How are comic values determined? 1 1

[Glassman10]

Can one actually buy a page out of Hulk 181?

[spreads]

4 hours ago, Jeffro. said:

Some people will deal with almost anyone as long as they have a comic they need or comic they need to sell. 

I see.  That would explain how Gerry Ross is still around....

[Ryan.]

1 hour ago, Glassman10 said:

Actually, I sold my 5.0 at a record price about three years back after holding it 50 years. It was  always terrible artwork but the cover was great.  With as many copies as there are in the wild and the census, it remains a real oddity.  People just want it.  It's not a matter of scarcity. Would you buy a page out of a batman comic from 1957 for dollars like AF 15 call pull? 

FOMO

[Readcomix]

40 minutes ago, Mojoho said:

You want more examples like these you should check out some low grade ECs. Prices for beat up and/or restored copies have gone through the roof these last 5 years.

All too well aware, as there's some I'm still shopping for! 

[Lazyboy]

2 hours ago, Readcomix said:

He sold his copy a year or so ago for IIRC somewhere in the $50K range. It was a great story.

Really? I've never heard that before. And I've definitely never heard it ~800 times.

[Glassman10]

12 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

Really? I've never heard that before. And I've definitely never heard it ~800 times.

I simply responded to someone who suggested I was jealous because I never had one. There's no story mentioned by me at all. Just that I sold mine.  There are in fact new members of the board.  Reading comprehension is a virtue.

[APDallas]

I love comics and I love to collect them but it seems odd to me how prices can vary so wildly. I've noticed in this hobby that we try to get a comic for as low as price as we can while trying to sell for as high as we can. I know rarity is a factor but even is a comic is rare is there really a demand? I often wonder who are paying these prices that take comics that were pennies a few days ago to astronomical heights in a few short days later and then come crashing down. How many "hot" books have actually held their value over the long term.  With recent rumors and announcements from Hollywood about a certain character or comic does the demand actually materialize to justify the price increase? It just seems to me that things like Ebay and such really makes collecting very difficult. The one thing that I do like about the old price guides is that it made things a bit more stable and predictable. 

[Glassman10]

1 hour ago, APDallas said:

 I've noticed in this hobby that we try to get a comic for as low as price as we can while trying to sell for as high as we can. I know rarity is a factor but even is a comic is rare is there really a demand?

well, that's the way that the world goes round as they say.  It's basic economic demand, full stop.  If no one wants it, no one buys it unless they know someone who will buy it for more than they paid for it. 

Once the mom's in america realized that throwing these things out was a bad plan, value collapsed as profiteering.  Modern books aren't going to sell for much when they print millions of copies. You'd have to hold them for a lifetime to see profit.  When I collected it was for a good reason. I just loved the things and wanted to have continuous stories. By the time the .20 cent books were hitting the newsstands, I preferred having a car over comics.  The trick? I never sold them. Every time there was a recession, I did not sell and they went up after every recession.  After this last stock market setback, the people doing really well never sold at all, they bought at the bottom. 

 

Collecting stuff is a giant game of chicken. 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Glassman10

[comicginger1789]

I disagree that collecting today is hard. Sure it’s hard to get old books dirt cheap but that applies to any collectible. If you don’t like a new book getting expensive or even an older back issue going from dollar bins to $10-20, wait and they usually come down somewhat after movie hype. Mind you if you really liked a certain character or story or whatever you would have bought it before it became expensive. If you shop and put effort into the hunt you get rewarded. Everyone finds good stuff all the time. Doesn’t fall into your lap though. For me that’s part of the fun. I know what I want to pay and if I don’t see a price I like I wait. Eventually I find it and if I don’t well it wasn’t meant to be!

[William-James88]

5 minutes ago, comicginger1789 said:

I disagree that collecting today is hard. Sure it’s hard to get old books dirt cheap but that applies to any collectible. If you don’t like a new book getting expensive or even an older back issue going from dollar bins to $10-20, wait and they usually come down somewhat after movie hype. Mind you if you really liked a certain character or story or whatever you would have bought it before it became expensive. If you shop and put effort into the hunt you get rewarded. Everyone finds good stuff all the time. Doesn’t fall into your lap though. For me that’s part of the fun. I know what I want to pay and if I don’t see a price I like I wait. Eventually I find it and if I don’t well it wasn’t meant to be!

I also love finding rare books that have either stayed the same or gone down in the past 10 years. there are books I thought I would never get that actually went down to a reasonable level. And due to inflation, a book that hasnt gone up in price is technically cheaper now than it was then.

[William-James88]

1 hour ago, Glassman10 said:

 

 

Collecting stuff is a giant game of chicken. 

I disagree, to me its a game of passion. I collect out of love for the stories, characters and creators. If you buy what you love, odds are you arent the only one who loves it and it will go up in value later. Or, if your into things others arent into, then even better because you get it for cheaper. 

