Bleeding Cool's shot at HG CGC collectors?

[RockMyAmadeus]

[Mr 9.8]

I sometimes wonder why I even bother to look at the BC forums.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Reading the comments, it's painfully clear that these people really have no understanding of CGC, why it exists, and why people "pay money for high grade books."

 

That will change. BC is already doing regular market reports and does a ton of vintage comic, comic market, & original art coverage, and will be expanding that -- and including a number of different viewpoints on various matters.

 

Go knock some heads around, Mark. That article is a MESS.

[ComicConnoisseur]

Anyone else see Bleeding Cools OpEd piece (Im not gonna call it an article since its definately an opinion).

 

You can read it here.

 

Basically deriding people for buying and or selling the 9.9 and 10.0 super high grade moderns that are on the market or on ebay...

 

Now I'm not the market for the super high grade comics (Im more of a 9.4-9.6 guy myself, in the pretty but not pricey zone), but if there are buyers out there, you cant fault someone for selling.

 

It does sound like the author may have read this message board though since he does paraphrase the "buy the book not the grade" mantra that gets passed around here.

 

The author says he's not criticizing CGC (but instead the HG buyers & sellers) but you can read between the lines since CGC recently added the 9.9 grade (at least thats my understanding being relatively new here) and he does criticize that grade chase...

 

Thoughts?

People paying more money for a high grade bronze/copper than a low grade silver age key like FF 1 or Hulk 1 never made sense.

[gaz973]

People are entitled to their opinions but someone with a BC account should point out to them that some of the stuff is blatantly made-up .

[MrBedrock]

 

And some of you wonder...

...and some don't.

Wonder what?

Wonder bread.

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

And some of you wonder...

...and some don't.

Wonder what?

Wonder bread.

Bread sticks.

[Dr. Balls]

After reading that article, I am most surprised that the writer actually admitted that he was "Wizard as price guide/Market Watch editor and occasional feature writer".

 

The guy fumbles his point so many times, I heard William Shatner's voice in my head replaying the famous line from Khan: "Like a poor marksman, you keep...missing...the...target..."

 

Why am I a fool for buying a 10.0? Give me numbers on how many are in the registry. Give me cogent arguments in like industries where extreme condition is not rewarded or viewed as more valuable. Good gawd, the guy just vents about his personal feelings and rambles on about how something can't possible be perfect if it's graded a 10.0 because he just thinks that isn't how it can be.

 

I don't collect 10.0 comics, but I understand why they are around, why people buy them and why they command higher prices, and why it's a gamble to buy one - neither topics of which are covered in his gibbering, rambling article.

[comix4fun]

Maybe he could also write an article that the price guide artificially inflated prices of Valiant comics as certain people within the Wizard company were sitting on MASS amounts...

 

 

 

Ahh Valiants

 

 

I don't know if it was a chicken or egg thing with price guides and those books. I was a very active show and CBG dealer back in those days and I was always way out in front of the price guide on those books.

 

Maybe the guides helped the hype but their prices were irrelevant for the most part. I was getting 50-100% more than their listed values for quire a while.

 

Maybe I was just that good.

 

Maybe I need a soda.

[markseifert]

Reading the comments, it's painfully clear that these people really have no understanding of CGC, why it exists, and why people "pay money for high grade books."

 

That will change. BC is already doing regular market reports and does a ton of vintage comic, comic market, & original art coverage, and will be expanding that -- and including a number of different viewpoints on various matters.

 

Go knock some heads around, Mark. That article is a MESS.

 

I think you know that William & I are die hard collectors from way back. I have a GREAT interest in bringing more collector-centric coverage to mainstream comic book readers.

 

BC is expanding now, and we're bringing in more contributors and putting an editorial structure in place. I am a huge fan of collecting of all eras, comics history, and the history of the business, (which is why I spend a fair amount of time here!) and BC will be stepping up its coverage of these areas drastically in coming months. We won't get there immediately, but we will get there.

[bluechip]

 

File under missing the irony.

 

Interfering with sales is a major sport here. In a dead heat with hyping sales.

 

If one person actually prevailed with legal action for interfering with the sale of a comic book, I can imagine what it might lead to.

 

Unless you think that the only legally actionable remarks would be those that imply modern books tend to be common.

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

File under missing the irony.

 

Wow. How you got that from a single smiley, I don't know. Amazing!

 

Interfering with sales is a major sport here. In a dead heat with hyping sales.

 

If one person actually prevailed with legal action for interfering with the sale of a comic book, I can imagine what it might lead to.

 

Unless you think that the only legally actionable remarks would be those that imply modern books tend to be common.

 

 

I have no doubt that what you say is true, though I certainly don't haunt the sales forums, and it's just as wrong there as anywhere.

 

However...you utterly miss the point between a random POSTER "interfering" with a sale, and a BLOGGER posting officially on a recognized industry news and information website.

 

BIG difference.

 

And no, I'm not excusing EITHER.

 

Let's keep our perspective in order, shall we?

