Money Is No Object!!

[blazingbob]

Are you guys serious? What do I have to do to prove that I'm buying a house? That's my motivation, plan and simple. The only reason I'm selling now is so that I don't have to be in the position of needing the money. You know that situation, he needs the money to buy a house, the longer I wait the more desperate he becomes. I would rather be the one in control of my destiny right now.

 

Quite frankly the need for "you" to know my business is really "None of your business".

 

 

[blazingbob]

Your right Gene, the market is crashing. Sell Everything!

 

And why would I take out Loans to buy my house? Should I float some Junk bonds backed by my comic collection?

 

Other dealers have sold their personal collections, it's not the end of the world.

[FlyingDonut]

but Bob Storms publicly stated that he was buying a house when he sold the FFS...not averting a crash.

 

Actions speak louder than words. Why would this man, who is very in-tune with this hobby, pick this particular time to sell? From what I've heard, people have been trying to buy his FF's for a while, so why now? He's a dealer, so if by some chance he sees a "crash" or "correction" on the horizon, do you think he's going to come out and say it? That wouldn't be good for business. Regardless of his reasons, or what he claims are his reasons, on the topic of "investing" you have to tale a dealer's opinions with a grain of salt.

 

http://www.tias.com/stores/metropolis/press.html

 

http://www.pgcmint.com/ArticleContent2.php?articleID=39

 

Or maybe, just maybe, Bob is actually BUYING a house, and noticing that the Federal Reserve just hinted at raising interest rates, and decided to buy now before his mortgage rate would go up. There's probably not a conspiracy theory here people - Bob wants cash now. Give it a break.

[CGCMINT]

Well said Bob and to everyone speculating on why you sold your FFs, they need a day job.

 

John

 

[rob_react]

but Bob Storms publicly stated that he was buying a house when he sold the FFS...not averting a crash.

 

Actions speak louder than words. Why would this man, who is very in-tune with this hobby, pick this particular time to sell? From what I've heard, people have been trying to buy his FF's for a while, so why now? He's a dealer, so if by some chance he sees a "crash" or "correction" on the horizon, do you think he's going to come out and say it? That wouldn't be good for business. Regardless of his reasons, or what he claims are his reasons, on the topic of "investing" you have to tale a dealer's opinions with a grain of salt.

 

http://www.tias.com/stores/metropolis/press.html

 

http://www.pgcmint.com/ArticleContent2.php?articleID=39

 

Or maybe, just maybe, Bob is actually BUYING a house, and noticing that the Federal Reserve just hinted at raising interest rates, and decided to buy now before his mortgage rate would go up. There's probably not a conspiracy theory here people - Bob wants cash now. Give it a break.

 

There will never be a break! There's a conspiracy EVERYWHERE! Single sales are harbingers of DOOM!

 

Which is an awfully convenient (shady?) premise since you can just pick and choose ones to fit your pet theory.

 

Bob- who's sitting on a gazillion dollar inventory and is, on this very message board, complaining publicly about not being offered the opportunity to add to it by buying HooDeeDoo's collection , sells his personal FFs and it's a sign that he has no confidence in the market. That makes perfect sense. Especially when he, one of the most forthright dealers in the hobby explains his motivation is to buy a house. This is a guy most of us have talked to, dealt with and trust. But really, with all that it's much easier to imagine that BOB IS A LIAR.

 

This is ridiculous. Should I dig up any number of posts where people ascribing motivations to a particular purchase were vilified? Let me get this straight, it's not okay to ascribe motivations to people's expensive, headline making purchases- we're supposed to take those at face value; but it's perfectly fine to ascribe them to a big sale? I guess it depends on whether or not the sale fits into a certain agenda. That's [!@#%^&^] lame.

 

[fantastic_four]

but Bob Storms publicly stated that he was buying a house when he sold the FFS...not averting a crash.

 

He said the same thing in 2002 when he sold several of his personal Spideys shortly after the movie came out. I'm not inferring it isn't true, but the timing of both sales suggests he and Mark were taking advantage of a bubble for WHATEVER reason, which is fine with me. Nothing unethical about it.

 

I would like to announce that every comic book I ever sell is going towards putting food on my table, a roof over my head, and vacations when I eventually retire. So please be sure to help me out in this effort whenever you see me selling!

[fantastic_four]

X-Men #101 CGC 9.6 auction result

 

Daredevil #168 CGC 9.6 auction result

 

ASM #121 CGC 9.6 auction result

 

Were these really all that high? 9.6 copies of 101 have sold for more...168 has been overpriced for a while so this one is definitely a bit optimistic, but not significantly higher than it went for early last year...and I can't remember a white-paged copy of 121 selling for less than this in years--did I miss a sale somewhere?

