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

[Dick Pontoon]

I dunno about that. As folks age and pass away, pop culture collectables, trends and nostalgia will fade and change for sure and I believe that will affect comics, too. I don't think I need to mention examples of once popular genres or items that are now in low-demand or flatlined. However, I think the bulk of collectors of those GA publishers are several generations beyond the original owners and are collectors who grew up on 60s - 80s comics.

[CGC Mike]

This thread has been cleaned up significantly.  Lets keep it civil going forward.  

[Bird]

On 8/16/2023 at 4:00 PM, Stefan_W said:

Thinking about this, I would add that there is sometimes a cumulative effect where if I lose a few books I really want in a row I get frustrated and end up over bidding for one later in the auction.

this is me

about 10 years ago I went to HA art auction in person, had my eye on a Barry Smith page and a Paul Smith page. I went hard at the Barry Smith page but lost out, so I just held my paddle in the air for the next item, the Paul Smith page, never taking it down until I won the page.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Bird

[EastEnd1]

On 8/17/2023 at 4:54 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

Millennial's do not care about Centaurs, Fox, Ace, MLJ or Cheslers, hell as a Gen-Xer I don't really care either, and I would not sink money in them in ten years because I'd never break even on them. You can impart and influence a level of interest in the generation behind you, but not nostalgia, and that influence drops like a rock to the grandkids. They will like Centaurs, Fox, Ace, MLJ or Cheslers even less than you like Pokemon, Dragonball-Z, or Minecraft. 

I don't think nostalgia has much to do with collecting golden age.. most of the people that bought golden age off the racks have passed or stopped buying a long time ago.  I think it has more to do with the depth you decide to take your collecting to and how much your disposable income rises.  I'm pretty confident that a sustainable enough percentage of Gen X and Millenial collectors will eventually migrate back to golden age if they stay in the hobby long enough, just as later generation Boomers like me did once these two factors took hold of our collecting habits.  I was born in 1963 (the silver age), began buying comics around 1972 (the bronze age) and bought my first golden age book in 2000.  It was more about expanding my collection into different areas, in that instance EC horror as I was a big horror fan, which drew me into the golden age.  And once I got there, I saw all this "new" material in diverse genres I wasn't used to collecting with amazing covers (pre-code, GGA, crime, etc) and I got hooked.  I'm sure there are plenty of golden age collectors that can tell a similar story.  Buying golden age is a modern collectors journey of discovery.    

Edited August 17, 2023 by EastEnd1

[october]

On 8/17/2023 at 3:54 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

  Millennial's do not care about Centaurs, Fox, Ace, MLJ or Cheslers, hell as a Gen-Xer I don't really care either, and I would not sink money in them in ten years because I'd never break even on them. 

I hear this a lot and it just doesn't square. I'm 42 and I collect them, and there are tons of younger guys on Instagram buying Gold. Interest has never been stronger and prices have never been higher...all during a time when a lot of Silver, Bronze, etc have taken a price pounding. 

No one collecting Gold right now is doing it out of nostalgia (with the exception of Marty Mann). No one bought these off the rack. It doesn't matter. The collectors of Gold now already ARE the grandkids in a lot of cases.

Edited August 17, 2023 by october

[Stefan_W]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:09 AM, EastEnd1 said:

I don't think nostalgia has much to do with collecting golden age.. most of the people that bought golden age off the racks have passed or stopped buying a long time ago.  I think it has more to do with the depth you decide to take your collecting to and how much your disposable income rises. 

I know a few people who started collecting Goldens and it is mostly because they view them as a more secure comic investment. The ones I know are mostly middle aged, but there are definitely a few older gentlemen with white hair that are on the prowl for them at local shows. Some started before the pandemic, but the majority that I personally know started when prices of other books were bouncing up and down like crazy during and after the comic boom. They like to point out that while moderns especially, but also silvers, shot up in value before the prices corrected, Golden Age books were more of a straight line in terms of value. 

I think the logic is basically ok although a little flawed (e.g., a lot of GA books did not bounce in value simple because there are so few sales). When looking for hold books that will appreciate in value over the next couple of decades you can certainly do worse. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by Stefan_W

[MAR1979]

On 8/11/2023 at 11:07 PM, wiparker824 said:

I too am confounded by CL. I had a low bid on ASM 300 tonight in a 9.2 with white pages for $424. It wound up winning which would put it as the GPA low of the 92 sales of 9.2 for this book on GPA for 2023, previous 2023 low of $478. Meanwhile other books I was bidding on in the SA I thought I put on high enough bids to win and was blown out of the water.  Though this might indicate something more about the CA vs SA current market standing rather than CL’s instability.

