Are prices still climbing or have they eased up a bit??? 43 43

[Sweet Lou 14]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:24 PM, MAR1979 said:

With exception of odd-ball's and  1/1's, I never buy fixed price books.

With all due respect, I don't understand this kind of blanket self-restriction.

[Microchip]

On 9/15/2022 at 3:26 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:

On 9/15/2022 at 3:25 AM, mjoeyoung said:

That is an important point.  I wonder what percentage of sales are resales of books purchased during this boom time vs. hoarders (don't judge me) who will lock up the books for a much longer time period? 

I can't even imagine weathering a $54K loss on a collectible.  I get upset when I think I've accidently overspent by $50! 

It definitely takes the shine off the acquisition 

That would only be true if the world of comics stood still from that point in time.

We know thats not the case.   If you're a big book dealer, you'd buy straight back in at the same price point.

 

[MAR1979]

On 9/14/2022 at 7:55 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

With all due respect, I don't understand this kind of blanket self-restriction.

Fixed priced graded comics on eBay are usually very overpriced. Most books I want can be found for less with a modicum of patience. Couple that with I prefer to examine a book in hand before purchasing means I almost never do fixed priced deal. Again for oddballs and 1/1's I do make exceptions.  3 books in my current signature represent those occurrences. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by MAR1979

[comicnoir]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:24 PM, MAR1979 said:

With exception of odd-ball's and  1/1's, I never buy fixed price books.

I once got an Underworld Crime 6 for $150.00 fixed price.

[Sweet Lou 14]

On 9/14/2022 at 8:58 PM, MAR1979 said:

Fixed priced graded comics on eBay are usually very overpriced. Most books I want can be found for less with a modicum of patience. Couple that with I prefer to examine a book in hand before purchasing means I almost never do fixed priced deal. Again for oddballs and 1/1's I do make exceptions.  3 books in my current signature represent those occurrences. 

Well if you're saying you want to hold a book in your hands, that's basically saying you only rarely buy anything online at all.  Which is fine, but I'm sure it must have made buying books in 2020/2021 pretty difficult.

I agree that asking prices on eBay are often ridiculous and that patience leads to good deals.  But there are good books to be found and there are even sellers who will accept less, sometimes a lot less, than their initial ask if approached respectfully.

[MAR1979]

On 9/14/2022 at 9:31 PM, comicnoir said:

I once got an Underworld Crime 6 for $150.00 fixed price.

I've never been fortunate enough to come across a grossly under-priced comic book listing.

[MAR1979]

On 9/14/2022 at 10:12 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Well if you're saying you want to hold a book in your hands, that's basically saying you only rarely buy anything online at all.  Which is fine, but I'm sure it must have made buying books in 2020/2021 pretty difficult.

I agree that asking prices on eBay are often ridiculous and that patience leads to good deals.  But there are good books to be found and there are even sellers who will accept less, sometimes a lot less, than their initial ask if approached respectfully.

It is why I expanded my parameters for a while. Wild guess is that 1/3 of the time I would not have purchased the book if i had seen it up close first.   

Yes I did find one such seller who I was able to work out fair deals with. I also do deal with WW, Reece and MCS as if an issue can returns books usually with out any problems.

My point was is on the whole fixed price auctions are generally overpriced comics in which seemingly a sellers a goal is to ensnare a rube.   A seller may not lose money on fixed price item but if it goes unsold they have not made money either.  If you sell to put food on the table and meet the rent then you need to have cash flowing in, during a downturn over-priced fixed stuff will sit. IMHO it's not a quality business strategy unless you have the resources to weather the current storm which will get much worse before it gets better.

 

For the Bulk of books the theme song for the near and mid-term future is "Free fallin', now I'm free fallin', now I'm... Oh, free fallin'"

Edited September 15, 2022 by MAR1979

[lou_fine]

On 9/14/2022 at 11:50 AM, mjoeyoung said:

On 9/14/2022 at 11:44 AM, nearmint said:

More than a $54K loss after Heritage takes their cut of the $78K.

STOP! You're making it worse 

Well, here's a thought to make you feel better than.....................just think of the captial loss you can now claim for income tax purposes.  

[lou_fine]

On 9/14/2022 at 11:58 AM, Ken Aldred said:

With the currently pitiful value of the pound sterling, that’s a significant hit.

There hasn’t ever been a worse time to be a British collector of American comics; stratospheric prices, abysmal exchange rate.  Feel relieved I’m not involved with the secondary market anymore.

