What's with unusually high prices on random Omnibus on Ebay? Explain to me please 0

[Blastaar]

Example, The Spider-man Clone Saga Vol 2 has several listings on ebay between $400-$600. Yet there are other listings from $80-$100. Is there a reason sellers inflate book prices they know won't sell? 

[revat]

On 5/30/2024 at 2:22 PM, Blastaar said:

Example, The Spider-man Clone Saga Vol 2 has several listings on ebay between $400-$600. Yet there are other listings from $80-$100. Is there a reason sellers inflate book prices they know won't sell? 

Very generally, I would say that trying to figure out the pricing of ebay sellers is largely a futile exercise.  If the price fits for you, buy it.  If not, make an offer or move on.

 

Why does anyone like rum raisin ice cream or the Houston Astros?  These are unknowable things.

 

[Blastaar]

On 5/30/2024 at 5:27 PM, revat said:

Very generally, I would say that trying to figure out the pricing of ebay sellers is largely a futile exercise.  If the price fits for you, buy it.  If not, make an offer or move on.

 

Why does anyone like rum raisin ice cream or the Houston Astros?  These are unknowable things.

 

Do you have any rum raisin ice cream or is that just to illiterate your point? Because if you do…I would pay a premium. 

[miraclemet]

On 5/30/2024 at 5:22 PM, Blastaar said:

Example, The Spider-man Clone Saga Vol 2 has several listings on ebay between $400-$600. Yet there are other listings from $80-$100. Is there a reason sellers inflate book prices they know won't sell? 

I find some listing prices are from back when an Omnibus was OOP, and the seller just keeps letting it resist at that price qith no consideration of when it goes back to print...

[F For Fake]

On 5/30/2024 at 7:14 PM, miraclemet said:

I find some listing prices are from back when an Omnibus was OOP, and the seller just keeps letting it resist at that price qith no consideration of when it goes back to print...

I'd say this is the answer. These were all out of print at one point, and prices were heading up and up. WIthin the last year or two, Marvel has brought them all back into print, so price should have come back down. This seller probably hasn't paid attention and has no idea. That's the danger with the HC and Omni game, you never know when something is going to be reprinted. Great news for readers, bad news for speculators.

[lostboys]

Wow, I had no idea they were considered collectibles.

I just buy them so I dont have to handle and possibly damage my comics.

[miraclemet]

On 5/31/2024 at 8:10 AM, lostboys said:

Wow, I had no idea they were considered collectibles.

I just buy them so I dont have to handle and possibly damage my comics.

some are, some arent... for fun search eBay completed sales including the term "OOP" 

[F For Fake]

On 5/31/2024 at 8:10 AM, lostboys said:

Wow, I had no idea they were considered collectibles.

I just buy them so I dont have to handle and possibly damage my comics.

LIke pretty much anything else tangential to the comic book hobby, there is a very devoted fanbase for collected editions. Multple youtube channels, forums, etc. Print runs on collected editions tend to be smaller than the floppies themselves, often in the thousands, or sometimes even hundreds, of copies printed, vs tens of thousands (or more) for many mainstream comics.

When they sell out, prices tend to go up. Some books can still be had for under retail after they go out of print, while others go for hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Same with trade paperbacks, standard size hardcovers, etc. It's all "comics", and when comics become difficult to find, comic collectors start driving up the demand, and prices follow suit. 

We really saw an explosion of speculators during the covid boom, when supply chains were disrupted and new books would sell out in minutes, and prices would soar. Supply and demand seem to have course corrected since then, so you usually have a much larger window of time to purchase a book before it goes OOP, but there are still exceptions.

So yes, check out sold prices, you may be surprised to find you're sitting on a goldmine!

 

[Dr. Balls]

I see $2000 original art covers marked up to $20,000-$30,000, I think some people hope to find that one guy who doesn’t price check and just hits the BIN in a googely-eyed frenzy of self-defined FOMO.

[Cman429]

During the pandemic I organized my collection and found I had the first few TPB volumes of the 80s Marvel GI Joe comics reprinted by IDW. I also found I bought those same volumes in exact same TPBs but put out by Marvel. I was shocked that the IDW ones were going for a pretty penny so I sold them and kept the lesser desired Marvels. I think I offered one of the volumes on here but nobody likes me here so I ended up selling it on feebay. 

Anyway point is yes some TPBs can be valuable 

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 5/31/2024 at 12:13 PM, Cman429 said:

but nobody likes me here

[valiantman]

One thing to keep in mind is that a $500 asking price for something originally $100 is really no different (markup percentage) than a $5 asking price for a comic originally priced $1. If the item has been selling for $200 but they still keep asking for $500, it's still no different than a $1 comic which has been selling for $2, but the seller still wants $5.

It's far more impressive when a $1 (original price) comic sells for $50 than to see a $100 (original price) book sell for $500. A $100 book selling for $200 is really quite boring when you think about it.

Edited May 31 by valiantman

[vheflin]

On 5/31/2024 at 3:27 PM, valiantman said:

A $100 book selling for $200 is really quite boring when you think about it.

Not if you have 1,000,000 of them.

[valiantman]

On 5/31/2024 at 2:35 PM, vheflin said:

Not if you have 1,000,000 of them.

You would have to pay $100,000,000 to get 1,000,000 of them in the first place.