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

[rsouxlja7]

On 12/31/2023 at 8:30 PM, Telegan said:

 

I think part of it is due to the (general) lack of liquidity in comic books.  There's a log between wanting to sell a comic and actually getting it sold (for the most part).  If you want to sell a stock, you put in your market/limit/whatever order, and you kind of know what it sells for.  With a comic, you send it to an auction, put it up on eBay and a few days to months later, you pray you get what you want for it, but you're at the mercy of the "market" as far the price.

A lot of the S&P and NASDAQ already corrected.  You can also look at it as sectors in comics - Modern, Bronze, and Silver have been getting decimated, while a lot of Golden Age have been resilient but have started (?) correcting.  Just like if you look at something like the Russell 1000 or 2000 in stocks, it's out-run other sectors.  Energy stocks were once flying but have settled down, but some are looking for those and biotech as well as homebuilder stocks to go up this coming year.

Maybe a lot of the comic money also went back to crypto as it doubled, tripled, quintupled, etc.  Who knows.

That’s one of the things that I think a lot of the new “investors” don’t really get about these high end collectibles - it is generally DIFFICULT to sell this stuff unless you’re blowing it out for a deal, and the fees can eat you alive if you’re not doing it yourself. I only have a few books left to sell and I will be glad to see them go  

[DC#]

No love for Doctor Doom and Black Panther in this post Christmas window on Heritage.    A FF #5 5.0 sold for $6.9k with last 5.0 sale in Sept 23 of 14.5k and a Dec 23 sale of a 4.5 for $7.6k.      FF #52 in 8.5 went for $2.52k vs last sale in Nov of $3.3k and a 7.0 sold for $1.0k vs last sale of $1.5k in Dec.   

Perhaps just a bad selling window between holidays and the Platinum auction that starts on Thursday.   

[Stefan_W]

On 1/9/2024 at 12:26 PM, DC# said:

No love for Doctor Doom and Black Panther in this post Christmas window on Heritage.    A FF #5 5.0 sold for $6.9k with last 5.0 sale in Sept 23 of 14.5k and a Dec 23 sale of a 4.5 for $7.6k.      FF #52 in 8.5 went for $2.52k vs last sale in Nov of $3.3k and a 7.0 sold for $1.0k vs last sale of $1.5k in Dec.   

Perhaps just a bad selling window between holidays and the Platinum auction that starts on Thursday.   

I am expecting things to be pretty grim on the selling front for the first few months of the new year. Price drops were slowing a bit but still happening in 2023, and now with the CGC holder switcharoo thing buyers have yet one more reason to be cautious before forking out cash for books. 

I starting listing some lower end books on Ebay on Jan 1st, which I do at the start of every year. I normally hit about 10-15k in sales some point in Feb or early March at the latest and then stop (there is a limit to how much I am willing to give that site in fees each year). It is still early, but I have only sold 2 comics at about $100 each so far (compared to 10 at this point last year) even though the quality of books is similar to previous years. It is too small a sample to read too much into it so far except to say that I was expecting the worst going in and nothing that has happened so far has eased my fears. 

[1Cool]

On 1/9/2024 at 12:49 PM, Stefan_W said:

I am expecting things to be pretty grim on the selling front for the first few months of the new year. Price drops were slowing a bit but still happening in 2023, and now with the CGC holder switcharoo thing buyers have yet one more reason to be cautious before forking out cash for books. 

I starting listing some lower end books on Ebay on Jan 1st, which I do at the start of every year. I normally hit about 10-15k in sales some point in Feb or early March at the latest and then stop (there is a limit to how much I am willing to give that site in fees each year). It is still early, but I have only sold 2 comics at about $100 each so far (compared to 10 at this point last year) even though the quality of books is similar to previous years. It is too small a sample to read too much into it so far except to say that I was expecting the worst going in and nothing that has happened so far has eased my fears. 

Excellent synapsis of the current selling market on E-Bay.  Kind of a waiting game right now with people not buying and people not ready to blow out books.  Not a good time to test out the auction market in my opinion.

[jimjum12]

On 1/9/2024 at 1:24 PM, 1Cool said:

Excellent synapsis of the current selling market on E-Bay.  Kind of a waiting game right now with people not buying and people not ready to blow out books.  Not a good time to test out the auction market in my opinion.

To say the auction market is oversaturated is an understatement. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Stefan_W]

On 1/9/2024 at 3:30 PM, jimjum12 said:

To say the auction market is oversaturated is an understatement. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Yeah, for sure. I would not limit it to the auction market since fixed price listings are basically sitting.

