1979 Overstreet prices??

[timespast]

I just got a 1979 overstreet price guide and i was just wondering if I could have gotten a NrM I love Lucy Comic#1 for around 5.00 or Bob Hope Comic #1 for 20.00 back in 1979?

[Rob]

I assumed those were the 2007 prices.

[abracadabra]

I love looking at old Overstreets and day dreaming about buying at those prices now. Why do I do this to myself? It's probably unhealthy of me. Definitely poor time management!

-William

[tth2]

I love looking at old Overstreets and day dreaming about buying at those prices now. Why do I do this to myself? It's probably unhealthy of me. Definitely poor time management!

-William

You should immediately go out and buy up everything at today's prices, so that 20 years from now you can look at your 2007 Overstreet and smugly think to yourself that you bought everything at those ridiculously cheap prices.

[abracadabra]

I love looking at old Overstreets and day dreaming about buying at those prices now. Why do I do this to myself? It's probably unhealthy of me. Definitely poor time management!

-William

You should immediately go out and buy up everything at today's prices, so that 20 years from now you can look at your 2007 Overstreet and smugly think to yourself that you bought everything at those ridiculously cheap prices.

You, my friend, are a genius.

[Wally's Comics]

I love looking at old Overstreets and day dreaming about buying at those prices now. Why do I do this to myself? It's probably unhealthy of me. Definitely poor time management!

-William

You should immediately go out and buy up everything at today's prices, so that 20 years from now you can look at your 2007 Overstreet and smugly think to yourself that you bought everything at those ridiculously cheap prices.

 

It really depends on what you buy on whether you will be feeling that way years from now...

 

For example I have 80's/90's "Hot" X-men related books for sale at 2 and 3 books for a dollar

and if they don't move for that - they go into the donation bin...

 

how that for a solid 20 years ago investment!

 

 

[timespast]

Hey Nerf

I was at a comic book store (River City in LaCrosse WI) recently and they had boxes and boxes of various mid 90s spidey books going for 12/ 1.00. Of course there was only 1 other person in the store.

 

I am still interested in hearing how prices of comics related to the OSPG back in the 70s

[rjpb]

I just got a 1979 overstreet price guide and i was just wondering if I could have gotten a NrM I love Lucy Comic#1 for around 5.00 or Bob Hope Comic #1 for 20.00 back in 1979?

 

 

If memory serves - it was very difficult to find any(except Major Inapak) pre-1960 comic in better than FN in the 1970s, as many pedigrees were still unearthed. It's not exactly easy now, but was next to impossible then, unless maybe you were part of the collecting elite that dealers knew would pay more than guide. Overstreet was more of a "bible" in those days, and many casual collectors balked at the idea that a book could be worth more than guide.

[Deathlok]

I just got a 1979 overstreet price guide and i was just wondering if I could have gotten a NrM I love Lucy Comic#1 for around 5.00 or Bob Hope Comic #1 for 20.00 back in 1979?

 

 

If memory serves - it was very difficult to find any(except Major Inapak) pre-1960 comic in better than FN in the 1970s, as many pedigrees were still unearthed. It's not exactly easy now, but was next to impossible then, unless maybe you were part of the collecting elite that dealers knew would pay more than guide. Overstreet was more of a "bible" in those days, and many casual collectors balked at the idea that a book could be worth more than guide.

Man times sure have changed since then. You rarely hear collectors balk about how a book could be worth more than guide.

[tth2]

For example I have 80's/90's "Hot" X-men related books for sale at 2 and 3 books for a dollar

and if they don't move for that - they go into the donation bin...

 

how that for a solid 20 years ago investment!

Yeah, but if you went back to 1979, there was tons of stuff from the 1960s and early 1970s that also sat in dollar bins (actually, back then they were probably quarter bins) and didn't move. Thanks to the attrition that took place in those "worthless" books over the years, 30 years later they're worth a lot of money when they're in high grade.

 

Granted, that's not going to happen with most books from the 80s and 90s because no matter how many have gotten trashed in the dollar bins, there are still zillions sitting perfectly bagged and boarded.

[CommandD]

For example I have 80's/90's "Hot" X-men related books for sale at 2 and 3 books for a dollar

and if they don't move for that - they go into the donation bin...

 

how that for a solid 20 years ago investment!

Yeah, but if you went back to 1979, there was tons of stuff from the 1960s and early 1970s that also sat in dollar bins (actually, back then they were probably quarter bins) and didn't move. Thanks to the attrition that took place in those "worthless" books over the years, 30 years later they're worth a lot of money when they're in high grade.

 

Granted, that's not going to happen with most books from the 80s and 90s because no matter how many have gotten trashed in the dollar bins, there are still zillions sitting perfectly bagged and boarded.

 

I have been buying bargin bin comics for decades and you wouldn't believe the books I bought in the early eighties that everybody told me would never be worth anything and are now worth tons.

 

And I wouldn't be so sure that 80s and 90s comics will always be worthless - sure, all the bad indie junk will still be bad indie junk - but what about 80s X-Men, Batman and all of the other classic superheroes main titles? Give them another 20 years and we'll be saying "If only I bought stacks of....?"

[Scrooge]

And I wouldn't be so sure that 80s and 90s comics will always be worthless - sure, all the bad indie junk will still be bad indie junk - but what about 80s X-Men, Batman and all of the other classic superheroes main titles? Give them another 20 years and we'll be saying "If only I bought stacks of....?"

