To all the folks complaining about the increase in OA prices this past year... 1 1

[jjonahjameson11]

be thankful you aren't collecting comic books. 

The recent CLINK auction has proven to be an exercise of swimming in shark-infested waters, with price multiples far exceeding OA increases, especially on Bronze and Copper Age books.

As Jordy said to me, we need someone to develop a 'fainting emojie' in response to these crazy record prices!  

[exitmusicblue]

This is truth. I've held off on selling key comics to fund OA for a while now.  Most of my keys are up around 5x or more since a few years ago, easily outpacing my OA.

If anything, real glad OA hasn't gone bonkers to the same extent.  Zero urge to pick up more key comics at these prices, except via the occasional trade.

[Xatari]

I have been cashing out of books and buying OA for the past 12 months. Setting up the 5-10 year long game. 

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=140502

[grapeape]

3 hours ago, Xatari said:

I have been cashing out of books and buying OA for the past 12 months. Setting up the 5-10 year long game. 

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=140502

Marvel Spotlight 5 first Johnny Blaze and Shang Chi’s first appearance are just a few of the gems on this CAF page. Excelsior!!!!

[Rick2you2]

To be frank, it hasn’t affected me very much. The higher end stuff has gone up a lot, and hot artists will appreciate anytime, particularly with vigorous rep’s, but I can regularly find nice things at reasonable prices. The pin-up I had posted earlier by Jack Sparling was a bit over $700. A comparable piece by Sparling I had been eyeing about a year and half beforehand actually went for a little more. Just buy the art instead of the artist. 

[Twanj]

8 hours ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

be thankful you aren't collecting comic books. 

The recent CLINK auction has proven to be an exercise of swimming in shark-infested waters, with price multiples far exceeding OA increases, especially on Bronze and Copper Age books.

As Jordy said to me, we need someone to develop a 'fainting emojie' in response to these crazy record prices!  

Anyone have any concrete examples? Just curious, from someone who's not aware.

[AnkurJ]

50 minutes ago, Twanj said:

Anyone have any concrete examples? Just curious, from someone who's not aware.

Look up sales of Giant size X-men 1 and Hulk 181. Both have gone up multiples in a year. Great books but quite common. I fear what the correction will bring.

[Twanj]

7 minutes ago, AnkurJ said:

Look up sales of Giant size X-men 1 and Hulk 181. Both have gone up multiples in a year. Great books but quite common. I fear what the correction will bring.

Sorry I'm not pretending to be dense, I'm asking where one would find this info.

[AnkurJ]

6 minutes ago, Twanj said:

Sorry I'm not pretending to be dense, I'm asking where one would find this info.

All good! Here’s one example. Giant size xmen 1 in 9.2 over the last two years.

[jjonahjameson11]

20 minutes ago, Twanj said:

Sorry I'm not pretending to be dense, I'm asking where one would find this info.

Comics.gpanalysis.com

they capture eBay and HA comic sales, but not clink or other sites

[jjonahjameson11]

31 minutes ago, AnkurJ said:

Look up sales of Giant size X-men 1 and Hulk 181. Both have gone up multiples in a year. Great books but quite common. I fear what the correction will bring.

Ankur, those ‘big books’ have increased by multiples, but others examples have increased by even greater multiples.  Many ASM bronze and copper age such as asm 210, 252, 299, annual 16, Hulk 340, Thor 337, and xmen 129 immediately come to mind.

fyi, last year I was purchasing asm 129 cgc 9.8 white pages for $11.5-$12.5K each.

yesterday, clink auctioned the Mass pedigree copy for $55.1K.  Prior to that sale, both clink and HA have sold 9.8’s for $33K.

At these price points, I’d rather buy a decent Bronze Age Spidey cover!

[hmendryk]

I am another that have benefited from the boom in comic book prices. Last night on ComicLink a golden age book that I bought for about $300 (admittedly years ago) went for $5700. And I have a number of comics up now on ComicLink and more to go in the future. I hope to rebuild my depleted original art war chest.

[Andahaion]

Please don't remind me!  Ha.  I sold most of my keys to fund my pivot into OA and am just really in awe how much the books have exploded.  My AF15 appears to be worth about 3x what I sold it for like two years ago, and about 6x what I originally paid for it back in 2012.  It doesn't bother me too much because I do find that I get more enjoyment out of looking at the art on my walls, as the books were kept in a box where I rarely took them out to view in their shiny CGC cases.

[John E.]

I also lament selling my keys, albeit in low grade, to fund my OA. I wish I had sold other things instead. I'm also glad I hung on to the keys I do have. That said, I think about the maintenance to keep comics in good shape and I don't want to go back to that. I mean one ding can knock off hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars from your book. Forget that. One of the reasons I jumped to OA is because condition is a nominal matter.

With the "rising" prices of OA, I made the realization that I'm priced out of the major auctions; but at the same time there are nice pieces to be had for reasonable price, like Rick2You says. Therefore, I still have skin in the game. It's about being resourceful.

[Latverian Tourism Board]

How do you guys feel about comics.gocollect.com? I’m actually selling some stuff for OA (not main keys, except for a few Timely comics I’ve sold), but I’m a price guide guy. I try to not get too caught up in hot pricing, but this feels more like it might be new prices being set on some titles. I had no idea those titles JJJ mentioned were so hot...

[stinkininkin]

I've purged most of my better books several times over the years, cashing out (much too soon it seems) to fund art. But I've still got a ton of books, some of which are probably worth selling. But which ones should be slabbed, or pressed and slabbed or just sold raw is completely beyond me at this point. I need someone who knows what's what to come over and sort the whole lot for me and get them out the door. Volunteers? 

Edited May 26, 2021 by stinkininkin

[sfilosa]

4 minutes ago, stinkininkin said:

I've purged most of my better books several times over the years, cashing out (much too soon it seems) to fund art. But I've still got a ton of books, some of which are probably worth selling. But which ones should be slabbed, or pressed and slabbed or just sold raw is completely beyond me at this point. I need someone who knows what's what to come over and sort the whole lot for me and get them out the door. Volunteers? 

Send them to ComicLink and let them to the work. They don't charge for that and will get you a slabbing discount. Also, tell them to review for pressing as that is the game (finding slabbed books that weren't pressed). 

[Dick O.]

The astronomical price leaps in sports cards, collectible card games and comic books have actually spurred a redoubling of my efforts to acquire OA - which now seems seriously undervalued!

 

[JadeGiant]

This is interesting. I haven't followed comics much but it sounds like the tried and true logic that selling comics to fund art is always better from an appreciation perspective going forward has been flipped on its head? I haven't taken the (comics to art) conversion/leap myself but have considered many times over the years. Looks like I need to do a little homework first. Following. 

[rlextherobot]

I remember joking to a friend that you could buy a page of art from a key book cheaper than CGC 9.8 copy of the same book, which while still an exaggeration is less of one than it was a year ago.