During the pandemic people were grading anything and everything because the prices were so high. Now all those books are still around but the people willing to buy have decreased in number dramatically. Not the best situation for those trying to sell comics. 

[The humble Watcher lurking]

On 1/9/2024 at 12:49 PM, Stefan_W said:

I am expecting things to be pretty grim on the selling front for the first few months of the new year.

I think the Marvel movie hype might finally be dead. Only Dead Pool 3  is coming out from Marvel this year. I would expect prices on most comics even to be lower a year from now, except for maybe a few comic books. Those  Marvel and DC movies fueled the growth of the comic book market over the last 20 years, and they both seemed to have fallen flat and stalled at the box office. 

[alexgross.com]

On 1/9/2024 at 12:30 PM, jimjum12 said:

To say the auction market is oversaturated is an understatement. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

awesome to see you back and posting jimbo! sending lots of positive energy your way! 

[1Cool]

On 1/9/2024 at 7:39 PM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

I think the Marvel movie hype might finally be dead. Only Dead Pool 3  is coming out from Marvel this year. I would expect prices on most comics even to be lower a year from now, except for maybe a few comic books. Those  Marvel and DC movies fueled the growth of the comic book market over the last 20 years, and they both seemed to have fallen flat and stalled at the box office. 

Yep - sad to say I think the movie and shows causing a massive surge in book prices is basically dead (or on it's last legs).  I see a book pop up because of a show every now and then but they are far between and the surge can be only for a week and then the book is back to reality.  Rare and hard to find books seem to be the flavor of the month which is fine if you can find them but they are called rare and hard to find for a reason.  It was a great 12 year ride with movie hype fanning the flames but it's a whole new game out there.

[skybolt]

On 1/9/2024 at 2:30 PM, jimjum12 said:

To say the auction market is oversaturated is an understatement. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

I used to make a small profit pre pandemic by buying high grade minor keys from LCS's for $3 to $5 raw and then selling them for $80 to $100 in 9.8 on eBay. However, once the comic boom hit and the prices for these books got inflated to $200 to $250, everyone and their grandmother started sending their copies to CGC. Once supply started to outpace demand, prices for these type of books dropped to around $50. You are better off purchasing a random book (with low census numbers) from a decent run, and hoping that the handful of collectors that are trying to put a run together will buy it from you. Even with this approach, once other sellers see a random book sell for $150 on eBay, all of a sudden the census numbers increase dramatically and now the book is down to $40 in 9.8. 

[AGGIEZ]

On 1/10/2024 at 7:08 AM, 1Cool said:

Yep - sad to say I think the movie and shows causing a massive surge in book prices is basically dead (or on it's last legs).  I see a book pop up because of a show every now and then but they are far between and the surge can be only for a week and then the book is back to reality.  Rare and hard to find books seem to be the flavor of the month which is fine if you can find them but they are called rare and hard to find for a reason.  It was a great 12 year ride with movie hype fanning the flames but it's a whole new game out there.

See it coming back any time? This feels like the crash in 1997-ish again. Then there was a resurgence in the mid-00s. Maybe 2030 is the next resurgence...

I think there is still way too much interest in our hobby to be going the way of stamp collections just yet...

 

[1Cool]

On 1/10/2024 at 10:21 AM, AGGIEZ said:

See it coming back any time? This feels like the crash in 1997-ish again. Then there was a resurgence in the mid-00s. Maybe 2030 is the next resurgence...

I think there is still way too much interest in our hobby to be going the way of stamp collections just yet...

 

I don't think I've ever said that comic collecting will be going anywhere for at least 15 - 20 years and I think we could actually see an upswing in sales when Boomers really start passing their inheritance to their Gen-X kids.  Gen-X is to me the last batch of kids who had comics as their primary entertainment (or at least us weirdos and geeks) so I don't see a reason it will continue to be as vibrant a collectible once the Gen-X generation start selling more than buying (ie which is where the 15 - 20 years comes from). 

When I started collecting the hot books were black and white books which led into the wizard fueled crazes of the late 80s and early 90s.  The movie fueled mania for certain comics lasted much longer than any other "comic fad" I can remember so I don't see any reason it will come back but who knows what type of books will be instantly hot over the next 15 - 20 years.  Buy what you love and don't over-spend for stuff that doesn't matter to you and things usually turn out fine.

Edited January 10 by 1Cool

[MatterEaterLad]

The market is absolutely flooded with books right now. Last time I checked there were 140 graded copies of FF48 on eBay. And that's not counting the raw copies for sale.