 

Assuming that in 20 years, comics are still around in their monthly formats and that there is new blood and people want to collect, how many people do you think would actually try to collect a full run of Batman from 1940 to 2020 or could even afford it? I'm sure by then it'd be just as easy to buy the DVD with the complete 80 year run and cherry pick which part of the run to buy. The question is then: will the '80s Batman be part of that choice?

[Gotham Knight-migration]

Of the people I know who buy comics, they buy arcs or random monthlies and minis. A few are TPB buyers who scoff at collecting issues and runs and such. Now, they're a few years younger than I am, but I truly think that as the years go on the monthly buyers will diminish.

 

However, I see the market for old issues to still be around, because there are still conventions and the like for all kinds of older hobbies.

 

Shops might be gone, and trades and online might be the norm, but there's always a market for nostalgia. So until all the people who remember monthly comics are dead and gone or broke or just give it up... there'll always be a market for old stuff.

 

We're pack rats.

 

haha

[Aman619]

I agree with you. However, if the comics back issue dries up as you suggest, while they may always be a market, it will be so small compared to the massive numbers of existing comics out there that I shudder thinking of what all but the best few copies will sell for. Huge supply plus minuscule demand equals a bummer man.

[rjpb]

I remember reading a few years back that dime novels (the precursors of the pulps) were still a hot collectible in the late 1940's - commanding prices of $25 or so for some issues of a medium that had pretty much disappeared 30 years earlier.

 

So the good news is that there was still interest after all that time - the bad news is that those $25 books are probably still only worth that - unless they've already turned to dust.

[dekeuk]

 

The real problem is that if you ordered NM or MINT comics by mail order in 1979 you got what are now considered VF comics (if you were lucky).

 

Yes, theoretically you could have ordered a NM Spiderman #129 for $5 in 1979, but more than likely the comic you would have received would not have been a 9.4, it would have been a 7.0 and 8.0.

 

And if you got that 8.0 you would have been happy, because as a collector, you probably thought what you had received was NM. But it wasn't, at least not according to what is considered NM today.

 

The people that made out like bandits were the ones that went to comic stores and conventions from 1975 to 1990 and bought hand picked copies of true NM key bronze age comics. You could have easily bought 9.6 and 9.8 copies of Iron Man 1, Hulk 181, Green Lantern 76, Xmen 94, Spiderman 121 & 129, etc. It would have required being very patient until true 9.6+ copies came along, but it could have been done on a very moderate budget.

[garthgantu]

Exactly, Dekeuk. You could certainly find "FN" and even "NM" copies of just about anything and everything, and it was all available at guide or less. That's my recollection. But not only do those old grade definitions now equate to VG and VF respectively (if that), spending $5 on a Bob Hope #1 in FN when you could have ASM #3 in VG or etc. still seemed pretty loopy to me at the time.

 

And yes, there were uber-high grade books commanding multiples of guide even then, but you rarely saw them in LCSs or at shows, because dealers understood that the average collector would see you offering a "NM+" copy of Richie Rich # 1 for 4x guide and assume you were clinically insane.

 

That also explains why so few 9.4s and up are available today when it comes to SA and to some extent even BA books... you're sitting there in 1979 with a chance to buy a "NM+" copy of ASM #3 for 3x guide, OR you could pick up ASM #s 5 through 10 in VG/FN for the same amount of money... so the "NM+" books likely languished in bins and boxes or on show racks for years, while slowly being dinged and dented down to what we'd now consider 8.0s or 8.5s (or worse).

[heinlein99]

I agree with you. However, if the comics back issue dries up as you suggest, while they may always be a market, it will be so small compared to the massive numbers of existing comics out there that I shudder thinking of what all but the best few copies will sell for. Huge supply plus minuscule demand equals a bummer man.

 

A bummer if you're a seller - not if you're a buyer.

[rjpb]

The real problem is that if you ordered NM or MINT comics by mail order in 1979 you got what are now considered VF comics (if you were lucky).

 

Yes, theoretically you could have ordered a NM Spiderman #129 for $5 in 1979, but more than likely the comic you would have received would not have been a 9.4, it would have been a 7.0 and 8.0.

 

And if you got that 8.0 you would have been happy, because as a collector, you probably thought what you had received was NM. But it wasn't, at least not according to what is considered NM today

 

This is straight on - when I look at what gets a CGC 8.5-9.0 today- I realize 30 years ago everybody would have considered them NM books, and todays 9.4 and above would have been considered "Mint". Anybody who actually had a 9.4 and a 9.9 copy of the same book (by todays standards) would likely have sold them for the same price.

[Monkeyman]

The real problem is that if you ordered NM or MINT comics by mail order in 1979 you got what are now considered VF comics (if you were lucky).

 

That sounds surprisingly similar to today's eBay. I have been going through some books I bought 5 to 10 years ago and I will take a bath when I sell them. I paid $50 for a NM copy of GS X-Men #1 in 2001-2. I just regraded it and it is probably F/VF and I'll be lucky to get $10. I have many other examples of supposed NM books that are really VFs which I am selling for 50% of guide. For all the stories of people making a killing on comics I think that most of us are losing on a lot of purchases because of overgrading and the tightening of grading standards.

 

Mike