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

[Microchip]

...easing off.

 

[Lpgk]

On 5/21/2022 at 9:39 PM, thehumantorch said:

I consider my pension, cash, stocks, and home investments.  Comics are a hobby although I have no doubt I’ll be able to sell them for significant money someday

I like arguing with the insufficiently_thoughtful_persons on FB and IG about why comics are not a good investment. Some of those people actually trumpet some modern book as a great investment over time, like 20 years. 

Comics are not a good investment for the great majority of people. Not liquid, hard to get in and out of the market. 

[Lpgk]

On 5/21/2022 at 11:35 PM, lou_fine said:

Definitely not any breaking news here, as hasn't this been the historical trend for EVERY SINGLE BOOK that's gone up in value due to movie/TV, or similar related media hype?    

The great great majority fall back down, some slightly, some dramatically. There's really not much I can think of that have held the value or gone up since an appearance:

 

Miles

Spider Gwen

Ahsoka (not much of a time period her to judge as it really blew up in a short time)

 

[Microchip]

On 6/12/2022 at 7:07 PM, Lpgk said:

I like arguing with the insufficiently_thoughtful_persons on FB and IG about why comics are not a good investment. Some of those people actually trumpet some modern book as a great investment over time, like 20 years. 

Comics are not a good investment for the great majority of people. Not liquid, hard to get in and out of the market. 

Yes, and no.  The base medium for selling books is the auction format, which has a fixed timespan attached to it.  I doubt this will remain at the quickest way to sell books at good market prices moving forward.  

[Microchip]

On 6/12/2022 at 7:07 PM, Lpgk said:

I like arguing with the insufficiently_thoughtful_persons on FB and IG about why comics are not a good investment. Some of those people actually trumpet some modern book as a great investment over time, like 20 years. 

Comics are not a good investment for the great majority of people. Not liquid, hard to get in and out of the market. 

Oh, let me know what high end keys you have for sale at 2020 prices 

[Microchip]

On 6/12/2022 at 1:21 AM, DC# said:

Here are Session 1 results (with a few of the later session results sprinkled in) from the June ComicLink auction.    The later sessions had some interesting results but I don't have the time to look up all the GPA comparison

I'm keen to see the latest summary.   It's safe to say I'm expecting to see Red Cross the board.

[Stefan_W]

On 6/11/2022 at 11:21 AM, DC# said:

Here are Session 1 results (with a few of the later session results sprinkled in) from the June ComicLink auction.    The later sessions had some interesting results but I don't have the time to look up all the GPA comparisons

  

 

This is awesome, thank you for sharing! CL takes down auction info fairly quickly so it is impossible to track their results over time without logging on your own.

[Dr. Balls]

On 6/12/2022 at 3:07 AM, Lpgk said:

Comics are not a good investment for the great majority of people. Not liquid, hard to get in and out of the market. 

It's taken me a lot of years to override the philosophy that I have to sell one book to buy another. I believe that if comics are truly to be an investment (I'm talking about the blue chip type stuff), you have to hang onto them religiously for 5-10 years in order to realize a decent return and not try to force a sale because you need to finance something else. Now, I'm saying that for the person who is looking at it from an "investment" standpoint. The guy who just loves to collect books, buy, sell and self-fund the hobby - that makes the soul happy. I am still one of those guys, too.

People will always collect stuff and it's not going to slow down, and honesty - the worse the world gets, the more people tend to trade the 'uncertain future' for the 'tangible now'.

[Ryan.]

On 6/22/2022 at 10:31 AM, Dr. Balls said:

People will always collect stuff and it's not going to slow down

In a world where VHS tapes are selling for 5 figures, I'm not too worried about comics.

[Dr. Balls]

On 6/22/2022 at 10:24 AM, Ryan. said:

In a world where VHS tapes are selling for 5 figures, I'm not too worried about comics.

No kidding - that apparently has become a thing in my absence from the hobby. Magnetic tape has like a 30 year shelf life in the best conditions (not sure how grading/encapsulating extends that, though), I'm not sure if I'd hitch my money to that wagon.

Honestly, I'd love to see CGC grade records - but the process and case would probably be so complex, it'd be cost prohibitive. Not to mention that the "records are for listening not slabbing!" crowd are much more legion than the amount of people who are "comics are for reading not slabbing!" That it might not actually make it worth doing.

[KirbyTown]

I've seen enough reasons to convince me that the pandemic-based irrational exuberance is on its way out and that last years prices were apogee. I think the periodic movie speculation bumps will continue for as long as super-heroes are on the menu, but those gains and losses are amongst Fools.

 

There is over-supply for the non-speculative demand, and Joe Blow is starting to realize that he didn't hit the big time with those three garage sale longboxes of Rai and the Future Force...and that rumors of hidden fortunes in speculative forced mini-keys are unfounded as he finally receives last year's hot book submission that is now worth less than the slab cost.

 

Inflation is real, and the inventory glut that has surfaced will continue to increase as Fools bow out.

 

Heritage movement is essentially noise in regard to street value, but those high dollar numbers have always served as justification for (and at the beginning of a bubble, the impetus for) ridiculous speculation. Nothing's going to stop big money and its myriad reasons for flowing though, legitimate or otherwise.