The copper age going to take a beating even for the bigger keys like ASM 300 IMO. Just too much supply to fuel demand in times like these.

 

 

Remember a lot of folks using comic link are also consigners so the spending of "free/found money" effect is always possible.

IMHO it's very smart to cull and consign extras of Copper key-like books and use the funds to purchase Silver.  Even I did that recently,  first time I've sold any books in over a decade in my case the credit was utilized to fund buys of high grade Silver.  yeah getting less for the copper's than if it had been 1-2 years back but the Silvers are selling for less as well so it mostly but not entirely balances out.

Edited August 17, 2023 by MAR1979

[MAR1979]

On 8/17/2023 at 7:28 AM, MR. Pontoon said:

I dunno about that. As folks age and pass away, pop culture collectables, trends and nostalgia will fade and change for sure and I believe that will affect comics, too. I don't think I need to mention examples of once popular genres or items that are now in low-demand or flatlined. However, I think the bulk of collectors of those GA publishers are several generations beyond the original owners and are collectors who grew up on 60s - 80s comics.

I do agree about aging out when it comes to certain genre's like Westerns, but for hero stuff with with linkage to the present the GA stuff demand will always be there. Of course there will always be peaks and valleys...

Edited August 17, 2023 by MAR1979

[HouseofComics.Com]

I have to say, I grew up in the 70s and I have some pretty good nostalgia for golden age Batman because my "on the rack" experience including GA reprints in DC 100-pagers and Treasuries. Not to mention books like Batman from the 30s to the 70s. So those stories did not seem all that dated to me--they seemed normal.

Of course where I was growing up in small town Michigan was backwards enough that the 40s did not seem that far away either. I think we had to talk to the operator to make a long distance call well into the 80s.

Same thing with westerns--so many westerns in the air around me, including 40s/50s shows, that GA western comics will always seem normal to me.

[EastEnd1]

On 8/17/2023 at 9:45 AM, HouseofComics.Com said:

I have to say, I grew up in the 70s and I have some pretty good nostalgia for golden age Batman because my "on the rack" experience including GA reprints in DC 100-pagers and Treasuries. Not to mention books like Batman from the 30s to the 70s. So those stories did not seem all that dated to me--they seemed normal.

Of course where I was growing up in small town Michigan was backwards enough that the 40s did not seem that far away either. I think we had to talk to the operator to make a long distance call well into the 80s.

Same thing with westerns--so many westerns in the air around me, including 40s/50s shows, that GA western comics will always seem normal to me.

Ha, you're bringing back memories for me... I remember reading those reprints in the DC 100 pagers as a kid in the 1970s and thinking the stories and art were just AWFUL!  Think I wound up just skipping those "old-looking" stories after a while.  Though I was more of a Superman guy than Batman, and his stories were particularly bad.

[october]

This is just me personally, but I am much more "worried" about the price stability of my Silver, Bronze and later comics. There are just SO. MANY. MORE. OF. THEM. Like, truckloads more. Like 1,000x more in a lot of cases. It takes a tremendous amount of demand to hit price equilibrium on FF 48's, ASM 300's and Hulk 181's, but only a tiny fraction for something like Science 2, Weird Mysteries 4 or Cinderella Love 25. With the Marvel Movie Machine sputtering, PPP loans in the rearview and the hype cycle fully shifted I'd rather be holding something rare than something you can find daily on CLink or eBay.

[southern cross]

The old story of supply vs demand. Golden age in general isn't in high supply so the demand is always higher. Key silver age is a different story in the non high grade.

All books in technical grade are not equal.

During the boom if one had a AF15 with marvel chipping and cream pages they would get good money on it. Demand was higher then supply and it would of sold. Now during the softening of a boom that book would probably sell for under FMV brining the price down.

Today if one was looking for a AF15 in say 4.0 would you just get a copy, any copy?

No, the urgency of any copy is not happening unless the price is really sweet.

You'll probably wait for a copy that has no marvel chipping and has at least off-white pages. 

[october]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:45 AM, HouseofComics.Com said:

I have to say, I grew up in the 70s and I have some pretty good nostalgia for golden age Batman because my "on the rack" experience including GA reprints in DC 100-pagers and Treasuries. Not to mention books like Batman from the 30s to the 70s. So those stories did not seem all that dated to me--they seemed normal.

