Why is this bid so high?

[snizzenfixit]

Why are people bidding THIS so high? This can't possibly be worth a fraction of what it is selling for.

 

Phil

 

 

[Rickdogg]

About $3 a pop. Not too bad. That NM/MT CGC 9.8 is a load of though. I hate people who overgade!

[Guest]

that's cheap. I've seen runs of that title go for $200 +

[greggy]

Yo, does that mean that you hate me?

[Rickdogg]

[blowout]

might seem high for a run of modern books, but newstand prices are so high right now (especially the marvel knights titles ) that the current high bid is about cover-price.

of course movie hype has a little to do with it

[snizzenfixit]

About $3 a pop. Not too bad. That NM/MT CGC 9.8 is a load of though.

 

I would be leery of the NM/MT 9.8 - 10 and the "All sales are final" that goes with such an outlandish claim. The no return policy kinda makes them reading copies only to me, hoping for anything better is like rolling the dice.

 

Phil

 

 

[greggy]

[COI]

That's about market value for that run. I sold a run of #1-20 quite a while back(before the hype) for $100.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

MOVIE HYPE, Back in the later 80's I listened to a Rap group by the name of "Public Enemy", and one of the name's of their songs is "Don't belive the hype". That may be what they are going for NOW, but just wait until the hype settles, and well see what the same books will sell for.

[lighthouse]

That may be what they are going for NOW, but just wait until the hype settles, and well see what the same books will sell for.

 

Actually I have been selling runs of 1-12 at around $60-80 for three years now. That's just an extra $1.25 a book after #12 which is very reasonable. Most people don't realize how impossible it is to find runs of post 1998 titles. With the end of retailer speculation and a disappearance of collector speculation (other than on a half-dozen titles), there just aren't any copies sitting around waiting for the price to go up...

 

If you don't believe me, go to your local shop and see how many issues from 2000 they have of Wonder Woman... or Batman... or Avengers... or Captain America...

 

If your local shop averages even 5 of the 12 issues, you are shopping at an amazing comic book store. More likely, if your store has back issues at all (which many comic shops do not) they will have lots of stuff from 1985-1994 and less than 20% of the available issues from 1998-2000.

 

I travel to nearly 100 comic shops a year, making it a point to visit as many as I can whenever I travel. I do this primarily to learn more about retail, as even the worst run store has one or two things they are doing well, and I have picked up new ideas from almost every shop. But I always have a few hundred back issues I look for that I know my customers need. I can count on one hand the number of shops that had over half the issues of Birds of Prey, or Black Panther, or JSA, or Captain Marvel, or Thor.

 

If comic collecting as we know it continues for another 20 years, which I think is a fairly big 'if', the back issues from today will be ridiculously expensive. Print runs are so low that trying to collect most any title is a challenge. Any 'key' books that develop from this time period will see amazing prices. I currently have over 20 copies each of ASM 252 and Secret Wars 8, and 12 copies of Uncanny 266. I have only SEEN four copies of Birds of Prey 8 in the last three years, and have never owned one for longer than 6 days.

 

I would never suggest that anyone 'invest' in new comics... But the market is back to the point it was for decades. If you buy a bunch of stuff off the rack on a monthly basis, you have a legitimate expectation of the books having value down the road.

 

[FlyingDonut]

this is what Chuck Rozanski has been saying for a long time. Print runs are amazingly low on books, probably the lowest they've EVER been for major companies, and if collecting comics remains a viable hobby, there will be books that simply cannot be found from 1996-2001.

[comicinvestor-migration]

You guys sound like Wizard, when they ran that "Hot Investment" article on how low print runs translate into higher values in the future. Personally, I find that spurious logic, and I firmly believe that low visibility and sales actuallly hurt a comic in the long run, not help it. The most valuable Golden, Silver and Bronze Era books were also those with huge print runs for their era, and once the kid buyers grew up, they naturally gravitated back to their fave comics.

 

Then again, since no kids buy comics anymore, the long-term prospects for any book post-Spider-man #1 (1990) is very, very, very poor.

 

Short-term, it is highly probable to make some sucker cash off of movie-speculators, but this will fade with time.

[UnrulyAppendage]

I think in the long term, modern books will be valuable. I started collecting in 1979 and the "hot" bronze books now were cheap. Hulk 181 was around $16.00. Silver Age books were cheap. Once the current "modern age" has a definite age period, the current books will have a good chance of having a good value. Bronze Age was at one time the "modern age."

 

One thing to note about Golden/Silver age is that while the print runs were high, they were also disposable. They were not taken care of as good as they are now.

In the short term, I do think it is a bad investment to put money in moderns for speculation purposes. I think what may happen is you will have dissappointed collectors impatient with the value of their moderns and will unload on the market or they will make it to the bargain bins and then they will not be taken as good care of.

 

I am not on a modern bandwagon but the long-term prospects look good if collecting is still a hobby. If the hobby grows, then the prospects are very good. If it dwindles, then even our "prized" copies will be good for wiping wind shields.

[supapimp]

well if kids are not buying the comic books post 1997, i think the back issue market 20 years from now will be soft. since they're not going to come back to try to buy back their childhood. sad

[blowout]

"I am not on a modern bandwagon but the long-term prospects look good if collecting is still a hobby. If the hobby grows, then the prospects are very good."

 

this is very true, and it has to be said that things do not look good long term. get those kids reading comics again!!! thats the only way to secure the long term future of the hobby. the reason that bronze age books are very collectable at the moment is because the kids that read them off the stands are now reaching maturity and buying those high grade copies.

whose gonna be buying USM etc in 20 years time?

 

[FlComicFan]

sadly kids (and many adults cannot afford to collect or will not ( I wont). If you compare what it costs to collect say 10 books a month it is without question ridiculous to expect kids to come up with $30-$50 to buy 10 titles. When I collected I would bring a $20 with me an buy 90% of all Marvels and DC's each and every week. The only titles I didnt buy was the baxter paper books which always cost twice as much and the Indies which were pricey those I'd pick up out of the quarter bins a few months later. So the print runs are low so what 20 years from now how many people will give to craps worth about Birds of Prey? People who pay $3-$4 for a new comic are shrewd enought to bag and board it and take good care of it hoping to get some of their $ back if they ever get ttired of the funny books. So it stand to reason if some title had 10,000 copies printed most will survive. You might have to search some so guys like Mile High can gouge for those who are too lazy or are unfortunate enough to live in comics limbo. Unless the comic market gets back into the hundereds of thousands per issue each month its just a matter of time before the medium is gone as we know it. Chet