[AGGIEZ]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:55 AM, MatterEaterLad said:

The market is absolutely flooded with books right now. Last time I checked there were 140 graded copies of FF48 on eBay. And that's not counting the raw copies for sale.

 

Getting ahead of the FF movies coming out by posting the FF48 books in prep for them to fly off the shelf when Silver Surfer shows up in a trailer? Seems like there are very few "key" characters that haven't appeared in the MCU, SS being one of them (don't count FOX appearance). 

 

[1Cool]

On 1/10/2024 at 10:10 AM, skybolt said:

I used to make a small profit pre pandemic by buying high grade minor keys from LCS's for $3 to $5 raw and then selling them for $80 to $100 in 9.8 on eBay. However, once the comic boom hit and the prices for these books got inflated to $200 to $250, everyone and their grandmother started sending their copies to CGC. Once supply started to outpace demand, prices for these type of books dropped to around $50. You are better off purchasing a random book (with low census numbers) from a decent run, and hoping that the handful of collectors that are trying to put a run together will buy it from you. Even with this approach, once other sellers see a random book sell for $150 on eBay, all of a sudden the census numbers increase dramatically and now the book is down to $40 in 9.8. 

Everybody and their mother was buying books during COVID and getting books graded.  I had a guy return a 9.0 book that I had listed as a 9.0 VF/NM high grade copy since he said he couldn't grade it.  He had no concept of what a grade meant other than high grade meant he could get it graded.  I still see some decent prices being made on graded books but the glut of graded books (especially Bronze - Modern) will eventually have to be deeply discounted to make sales  

[rsouxlja7]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:57 AM, AGGIEZ said:

 

Getting ahead of the FF movies coming out by posting the FF48 books in prep for them to fly off the shelf when Silver Surfer shows up in a trailer? Seems like there are very few "key" characters that haven't appeared in the MCU, SS being one of them (don't count FOX appearance). 

 

I would think future Fantastic Four and X-Men MCU involvement is already "priced in" for the big keys. 

[1Cool]

On 1/10/2024 at 10:57 AM, AGGIEZ said:

 

Getting ahead of the FF movies coming out by posting the FF48 books in prep for them to fly off the shelf when Silver Surfer shows up in a trailer? Seems like there are very few "key" characters that haven't appeared in the MCU, SS being one of them (don't count FOX appearance). 

 

Great time to be buying if you think there is a great FF movie coming and people will see SS as the next Rocket or Groot then you will make a killing when it comes out.  I personally think we will see a surge in prices for SS books if the trailer looks good but I just don't have faith that a FF movie will not be a dud and SS just doesn't have cool enough story to make people have to have FF 48 at any price in droves.  I'm a seller of all FF books but if you are a buyer then my fingers are crossed that it goes your way!

[rsouxlja7]

In my opinion comic collecting isn't going anywhere and prices for big keys don't have much more room to fall, but I don't see a rebound coming anytime soon either. I think the short term future (5 years) is just prices just staying about where they are, which is when you have to factor in your opportunity cost of holding these books vs investing elsewhere. Of course if you are just buying books to collect then you are probably going to be just fine. I would not be buying books with plans to invest, but I also never did see comics as part of my investment portfolio. 

[1Cool]

On 1/10/2024 at 11:16 AM, rsouxlja7 said:

In my opinion comic collecting isn't going anywhere and prices for big keys don't have much more room to fall, but I don't see a rebound coming anytime soon either. I think the short term future (5 years) is just prices just staying about where they are, which is when you have to factor in your opportunity cost of holding these books vs investing elsewhere. Of course if you are just buying books to collect then you are probably going to be just fine. I would not be buying books with plans to invest, but I also never did see comics as part of my investment portfolio. 

I disagree with you here.  There is quite a large amount of drop available for big keys especially since a lot have not yet given up all their 2020 - 2022 gains yet.  I don't typically talk much about big key or golden age books since they are outside my wheelhouse but unfortunately everything that commands a high price has room to drop in these type of corrections.

[rsouxlja7]

On 1/10/2024 at 10:27 AM, 1Cool said:

I disagree with you here.  There is quite a large amount of drop available for big keys especially since a lot have not yet given up all their 2020 - 2022 gains yet.  I don't typically talk much about big key or golden age books since they are outside my wheelhouse but unfortunately everything that commands a high price has room to drop in these type of corrections.

I hope not, I have a couple more big books I need to sell