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Brave and The Bold 28

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I was biting my tongue but what the hell.......that site is pure comedy.

 

Please critique and offer suggestions. I never said it was perfect. Nor do I use cgc slabs as my recording policy. Otherwise I would have something like:

 

Green Lanter #76 $1 million billion trillion (reserve_not_met)

 

grin.gifinsane.gif

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No problem, sorry for being such a 893censored-thumb.gif I'd also be the first to admit that there are many books that I would gladly pay more for than what's refected on the GPA. (or sometimes not even 75%) Those prices don't always reflect reality but it takes a combo of tracking the mkt, dealer talk, scarity, timing, etc etc..

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For example if a book on the GPA is listed as having a record sale of $500 for a book. If they sale is never completed the GPA still records the sale.

 

That's a common issue with recorded auction sales, and if you really wanted to hork their "top sales" all you'd need is a few shill accounts and some scans.

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Simple -script, eh? Well, I'll let our IT team of 4 guys and human categorization staff of 3 know they are now redundant tongue.gif. Collecting auction results might be a simple -script, but our service is much more than that.

 

Hope you don't think I'm raining on your parade - just wanted to clarify the statement "Their doing nothing that you can't write a simple -script for" as there is a lot of work day-to-day and continuous programming that goes on to develop and deliver GPA. The $70 entry level subscribers pay, and the overall return the product is currently bringing to us, doesn't even come close to cover our initial investment and ongoing costs.

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GPAnalysis is a very good product. I use it almost everyday and it is extremely useful when I make a decision to bid on a book.

 

As is the case with everything, the information that GPAnalysis gives is only as good as the information it gets (from various sites). And is also the case, just like most software programs, it will improve over time (as an example, the new market reports).

 

Remember that most collectors use to base their purchasing price decisions on Overstreet's price guide. And as we all know, Overstreet got their prices from dealers sales. And we know that 1) grading was not close to being consistent between different dealers and 2) actual sale prices were not substaniated. Therefore, the data GPAnalysis provides is light-years ahead of the data used to determine OS guide prices.

 

 

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Appreciate the kind words sfilosa. And we have another major upgrade coming soon - hopefully in Jan/Feb. There is also a minor upgrade this month which will allow you guys to save up to 10 titles you search regularly for, thus cutting down the time on finding titles first, then analyzing. The server time for results to be shown will also be sped up (most noticeable for Power/Gold users), with a helping hand from local microsoft folk, and a couple of brand new servers which have just arrived from Dell. So keep a look out and enjoy.

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While I can see the value in both products, I was always of the opinion that to be a collector was to have part of your brain devoted to being a comic price Roladex. Homework was part of the fun of it, finding the book you want at the price you wanna pay. I guess these two sites can support that function and theoretically make life easier. Personally I like to research the books I buy especially the major purchases and track stuff for myself, IE watch auctions and go to conventions etc, etc. I guess if you have the cash to devote $70 towards GPA (is that per month - or annually?) then more power to you. For me I invested in a PalmPilot and keep my stuff in there, its really conveinient, especially at shows and I know that the prices and sales Im logging are actuals with the potential for my own notes.

 

Again I think these two site are nice tools, but they should not allow you to become lazy as a collector and get stop getting out there and formulating your own opinions. Doing this makes me feel like I have my fingers more on the pulse of the industry.

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While I can see the value in both products, I was always of the opinion that to be a collector was to have part of your brain devoted to being a comic price Roladex. Homework was part of the fun of it, finding the book you want at the price you wanna pay. I guess these two sites can support that function and theoretically make life easier. Personally I like to research the books I buy especially the major purchases and track stuff for myself, IE watch auctions and go to conventions etc, etc. I guess if you have the cash to devote $70 towards GPA (is that per month - or annually?) then more power to you. For me I invested in a PalmPilot and keep my stuff in there, its really conveinient, especially at shows and I know that the prices and sales Im logging are actuals with the potential for my own notes.

 

Again I think these two site are nice tools, but they should not allow you to become lazy as a collector and get stop getting out there and formulating your own opinions. Doing this makes me feel like I have my fingers more on the pulse of the industry.

 

One of these sites is just (unauthorized) reprinted Overstreet data with a chart or two, so I'll confine my comments to GPA.

 

I do everything that you talk about. I have all sorts of data on all sorts of auctions, I visit dealer sites all the time, I go to shows, I talk to people on and off-line AND I sell a bunch of books book on and off ebay so I have my own sales records, etc. I still use GPA all the time. Why? I'd have to turn it into my full time job to put together as rich a dataset as GPA offers for just a few dollars a month.