This really only applies if you are buying into the market.  

Since you say that you are not involved with the secondary market anymore, I hope this means that you are selling your books off which would then mean the falling Brirish pound sterling would be working in your favor here.    

[Ken Aldred]

On 9/15/2022 at 5:55 AM, lou_fine said:

This really only applies if you are buying into the market.  

Since you say that you are not involved with the secondary market anymore, I hope this means that you are selling your books off which would then mean the falling Brirish pound sterling would be working in your favor here.    

True. Referring to accumulating more stuff at present, against the country’s worsening cost of living crisis, not just the extortionate comic sticker prices, where buying a tin of baked beans, and not freezing in a few months time, are more immediate practical considerations than a Hulk 181 for most.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[lou_fine]

Yes, better to buy a thicker GA book or one of those early 100-pager World's Finest or even better yet, how about a 196-pager Complete Book of Comics and Funnies since they'll keep your fireplace going a lot longer than that skinny little Hulk 181.  

[darkstar]

On 9/14/2022 at 9:13 PM, MAR1979 said:

I've never been fortunate enough to come across a grossly under-priced comic book listing.

Click on sold listings on eBay and sort by Newly Listed and you'll find tons. 

[Microchip]

On 9/16/2022 at 10:25 AM, darkstar said:

On 9/15/2022 at 12:13 PM, MAR1979 said:

I've never been fortunate enough to come across a grossly under-priced comic book listing.

Click on sold listings on eBay and sort by Newly Listed and you'll find tons. 

Thats the worst kind of trolling there is! 

[Dark Knight]

In other news, Michael Jordan's "last dance" game used jersey just sold today for a record $10.1 million

[darkstar]

On 9/15/2022 at 7:41 PM, Microchip said:

Thats the worst kind of trolling there is! 

I'm not sure why you think what I wrote was trolling. Comics, like anything else, regularly get priced incorrectly on eBay and the sharps out there buy them as soon as they're listed. 

[Microchip]

On 9/16/2022 at 12:15 PM, darkstar said:

I'm not sure why you think what I wrote was trolling. Comics, like anything else, regularly get priced incorrectly on eBay and the sharps out there buy them as soon as they're listed. 

Telling a guy he's missed all the great deals on eBay in the SOLD section, thats kinda rubbing it, ....albeit not intentionally 

[valiantman]

On 9/8/2022 at 12:33 PM, valiantman said:

Quite a bit of work to run the numbers a few different ways, but the long story short is that if we use August 2021 as the baseline, prices across the board for books from CGCEMC.com (average copies of books with high total market value) were down about 10% to 11% (overall) in August 2022.

But... the numbers are very different depending on the decade:

1930s	-0.9%
1940s	1.2%
1950s	1.6%
1960s	-9.6%
1970s	-19.5%
1980s	-27.4%
1990s	-25.2%
2000s	-21.5%
2010s	-12.5%

These are the price changes in just the past 6 months...

1930s	-1.1%
1940s	1.2%
1950s	-3.2%
1960s	-17.7%
1970s	-16.6%
1980s	-22.5%
1990s	-18.1%
2000s	-14.8%
2010s	-26.2%

[Axelrod]

On 9/16/2022 at 9:57 AM, valiantman said:

These are the price changes in just the past 6 months...

1930s	-1.1%
1940s	1.2%
1950s	-3.2%
1960s	-17.7%
1970s	-16.6%
1980s	-22.5%
1990s	-18.1%
2000s	-14.8%
2010s	-26.2%

Good old 80s.  That's my decade!

[toro]

On 9/14/2022 at 11:13 AM, nearmint said:

The same copy sold for 132K in March of this year.

But is that book one of Jim Halperin's own books that  he takes out of the safe and puts out there to try and see what the market is doing?  Obviously he or his bidder wins it and it just goes back into his safe.  No money is exchanged.

This was discussed at the 25.05 minute mark of the video.
 

 

[mjoeyoung]

On 9/17/2022 at 4:30 PM, toro said:

But is that book one of Jim Halperin's own books that  he takes out of the safe and puts out there to try and see what the market is doing?  Obviously he or his bidder wins it and it just goes back into his safe.  No money is exchanged.

Thanks for posting that video.  That is really interesting, and seemingly pretty damning.

As far as collecting video games, I don't really understand collecting "sealed" items.  It makes sense with action figures because you can see the action figure and see what type of condition it is in.  In order to see if sealed games or VHS tapes work, or to use them as intended, you have to destroy the value.  You are just buying a box.