[blazingbob]

Dear Speculators of my sale

 

When building my business I put a lot of purchases on Credit card. Being that not many banks saw my business knowledge it was the easiest way to build my business. In 2002 the 1st stage towards the purchase a house was to pay down my credit card debt which was in the middle 5 digit range ($xx,xxx).

 

Financial planning says the best way to make money is to pay off your cards, which I did with the sale of my Spidey's. After those sales the next step was to implement the selling of my collection to finance the downpayment.

 

The Spidey movie was convenient at the time and in some cases a blessing.

 

 

 

 

[ScarFace-migration]

[Foolkiller]

Let me just return for a moment to the original topic of this thread... that is there might be some indicia that some long time collectors are taking this period of time to sell off some of their high grade books.

 

Let's leave Bob out of this for a second, because he's already stated his reasons for selling, and I don't think there's reason to doubt them. Unless you have evidence to the contrary, I don't think there's any reason not to take the statements at face value.

 

That being said, I actually mentioned this to Gene last time I saw him as well, that I thought the timing of some collections being sold was odd because there are a lot of notable people selling their books off... and some less notable people, who aren't on the boards, who see now as a good time to sell their high grade gems because they can get more now than they ever could before.

 

BUT Gene, don't you think there's something to the fact that there are still buyers for all these books at record prices? I don't know who they are, but is that relevant? I'm not sure it is. The flip side is to say there are is some new money floating around beyond just the tried and true collectors.

 

We seem to be heading for a crash discussion... and although I've noticed a small glut with some 9.2s heading back down to earth, most of the primo, and truly rare stuff, still gets a premium. Again, Gene, I think taking just those sales as evidence of a trend is somewhat of an indicator, but certainly not dispositive. Nor is who is selling their books. I don't see Tom Brulato selling off his whole collection.... but of course, I do think we are seeing some correction in the market when it comes to many 9.0s and 9.2s, which everyone seemed to agree all along were more common.

[rob_react]

X-Men #101 CGC 9.6 auction result

 

Daredevil #168 CGC 9.6 auction result

 

ASM #121 CGC 9.6 auction result

 

Were these really all that high? 9.6 copies of 101 have sold for more...168 has been overpriced for a while so this one is definitely a bit optimistic, but not significantly higher than it went for early last year...and I can't remember a white-paged copy of 121 selling for less than this in years--did I miss a sale somewhere?

 

It's not just the prices, it's that people can JUST FEEL that these guys are SPECULATORS in for a taste of the "CGC gold rush." Since they're not recognizable names that's simply what they MUST BE. They can't possibly be people who have some disposable income, investment bankers for example, who want to capture a little piece of their childhood. No, that's impossible because this is a thread from Negativeland where we always turn that frown upside down, we always assume that people are liars and we always ascribe the worst motivations to whatever event we happen to catch.

 

"Wow, did you see that? That teenager helped that old lady across the street"

 

The Negativeland response:

 

"He's just doing it so he can mug her."

 

Boycott Negativeland! Support Realityland where evidence counts and people aren't all assumed to be lying or evil!

[drbanner]

Let me just return for a moment to the original topic of this thread... that is there might be some indicia that some long time collectors are taking this period of time to sell off some of their high grade books.

 

That being said, I actually mentioned this to Gene last time I saw him as well, that I thought the timing of some collections being sold was odd because there are a lot of notable people selling their books off... and some less notable people, who aren't on the boards, who see now as a good time to sell their high grade gems because they can get more now than they ever could before.

 

Where does everyone think all those killer books that showed up in 2002 and 2003 came from anyway, grandma's attic? No - long-time collectors saw the prices slabbed books were bringing and decided it was time to sell. BB and HDD are no different...and the funny thing is, there appear to be plenty of willing buyers!!

 

After congratulating one of the boards' high-profile DC Bronze Age collectors on a recent acquisition, he PM'ed me the following BEFORE this thread started:

 

"Hey...if you didn't sell your (DC) collection for the house, yours would be a lot better than mine in many instances."

 

Yes, I sold pretty much my entire Bronze Age collection (Spotlight 2 9.4, Amazing Adventures 11 9.4, Hulk 181 9.4, Batman 227/232/234 all in 9.4, Batman 251 in 9.6, Phantom Stranger 1 in 9.6, Adventure 431 in 9.8, etc.,.) in '02 to help buy a new house, and here I am, still collecting, buying back some of the books, and looking forward to more shuffling around of my collection in the days, months, and years ahead.

