The Great Collectibles Bubble: Waiting To Pop? 1 1

[Randall Ries]

5 minutes ago, Darkowl said:

I believe  that’s what they said right before the 2008 housing crash.

In fact, a good buddy of mine told me to buy a house right before the crash. He said, “You can NEVER going wrong with buying real estate!”. 

So I went to the bank to get a loan, and was turned down. That turned out to be the biggest financial blessing in disguise. I would have lost big time!

You WERE blessed. I bought at the height of the bubble. First house. Only house so far. "Too big to fail" me heinie. Talk about hubris. We are doing ok now, though. But 6 months after we bought, Freddie and Fanny flopped over. Lost $40k overnight in value. That felt so good.

[Darkowl]

1 minute ago, IronMan_Cave said:

I'm just an average man, chances are my response will be similar to other average comic enthusiasts

Perhaps. But I do think that if a H181 9+ is suddenly at 5K, there’s gonna be a lot more “average” people waiting to see if it drops any further. 

Personally, I don’t see the financial logic in buying a book that’s continuously trending downwards. At least not until it levels off or starts to go back up again.

[InfantTerrible]

5 minutes ago, StingerMcK said:

I think the first to fall will be the spec bros buying junk every Wednesday. At my local shop there are customers who only buy variants and whatever today's 1st appearance is. Holding their phone, looking at the spec app that's telling them what new issue to buy. And they grade everything immediately.  

Once those start dropping, it's not fun anymore. 

YES, that I can agree with, new/modern comics speculators will get destroyed!......but old key comics, nah they are safe, too many demands for them, not enough copies

[Darkowl]

4 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

You WERE blessed. I bought at the height of the bubble. First house. Only house so far. "Too big to fail" me heinie. Talk about hubris. We are doing ok now, though. But 6 months after we bought, Freddie and Fanny flopped over. Lost $40k overnight in value. That felt so good.

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Yeah, I would have lost over 100K in a matter of months, and it would have taken me years to gain back. 

Right after that incident I stopped taking my friend’s advice. 

[Randall Ries]

2 minutes ago, Darkowl said:

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Yeah, I would have lost over 100K in a matter of months, and it would have taken me years to gain back. 

Right after that incident I stopped taking my friend’s advice. 

All I could hear when buying my house was Lex Luthor in the first "Superman" movie

"Real estate is a commodity and people will pay through the nose to get it". Ugh.

[Darkowl]

2 minutes ago, IronMan_Cave said:

YES, that I can agree with, new/modern comics speculators will get destroyed!......but old key comics, nah they are safe, too many demands for them, not enough copies

It’s gotta start somewhere. 

 

 

[THE_BEYONDER]

3 minutes ago, IronMan_Cave said:

YES, that I can agree with, new/modern comics speculators will get destroyed!......but old key comics, nah they are safe, too many demands for them, not enough copies

The demand you’re seeing is from speculators.  They’re the ones paying more and more with each sale.  The demand ( at current prices) isn’t real.  

[Darkowl]

Just now, Randall Ries said:

All I could hear when buying my house was Lex Luthor in the first "Superman" movie

"Real estate is a commodity and people will pay through the nose to get it". Ugh.

What’s really odd is the high amount of people (including myself) who didn’t take into consideration the up/down nature of real estate. It was like everyone thought it was somehow invincible. Why were we all so convinced of its sustainability? 

[Hollywood1892]

Me worrying about that bubble popping

[Hollywood1892]

Me watching the bids on X-Men 1 5.5 going up to 25k

[THE_BEYONDER]

Just now, Hollywood1892 said:

Me worrying about that bubble popping

Aren’t you 10k invested in ASM 300?

[Hollywood1892]

5 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

Aren’t you 10k invested in ASM 300?

No

Maybe 5k

I paid 2k last year for one

Then about 3k a few months ago

[THE_BEYONDER]

Just now, Hollywood1892 said:

No

Maybe 5k

I paid 2k last year for one

Then about 3k a few months ago

[Darkowl]

47 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

The demand you’re seeing is from speculators.  They’re the ones paying more and more with each sale.  The demand ( at current prices) isn’t real.  

I can only imagine the amount of baseball card collectors who naturally migrated to Marvel collecting cards, then went one step further and are now flipping comics at insane prices.

What’s funny is that I can remember the good ol’ days when sports card collectors would go to comic book stores to buy sports cards.

Nerds and jocks all in the same store. 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Darkowl

[Hollywood1892]

1 minute ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

I'm 15k into X-Men 1 tho

[Number 6]

I’m trying to figure out what to do as a collector. 
 

I’m not one of the smart collectors who also buys books with the purpose of flipping to generate funds for the books I want to keep. If I were I’d probably be digging all this right now. 
 

While I should have been diving in boxes for books to flip for the last 10 years, I always felt that was also a way to possibly get stuck with a bunch of stuff I really don’t want. 
 

I just buy books that I want to keep for the long term.  And I don’t even collect “cool” books, books that I could flip now for insane profit and (hopefully) buy again when this all settles down. 
 

“98% of the total comics available aren’t blowing up, buy those”. Yeah, but I’m trying to keep my collection lean and I’ve already got 4 short boxes of the cheap stuff, I’m good on that. 
 

I just wanted to round out my collection with some “nice” books. Not super-mega-keys.  Not kinda-sorta keys. Just nice books that before all this insanity used to sell for $100-$300, maybe as high as $500 for something really nice...but none of it really “key” in the true sense. 
 

