Overstreet vs real world 0

[poundofbull]

As far as they are off on many books on the low side, they are way off on many more to the high side. How many people pay guide for average SA books or westerns or funny animals?

 

Exactly right. I'm in more of a position to know than most... I spent 2 years putting my own 600-page guide together (for my own buying and selling purposes -- not for re-sale) and update it regularly. OPG may be too low on a number of "key" books, but is way inflated on the vast majority of GA. In fact, the dirty little secret that is seldom talked about is that most GA issues have been gradually falling in value over the years as newer generations have no connection to it.

 

Except for certain highlight issues, the majority of Dell, Fawcett, Quality, Lev Gleason, western, romance, movie tie-in, and other lesser known issues sell for well below OPG, and generally then only if they are marketed as a bargain in comparison to OPG prices (30% off guide, 50% off guide, etc.). I'm talking mainstream grades here... 2.0 to 8.0... as pedigrees and ultra high-grades are a world unto themselves. Even most non-key DC books sell for under guide at present.

 

The dilemma for OPG however, is that many of these comics sell at all only when seen as a "bargain". If OPG lowers a $100 western, say, to a more realistic value of $50... does the new market value immediately fall to $25? Lower it to $25, and is it now $12? It would be difficult for the guide to keep up with the ever-changing prices brought on by the guide's very attempt to come into line with the market.

 

Yet that said, I believe there is more need for published price guides now then ever. EBay is not trustworthy on scarcer books... too much manipulation and also fears that the seller isn't describing the book properly (page count, etc.). Analyzing GPA is a science... one few folks take the time to learn. The "free" online guides are worth what you pay for them. There is still a need for a learned well-thought out guide/guides in the marketplace to properly assess values and trends for those who can't or don't want to take the time. (When I put the pulp guides together years ago, it was a challenge to make sure I didn't over value books because of a few sales that turned out to be the same two guys battling each other for books... once they obtained them, prices again settled back to previous levels).

 

OPG is a wealth of data. No price guide can keep up with certain volatile items in a given short period, but I think if OPG dropped all of the "cover price or less" material out of the guide and concentrated on actual collectible issues (with a larger font that could actually be read), and dropped its fear of showing downward movements, it could rise back to being the primary go-to source it once was.

 

Very well said. I would love if there was a site that tracked all market sales and posted results in a semi real time way. A sort of dealer database that would allow sellers to post sales or pull from auction sites directly. There would have to be fail safes in place so someone couldn't post fraudulent numbers, but some form of database like this would be nice.

[jimbo_707]

I am often amazed at how much more Golden age books go for in the "real world" (online auctions,ebay,cons,these boards,etc) than the guides state their values to be.

 

That's too much of a generalization. Some GA books (like funny animal—including Disney) sell for way below guide.

 

Books with classic covers seem to be undervalued (generally).

 

Books can get hot and cold, but the guide seems to be fairly reliable over the long term.

If a book goes up by 10x in a year...then reflect that in your price guide. If it drops just as rapidly the next year...then reflect that too.

 

I'm glad that Overstreet doesn't respond to temporary changes (like movie hype). It wouldn't be as useful to me if it did. I'm not interested in paying the going price for a hot book; I'd rather wait until the book cools off. Overstreet lets me know the true long-term value (more or less—like I implied, I do adjust for certain things like genre and cover quality).

[G.J.B.]

I was doing some research on price guides and came across this post thread.  Curious if anyone uses ComicsPriceGuide.com?  I have been using it to help manage my collection and they also have a good database to research issues and values.  Wondering if any of you more experienced collectors have an opinion on this site? Seems pretty good but again some listed values aren't exactly what I see going on Ebay.

[WoWitHurts]

I cannot speak to everything in the guide but I noticed what I buy that even dealers who advertise as OPG contributors want 30% above guide.  Not much of a guide for me really.

[lou_fine]

Giving this old thread a bit of a bump since I must have missed it on the first go round.

Anyways, I believe the following short little summary is a pretty good picture of how the guide works, especially in the case of older books:

On 1/20/2016 at 10:21 AM, kazoo said:

The pricing on most older books seems to be an attempt to control and "stabilize" the market rather than an honest reporting of what things sell for. I remember reading an article by Chuck of Mile High where he reported on an Overstreet Advisers meeting where this was actually discussed, there was concern that prices fluctuating would scare off people and kill the market so small and steady increases were decided on as the wisest course. I think the folks involved cared a lot about the comics market and so meant well, but this means the Guide was not really an honest unbiased report. Letting prices drop as well as rise would actually make the book more useful and a trustworthy source of pricing.

I wrote a much longer spiel on this same subject matter several weeks ago which might fit nicely in this thread here.  

Will look to see if I can find it and repost it here for any boardies who have problems falling asleep. 

[IngelsFan]

My 2 cents: OPG is a tool for some dealers to use when buying books (read "low balling") so that they can then garner a larger percentage when they sell, usually at GPA $$$.  But as has always been the case, it's up to the seller to know the value (OPG, perceived, and GPA) so that he (or she) is armed with the best tools to negotiate price. 

[rjpb]

comicsmv.com is a useful site. They have sold prices and selling descriptions of slabbed books by various companies from a variety of sources, as well as a link to recent raw ebay sales. It's not complete in terms of titles listed, but has most of the major ones.