Values of Poor to Good comics

[Rob]

This is a crosspost of a post I just made in Marketplace, buried deep in a thread. I thought it deserved a proper discussion, so I thought I'd post here too.

 

I think "rags" are an untapped market. No one thinks there's any value in a comic less than GOOD. If a comic has a NM value of $500, we break out the values of VF, F, VG, etc. So why does a comic with a G value of $500 stop there? Shouldn't there be a similar breakdown to more affordable prices? Maybe I'll start my Rag Price Guide, and begin where Overstreet stops, pricing 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 1.8's.

 

Do you guys have any guidelines you use when buying comics less than Good? (i.e., Fair = 50% G, Coverless = 10% G)

[Comicdey]

When I purchase books, I think in terms of

 

Fair 40-50% good

 

Poor 10-20% good (full covers, missing interior page or a piece)

 

coverless (I love em) I sold a showcase 8 coverless for $80 when it guided around $800 in good. So 10% seems about right...although I was hoping to get a lot more.

[whomerjay]

I agree poor to fair books are a great opportunity. I think buying them off ebay in bulk deals is the trick. Seems a lot of people are looking for them, prob as a way to get very expensive books they'd otherwise never have. If you survey these types of auctions on ebay there is almost always a lot of action, expecially with GA books. I'm amazed at the prices they sometimes fetch.

[Point Five]

I must admit, I'm somewhat familiar with this market...

 

The idea that "no one thinks there's any value in a comic less than GOOD" pretty much goes out the window when you're talking about golden age books, especially early and/or scarce books. With many of the books I collect, it's a choice between owning the books in low-grade or not at all (see my Wonderworld #7 for example!)...when that kind of thinking comes into play, the market gets a lot more fluid and unpredictable (and interesting).

 

Comicdey's suggestion of Fair = 40-50% of Good sounds about right as a starting point. And if a book is missing its centerfold, it "usually" cuts the price roughly in half. But if the book in question is Superman 14 (classic cover that everyone wants), a Fair copy might finish pretty close to the Good value, whereas if it's Superman 19, it might finish well below the Fair value. "Poor" values are even harder to calculate...depends on the combination of defects, and again on the desirability of the issue. A Superman 17 that looked G/G+ but had a couple of missing pages went by on ebay a month or so ago, and I was the underbidder when it finished at $123. The buyer backed out, and the seller relisted the same book with the same description...which then sold to someone else at $220! (I wish I'd bid higher the first time!) There are so many different kinds of defects that drop a book below Good, and every collector assesses them differently.

 

Coverless copies are equally hard to predict the value of. If we're talking about desirable GA books, I'd have to say 10% is way too low. For a hot title like Marvel Mystery, where the Good price of a random issue might be $180, the price of an equivalent coverless copy would be anywhere from $30-$50, and possibly even a bit higher. Recently I picked up a very sharp coverless Batman #5 for $61 ($400 in Good I believe?) and considered it a great deal. On the other hand, I think there's something of an unofficial price ceiling for coverless books (excluding megakeys) around the $100 mark. If someone's spending that kind of money for a book, they probably want it to have a cover.

 

So very long story short, there are no hard and fast guidelines I use when deciding what to pay for books below Good. Maybe there should be!

[Timulty]

What I have seen, is that if a book is at least Gerber 7 and up the books value goes up proportionately. A Whiz Comic 155, which is a toughie by the way, CGC 4.5 went for near $400. Which to me is outrageous. So, will I buy a lower grade if the opportunity presents itself. Hell yeah!!!! So, as keys and scarces become unavailable in high and mid grade, the low part of the market surges. Same could be said of restores but that is another story.

[deathlok]

Hi timulty.

[Point Five]

Hi timulty.

 

Thanks for your contribution.

[Psiknight]

I'm a huge fan of FR/GD condition books that present well but might have a large defect. For example, I might try to pick up a Duck key that has a single large piece of the back cover taken out, a book that I'd never otherwise be able to afford. I'll normally pay near GD price or better for a rare key like that!

[Marksvint]

I did some interpolation with the first Grading Guide's statement that a Fair comic is worth 30% to 50% of the Good Price. The Fairs range from 0.5 to 1.4. I assumed that 30% of Good is the Fair 0.5 price and that 50% of Good is the Fair 1.5. So cutting the grade down to 1/3 lowered the price 40% (from 50 to 30), or to 60% of what it was. So I figured cutting the grade down to another 1/3 to about a Coverless 0.2 (after rounding) would put the Coverless price at just about 20% of Good. I sold a coverless Fantastic Four 5 to a dealer at the Mid Ohio Con where I set up, basing the dealer to dealer discount from this 20% of Good for the Coverless. This sort of validated my assumption that Coverless comics are worth 20% of good.

 

Now a question for everyone. How do you price covers only? If a coverless comic is 20% (or 10% as some will state), does the cover which will complete the comic bring the balance of the good price? In my case, 80%? What I've done is go 30% of good for a cover only; thus someone who puts together a cover and it's guts will get a 50% discount since they'll have to obtain one of the pieces from another source.

[SignatureSelect]

Actually on some books I would take them in poor to fair because that is the only way I will ever get one. Some books that I can think of are detective 1-26, adventure 40-50, and suspense 3 infact. Fair copies of all those books would be fine to me.

[Timulty]

Let's see...Captain Marvel Adventures 150, Whiz Comics 155, Police Comics 102...hard to find those in HG. Just about any Gerber 7 and up you should be happy what you can get long as it is whole.

[Rob]

Actually on some books I would take them in poor to fair because that is the only way I will ever get one. Some books that I can think of are detective 1-26, adventure 40-50, and suspense 3 infact. Fair copies of all those books would be fine to me.

 

For myself, I would include Detective 27 in there as well.

[Timulty]

Yeah, Keys are kinda take what you get because of price.