Do these board discussions have any effect on hammer prices? 2 2

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

Anything I post in Comics General or Watercooler just disappears,  so forgive my impertinence in posting here.

There are often discussions about particular books, like the Marvel 1 discussion comparing the October copy to the November copy. 
 

I do not know if we Boardies represent 5% or 50% of the bidders out there. I’d like to know the thoughts of you folks. 
 

are our discussions no more than a tempest in a teacup, or are there real world effects on gavel prices?

[RareHighGrade]

I've found that when there is authentic excitement on the Boards about certain books or runs, the prices on them go up, so it does have at least some impact.

[VintageComics]

On 8/24/2024 at 3:02 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Anything I post in Comics General or Watercooler just disappears,  so forgive my impertinence in posting here.

There are often discussions about particular books, like the Marvel 1 discussion comparing the October copy to the November copy. 
 

I do not know if we Boardies represent 5% or 50% of the bidders out there. I’d like to know the thoughts of you folks. 
 

are our discussions no more than a tempest in a teacup, or are there real world effects on gavel prices?

Absolutely. 

When someone hypes a new cover or something nobody has ever seen before, it brings awareness and people start to chase it. Lovers #49 is an example of that. Bakers were another. 

Those books were always readily available, but then about 10 years ago they just 'took off' and I could no longer find them for $100 a copy. 

Conversely, fear spreads quickly and when people start bemoaning a market drop for a particular book, or slag a book for some sort of qualities it also affects the market. 

For example, in the CGC age, prices for books with things like Marvel chipping, page quality or something as simple as centering for bronze books have been exaggerated by social media, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that these influences originated on the boards and spread from here. The price swings are now far greater for these qualities than they were say, 10 or 15 years ago. 

Social media has leveraged and exaggerated everything in every market, and I would say it probably sped up and became greatly exaggerated with the widespread use of algorithms, from around 2010 onwards.

Before then, things were much more stable. 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 8/24/2024 at 2:33 PM, VintageComics said:

When someone hypes a new cover or something nobody has ever seen before, it brings awareness and people start to chase it. Lovers #49 is an example of that. Bakers were another. 

I hold @Ricksneatstuff personally responsible for my diversion to Bakerland

[Professor K]

I don't think our discussions have much affect on the hammers of big major books. Like say 50k or 100k plus books. I do think on lesser value books sure they do sometimes. Puts more eyes on them so I would think more bids would follow , at least sometimes, possibly often. Good question. 

[jimbo_7071]

On 8/24/2024 at 4:35 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I hold @Ricksneatstuff personally responsible for my diversion to Bakerland

Yes—if there was a Seven Seas #4 in the Promise Collection, he's probably the one who snagged it. The world may never know.

[MattTheDuck]

I also can’t say anything about pricing (although it’s certainly possible a Boardie found out about an auction here and put in bids they otherwise would not have.  That might only have a marginal impact but it would have an impact).  What I can say for certain is that I’ve purchased books I didn’t even know about before joining the Boards.  See: Baker comments above

[tth2]

I think these Boards are very influential when it comes to opening people's eyes to new genres, which can then very definitely drive up prices in previously undervalued books. 

PCH and GGA are two prime examples of genres where I think the Boards have had a huge impact in driving prices up. 

[Telegan]

It sure as heck influenced me into the Golden Age and bidding on comics in that genre.
And now it influenced me to buy GA comics where there are no skeletons, ghouls, witches, decapitations, ropes/chains, etc. on the cover (don't judge) and GA sci-fi (though the latter I was interested in even before I started reading the boards a few years ago).

So, now I bid on auctions I would otherwise not bid on.  I doubt I'd be this into comics nowadays if it hadn't been for this forum and forcing me to go look for comics I never knew existed.  I don't bid on high-end stuff, but dangit, I do affect hammer prices.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 8/24/2024 at 10:35 PM, tth2 said:

I think these Boards are very influential when it comes to opening people's eyes to new genres, which can then very definitely drive up prices in previously undervalued books. 

PCH and GGA are two prime examples of genres where I think the Boards have had a huge impact in driving prices up. 

I hesitate to demonstrate my ignorance by telling you the moment of clarity I just had:   this same “collector energy” created and nurtured here must not only affect auction hammer prices; it must also positively affect the number of slab requests CGC gets.  Hence, free CGC online boards.

I always knew vaguely there had to be something in it for CGC, but never took the time to truly understand it(why look a gift horse in the mouth?). So in the course of asking one question, I find I truly asked another.

i know. I’m a little slow on the uptake

does anyone want to hazard a guess as to the percentage of auction participants come from us boardie band of brothers (and sisters)? Does 5% of auction participation come from us? 50%?  I guess another way to ask this question is what percentage of comic collectors also participate on these boards? This must have been discussed hundreds of times before, surely. 

anyone? Buehler? 

 

 

Edited August 25 by GreatCaesarsGhost

[goldust40]

On 8/25/2024 at 11:42 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I hesitate to demonstrate my ignorance by telling you the moment of clarity I just had:   this same “collector energy” must not only affect auction hammer prices; it must also affect slab requests. Hence, free CGC online boards.

I always knew vaguely there had to be something in it for CGC, but never took the time to truly understand it(why look a gift horse in the mouth?). So in the course of asking one question, I find I truly asked another.

i know. I’m a little slow on the uptake

does anyone want to hazard a guess as to the percentage of auction participants come from us boardie band of brothers (and sisters)? Does 5% of auction participation come from us? 50%?  I guess another way to ask this question is what percentage of comic collectors also participate on these boards? This must have been discussed hundreds of times before, surely. 

anyone? Buehler? 

