Hypothetical question on cornering the market

[Logan510]

You should talk to Cal about how well it worked out for him when he tried to corner the IMSM #1 market

 

In his defense, that was when he thought there were only 3,000 copies of that book left in all of existence

 

You joined 6 days ago and already know that much about Cal

 

Man are you slow, I knew who it was from the jump.

 

I'm happy for you. You should receive a medal or something...

 

Maybe you can make me one on your next vacation.

 

I would think you made your own

 

[FlyingDonut]

But did I?

Am I some cheap comic book bad guy who gives away the plan before it happens? Seen a HG TOS 48 lately?

 

Fail. You did not add the bwah hah hah laughter and the twirling of the mustache.

[Number 6]

Are there any other books that garner interest due to a costume change?

 

I'm seriously wracking my brain to think of one....

 

 

ASM 252

 

SW8

 

 

 

-slym

 

Brave and the Bold 85

[lizards2]

Are there any other books that garner interest due to a costume change?

 

I'm seriously wracking my brain to think of one....

 

 

ASM 252

 

SW8

 

 

 

-slym

 

Brave and the Bold 85

DD 7?

 

-slut

[Prince Namor]

I like DD's yellow costume better and Iron Man with those points on his mask.

[lizards2]

I like DD's yellow costume better and Iron Man with those points on his mask.

I like IM when his costume included the nose..., ::

 

-slit

[Prince Namor]

I like DD's yellow costume better and Iron Man with those points on his mask.

I like IM when his costume included the nose..., ::

 

that's a great story about Stan Lee.

[MagnusX]

Are there any other books that garner interest due to a costume change?

 

I'm seriously wracking my brain to think of one....

 

 

ASM 252

 

SW8

 

 

 

-slym

 

Brave and the Bold 85

 

 

 

 

[shadroch]

I liked Iron Man with skates.

[shadroch]

If you had the money, a book you could corner the market on is X-Men 94. For your same million dollars, you could buy all the 9.4 and up copies. 18 9.8s, 68 9.6s, 171 9.4s. What does a 9.8 go for now? $25K?

 

Between 8-9k now.

 

See, even better. You'd need to pay a premium to shake some out of a tree, but you could do it for $500K.

 

So let's say you swoop them all up for $500k - what's the end game in this scenario? Re-sell them back over the span of a few years to make a profit? Or just to be a meglomaniacal douchenozzle and hoard them away?

 

Profit. Everything I hoard is for future profit.

Except my empty beer bottles. Those are out of laziness.

[B-Smooth]

This is assuming everyone would sell. I understand the OCD aspect, as I have a boatload of particular issues, but it would be more for the challenge than profit. I still want to have adventures #1 "wallpaper." Covering the walls with bagged copies. Why? Why not? That's what makes the hobby fun for me. To each their own.

[n2wdw]

I think it would be a bad investment.

 

As you note, people will submit more copies to cgc. so any rise in price will be short term. when the dust settles the price may be greater, but not enough to justify the investment and risk.

 

Also, this issue is a key but not a major key, IMHO. If you could do this with TOS 39, that would be one thing. But the first issue of the red armor is something else. I don't think people would pony up alot of money for this issue, I certainly wouldn't.

 

Just my opinion ...

 

Yeah. Plus, as you start to sell them, the price is going to head back down. If people figure out what's going on, the price will fall pretty quickly as they anticipate the effects of your selling off the books.

 

How would people figure out what was going on? Its not like I would take out ads saying I own 95% of all HG copies, sell me yours. The books would quietly disappear from dealer stock. One day someone would wake up and notice how impossible it was to find these books anymore and panic buying would set in. Then little by little, the lowest graded of the hoard would slip back into dealers inventory.

We are talking less than 100 books, world wide.

 

 

Well, think about what goes on here. People will notice someone's buying all these comics and connect the dots. Maybe if the investor buys over a long period of time and takes steps to hide his identity, it could work (like use different user names on ebay or comiclink). But who would do that for what would be a relatively small profit?

 

Also, it's risky to put so much money in one issue. What if the franchise collapses? What if something happens to Robert Downey Jr.? (hope not, I like him)

 

Better to spread the money around a number of keys.

 

Again, just my opinion.

[comicsnyc22]

It's always risky going all in, man. The biggest factor for me is demand. Not sure how market manipulations work, but demands gotta be there.

[Mark 1]

I'm also one of those people who believe that TOS 48 is a minor key and is probably one of the most important issues of the run. The new armor is significant for iron man and for the most part...set the look of the character for the next ~50 years.

 

I own a 8.5 OW copy and it's one of the jewels of my collection. I'd like to own a higher grade but 8.5 is fine for me.

 

As for cornering the market...I'm not sure buying as many copies would cause any increase in demand in the short term. In the longer term, (in theory) once supply is so limited and enough people are looking for HG copies...the prices would go up as demand increased.

 

I also think it depends on the overall print run and not just how many copies are slabbed.

 

Did they print 4,000 copies back then or was it like 50,000?

 

I wonder how many HG raw copies are still out there.

 

I'm willing to sell mine for twice GPA.

 

 

[MR SigS]

Are there any other books that garner interest due to a costume change?

 

I'm seriously wracking my brain to think of one....

 

 

ASM 252

 

I KNEW there had to be another one....

 

anything else?

 

Im just thinking that part of why this isnt as highly regarded is that costume changes (typically) arent highly regarded...

 

Incredible Hulk #2 kinda sorta. I'm not sure it counts as the book is key anyway.

[letsgrumble]

A better approach may be to quietly buy all the TOS 48's @ 8.0+, put a few of the higher grades to market but buy back your own books at 2X value to pump up the market, then create greater buzz on these boards by stating that it's a sleeper book because you've heard the story line will be the basis of Iron Man 4. And then dump them all.

[passion4comics]

As you keep picking up copies, your buy price will increase. In this case YOU are ht high demand and the prices will spike. If you manage to get 50+% of the copies out there demand may outpace availability, but when you start selling them you're going to reverse the trend and you last copies will be sold at or near the low end.

 

No, not a good investment. Unless you can manage to unload ALL of your copies at a premium in one shot before the market realizes they are coming back.

[vaillant]

I've never understood the "cornering the market" mentality when it comes to comic books. Seems like it would take the fun out collecting and I'm somewhat OCD.

 

Cornering the market wouldn't be about collecting, it would be about making a profit.

It wouldn't be about being so obsessive over a book you need to have every copy. Its about maximizing your return on investment.

If you buy one of one hundred HG copies, you are at the mercy of the market. If you buy fifty, can you make the market?

 

Have to something with the 230 million dollar windfall I'm expecting this weekend.

 

It would also be about artificially inducing a value increase, which would not reflect the actual value of the book (i.e. if copies were actually bought by readers caring for the story).

 

That is why collecting (as it is commonly conceived) and treasuring (making considerations on actual artistic value) are two pretty different things. In my opinion.

 

Ah, and for the "costume change" thing, how about Fantastic Four #3 and Tales to Astonish #35? No costumes before, costumes afterwards. Pretty big change, huh?

[Chip Cataldo]

Anyone who has tons of hoarded copies of anything, if you'd care to donate one to someone who's struggling to put food on the table, it'd be much appreciated.

 

This has been a non-public service announcement for the Cataldo Family. Thanks.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

[vaillant]

(thumbs u

 

(Still have to check for you-know-what, Chip, but will do so ASAP).