What is undervalued today?

[COI]

While I agree that ASM's demand far outweighs TTA's, there is also much greater supply. And my real point is that I believe many of the MAJOR Marvel Silver-Age collectors have already accumulated the best copies of ASM, FF and X-MEN for their collections. What they haven't always accumulated is the lesser titles, in the same grade ranges as ASM (i.e. they might say have a TTA but it's a 9.2, where as most of their ASM are 9.4's or 9.6's already).

 

True, but you're not taking into account the collectors who are NOT completionists. There are a lot of collectors who will buy scattered issues of ASM, so on top of those trying to complete a run, you're going to have a lot of other collectors who would go for an ASM #23 in 9.4. When you say "MAJOR Marvel Silver-Age collectors", you're talking about guys who are most likely looking for the top copies. And "top" for ASM is always 9.6+(except for #4 which dosen't yet exist above 9.4). And how many of us can compete for those 9.6's anyway? So the majority of existing completionists, I would guess, are going for 9.0-9.4 copies. And many have deep pockets(just not deep enough for the 9.6/9.8/9.9 madness). Plus, who knows how many other completionists may jump on board in the future. My generation(mid/late 80's to early 90's) is a highly underestimated demographic. Collecting comics was still a very common thing to do when I was a kid, and seeing as how most are still 10-20 years away from financial success, there could be more joining the fray than you think. I'm definetly not saying books will sky-rocket, but how many of the incoming collectors will be going after ASM?

 

Now, aside from the "MAJOR" collectors, how many TTA completionists can there possibly be? On top of that, random non-key issues of TTA have almost no appeal to the non-completionist crowd(which I believe accounts for the vast majority of high grade buyers). So you have a small number of completionists and virtually no non-completionists looking at TTA, vs. a large number of completionists and possibly an even LARGER number of non completionists looking at ASM.

 

So I definetly don't think TTA's are undervalued. It mostly seems that the only high grade collectors attempting to put together a complete Marvel collection, are the ones who have the cash to go for the best. All of us "low end" high grade collectors mostly seem to have certain titles or issues we focus on. I have yet to see anyone say they're trying to get every SA and Bronze Marvel in 9.0+, but we have seen people who are doing it with 9.4+ Hence the low auction results for TTA's in 9.0/9.2, and I don't see this changing at all.

[sfilosa]

 

TTA's and Strange Tales are not part of the Registry yet. I think once they are added, there will be a little bit of EGO going on to have nice runs of these lesser, but still important titles in the Marvel Universe.

[Forbush-Man]

TTA's and Strange Tales are not part of the Registry yet. I think once they are added, there will be a little bit of EGO going on to have nice runs of these lesser, but still important titles in the Marvel Universe.

 

EGO? What do you mean? Just curious.

[BradleyX2]

TTA's and Strange Tales are not part of the Registry yet. I think once they are added, there will be a little bit of EGO going on to have nice runs of these lesser, but still important titles in the Marvel Universe.

 

EGO? What do you mean? Just curious.

 

Comic Egos

[valiantman]

Overstreet #34 vs. reality:

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/overstreetmultiples.asp

[THE_BEYONDER]

Avengers 195-196 (1st Taskmaster). TM has a lot of potential as a movie villain...

 

 

[Forbush-Man]

TTA's and Strange Tales are not part of the Registry yet. I think once they are added, there will be a little bit of EGO going on to have nice runs of these lesser, but still important titles in the Marvel Universe.

 

EGO? What do you mean? Just curious.

 

Comic Egos

 

Ah, yes. I remeber reading this when it was posted. A guy comes in to BassGman's store and throws books around, flaunting them actually, to build his own ego. What a jerk!

 

Here's Bass' response:

 

So my partner and I phrased the term "comic ego" for guys that we had encountered that seemed to have some kind of ego based around their collections. Their collection was "the best" or better that others. More high grades, more keys, better characters, more duplicates, better, or more, or more important this or that. But these guys talk or write in a way that you can just tell there is alot of ego going on. Comic egos. Very annoying.

 

Got it !

 

And "YES",...very annoying,...until they find themselves on hard times. Then the collection is the first thing they look to liquidate. Pay back time!

 

"Gee, your books looked a lot better when you were throwing them around than they do now!"

[sfilosa]

The EGO thing is the exactly reason the that a 9.4 book sell for double a 9.2, and a 9.6 sells for about double what a 9.4.

 

Incrementally speaking a 9.4 and a 9.6 are not very far apart in condition (and that's assuming that the books are accurately and consistently graded).

 

The Registry is clearly about people wanting to show other collectors what they have. And that's the Comic Book Ego. That doesn't mean its wrong or right, but people do like to compare what they have with others (or they wouldn't even have a point system).

