CGC board members influence on the comic market

[Drakeprimeone]

Ever wonder how much the people on these boards effect the market? The Chew thread got me wondering...

 

Never heard of it till it was mentioned on the boards, feeding frenzy ensued and prices soared, now people are starting to talk that it was over speculated and prices may drop...

As far as I can tell many heavy hitters are members of these boards, people that buy high priced books, get sigs, are in the know, even know the big shots in the business.

 

What do you think?

 

 

[Cimm]

I think board members, when they are high on crack, become in tune with the market, and take it for a test spin...

[Drakeprimeone]

I think board members, when they are high on crack, become in tune with the market, and take it for a test spin...

 

Interesting theory

[Drakeprimeone]

Does anyone think the board can influence the market enough to affect the price of any particular book?

[Beau]

I sincerely doubt that this forum drives the market, since there are only 13292 members, probably at LEAST half of those being shills/inactive/what have you. If everyone here made a blood pact to not buy a copy of the next issue of X-Men (excepting the dealers), we wouldn't make a dent.

[homerwannabee]

Does anyone think the board can influence the market enough to affect the price of any particular book?

 

A hoarder could, and not in a good way. Say a hoarder has 1,000 comic books of the same title and issue number. Something like Captain America #100. Say the hoarder one day says forget it, and sells all 1,000 comic books of Captain America with 1,000 different listings on Ebay at the exact same time. Most likely this comic is going to take a awhile for the price of this comic to go back to the price it was originally at. Reason being the demand for people who want this copy has been completely satiated, except for those at the very highest level.

[Drakeprimeone]

I sincerely doubt that this forum drives the market, since there are only 13292 members, probably at LEAST half of those being shills/inactive/what have you. If everyone here made a blood pact to not buy a copy of the next issue of X-Men (excepting the dealers), we wouldn't make a dent.

 

Even if you factor that many board members are comic book shop owners who order the books?

[cloudofwit]

Does anyone think the board can influence the market enough to affect the price of any particular book?

 

A hoarder could, and not in a good way. Say a hoarder has 1,000 comic books of the same title and issue number. Something like Captain America #100. Say the hoarder one day says forget it, and sells all 1,000 comic books of Captain America with 1,000 different listings on Ebay at the exact same time. Most likely this comic is going to take a awhile for the price of this comic to go back to the price it was originally at. Reason being the demand for people who want this copy has been completely satiated, except for those at the very highest level.

 

Calamerica in the driver's seat.

[thehumantorch]

Does anyone think the board can influence the market enough to affect the price of any particular book?

 

A hoarder could, and not in a good way. Say a hoarder has 1,000 comic books of the same title and issue number. Something like Captain America #100. Say the hoarder one day says forget it, and sells all 1,000 comic books of Captain America with 1,000 different listings on Ebay at the exact same time. Most likely this comic is going to take a awhile for the price of this comic to go back to the price it was originally at. Reason being the demand for people who want this copy has been completely satiated, except for those at the very highest level.

 

We certainly know of one board member who fits that description.

 

Beau mentioned about 13,000 board members but I would imagine that there are far fewer active members. I suspect we are a small minority of the comic market but probably have a little more influence than our numbers suggest on the back issue market. New issues little to none.

[Big Daddy]

Does anyone think the board can influence the market enough to affect the price of any particular book?

 

A hoarder could, and not in a good way. Say a hoarder has 1,000 comic books of the same title and issue number. Something like Captain America #100. Say the hoarder one day says forget it, and sells all 1,000 comic books of Captain America with 1,000 different listings on Ebay at the exact same time. Most likely this comic is going to take a awhile for the price of this comic to go back to the price it was originally at. Reason being the demand for people who want this copy has been completely satiated, except for those at the very highest level.

 

We certainly know of one board member who fits that description.

 

Beau mentioned about 13,000 board members but I would imagine that there are far fewer active members. I suspect we are a small minority of the comic market but probably have a little more influence than our numbers suggest on the back issue market. New issues little to none.

 

I agree.

[Subliminal]

When CGC employees are doing crack and wander onto the forums here I think we have tremendous influence so the answer is : No, because coffee is their only office vice.

[paperheart]

funny thread because to me the whole chew thing seemed like a classic pump and dump. 60 page thread for a comic that's had two issues. but this isn't the first i've seen this here either. rasl anyone?

[namisgr]

Ever wonder how much the people on these boards effect the market? The Chew thread got me wondering...

 

Never heard of it till it was mentioned on the boards, feeding frenzy ensued and prices soared, now people are starting to talk that it was over speculated and prices may drop...

As far as I can tell many heavy hitters are members of these boards, people that buy high priced books, get sigs, are in the know, even know the big shots in the business.

 

What do you think?

 

 

none of the above

[Earl Davis]

This board is too small to have much of an effect apart from perhaps the Golden Age/high grade silver market where the % of collectors here is perhaps high compared with the overall collector base.

