The Bronze Age & the Overstreet Price Guide

[ft88]

You'd also have to assume you didn't sell at anytime along the way and didn't get your VG copy of Action #1 restored as so many did. How tempting it would have been to sell a comic you bought for $1000 for $10,000 when the most current 1978 guide says its only worth $8000. How can you turn it down?

 

 

 

so, in 1970, for a couple of nights worth of blow, you could probably be retired right now..ditto 1965, for what a color television would have cost... assuming you didn't get robbed too bad on the grading

 

i guess you could have doen better, in less time, spending the equivalent amount of money on microsoft or wallmart stock, but comics are more fun!

[the blob]

yes, selling was harder back then, although a table at a show wasn't too expensive. i knew a lot of people who would take tables in the 70s and 80s.

 

and for "good stuff", in the early 90s, I actually went to shows where I was able to haggle a stack of books from one dealer and get offered more for the same books by another dealer across the room. it all depends on how much you pay and what you have.

 

and i hear tales on these boards of comic stores that didn't rip you when you sold them stuff. personally, i knew of no such stores, but they were allegedly out there.

 

one time a guy was so pissed at a lowball offer from one LCS, back in the early 80s, that he stood outside the store giving his comics away

[bronze johnny]

One of the many interesting things about the beginning of the Bronze Age is that it is a comic book age that begins not only with significant changes in the American Comic Book itself but also, the beginning of a price guide that revolutionizes the comic book market.

 

I have never seen a price guide have such an influence over a hobby.

 

What I really want to know is when did the Overstreet Price Guide become this influence? I can't answer this question since I was too young to understand the nature of the comic book secondary market. I do remember collecting number one issues believing that their value would appreciate over time--remember Howard the Duck #1?

 

What year? If any? Or was it something that just evolved over a long period of time?

 

 

 

When we look at the prices of comic books back then, do we solely attribute this definition of value to the Overstreet Price Guide? Or can we attribute the value of any given comic book to a factor other than the Guide? Were most comic book collectors using the guide while shopping or selling comic books during the Bronze Age?

 

Is the Overstreet Price Guide one of the great contributions provided by the Bronze Age to comic book fandom, and to all of ComicBookDom?

 

BronzeJohnny

[shadroch]

Overstreet used to reflect prices realized the year before.It was not the tail that wagged the dog.People used to follow the guide. Recently most books in the guide simply go up 10 to 15% each year,with little regard to how the books really sell. It wasn't always that way.

I would say that the Beckett guides in BB card collecting had a much bigger influence over that hobby than Overstreet ever had.

The guide came along as the market was exploding,Jerry Bails and others had started organizing fandom,Alan Light was inspired by others to start a monthly fanzine that evolved into todays Comic Buyers Guide,Conventions were sprouting up all over.

All these factored into the growth of the market,not just the Overstreet Guide.

[october]

I would say that the Beckett guides in BB card collecting had a much bigger influence over that hobby than Overstreet ever had.

 

No doubt. When I collected cards, EVERYONE owned a Beckett. I think there are an absolute ton of comic collectors out there who focus on copper and modern books, and therefore have little use for an Overstreet. The OS guide is outdated as soon as it hits the shelves when it comes to newer stuff and I would wager that a large percentage of the comic collecting community looks to Wizard for prices far more than they look to Overstreet.

 

[tth2]

Bronzejohnny, I think a lot of your questions about the evolution of the Overstreet price guide and its acceptance by the market would probably get more responses in the GA forum, where more of the old-timers such as Jon Berk, Gary Colabuono and Bob Beerbohm hang out. These are guys who would have been adults (or at least teenagers) when the Guide became more prevalent. BA is, not surprisingly, collected mostly by younger collectors who were kids or only coming of age during the BA, and therefore would not have nearly as sophisticated a viewpoint of developments at the time (if they had any viewpoints at that time at all)

[lou_fine]

was action #1 $1,000 or $10,000 in the 1977 OPG? I remember that was the first OPG i ever owned and was amazed at whatever price for action 1 was in there. unfortunately, i think that old guide was discarded --- although it was beat to death and missing its cover last I looked, so only "value" would be to look stuff up and say "shouldah couldah wouldah"

 

Actually, most collectors were equally amazed in 1970 when the first OS Price Guide came out because they were absolutely shocked that somebody would even think of paying the outrageous sum of $300 for a comic book. They thought that Bob was completely out of touch with reality and started to refer to his guide as the Overprice Guide.

 

I guess nothing has really changed after 35 years since most collectors still say that Bob is completely out of touch with the real market. The only difference is that half the collectors claim that he is way too low on the prices while the other half claim that he is way too high on the prices.

 

I guess poor old Bob will never win this argument no matter how long he plays the game.

[lou_fine]

so, in 1970, for a couple of nights worth of blow, you could probably be retired right now..ditto 1965, for what a color television would have cost... assuming you didn't get robbed too bad on the grading

 

i guess you could have doen better, in less time, spending the equivalent amount of money on microsoft or wallmart stock, but comics are more fun!