 

That's true, didn't think of that. People could have also read Carl Barks or EC reprints as a kid.

My own experience with gold as a kid was limited to the WDCS Gladstone treasuries, which I loved and still reread...though Duck books are about the only gold I DON'T have interest in, so go figure. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by october

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

I collect from GA to MA.

Of course, I also collect N, HO, and O scales locomotive, rail cars, buildings, power supplies (some are quite rare, and a few dangerous-electrocution ) etc., etc and have a layout in each scale; I collect and assemble plastic model kits in various scales (planes, ships, cars, science fiction, all of the military armor, etc.); I still have my baseball cards that date from the late 1960s to 1980 (I have not collected them since); I enjoy woodworking (something else I learned from my father); I love gardening (I got that from my paternal grandmother); I love surf fishing (from my father); etc.

It is amazing I get to spend so much time with my family, run my business, sleep, move around the house, etc., because, clearly, as I have previously noted, I have far far too many hobbies.

I do all these "on the cheap" as much as possible which, if you look often, you will find closeouts, sales, two-for-one, and on.

[Brock]

On 8/17/2023 at 9:45 AM, HouseofComics.Com said:

I have to say, I grew up in the 70s and I have some pretty good nostalgia for golden age Batman because my "on the rack" experience including GA reprints in DC 100-pagers and Treasuries.

 

On 8/17/2023 at 11:15 AM, october said:

That's true, didn't think of that. People could have also read Carl Barks or EC reprints as a kid.

This is totally my experience... I grew up in the '70s on DC and Gold Key reprints from the Golden Age. My nostalgia for those books may be secondhand, but it's real...

[Beastfeast]

I’m 40 and have wanted to get into golden books since my first megacon in 2008. I still regret not buying that chamber of chills 19 for $600. 
 

However I drug my feet on the books I wanted and now kinda feel priced out. There’s plenty of interest - especially in pre code horror - from all age groups. Maybe the more esoteric books will take a dip but I very much doubt the floor will fall out on them. 

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

On 8/17/2023 at 1:10 PM, Beastfeast said:

I’m 40 and have wanted to get into golden books since my first megacon in 2008. I still regret not buying that chamber of chills 19 for $600. 
 

However I drug my feet on the books I wanted and now kinda feel priced out. There’s plenty of interest - especially in pre code horror - from all age groups. Maybe the more esoteric books will take a dip but I very much doubt the floor will fall out on them. 

I have collected Golden Age raw low- to mid-grade copies, give or take 3.5 to 7.5, for around 20 years. I may purchase three, four, or five issues a year. From around 1970, as a kid, to around 2000 I collected the highest grade raw copies I could afford but prices started to get relatively very high, not that for me they were not already high, so I adapted. I have only purchased a few CGC graded GA comic books over the years. One is 9.4 purchased slabbed, one 7.5, purchased raw, the others are between 6.0 to 7.0 all purchased slabbed.

Perhaps raw GA is an option for you. Of course, depending on the book and especially grade even raw GA is relatively very expensive with some issues even at, for example, 1.5 being for me extremely expensive.

[Beastfeast]

On 8/17/2023 at 11:38 AM, Tec-Tac-Toe said:

I have collected Golden Age raw low- to mid-grade copies, give or take 3.5 to 7.5, for around 20 years. I may purchase three, four, or five issues a year. From around 1970, as a kid, to around 2000 I collected the highest grade raw copies I could afford but prices started to get relatively very high, not that for me they were not already high, so I adapted. I have only purchased a few CGC graded GA comic books over the years. One is 9.4 purchased slabbed, one 7.5, purchased raw, the others are between 6.0 to 7.0 all purchased slabbed.

Perhaps raw GA is an option for you. Of course, depending on the book and especially grade even raw GA is relatively very expensive with some issues even at, for example, 1.5 being for me extremely expensive.

Like most things that seem expensive, if I avoided the random $100-$200 books I pick up and saved instead, a big purchase would take less of a bite to my comics budget. 
 

I'm nearly done with a silly collecting focus and get to free up funds for more serious books. 
 

even low grade raw, the books I’m after are in the 2k-5k range. Expensive tastes 💅

[squidmo2000]

Peaks and valleys,ebb and flows,50% off Covid peaks,still up since 2019.....deals to be had if you know where to look.,I sold about 40 books on CL during the pandemic,and did well....GPA is showing small gains the last 8 months...the hobby is solid .....

[Microchip]

I'm completely lost on this result.   It's the second best result for a comic book on the last clink auction