 

Record setting prices and new collectors entering the hobby are not harbingers of doom for the comic book market...

[ScarFace-migration]

Boycott Negativeland!

Isn't dat da place where Mickey punches all da kids in da face?

[Aman619]

Record setting prices and new collectors entering the hobby are not harbingers of doom for the comic book market...

 

but it CAN be if you want it to hard enough.

Some people here really really want it bad....

 

Bob - - buy the house already so people will leave you alone and stop questioning your motives.

[joe_collector]

Record setting prices and new collectors entering the hobby are not harbingers of doom for the comic book market...

 

Funny, they always have been in the past.

[drbanner]

Record setting prices and new collectors entering the hobby are not harbingers of doom for the comic book market...

 

Funny, they always have been in the past.

 

Funny, based on what books have been selling for over the last few years, I'd say the harbingers have never quite gotten it quite right then!!

[joe_collector]

Record setting prices and new collectors entering the hobby are not harbingers of doom for the comic book market...

 

Funny, they always have been in the past.

 

Funny, based on what books have been selling for over the last few years, I'd say the harbingers have never quite gotten it quite right then!!

 

Trends do not adhere to your foolish yearly schedules, but instead concern themselves with decades.

[BachelorOfComix]

[dam60]

Record setting prices and new collectors entering the hobby are not harbingers of doom for the comic book market...

 

Funny, they always have been in the past.

 

Funny, based on what books have been selling for over the last few years, I'd say the harbingers have never quite gotten it quite right then!!

 

Trends do not adhere to your foolish yearly schedules, but instead concern themselves with decades.

 

JC - a decade is a LONG time!! Enough to double your money and then some and then get out if you are a good market timer!

[delekkerste]

To everyone:

 

I'm not sure where this turned into the Referendum on Bob Storms' Motivations Thread, because that was never my intention. Bob is just one of many people I know who are currently dismantling significant parts of their collection (believe it or not, I actually do participate pretty actively in this hobby and know a lot of people and, more importantly, people who know people - I don't sit around the office and daydream up doomsday scenarios like some people would like to believe). When did I ever doubt his motivation that he wants to buy a house? I'm sure he does. However, if he thought his FFs were going to skyrocket from current values, I have to believe that Bob, being the shrewd businessman he is, would find another way to raise cash than selling undervalued assets. That's my point. There's no need for some of you to go off on your trademarked knee-jerk anti-crash, anti-negativism tirades. Who said anything about a crash? Aren't you just inferring much more negativism than anyone has actually said because of your own hypersensitivity about this particular issue?

 

As for the newbie issue, if people want to think that newbies taking books off the hands of seasoned collectors at parabolically-inflated prices represents a healthy market dynamic, go right ahead. If people want to believe that these are all wealthy doctors, lawyers and bankers recapturing their childhood nostalgia and not Johnny-come-latelies to the CGC gravy train, please say hi to the Mad Hatter for me in the Wonderland you live in.

 

As for those examples I cited, these are among my favorite books that I have followed very closely over time. You can't just look at GPA data alone. ASM #121 9.6 was a $1500 book when there were only a few copies on the Census. Then more copies arrived and it plunged. I think this current sale is close to a record and in any case represents a very strong rebound from recent auctions where reserves have not been met below $1K. DD 168 - I bought my 9.6 copy for low-$400s back when there were 4 in the Census and no 9.8s. Now we're pushing 7 C-notes with the Census figures greatly inflated and the 1st DD movie hype phase out of the way...when does it stop? At $1K when the Elektra movie comes out? Are we to take these huge rates of return as being healthy, normal and sustainable? What about the newbie that buys the book for $800 and quits the hobby in disgust when "inexplicably" the book falls back to more sustainable levels?

 

As for XM 101, we all know that this book is juiced by Movie Hype. I think this current sale is pretty close to a record (I think one or two of the early copies may have sold for higher back when there were very few in the Census). I bought a stunning 9.6 copy for well less than half the price in 2002...does the phrase, "too much, too soon" mean anything anymore? High prices do not validate underlying fundamentals, as we know that markets are prone to bouts of mania.

 

I guess, deep down, most people just don't want to hear anyone suggesting that this great comic orgy may eventually come to an end. Sorry to have ruffled anyone's feathers, but, to be honest, these posts are neither for your benefit nor mine...

 

Gene