 

There are several hundred comic forums across the web that dwarf this board in terms of membership and posts and most of them are more focussed on modern books like the Chew comic you mentioned than members here who are more focussed on vintage comics.

 

In fact that prompts me to go and do a little research on boards out there. Some stats to follow when I have compiled some data.

[INTERSTITIAL OP-migration]

Back issues? Yes.

New releases? Maybe.

 

Paraphrasing one of the well-known lines from the St. Crispin's Day Speech of Shakespeare's Henry V.

 

We, here, we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, rule.

[Earl Davis]

I just vistited a few of the 100's of comic boards to see how many members they had. Here are the results from the sites I visited.

 

Site Members

Newsarama Forums [New] 513,199

Newsrama Forums [Old] 49,633

Manga Forums 48,438

Comic Book Resources 47,370

Comic Bloc 35,066

Image 19,145

Comic Genesis 18,448

Collectors Society 13,294

Dark Horse 10,393

The Comic Forums 5,308

Comics Journal 2,467

ValiantFans 2,179

ComicsPriceGuide.com [New Boards] 1,953

ComicsPriceGuide.com [Old Boards] 1,750

ComicCovers.net 804

Comic Buyers Guide 478

Comicsuk 466

 

Talking of Chew from Image I would guess the 19,145 members of the Image comics forums would have more impact than the 13,294 members of these forums

[Flaming_Telepath]

I just vistited a few of the 100's of comic boards to see how many members they had. Here are the results from the sites I visited.

 

Site Members

Newsarama Forums [New] 513,199

Newsrama Forums [Old] 49,633

Manga Forums 48,438

Comic Book Resources 47,370

Comic Bloc 35,066

Image 19,145

Comic Genesis 18,448

Collectors Society 13,294

Dark Horse 10,393

The Comic Forums 5,308

Comics Journal 2,467

ValiantFans 2,179

ComicsPriceGuide.com [New Boards] 1,953

ComicsPriceGuide.com [Old Boards] 1,750

ComicCovers.net 804

Comic Buyers Guide 478

Comicsuk 466

 

Talking of Chew from Image I would guess the 19,145 members of the Image comics forums would have more impact than the 13,294 members of these forums

 

Bear in mind that, of the 13,294 members here, there is a good chunk who are coinees. (thumbs u

[G.A.tor]

Does anyone think the board can influence the market enough to affect the price of any particular book?

we don't have to think...we know for a fact that one or more boardies have affected and influenced the price on MANY Golden Age books (thumbs u

[comicnut]

I have to admit I'm largely responsible for the price increase on Canadian White Comics.

 

About 7 years ago I started selling Canadian Whites Comics on ebay and privately. At that point they were selling for about $5 for incomplete copies and $10-30 for regular issues, maybe $100 or $200 for the #1's. Doug Sulipa had quite a few (dozens) for sale at his store and there were only a few people whom bought and collected them. You would only ever see maybe one or two show up for sale in a month.

 

Over the span of two years I sold about 150 of them from an original owner collection at about 15-20 books at a time. Over the span of the two years the prices increased dramatically on the books whereby incomplete were selling for $20-$50, regular issues routinely broke $100 and I sold Active #1 for a then record $1500 for a single Canadian White. (don't get these confused with Canadian comics that were complete reprints of US comics, Canadian Whites reprinted Fawcett material but with all new artwork or it was new Canadian material only such as Nelvana of the North in Triumph Comics).

 

Anyway, now there are lots of collectors for Canadian Whites, mostly in the US actually, and if you check Doug's website I think he might only have one or two left. The odd time that one comes up for sale on feebay it usually goes for over $100.

 

If I would have sold them off a couple at a time, I believe there would not have been the same effect. The "large" (for these anyway) quantities suddenly available made more people aware. People that had never bothered to collect because they were too hard to find started to collect. Others may have seen the prices starting to increase and wanted to get in. Just my

 

Is this good? I think so. Anytime you can bring new collector's to a very small niche of the market I think it helps the hobby. So price increases don't necessarily have to be bad. My again. IMO then, board members can influence PARTS of the market, not the whole market and I don't think the board itself influences things by us talking about it. IE: Do I believe a thread or 10 on here talking about one comic is going to increase the price on a comic, not likely and maybe only marginally as a few might get sucked into some hype.

 

I plan on doing the same thing with my collection of ROM and Micronaughts soon

[KryptoSpidey]

i think one thing missed that should be noted also in regarding our inpact on the market would have to do with the GPA issue.

with countless numbers of cgc graded books being sold daily here,and almost all at below gpa prices,the true value of gpa sales data has to be questioned....in that,im saying that by buyers here paying for cgc books at under gpa value,those potential buyers are removed from the outside world market place...and competing for books say,on feebay.Any time a buyer is removed from the market,because of purchases made at a different(discounted) venue,it has to have ramifications on sales data in the real market place...my ..

that being said..the forum sales area ROCKS!!