 

 

I've often wondered about this.

The thing is, Heritage and the other major auction sites have gradually brought more and more highly desirable books to the market over the last decade, and it's certainly the case that even with the handful of heavy hitters here, the amount of auction winners from this forum must be a small percentage (participating bidders would be another thing) of an ever burgeoning market, especially re GA books. I often wonder how much more vintage books the market can bear, but demand seems to be relentless. I'd guess that the really big books are being won by non-lifers, unlike us (that may not have always been the case, though).

5% in terms of winning bids seems about right, with participation being perhaps double to treble that. The boards are certainly a hub and a barometer for dedicated collecting and the serious market, and even though I'm biased (as I've been here a long time) they are as important as anywhere else due to the depth of knowledge here, and that is by design, as you mentioned. Even if boardies don't get involved in seven figure auction items, they will still be discussed at length, which again is what this site's remit is.

[jimbo_7071]

On 8/25/2024 at 7:16 AM, goldust40 said:

5% in terms of winning bids seems about right, with participation being perhaps double to treble that. 

I'd guess that it's higher than 5% if you're talking about GA slabs. I've seen quite a few of the books I've been outbid on show up here or in people's registry sets.

As for whether the boards influence purchase decisions, I can say that I never thought I'd pay ten cents for any romance book—or even take one offered for free—yet I've bought several in the last few years as a direct result of perusing the boards. Photo-cover westerns are probably next.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 8/25/2024 at 7:11 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

As for whether the boards influence purchase decisions, I can say that I never thought I'd pay ten cents for any romance book—or even take one offered for free—yet I've bought several in the last few years as a direct result of perusing the boards

I feel your pain 

[TheLexLuthorCollection]

On 8/24/2024 at 8:35 PM, tth2 said:

I think these Boards are very influential when it comes to opening people's eyes to new genres, which can then very definitely drive up prices in previously undervalued books. 

PCH and GGA are two prime examples of genres where I think the Boards have had a huge impact in driving prices up. 

Absolutely agree.  I have learned a lot from many of you on other genres and it is fascinating watching pricing rise for many of the books mentioned.  Fortunately, from a budget perspective, I am able to stay in my lane (DC golden age) and not jump into the fray.

[vheflin]

Fellow bidders, here's what I collect:

 

Edited August 25 by vheflin

[Jayman]

All I can say is that on a number of occasions there is a topic or a question that I and other boardies are discussing. When I try to search for more research on said topic, 9 out of 10 times the search result is a link back to the original post on these boards!

[PopKulture]

I have to believe it was a much higher percentage (than 5%) when it came to things like Altas war and Dan DeCarlo books. 

[Joseph Ragno]

Would it help to create a thread devoted to members to post details of comics they won, or were the 2nd highest bidder?  Maybe put a minimum dollar amount to narrow down the price range you're most interested in?

[Robot Man]

I would agree that these boards do have a small effect on prices. As do other sites like Facebook and the internet in general.

The internet has opened the world to information and opinions available that was never around in the old days.

There are really only a very small handful of collectors on here when you consider how many collectors are out there.

It’s no secret about how many cool books that once pictured and discussed here have shot up in price. Any wise collector should be on here but many aren’t so it’s pretty hard to quantify how much difference it makes in the grand scheme of things.

 

[VintageComics]

On 8/24/2024 at 4:37 PM, Professor K said:

I don't think our discussions have much affect on the hammers of big major books. Like say 50k or 100k plus books. I do think on lesser value books sure they do sometimes. Puts more eyes on them so I would think more bids would follow , at least sometimes, possibly often. Good question. 

There's no question in my opinion that discussions here affect final auction prices on all books, including high profile books. 

People bid based on information and there is no other forum on the internet that has a more concentrated source of quality information old comics.

Media affects human nature. Fear and hype affect the stock markets, so why would this place be any different? News coming out of here, whether it's bad or good definitely affects the markets. 

Just as with the stock market, fear over-exaggerates people's reactions and the chatter on these boards has clearly caused people to shun certain things and chase others.

As mentioned earlier, this chatter has already greatly exaggerated the price differences even between two books of the same grade with different qualities (such as Page Quality or Quality of Production) where the price can vary as much as 30%, so it's no stretch at all to think that if a group of people start focusing on the negative qualities of a publicly sold book, and this info trickles to a potential bidder, that this info could deter a bidder and it only takes one bidder to affect an auction price. This is why I'm so careful as to what I say about other people's books. I've always believed this and always practiced it. 

Or increase bidding if something extraordinary is pointed out about the book.  

In the early days, I actually experienced it in one of my own auctions. 

I had an Avengers #4 CGC 9.2 that I was auctioning off and I had mentioned on these forums that the interior was the whitest interior I'd ever seen on a SA book - true story, and it wasn't my intention to pump the book, I was just genuinely amazed at the state of preservation of the book. The pages were literally white as snow. And sure enough, it went for a crazy price, eclipsing any other sale at that time. It went for $4150 when it was normally a $2-3K book. To this day, I strongly believe that someone heard about the state of preservation on this forum and bid the heck out of it for that reason. 

In summary, 20 years ago most people hadn't heard of these chat boards and when people asked if the chatter here affected the markets, nobody thought they affected them much.

Now everyone talks about these forums openly across all social media. The world is a very different place and I'm certain that this place is a market maker, for better or for worse.

Edited August 25 by VintageComics