 

I definitely have the cash to devote $70 annually to the service. As I've mentioned before, I've paid for that a few times over based just on books I've flipped based on GPA data.

 

I guess if you only collect or are interested in a handful of titles you could do what they do on your own, but if, like me you're interested in more than that I think it would be impossible to track that many auctions and make real sense of the results once you were done.

 

Now, I'm not telling ANYONE that GPA is the only data source one should use. It's not. Taken in concert with everything else that one does, I feel like it's a really powerful tool.

 

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Yes Rob I couldn't agree more as the more tools the better, I was just stating that there are alot of nuances to the comic industry that are not always gleaned from statistical analysis.

 

The best example that JC likes to throw out there is actual sales verses postings. An example I like to use is Amazing Adventures #11 the first Beast issue. In high grade 9.0 or better I have personally seen this book NOT meet reserve 60% of the timeits out there, with copies being listed multiple times with no takers. To me that says that the guide is correct on this issue and that the mulipliers that have been applied to CGC high grade are not applicable here. Of course in 9.6 or 9.8 this rule is again twisted as you get the speculators and Label buyers into the mix.

 

Again your point is well made and at $70 a year I can totally understand the attration for buying and selling and flipping for profit. I will have to do more online analysis of the online analysis services out there smirk.gif and come to my own opinion on their inherit value for me. IE How they log what they log Raw verses CGC, actual which are important sales % weight to Heritage etc how much of that is juice weight etc ugh endless etc etc.

 

There is no bible only useful guides laugh.gif

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It's not unauthorized overstreet data. It also has some unauthorized wizards magazing prices thrown in as well. Do your homework. Seriously though, pull the stick out of your butt sir 893naughty-thumb.gif

 

On the side note, I'm currently testing gpa as a trial customer. I find it quite useful and very professional. I'm wrestling with the idea of becoming a full time member. All that means for my website is sticking strictly to 50 titles up to the bronze age and making sure the data is as full as possible. Working on it on between the job hours, it's probably going to take me another 6 months frown.gif

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It's not unauthorized overstreet data. It also has some unauthorized wizards magazing prices thrown in as well. Do your homework. Seriously though, pull the stick out of your butt sir 893naughty-thumb.gif

 

popcorn.gif re: "big stick" comment wink.gif

 

Whet, don't discriminate - what about nostromania.com price guide and comicbookpriceguide.com prices? - those guys are even more off base than wizard at times...I always like referring to my first deals with chromium for bronze age Defenders and quoting prices from the CPG tongue.gif27_laughing.gif ...silly chocolate man...

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The Lyria Comic Exchange is a very good beginning website for price estimating on future comic book prices providing that the market just doesn't crash. Hell, using REAL world stock formulas we can even take a few stabs at price estimation one year into the future. Now that the ground work has been laid, it seems likekly we can set up a system that monitors 5 different online auction houses to give you even more acurate information. It's going to take some time (probably more then my original one week qoute wink.gif ) but I'm not going anywhere.

 

Where I went wrong is upon seeing a site that does something similiar after having the idea since early 1997 gives you these tremendous emotions of jealousy. So I made some dumb statements previously in this post. I'm man enough to admit that. Let's forgo the generalizations and the obvious no brainer attacks on where the data comes from and focus more on the pipes in place to pump down future prices accurately. I guess what I'm to say is that I can rag on Rob's site as well and debate its obvious amateur qaulities if I cared to but instead I placed it in my favorites list because it seems to be solid in what it's trying to achieve. thumbsup2.gif

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I guess what I'm to say is that I can rag on Rob's site as well and debate its obvious amateur qaulities if I cared to but instead I placed it in my favorites list because it seems to be solid in what it's trying to achieve. thumbsup2.gif

 

Which site of mine? GPA isn't my site.

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It's not unauthorized overstreet data. It also has some unauthorized wizards magazing prices thrown in as well. Do your homework. Seriously though, pull the stick out of your butt sir 893naughty-thumb.gif

 

Sorry I pointed out the reasons I wasn't going to comment on your site. I can't take a site that admits to stealing other guide's data very seriously, so there was no point in me commenting on it.

 

I also have to admit I don't like the idea of people taking someone's work and republishing it as their own.

 

I wish you all the luck in the world with whatever it is that you're trying to achieve- I think people trying new things to help the hobby is a good thing; but that doesn't mean I'm going to lie about what I think about your site as it currently stands.

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