Collections drying up? 4 4

[kimik]

I have actually slowed down on my collection hunting the past two years, but looking at how many have popped up with other part time sellers and at local stores, there are still plenty to be found. The only question is what price are you willing to pay to land them. 

[lizards2]

On 6/6/2017 at 3:54 PM, the blob said:

On 6/6/2017 at 3:50 PM, SteppinRazor said:

I wonder if the gum's still good.

unless they made better gum than the topps 86 gum my shop still has in its unopened packs, the answer is "no"

The correct answer it that it is as good as it ever was.

[SteppinRazor]

Just now, lizards2 said:

The correct answer it that it is as good as it ever was.

Ha.  As a kid I had to force myself to eat the gum, but it was the only way I'd ever get some.  Funny the things you want as a kid just because.

[Artboy99]

46 minutes ago, kimik said:

You should have snagged the other 88 longs as well. 

Not good stuff and way to expensive at $2 a book which is the sellers current price.

When the owner lowers his price to 0.10 C a book I will return, until then we are done buying from him.

[Artboy99]

1 hour ago, Aweandlorder said:

I take it, from the replies to this thread and the boards in general, that everyone here is a seller (Notice, I didnt use the D word)

Well, the good news is that its a sellers market. 

All this talk about a bubble/doomsday is just that. Talk

The market is very healthy bcs of 2 reasons: CGC & eBay. Nothing else.

Movies arent what's driving the prices up, they werent around before the 90s crash and the market was almost as good then (some will argue better, surely it was with newly printed books, probably not so w the secondary market. Probably not). Its the perceived value that has changed. There is more awareness today and more information

Those that tell you that movies and comics are a fluke and tomorrow the party will be over only chose to see the half glass empty.

I call it progress.

We wouldnt be here if it wasnt for the fans, readers, collectors, cosplayers, dreamers of dreams, the art. Ohhhhhhh the art.......... Even the dealers. We wouldnt be here without them either. They all pushed us forward to where we are today.

Fkuc the movies. This market is strong without them. Always was.

So does that mean we wont have a correction? sure we will.. There are always hiccups. some big some small. But the new generation is gonna carry the torch fwd. As much as I hate those punks who dont know any better. They respect the artform in their own way and they will do as good a job as any of us did growing with the funny papers.

Who in here, didnt take a break from comics? and for how long? guess what... while you were gone the world didnt stop telling heroic tales of men and women in capes. Yes I did say THE WORLD. Just as much as Id like to think that comics is an American brand, there are just as many fans abroad. Comiket brings a half a million fans to their convention annually. (cash me ousside) how bout that??? 

You think its just the movies? just the variants? the PnD? the speculators that made this market as big as it is today? How about its non of them?

Times are good my friends. Great. We live in world that allows practically anyone with an internet connection and a stamp to make a living out of his/her passion. Sure, that doesnt mean that youd make as much as someone who hussles and networks. But youre still making a living out of something youre passionate about, and you continue to collect. I bought a collection last Monday for 1k and flipped it on Thursday for 5k. Did I plan on it to happen? no. But the opportunity was there and grabbed it.

Till the next one comes along

Mic drop

 

 

I disagree regarding one aspect: I think the success and popularity of the Movies and TV shows is stimulating the market somewhat. They introduce new buyers who may have never bought before by bringing the subject to attention, and the movie success has been for several years now: Over 10+ helping to create some sustainability.

[ADAMANTIUM]

1 hour ago, Artboy99 said:

I disagree regarding one aspect: I think the success and popularity of the Movies and TV shows is stimulating the market somewhat. They introduce new buyers who may have never bought before by bringing the subject to attention, and the movie success has been for several years now: Over 10+ helping to create some sustainability.

