at Gemstone Publishing. This will also be posted in the In The Limelight section in tomorrow’s edition of Scoop, at which time feedback from all interested parties is welcome.

 

haven't read the thread so excuse me if some of these thoughts have already been expressed.

 

The guide as it stands is pretty much irrelevant and getting more irrelevant every day. A once a year update is ridiculous in today's market place. You guys should be going online, subscription-based with real time udpating (even if that's a 'moving average'). Raw prices only.

[bergdoll]

My personal belief on the "guide" part of the guide is that you get an idea of what range issues within a series will fetch. eg. how does an #2 stack-up against a #20 and what is the relationship of an issue featuring a 1st appearance to those around it (5X, 10X, etc). The truth is that I have paid vastly different prices based on seller, time, and my wallet for books that I wanted. Sometimes I get lucky and buy at a fraction of guide, sometimes a multiple.

 

Anyhow - the thing that I want, desire, would love to see ANYWHERE, is a "movement" or "volume" chart.

 

Basically, an estimate of the number of issues actually being sold of a given issue. For example, I feel that a book like ASM #300 may guide at one price, but I always can find one if I want it. They are in constant movement.

 

Another book. Let's take Pep #22. Try to find it, in grade.

 

Why do I want this data? Well, when I see a couple of books that I want to buy, it would be helpful to see just how often I can expect to see one in the future.

 

The data I really need is:

 

1) Volume of trading

2) Estimated copies in existence

3) Relative scarcity over demand (which the above two would allow me to calculate)

 

I really liked that scarcity index in the Gerber Photo books, I really like the circulation data in the CBG big book.

 

To provide a modern example, Uncle Scrooge #310 is a very hard book to find. The reason must be either circulation or distribution. ASM #300 has more demand, but far more copies - so I see the Scrooge going for $100+ to a few collectors and the ASM going for $80-$200 amongst many.

 

No guide can account for the vast range these books fetch. It could however note high/low/volume

[the blob]

Basically, an estimate of the number of issues actually being sold of a given issue. For example, I feel that a book like ASM #300 may guide at one price, but I always can find one if I want it. They are in constant movement.

----------------

 

Print run/circulation or copies out there?

 

Copies out there is going to be tough to even begin to extrapolate except for some of the big big GA keys.

 

I'd love to get some print run/circulation figures if only year by year for the title, maybe at the end notes where they list artists and such.

 

How useful this is I don't know, because what matters to us is # of copies kept 20-60 years later, but it's interesting info.