But even that stuff is rapidly escalating to the point that when a book I want finally comes up I don’t know whether I even want to buy.  I’m really not planning on selling these books anytime soon, but man, there’s also a point where you just feel like you’re throwing money away. 
 

There’s a book on Clink that’s ending tonight and I’m seriously debating about whether I should even bother throwing in a bid. And if I do win, is that really a good thing?  Can I even feel good about my purchase?  I can’t hardly get a sense of what this stuff is really worth anymore. 
 

I was hoping to get a decent group of nice books to compliment my collection and then slow way down on adding books, but it looks like I may be too late for that. 
 

I’m seriously wondering if I should just take a break on comics for awhile, wait and hope all this dies down in a bit.  Maybe pursue another avenue of collecting...I’m not gonna say what for fear anyone gets any bright ideas. 
 

Just kinda frustrating as I really enjoy comics, I have a long history with it and, up till now, felt I had a pretty good handle on it. 
 

I’m gonna miss it...

[Darkowl]

34 minutes ago, Hollywood1892 said:

I'm 15k into X-Men 1 tho

If there’s any book I’d buy right now, it would be that one, because it took forever for it’s value to finally catch up.  It was under-appreciated for soooo long!  

...but it might be overpriced now, lol!

Edited March 25, 2021 by Darkowl

[D84]

2 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

I’m trying to figure out what to do as a collector. 
 

I’m not one of the smart collectors who also buys books with the purpose of flipping to generate funds for the books I want to keep. If I were I’d probably be digging all this right now. 
 

While I should have been diving in boxes for books to flip for the last 10 years, I always felt that was also a way to possibly get stuck with a bunch of stuff I really don’t want. 
 

I just buy books that I want to keep for the long term.  And I don’t even collect “cool” books, books that I could flip now for insane profit and (hopefully) buy again when this all settles down. 
 

“98% of the total comics available aren’t blowing up, buy those”. Yeah, but I’m trying to keep my collection lean and I’ve already got 4 short boxes of the cheap stuff, I’m good on that. 
 

I just wanted to round out my collection with some “nice” books. Not super-mega-keys.  Not kinda-sorta keys. Just nice books that before all this insanity used to sell for $100-$300, maybe as high as $500 for something really nice...but none of it really “key” in the true sense. 
 

But even that stuff is rapidly escalating to the point that when a book I want finally comes up I don’t know whether I even want to buy.  I’m really not planning on selling these books anytime soon, but man, there’s also a point where you just feel like you’re throwing money away. 
 

There’s a book on Clink that’s ending tonight and I’m seriously debating about whether I should even bother throwing in a bid. And if I do win, is that really a good thing?  Can I even feel good about my purchase?  I can’t hardly get a sense of what this stuff is really worth anymore. 
 

I was hoping to get a decent group of nice books to compliment my collection and then slow way down on adding books, but it looks like I may be too late for that. 
 

I’m seriously wondering if I should just take a break on comics for awhile, wait and hope all this dies down in a bit.  Maybe pursue another avenue of collecting...I’m not gonna say what for fear anyone gets any bright ideas. 
 

Just kinda frustrating as I really enjoy comics, I have a long history with it and, up till now, felt I had a pretty good handle on it. 
 

I’m gonna miss it...

I'm heading away from comics and more into 1/6 figures. This hobby has become too much about money than the love of comics.

Once I own it, I don't give a hot  what it's worth because I'm not selling.

[Randall Ries]

15 minutes ago, D84 said:

I'm heading away from comics and more into 1/6 figures. This hobby has become too much about money than the love of comics.

Once I own it, I don't give a hot  what it's worth because I'm not selling.

I am where both of you are at. I quit buying in 1988. I hated all the crossover titles and the "#1 Issues" fad. Once Crisis was over, they didn't seem to have a plan after that. Just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something would stick. I mean, they thought "Concrete" was going to be the next Swamp Thing. "Flaming Carrot" was weird enough to read as well. "UT!" Haha. That still kills me. Nevertheless.

In 2003, I bought an 8.0 copy of Batman #9. To replace the one my first ex-wife ripped. Didn't buy another until 2006 and bought an 8.5 Batman #3. At that point, I decided to buy books I liked. Not every single book I saw. I stayed out of LCS. Bought mostly online. Only time I went to a LCS was to show off my Batman #3 and Batman #237, both of which were criticized for "not being the correct grade". Yehrite. I have a Bat 3 and you don't. That was the bottom line.

I started a collection based on the love of the comics I thought were cool. And right now, I see the same greed and attitude that I saw in the late 1980's. Right before the hobby hit the wall. I'll keep collecting. I'm not bound to buy 9.8's and having to have the "best" copy. My ego doesn't need that kind of coddling. And I don't have that kind of money. The bubble will pop once again and comic books will settle back down to where they were before. A lot of people started collecting comics because we loved them. Not money. If you can make a lot of money doing it, more power to you. Just isn't a motivator for me.

Not going to stop collecting. Just not going to get fed into the hype. I don't HAVE to buy graded although that's fine too. Don't like the huge mark up and paying for everyone else's slabbing bill. I'm buying Adams Phantom Stranger covers right now. Raw or graded.

[Shrevvy]

People keep mentioned the "bored rich people." Who is that? Is it the "I made $4k on Slack" guy from the article or Elon Musk? I think people's definition of "rich" vary widely.