Of course but I guess what I thought is that it isn't "dependent" but you've got good point

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by ADAMANTIUM

[kimik]

1 hour ago, Artboy99 said:

I disagree regarding one aspect: I think the success and popularity of the Movies and TV shows is stimulating the market somewhat. They introduce new buyers who may have never bought before by bringing the subject to attention, and the movie success has been for several years now: Over 10+ helping to create some sustainability.

Even better, they turn lame 3rd tier properties into valuable characters overnight. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, kimik said:

Even better, they turn lame 3rd tier properties into valuable characters overnight. 

AND with all the movies mostly doing origin stories, they sometimes don't bother reading the book to see if it lines up  but it does garner interest at least throughout the hobby.

Are people actually witnessing newcomers to the hobby??

I used to think that books were better than the movies, due to different interpretations and representations. Seems in comics they tend to go pretty much scene by scene from the comic. I wonder if that's why, so far, they've picked the characters they have; the ones with enough substance in the comic form to make it line to movie interpretation, and then they leave the non-origin to different than book interpretion ie the living planet in GotG #2

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

Meaning they haven't picked a character from comics that doesn't have a lot of substance in comic form to make a movie, I wonder if eventually when "they're" tired of mainstream characters popularity, if they'll try minor characters to give them substance in movie form that they didn't have in comics.

I'm trying to think of an example, but I'm having a hard time thinking of one. Maybe Gwen Stacy, Zatanna, Jubilee, or some other that is no longer mainstream, the closest that I think they've tried is maybe Gambit. I think that Deadpool had a following. Or some minor's who do have a following: Lady Death, Vampirella, Gwenpool/Spidergwen, or Lady Deathstrike

Edited June 8, 2017 by ADAMANTIUM

[HouseofComics.Com]

45 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

 

Are people actually witnessing newcomers to the hobby??

 

Some, but they usually just like comics, might to go a con, but aren't going to collect heavily.  There are some great new collectors for sure, but not enough to make up for the people aging out of the hobby.  HOWEVER...I see the movies and tv bringing a lot of collectors back to the fold. Tons of 40-60 year olds. They will age out faster than new fans, but it's a healthy development.

[Philflound]

On 6/5/2017 at 4:17 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I've often wondered what will happen when all the issues of a key end up slabbed,  then I checked it at the door, I don't know a single book that had a healthy print run that has got 100,000 slabs on the census. I wonder what the most graded book is and what number it sits at in the census.... also, I'm sure there are low print run, especially moderns, that there is a high percentage of the print run slabbed.....Like print runs of 500 that are promoted as Gauranteed 9.8 etc.

in short 

I don't think that collections will dry up until EVERY BOOK OF A KEY OR COLLECTIBLE, is slabbed imo

  or at least close to it  

New Mutants #98 - 12739

Amazing Spider-Man #300 - 13587

 

Probably the 2 most slabbed books. Hulk 181 has not hit 10,000 yet. Probably will by the end of July.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Is Wolverine #1 (1982) no longer the most slabbed book?

[thehumantorch]

1 hour ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

 

Are people actually witnessing newcomers to the hobby??

 

Absolutely, especially the large media driven cons.  Lots of little 'curiosity type sales, sets to people who've seen a movie or tv show and spot the corresponding run on our table, bigger books to people who've heard of Stan Lee or other big names and want one representative comic on a shelf.  

I can't say it enough, all of the TV shows and movies are introducing comics to a generation who wouldn't see them any other way and it's good for the hobby.

[Quicksilver Signs]

23 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Absolutely, especially the large media driven cons.  Lots of little 'curiosity type sales, sets to people who've seen a movie or tv show and spot the corresponding run on our table, bigger books to people who've heard of Stan Lee or other big names and want one representative comic on a shelf.  

I can't say it enough, all of the TV shows and movies are introducing comics to a generation who wouldn't see them any other way and it's good for the hobby.

Methinks you might have rose coloured glasses. That's great though, I sure hope there's someone who wants my books 15-20 years from now. 

