Comiclink results....holy cr@p!

[The Black Hand ®]

Which is why collecting what you like is a big factor.

[GreatEscape]

Nice pick-up Andy!

 

Similarly, I got great deals on these two "Acid in Face" covers

 

 

GE

[The Black Hand ®]

So are a lot of these books ones that the auction sites own themselves and keep buying back and selling or are people paniciing and selling cheap.

[kimik]

It was interesting to see how the Avengers #1s played out last night. Outside of the 8.0 copy, most of the others went for well less than I thought they would in a Clink auction. The 5.0 and 3.0 copies went for less than what you can sell them for on eBay. Had I looked earlier on in the evening I would have gone hard for the 5.0 copy as it would be a quick and profitable flip on the Bay.

[october]

Nice pick-up Andy!

 

Similarly, I got great deals on these two "Acid in Face" covers

 

 

GE

 

Nice. I was thinking of bidding on that Black Cat, but glad I passed!

[pinball]

Tonight I lost Batman #59. It went for well over guide. How come what I'm bidding on isn't under guide?

 

Because it is a good cover. Some of the lame covers, or books that have been overvalued in the guide didn't do very well.

 

I'm not surprised at all actually. A lot of the same books keep getting trotted out and surprise, surprise, they "under perform".

 

It is not that surprising to me.

 

The Adv 40? It had a very unattractive stain on it. It hurt. I wouldn't bid strong on that copy. I love Adv 40, but not that copy at a big dollar amount.

 

The restored high grade AA 16? It sold for way too much money the last time it sold. It is one of my favorite books, but there is no way I would pay over $20,000 for that copy. In my view, that is a $10,000 book. Call me old fashioned.

 

Hourman Adventures? From my perspective they have been cold as ice for a long time.

 

All Winners 2? Ugly cover

 

Young Allies #1? Puh-lease!!!

 

So, I don't see it as an indictment of th GA market when books that should "under perform" do. I see it as an accurate refelction of what people collect, and what they want to spend on their books.

 

Black Terror #1 ?

 

Only a VG, but not common, went well below guide. Decent cover too!

 

Oh I know the problem. Bad Luck Schleprock owned it.

 

Mike, was that your book?

 

Yeah, It was an under copy, but I would have bought it back from myself at the hammer price.

 

Yeah, it isn't a Schomburg, but it ain't so bad. I be person_without_enough_empathyin' less if I could win something for cheap. Even an ugly cover.

 

I'm missing on bidding and loosing on selling. I bet I had one of the only 9.9 White paged ASMs that didn't even come close to GPA.

 

I know - whaa, whaa.

 

I thought that book looked familiar. So I got it off of you after all. Was the #3 yours too? I got both at what I thought were great deals!

[Mio]

Got this for under GPA and I am thrilled about it. This issue and this copy in particular have slipped through my fingers four or five times. I wasn't planning on bidding on much else, but with these weak results I now have three or four books on my radar. Hopefully they will go cheap as well.

 

 

Congrats... I was very tempted to stray from EC and pick up all these books. They had a few nice ones that went for cheap prices. Pre-code horror at a discount - who could ask for anything more?

[pinball]

Got this for under GPA and I am thrilled about it. This issue and this copy in particular have slipped through my fingers four or five times. I wasn't planning on bidding on much else, but with these weak results I now have three or four books on my radar. Hopefully they will go cheap as well.

 

 

Nice pickup!! I was very tempted to bid on this book but just bought two Black Terrors earlier in the auction.

[october]

I was surprised at the lack of interest. I was the only person to bid in the last two weeks of the auction! Last GPA sale was $210, so $120 seems like a steal to me. Been looking for a copy for years.

[skybolt]

So are a lot of these books ones that the auction sites own themselves and keep buying back and selling or are people paniciing and selling cheap.

 

I think for me it's a matter of refocusing my existing funds to purchasing a home vs. keeping a lot tied up in comic books. I figure if I can buy a nice foreclosed or short sale property near the Chicago area for a value 30% less than a couple of years ago, then it's worth selling some of my books at a loss to finance it.

 

I'm the type of person that will hold on to a book until I can at least break even on it. This formula has always worked for me when listing books on the CL website and waiting for the right person to come along. However, due to the recent economic slow down, the offers coming in were still decent (90 to 95% of my original purchasing price) , but just fell a little short of breaking even. Therefore, I decided to use the auction format to get a bit more exposure and hopefully hit that 100% mark (including consigning fees of course). However, I wasn't expecting my and other people's books to go for record lows (60 to 70% of recent GPA sales)!

 

This experience has taught me 2 things:

 

1.) The auction format is a shoot unless you're selling a classic cover or hot book (as Ciorac mentioned), and have a decent reserve set.