[inconceivable]

This statement is patently false:

 

"Before the existence of CGC, no one would look at the racks in comic shops for comics in perfect condition, just to buy them for their perfection..."

 

My friends and I knew guys who were doing this as early as 1977 (before we'd ever seen a real Direct Market comic shop!)...they read their comics, too, and sometimes even bought multiple copies (scandalous!). Likewise when I worked for Diamond in the early '90s and we were able to pull our own books each week via the company's internal subscription service: high grade never meant much to me, but there were several employees who pored through the assorted weekly stacks to find perfect copies. I'm sure older boardies here could cite similar examples, so I doubt that such behavior was non-existent "before CGC" (though there's no doubt that it's more common now).

 

In both cases, I thought those folks were a little... at the time, but I'm sure at least a few of them laughed all the way to the bank...

 

I think those Diamond guys are still cherry picking the best stuff.

 

Dan

[bluechip]

 

File under missing the irony.

 

Wow. How you got that from a single smiley, I don't know. Amazing!

 

Interfering with sales is a major sport here. In a dead heat with hyping sales.

 

If one person actually prevailed with legal action for interfering with the sale of a comic book, I can imagine what it might lead to.

 

Unless you think that the only legally actionable remarks would be those that imply modern books tend to be common.

 

 

I have no doubt that what you say is true, though I certainly don't haunt the sales forums, and it's just as wrong there as anywhere.

 

However...you utterly miss the point between a random POSTER "interfering" with a sale, and a BLOGGER posting officially on a recognized industry news and information website.

 

BIG difference.

 

And no, I'm not excusing EITHER.

 

Let's keep our perspective in order, shall we?

 

Legally and practically there is little difference between a blogger site and a collectors' board. Especially when the collectors' board is specifically about collectibles and the blogging site is about culture primarily and collectibles secondarily. And, especially when people on the board often opine (and take pride in) that the board has significant influence on the value of things, with people expressly taking pride in having boosted or blasted the final sales results of items.

 

 

[skinnys_pal_tubby]

I think those Diamond guys are still cherry picking the best stuff.

 

Dan

 

What stuff? You mean modern comics have any value in the long run?

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

File under missing the irony.

 

Wow. How you got that from a single smiley, I don't know. Amazing!

 

Interfering with sales is a major sport here. In a dead heat with hyping sales.

 

If one person actually prevailed with legal action for interfering with the sale of a comic book, I can imagine what it might lead to.

 

Unless you think that the only legally actionable remarks would be those that imply modern books tend to be common.

 

 

I have no doubt that what you say is true, though I certainly don't haunt the sales forums, and it's just as wrong there as anywhere.

 

However...you utterly miss the point between a random POSTER "interfering" with a sale, and a BLOGGER posting officially on a recognized industry news and information website.

 

BIG difference.

 

And no, I'm not excusing EITHER.

 

Let's keep our perspective in order, shall we?

 

Legally and practically there is little difference between a blogger site and a collectors' board. Especially when the collectors' board is specifically about collectibles and the blogging site is about culture primarily and collectibles secondarily. And, especially when people on the board often opine (and take pride in) that the board has significant influence on the value of things, with people expressly taking pride in having boosted or blasted the final sales results of items.

 

 

You're still missing the point. Oh well.

[Dr. Balls]

I think those Diamond guys are still cherry picking the best stuff.

 

Dan

 

What stuff? You mean modern comics have any value in the long run?

 

When I had my shop in the mid-90's, my bread-and-butter was buying up books for 40% off cover, waiting until they hit $20-$50 and reselling them 6 months later. I don't think I've ever met someone who actually thought modern books had long-lasting value.

 

My LCS cherry-picks the best books from the shipment, and when they get hot - I'm stuck paying 5X the cover price if I want it.

[jools&jim]

I think those Diamond guys are still cherry picking the best stuff.

It's been a long time, but I have a distant (and probably faulty) memory of management discontinuing, or severely cutting back, the employee subscription service--at least at the corporate level--a year or two before I left (back in 1995). I have no idea how it works now.

 

[cheetah]

This statement is patently false:

 

"Before the existence of CGC, no one would look at the racks in comic shops for comics in perfect condition, just to buy them for their perfection..."

 

My friends and I knew guys who were doing this as early as 1977 (before we'd ever seen a real Direct Market comic shop!)...they read their comics, too, and sometimes even bought multiple copies (scandalous!). Likewise when I worked for Diamond in the early '90s and we were able to pull our own books each week via the company's internal subscription service: high grade never meant much to me, but there were several employees who pored through the assorted weekly stacks to find perfect copies. I'm sure older boardies here could cite similar examples, so I doubt that such behavior was non-existent "before CGC" (though there's no doubt that it's more common now).

 

In both cases, I thought those folks were a little... at the time, but I'm sure at least a few of them laughed all the way to the bank...

 

I think those Diamond guys are still cherry picking the best stuff.

 

Dan

 

Based on my LCS, they are sitting on the rest of them.

[rodan57]

The "10" does look bleeding cool on the label.