[Glassman10]

I'll amend that: Collecting with the intent to sell at a profit is a game of chicken..  If you do it for love,  that's another matter.  One of the best threads out there is "Dr Tom Brent and his Flying Nurses" which is spectacularly detailed in research by a guy who really knows his stuff. He also really can make fun of it. The comics are fairly worthless.  ( sorry Steve, someone had to tell you) eventually ) 

[Math Teacher]

2 hours ago, comicginger1789 said:

I disagree that collecting today is hard. Sure it’s hard to get old books dirt cheap but that applies to any collectible. If you don’t like a new book getting expensive or even an older back issue going from dollar bins to $10-20, wait and they usually come down somewhat after movie hype. Mind you if you really liked a certain character or story or whatever you would have bought it before it became expensive. If you shop and put effort into the hunt you get rewarded. Everyone finds good stuff all the time. Doesn’t fall into your lap though. For me that’s part of the fun. I know what I want to pay and if I don’t see a price I like I wait. Eventually I find it and if I don’t well it wasn’t meant to be!

I think Ebay (and other online sellers) have changed comic book collecting. If I want a copy of Tales to Astonish #44, I can long onto Ebay and see plenty of copies, albeit over-priced. I just remember the thrill of stopping at a comic book store that I had never frequented before, and finding a book that I had been looking for. I shudder to think how many comic book stores we stopped at when we were on family vacations. My wife hated this, while my kids tolerated it. I remember saying, more than once, "Kids, this is just the way Dad is. It would be best for all of us if you just accept it."

[Glassman10]

I'm simply of a different generation drawn into thinking finding needles in haystacks is possible. In my youth, it was  and it wasn't comics, it was coins. My brother and I would get $50. dollar bags of pennies and we would go through the rolls. Some were useless uncirculated and ready to serve the system but we wound up in odd places. I remember being in Marion Ohio in around 1962 and there for my cousin finishing Tabor Miliitary and we were stuck in a downpour. We got my Mom to front a $50 buck bag of Pennies  on this big town square and Jim and I sat in the back of the 56 Ford Station Wagon  with rain pounding us goggled eyed at what was in the bag. Ever other penny was older than 1940. Every one.  We just had them in a pile!. My mom would always back that stuff but when we were leaving Grand Rapids, my Aunt Jane, who they really disapproved of, stuffed a big pile of comics in the back seat as we were off for the interminable trip west. Jane had five kids and her husband had just been killed in a small plane accident. . She knew how to keep them quiet.  About 200 miles down the road, my dad became aware, because of the pure silence that something was wrong. So, he looked, and Jeez we had comics!! He hit the next place to stop and took them and dumped the things. I have vague memories of "Challengers of the unknown"

A few years after that, Jim and I were doing a bag of pennies again and there, inexplicably I rolled out coins and there was a 1909 S VDB that still had mint luster on it.  I was nine.  I had always driven Jim crazy, amping up coins from nothing and I had just thought it was a '09 -s. Jim. looking at it said it in fact was an VDB. Exceptional. Someone put that back in circulation for whatever reason. I took the $75. bucks selling it to brother Jim and bought a '37 three legged buffalo nickel. It never really went up at all. I used to win black out bingos and make that kind of money and in 1959, $75 dollars was a lot of money. 

Hasn't happened in years until I did the routine with the AF 15 and it continually amazes me how angry that makes some people. I won't tell the story since it seems so burned angrily in to some people''s minds. I would admit I handled it poorly here and I don't do that at this point but I still talk about value and how strange it is.  I sold a couple of ASM 129's at a 9.4 to a guy in Chicago as well as an  ASM14 which as it turned out had a flaw in the cover we both had missed. He said he should have caught that but didn't but I responded by sending him an Avengers 4 regardless. He seemed happy., really happy.

Others got such things as iron man 55, or ASM 121. I did fine. 

 

When I see the responses like the one from  Lazyboy, it just makes me feel sad. I never did anything to him at all.  I was just a lucky enthusiastic collector sharing my story.  Now, I'm this old guy living in memories. 

[Math Teacher]

Sooner or later, we all end up an old guy (or gal) living in memories.

[Ryan.]

2 hours ago, Joe Ankenbauer said:

I think Ebay (and other online sellers) have changed comic book collecting. If I want a copy of Tales to Astonish #44, I can long onto Ebay and see plenty of copies, albeit over-priced. I just remember the thrill of stopping at a comic book store that I had never frequented before, and finding a book that I had been looking for. I shudder to think how many comic book stores we stopped at when we were on family vacations. My wife hated this, while my kids tolerated it. I remember saying, more than once, "Kids, this is just the way Dad is. It would be best for all of us if you just accept it."

The thrill of the hunt is still out there. I travel to the boonies of Maine often and hit up all the antique shops, and there are still lots and lots of dusty comics sitting in piles waiting to be discovered. Maybe the internet has made it such that no one is unknowingly sitting on an AF 15 but I've found many Matt Bakers, for instance, in piles of old comics in the bottom of antique shop bins. 

[Glassman10]

49 minutes ago, Joe Ankenbauer said:

Sooner or later, we all end up an old guy (or gal) living in memories.

They were very real. The memories are in the retelling. The loss? A lot o f people weren't there. We just had the moment. 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Glassman10