2.) In these economic times I'll be much more willing to accept the 90 to 95% offers from now on.

 

 

[buttock]

Got this for under GPA and I am thrilled about it. This issue and this copy in particular have slipped through my fingers four or five times. I wasn't planning on bidding on much else, but with these weak results I now have three or four books on my radar. Hopefully they will go cheap as well.

 

I was hoping you'd get that one. Congrats!

[Aman619]

what Im seeing in these recent auctions, coupled with the economic times is not so good. What is selling strongly is the ultra HG copies and for ridiculous numbers while the rest flounders. We see this more and more of late. This sure feels like froth. And must only represent a subset of the subset of HG collectors who will pay whatever it takes for that BEST copy thats a .2 increment above their existing copy. But these sales make headlines and WOW threads and all looks rosy in the market.

 

The RM are selling huge. Keys in HG are selling bigtime. But nearly everything else is soft. There are numerous factors at work as Buttock stated. We cannot and will not know exactly how this will play out. But, seeing the bargains on nice books is looking to me like a warning sign. And if the only strong buying is on 9.8 top of census "freak" copies (22K for Vision??) and AF15s??? And nearly everything else is flat or going for bargains? yikes.

 

I always say our strength is our thinness as a hobby. That also works as a detriment. A few buyers take a powder and prices start routinely failing to reach their former levels.

 

Then again, its always been cyclical. Books heat up and cool off. And these dammn auctions accellerate prices up AND down -- confounding everyone's expectations.

 

As the great Curly Howard stated when asked to predict the future. "We shall see.. we shall see.?

 

 

[sfcityduck]

"I always say our strength is our thinness as a hobby."

 

I don't get it. The thing that concerns me the most about leaping into GA collecting is the thinness of the market. I don't see how that is positive, especially if the ageing collectrs base starts liquidating.

[agro23]

"I always say our strength is our thinness as a hobby."

 

I don't get it. The thing that concerns me the most about leaping into GA collecting is the thinness of the market. I don't see how that is positive, especially if the ageing collectrs base starts liquidating.

For me it's about keeping the books affordable because I'm always adding to my collection and I'm keeping the books. My heirs can squabble over the pickings and worry about market strength at such time as it's required. I'd live out of my car with my collection before I'd liquidate my gold.

[Aman619]

"I always say our strength is our thinness as a hobby."

 

I don't get it. The thing that concerns me the most about leaping into GA collecting is the thinness of the market. I don't see how that is positive, especially if the ageing collectrs base starts liquidating.

 

yeah, generally we want the hobby to grow, adding tens of thousands of collectors which would solidify our gains by adding demand to a limited supply.

 

But, my argument FOR thinness has been, we have sufficient depth with an abundance of FERVER! such that the economy's affect is minimized by the NEED to buy and collect the comics we love... that collecting is NOT SOLELY for investment purposes. I think this has been a hidden strength that has afforded the continual increased values we have enjoyed: a small pool of very committed buyers as opposed to a huge public affectation for the next hot collectible or flat out investment value. If and when the huge numbers of populace ever begin collecting comics, we would be at the mercy of their short-lived infatuation wearing off.

 

Its not a perfect theory.... but it explains part of the puzzle.

[MrBedrock]

"I always say our strength is our thinness as a hobby."

 

I don't get it. The thing that concerns me the most about leaping into GA collecting is the thinness of the market. I don't see how that is positive, especially if the ageing collectrs base starts liquidating.

 

yeah, generally we want the hobby to grow, adding tens of thousands of collectors which would solidify our gains by adding demand to a limited supply.

 

But, my argument FOR thinness has been, we have sufficient depth with an abundance of FERVER! such that the economy's affect is minimized by the NEED to buy and collect the comics we love... that collecting is NOT SOLELY for investment purposes. I think this has been a hidden strength that has afforded the continual increased values we have enjoyed: a small pool of very committed buyers as opposed to a huge public affectation for the next hot collectible or flat out investment value. If and when the huge numbers of populace ever begin collecting comics, we would be at the mercy of their short-lived infatuation wearing off.

 

Its not a perfect theory.... but it explains part of the puzzle.

A very valid point. With a large influx of new collectors there would undoubtedly be a percentage of purely speculative money. With a decreasing supply that money can do crazy things to values. When that money goes away equally drastic things can occur.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Here's a GA book that's slightly over Guide. :o

[Silver Surfer]

10X guide for a 4.5!

[adamstrange]

10X guide for a 4.5!

 

I think that's probably a record, but that's always been a high demand book.

[Mio]

10X guide for a 4.5!

 

I think that's probably a record, but that's always been a high demand book.

 

That one is popular. If it weren't for the Gaines files, Crime Suspense #22 in VG+ would probably also be a $2,000 book. As it is, the copy that's available is over $400.