 

CGC has allowed collectors the ability to put in qualifying terms what the have, as oppose to every collector saying they have a NM run of a certain title (and no one believing them).

[Forbush-Man]

Overstreet #34 vs. reality:

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/overstreetmultiples.asp

 

Good point, Valiantman!

 

The pre-unity books are, IMHO, overlooked and collectible/affordable.

Not to mention the run could be accomplished and they are a good read.

 

One day,......oh yes,...one day!

 

[Aman619]

Overstreet #34 vs. reality:

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/overstreetmultiples.asp

 

hey Valiant. I dont argue with the prices vs Guide prices... but for comic s that sell for $50 an dless, dont you think the slabbing costs should be factored into the equation? A book that sells Guides for $5 an dsells for $35 slabbed is only a difference of a few dollars when all is said and done.

or are those raw prices?

[BassGMan]

Overstreet #34 vs. reality:

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/overstreetmultiples.asp

 

hey Valiant. I dont argue with the prices vs Guide prices... but for comic s that sell for $50 an dless, dont you think the slabbing costs should be factored into the equation? A book that sells Guides for $5 an dsells for $35 slabbed is only a difference of a few dollars when all is said and done.

or are those raw prices?

 

Good question and good point. Those prices could be misleading without that information.

[FlyingDonut]

None of those prices are for slabbed copies. Those are all for raw, ungraded sales. 9.8 sales on those books are insane. The Chaos Effect Red, for example, in 9.8 sells for $800-1500.

[Forbush-Man]

Using the quick reply, which means this goes to the last poster:

 

Pre Unity Valiant Comics were and are good reads and are undervalued books. They are extremely cheap, with the exception of the variants, and will once again become collectible books.

 

I know, I know,...they've been in the quarter, fifty-cent, dollar book bins for awhile,....but they are quality books with good stories & art and nicely woven cross-overs (Jim Shooter did a great job of mapping these out. Love him or hate him, he did a great job). They will become tomorrow what Tower was to the silver age. Just MHO.

 

When I first saw BWS doing the Solar books, I bought up all the previous issues I could, of all the titles. I sold off all except one complete run before the crash. I kicked myself, for awhile, for not selling all of the books. Now I'm glad I decided to hold onto to at least one copy of each issue. I now no longer regret keeping those books & feel confident I did the right thing. If nothing else, I've got nice copies of what I feel was a really great run by a short-lived company!

 

My only regret is that I'm not completely sold on purchasing the later, low print run books. Those books: " The jury is still out on them."

[blowout]

Avengers 195-196 (1st Taskmaster). TM has a lot of potential as a movie villain...

 

 

 

With THAT costume? Forget it.

 

We have talked about this issue on the forums before, and while the Taskmaster was a great villain concept, I think it was poorley executed.

He know sits in the same sort of league as the Gibbon and the Ringer.

[THE_BEYONDER]

How about Terrax?

 

This 9.8 OW/W just sold for $260 on Ebay....

[blowout]

I think that Terrax is a great character. In fact all of Galactus's heralds are pretty cool, except maybe for Nova.

[valiantman]

None of those prices are for slabbed copies. Those are all for raw, ungraded sales. 9.8 sales on those books are insane. The Chaos Effect Red, for example, in 9.8 sells for $800-1500.

 

Donut's right... those are UNGRADED Ebay prices vs. Overstreet.

Overstreet #34 vs. reality:

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/overstreetmultiples.asp

 

Here's the fine print under the list:

"Actual sales represent the average final bids from eBay auctions for books that have not been professionally graded by CGC.

Shipping costs are included in the average actual sales, indicating that a comic

sale of $5 plus $4 shipping requires a $9 transaction in order to own the comic."

[*paull*]

I think some people are confusing these two concepts:

 

"What is selling for higher than Overstreet prices?"

 

"What should people be interested in?"

[valiantman]

I think some people are confusing these two concepts:

 

"What is selling for higher than Overstreet prices?"

 

"What should people be interested in?"

 

The discussion might seem a little off, but the original question actually has two different answers.

 

Here's the original post in the thread:

What comics (from any age, in any specific grade) do you think are under-valued in either Overstreet or in the market?

 

Answer #1: Books that already sell for more in the market than what Overstreet values them.

 

Answer #2: Books that should sell for more in the market, but for whatever reason... don't.

[drbanner]

I think some people are confusing these two concepts:

 

"What is selling for higher than Overstreet prices?"

 

"What should people be interested in?"

 

This is the point I was trying to make earlier - over/undervalued relative to OS guide price is an easy call, but the "What should people be interested in?" part of over/undervalued is a judgement call...comes back to the old "What I collect is cool, what you collect is dumb! " argument.