[oakman29]

1 minute ago, Quicksilver Signs said:

Methinks you might have rose coloured glasses. That's great though, I sure hope there's someone who wants my books 15-20 years from now. 

I think you will be surprised. 

[thehumantorch]

2 minutes ago, Quicksilver Signs said:

Methinks you might have rose coloured glasses. That's great though, I sure hope there's someone who wants my books 15-20 years from now. 

No, just saying it like I see it.   I don't know what it will be like 15 or 20 years from now as clearly paper publishing is dying and that includes floppies, but any way we can get comics in front of the public is a good thing..

 

[Von Cichlid]

The only thing that scares me for the future is that there doesn't seem to be nearly as many people buying the new as much as it seems people are buying the old.  A truly healthy industry would be one like in the late 80's (when I got hooked as a kid) when people were buying up the new and the back issue market existed because people genuinely cared what had transpired before.  

For example, if you were a DD fan in that time period and you took a liking to Bullseye and had heard the hype of how good the Miller issues were, you would have to drop the 30 or so dollars for the 168 and less for the others if you wanted to read for yourself to find out how good those issues were.  I remember mowing lawns with my buddy to get the money for those issues to do just that.

He and I spent hard earned money to acquire those issues and as soon as we got them the first thing on our mind was:

1. Reading to see what happened.  We soaked in the art and read intensely and analyzed the stories.  Many times that just fueled the addiction to acquire and read more.

2. As we had spent what was large money to us, we took care of our new purchases, handling them carefully and putting them in the bag after each reading.  But the thought of "flipping" the issue was the last thing on our mind at the time of purchase.  We were just happy to own the thing.  Furthermore, neither one of us could have differentiated between a 9.0 and a 9.4.  If it looked nice, we bought it.  

 

To illustrate what I am trying to say, consider Giant Size X-Men 1 vs Batman Adventures 12.

The former went through multiple reprints that sold well simply because people wanted to read that book.  I am not too knowledgeable on the latter, but I'd reckon that the vast majority of the owners of that book did not read a single page.  It's value consists of it being a relatively rare first app, and little more.  To test this hypothesis, give a random old school fan a quiz on the plot of Giant Size X-Men 1.  Many would pass it with flying colors.  Do the same for Batman Adventures 12 or a Hulk 271, and you are not getting that result even if the quiz is given to the owners of the book.  

I don't mean to come across too negative.  I love the interest this hobby is getting and I love the fact that something I love is considered valuable by so many.  I just wish that there was potential NEW value being made today, like in the late 80's, versus the conviction I feel that anything that will ever be valuable both monetarily and intrinsically has already been made.  

[thehumantorch]

16 minutes ago, Quicksilver Signs said:

Methinks you might have rose coloured glasses. That's great though, I sure hope there's someone who wants my books 15-20 years from now. 

And I can give you a great example.  

We've been setting up at the Calgary Expo for 10 years.  We were the first guys to bring CGC graded books to that show.  It was tough to sell them and most people didn't want them or would ask what the dingo they were.  Then Stan Lee came to town and signed thousands of books over the weekend and most were sent on to CGC via Desert Wind.  That introduced graded comics to thousands of people, some long time collectors, some occasional collectors and certainly many who'd never bought a comic before but wanted a piece of Stan Lee who is essentially this centuries Shakespeare.  I had guys coming to my booth asking for something Stan Lee worked on, they had no idea what and I'd start showing them covers until one caught their imagination.

 Some of those guys picking up their first graded comic will probably never buy another comic but I'm sure some got Mcfarlene to sign this year or whomever last year.  And some will get drawn into the hobby and buy more.

[october]

5 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

 Stan Lee who is essentially this centuries Shakespeare.  

For the sake of this century, I sincerely hope not.

[piper]

30 minutes ago, october said:

For the sake of this century, I sincerely hope not.

Play devil's advocate for a moment. Shakespeare was the pop culture icon of Elizabethan (sp?) times. I don't think HT was comparing their use of iambic pentameter.