 

and...

 

Anything Is A Horrible Investment When You Buy At The Top

 

(Not investment advice, past performance not relevant to future results, investing involves risk of loss, etc)

[Dr. Balls]

On 6/22/2022 at 11:10 AM, KirbyTown said:

..rumors of hidden fortunes in speculative forced mini-keys are unfounded as he finally receives last year's hot book submission that is now worth less than the slab cost.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

On 6/22/2022 at 1:04 PM, Dr. Balls said:

Magnetic tape has like a 30 year shelf life in the best conditions

 There's still perfectly fine master recording tapes from the 1950s and 1960s. 

[KirbyTown]

On 6/22/2022 at 12:29 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

 There's still perfectly fine master recording tapes from the 1950s and 1960s. 

Unfortunately many tapes from many manufacturers also suffer from sticky-shed and require a bake to be usable. ⏲

[KirbyTown]

On 6/22/2022 at 12:42 PM, Jackson13 said:

I still have some cassette tapes from the 80s that work, does that count? 

it's cheating because most have a binder

[Gregd]

On 6/22/2022 at 1:10 PM, KirbyTown said:

I've seen enough reasons to convince me that the pandemic-based irrational exuberance is on its way out and that last years prices were apogee. I think the periodic movie speculation bumps will continue for as long as super-heroes are on the menu, but those gains and losses are amongst Fools.

 

There is over-supply for the non-speculative demand, and Joe Blow is starting to realize that he didn't hit the big time with those three garage sale longboxes of Rai and the Future Force...and that rumors of hidden fortunes in speculative forced mini-keys are unfounded as he finally receives last year's hot book submission that is now worth less than the slab cost.

 

Inflation is real, and the inventory glut that has surfaced will continue to increase as Fools bow out.

 

Heritage movement is essentially noise in regard to street value, but those high dollar numbers have always served as justification for (and at the beginning of a bubble, the impetus for) ridiculous speculation. Nothing's going to stop big money and its myriad reasons for flowing though, legitimate or otherwise.

 

and...

 

Anything Is A Horrible Investment When You Buy At The Top

 

(Not investment advice, past performance not relevant to future results, investing involves risk of loss, etc)

NOT Buying at the top is tricky as most don’t know they are buying at the top- why dollar cost averaging is good practice. 

And not sure if you have a long view that buying at the top is all that bad- if you bought stocks at the top in 2008 or so and held you still did well if you didn’t sell. Same for real estate. Granted your returns are less but again- you most likely made a profit. 
 

Buying stocks and other investments now is probably a very good move - I kinda like this environment as I increase my 401k, IRA and comic spending when I see things falling. Not trying to predict the bottom - been burned once during the pandemic on that. Just buying for less than it was a few months ago.

My guess is most folks will be made whole no matter their purchases (with some crazy exceptions) if they have a long enough time horizon.

 

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

I only slab comic books to get the plastic because, someday, or sometime around that time, plastic will be worth its weight in ... ... ... ... comic books.

[Dr. Balls]

On 6/22/2022 at 11:42 AM, Jackson13 said:

I still have some cassette tapes from the 80s that work, does that count? 

I have lots of cassettes from the 80's and with the exception of a handful, they sound horrible. I have about 40 8-tracks and a refurbished 8-track player that plays nicely - when you have a nice tape (I only have one). The other 39 sound pretty bad. But, I'll concede you're not buying a slabbed VHS tape to watch it.

[Dr. Balls]

On 6/22/2022 at 11:29 AM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

 There's still perfectly fine master recording tapes from the 1950s and 1960s. 

I am a novice, but I've read they are backed up/copied or not used often unless an analog professional works on them to remaster,etc. Plus, old master tapes need to be handled very carefully as they have degraded over time and risk being destroyed. I'm going to guess that no one is going to try and play a Beatles master tape over it's digital or analog backup out of risk of destroying the original due to it's fragility.

I don't have anything from the 60's (like R2R), but out of all the stuff I do own that is 50+ years old - it pretty much has degraded to the point that quality is not a word I would use while listening to it.

[KirbyTown]

On 6/22/2022 at 1:21 PM, Gregd said:

NOT Buying at the top is tricky as most don’t know they are buying at the top- why dollar cost averaging is good practice. 

And not sure if you have a long view that buying at the top is all that bad- if you bought stocks at the top in 2008 or so and held you still did well if you didn’t sell. Same for real estate. Granted your returns are less but again- you most likely made a profit. 
 

Buying stocks and other investments now is probably a very good move - I kinda like this environment as I increase my 401k, IRA and comic spending when I see things falling. Not trying to predict the bottom - been burned once during the pandemic on that. Just buying for less than it was a few months ago.

My guess is most folks will be made whole no matter their purchases (with some crazy exceptions) if they have a long enough time horizon.

 

My comment was definitely tongue-in-cheek about buying at a theoretical all-time top since you could only lose, but I also mean people getting in at the top of bubbles...and most bubble Fools aren't the spider fund type. 🕷