Comics out performing Stocks since 2008!!!

[shadroch]

This current market feels eerily like the early 90s. Speculators running all over town buying up the current hot title to flip for easy money. Unethical comic stores shorting file customers so they can put that new release on the wall at 10 times cover. Ethical comic stores limiting sales to one copy of any hot book and buyers complaining they can't clean stores out of hot books. Variant covers and holographic covers everywhere, most buyers not caring about the story or the art just the next flip.

 

Add to that the effect of grading companies on prices and movie and TV rumors fueling speculation.

 

The 90s boom turned out pretty ugly and this boom may very likely turn out as bad.

 

We could all argue all day long about which has increased more over the last 10 years but comics, especially hot moderns, are a dangerous place to put all our eggs.

 

The key to riding this thing out is the same as it was with the 90s bust - flip the hot moderns and variants fast while prices are high to buy older books.

 

 

 

+1

 

Yes, sell off all your CGC highest graded copies of your hot MA books and use the money to buy CGC lowest graded copies of vintage collectible comic books.

 

Your hot Moderns will probably have nowhere to go but down, while your vintage collectible comic books should turn out to be a safer bet and a winner in the long run.

 

Why do you insist on putting words in peoples mouths and trying to ridicule those who disagree with you?

It doesn't really matter if you agree or not, the fact is there are many of us who have turned small investments over the years into sizable portfolios. Not everybody chases the shiny new object. I remember running into Mike Carbanaro at a show in Queens around 1991where he had box after box of VG-F 1960s

DCs and Marvels for $1 each and hardly any were selling. I was selling baseball cards and pogs at the show and at its end I bought two short boxes of books for fifty cents each. Early Ant Mans, early TOS starring just Iron Man, an almost complete run of Detective 300-400,many more. I kept the ones I needed and sold the rest for a buck or two. The TTA 35 and 44 are worth about two grand these days. The TOS 50, 52 and 57 are $300 books, the Detectives are $7-10 each.

To sell them, I have to fill a box , take it to UPS and ship it to Texas. They auction it for me and I get a check minus their 6-10% commission. Hard work but somebody has to do it.

[shadroch]

What is ethical about limiting hot books to one per customer? I completely agree that shorting a copy from someone to resell it at a higher price is unethical, but what is unethical about a store selling the extra copies he bought for whatever price and to whomever he chooses? If he makes a mistake and order too many copies of a book that is ice cold, does his base bail him out by buying one?

[lou_fine]

This current market feels eerily like the early 90s. Speculators running all over town buying up the current hot title to flip for easy money. Unethical comic stores shorting file customers so they can put that new release on the wall at 10 times cover. Ethical comic stores limiting sales to one copy of any hot book and buyers complaining they can't clean stores out of hot books. Variant covers and holographic covers everywhere, most buyers not caring about the story or the art just the next flip.

 

Add to that the effect of grading companies on prices and movie and TV rumors fueling speculation.

 

The 90s boom turned out pretty ugly and this boom may very likely turn out as bad.

 

We could all argue all day long about which has increased more over the last 10 years but comics, especially hot moderns, are a dangerous place to put all our eggs.

 

The key to riding this thing out is the same as it was with the 90s bust - flip the hot moderns and variants fast while prices are high to buy older books.

 

 

 

+1

 

Yes, sell off all your CGC highest graded copies of your hot MA books and use the money to buy CGC lowest graded copies of vintage collectible comic books.

 

Your hot Moderns will probably have nowhere to go but down, while your vintage collectible comic books should turn out to be a safer bet and a winner in the long run.

 

Why do you insist on putting words in peoples mouths and trying to ridicule those who disagree with you?

It doesn't really matter if you agree or not, the fact is there are many of us who have turned small investments over the years into sizable portfolios. Not everybody chases the shiny new object. I remember running into Mike Carbanaro at a show in Queens around 1991where he had box after box of VG-F 1960s

DCs and Marvels for $1 each and hardly any were selling. I was selling baseball cards and pogs at the show and at its end I bought two short boxes of books for fifty cents each. Early Ant Mans, early TOS starring just Iron Man, an almost complete run of Detective 300-400,many more. I kept the ones I needed and sold the rest for a buck or two. The TTA 35 and 44 are worth about two grand these days. The TOS 50, 52 and 57 are $300 books, the Detectives are $7-10 each.

To sell them, I have to fill a box , take it to UPS and ship it to Texas. They auction it for me and I get a check minus their 6-10% commission. Hard work but somebody has to do it.

 

Not sure why you are saying that I am disagreeing with the 2 previous posters and trying to ridicule them. If you reread my post, I am in fact actually agreeing with both of them and their comments.

 

I am simply saying that collectors can indeed make money with even low grade copies of vintage collectible books, and even if they are CGC lowest graded copies when it comes to the key books. Especially when some of these vintage books never shows up in the marketplace in HG condition, but do occasionally show up in low grade condition.

[shadroch]

If you agree with them, why the emojis? I'm not getting your point, I guess.

[lou_fine]

 

We could all argue all day long about which has increased more over the last 10 years but comics, especially hot moderns, are a dangerous place to put all our eggs.

 

The key to riding this thing out is the same as it was with the 90s bust - flip the hot moderns and variants fast while prices are high to buy older books.

 

 

 

+1

 

Yes, sell off all your CGC highest graded copies of your hot MA books and use the money to buy CGC lowest graded copies of vintage collectible comic books.

 

Your hot Moderns will probably have nowhere to go but down, while your vintage collectible comic books should turn out to be a safer bet and a winner in the long run.

 

Why do you insist on putting words in peoples mouths and trying to ridicule those who disagree with you?

 

If you agree with them, why the emojis? I'm not getting your point, I guess.

 

shadroch;

 

I thought people use emojiis to help them emphasis a point sometimes. Of course they can sometimes be misinterpreted which you may have done in this particular case. So, I will try to clarify my 2 points above:

 

With a lot of board members here and the MA speculators in particular, there is always the thought that collectors should be chasing after the highest graded copy of a book because that is where the money is. I was simply trying to be the contrarian here and point out that you might do better if you broaden your horizons to include low grade copies of vintage comic books and possibly even CGC lowest graded copies such as CGC 1.0 graded books, or heaven forbid, even CGC 0.5 graded books.

 

My rationale is that when you are paying big dollars for CGC highest graded copies of MA books, you are really paying a disproportionate amount of money for the label itself, because without that label, the book is probably worth nothing more than worthless drek. On the other hand, with CGC lowest graded copies of vintage collectible books, you are really paying for the underlying book itself, and the book is not worthless drek even though the label might say only CGC 1.0, or God forbid, even CGC 0.5. (This emoji is "Food for thought")

 

The second point I was trying to make is that hot Moderns usually have nowhere to go but down as MA collectors speculators tend to have short memories, especially when the next hot flavor of the month comes along. Vintage collectible books, on the other hand, would seem to be a safer bet as they are usually in limited supply and highly sought after by long term collectors who generally holds onto their books for much longer periods of time, thereby helping to ensure that prices rise over time. (More food for thought).

 

I actually did up a post on this phenomenon earlier this week with some examples and will look for it to repost here later as it may be appropriate to what we are discussing here.

 

Let me know if you still have any questions with my points as it would appear that I am trying to say the same things you are.