 

 

Blob;

 

It's not as simple as you make it out to be. Even though collectors were accussing Bob of artificially attempting to inflate the market with his outrageous prices, the chances of anybody being able to purchase a Mint condition Action Comics #1 for only $300 in 1970 is probably way lower than the chance of somebody purchasing a NM copy today for half a million dollars.

 

In other words, this book and other similar quality books have always commanded prices well over guide if you were lucky enough to even be given the opportunity to purchase one.

[bronze johnny]

I agree with you that there were other factors influencing the Comic Book Marketplace in the 1970s, but I would not underestimate the academic/intellectual influence of the Overstreet Price Guide on ComicBookDom. When Overstreet started including articles in the guide (some of which are first rate), collectors like myself were no longer drawn to the Guide for just the prices. The Guide became something more than just a key to understanding the marketplace. It became a reference/handbook for comic book collectors to refer to. In fact, I will go on record and say that the Guide was ComicBookDom's first consistent reference/handbook. And the Guide introduced many young collectors during the late 70s and early 80s to the "history" of ComicBookDom. Wonderful pictures of the great Golden Age books were displayed in the Guide. Collecting the American Comic Book could not only be fun for those who enjoyed reading and collecting them (myself included), but also for those with an intellectual interest in the historical development of this wonderful medium we cherish and love to have discussions about. Yes Shadroch, the marketplace was evolving into something new at the dawn of the Bronze Age, but so was the historical "conciousness" that our comic book medium had a history of its own to explore and discover for those interested (or re-discover for those seeking to capture what might have been forgotten). This development is not merely coincidental to the evolution of the Overstreet Price Guide throughout the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and today.

 

It is in my humble opinion that the Guide had something to do with the development of our sense of the "History of the American Comic Book." And it happened somewhere in the Bronze Age.

 

Sincerely,

 

BronzeJohnny

[divad]

I would say that the Beckett guides in BB card collecting had a much bigger influence over that hobby than Overstreet ever had.

 

No doubt. When I collected cards, EVERYONE owned a Beckett. I think there are an absolute ton of comic collectors out there who focus on copper and modern books, and therefore have little use for an Overstreet. The OS guide is outdated as soon as it hits the shelves when it comes to newer stuff and I would wager that a large percentage of the comic collecting community looks to Wizard for prices far more than they look to Overstreet.

 

Just plain

[bobel]

I started buying back issue comics in 74. Around that time there was an antique store in North Haven CT and a Dealer/Collector had a table and rack set up and sold back issues on Saturdays or one week night I forget which. When I think about it he was pretty cool to give 13 yr olds with 90 cents to spend any time at all. I went to my first convention in the late 70s in the Hartford area at a Hotel. I still remember a real beat fr FF #1 for 20.00. I just couldnt talk my Dad into springing for it and had blown my $10.00 ten minutes after I got there. I don't know if it was fairly priced for the time but I do remeber wanting it as much as i wanted sex the first time I had it. When I sold my collection in 1981 I got about 50% of guide because I knew the clerk where I sold my books. The owner had offered me about 30% of guide. I then did what any immature irresponsible 19 yr old would do i smoked and drank all summer on the proceeds.

The business end of the Hobby seems much more cutthroat now or maybe I was just more niave then. If today were1974 I would not be collecting comics. There would of been no where for me to purchase them. The closest LCS to the house I grew up in is 10 miles. My Mom let me ride my bike into town to go buy comics at Amity pharmacy 2 miles away I wouldn't of been riding 10 miles and no one would of been driving me. I grew up in CT not ND. I'd bet outside of metro areas comic stores are like an Oasis in the desert. Marvel getting into 711 is a great thing for the hobby and LCS. Once someone is hooked they'll want the nice well cared for books not the rack beaters. How many kids who might like comics today don't really have an outlet to buy them and never get introduced to the hobby?

[the blob]

i think kids look at wizard for the new stuff, not 70s stuff.

 

OPG is a nice reference book to see if there's something special about a book, how they price it relative to other books, etc. And it serves as a good reference on which to base your discount for the bulk of BA books below NM.

 

and I always got the sense that, at least through the 80s, a lot more stuff in the guide actually sold near guide when accurately graded, etc., or at least that's what my pal who owned my LCS told me. when x-men 137 or whatever was $5 in the guide, you were actually able to sell them for $4-5.

 

certainly for the early SA stuff. as a kid in the early 80s I'd go to shows and sell to people (not dealers) at the show and get $10++ bucks each for really beat to heck early spideys and FFs. given that many only guided for $30-50 or less in NM, I was getting good money for these books in fair/good.

 

and I go back and look at what I paid for some stuff and it sure as heck seemed like dealers at shows were charging and getting good prices relative to guide.

[bronze johnny]

I would always take the OSPG with me to Comic Book Shops to make sure I was' not getting ripped off. The Guide saved me a great deal of money.