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Post by G on Aug 21, 2010 10:08:46 GMT -5
It used to be that there would always be a few books each month that would find it's way into the "HOT" column and would make an instant jump just after release. If you didn't grab the book as soon as it came out a week later you were looking to pay a premium to now obtain the book. A $2 cover price might have had you paying $5-10 a week later because the book was a buzz everywhere the comic was mentioned. In other cases, although not as often, the book may scream up to the $20 - $50 range before the books had time to settle in bags and boards. Being someone with a little foresight, this could have netted you a lot of money if you made the right picks.
Of course, this is a lot how the speculator boom took place. It was almost easy pickings in the early 90s to see the new books come out and buy right off the rack only to have it sell for duplicates mere weeks later. Unfortunately, if you were wrong, you were left holding the bag of worthless comics. But even after the speculator collapse, there was still books that shot up quickly, just not as often and a bit more realistically.
Now today these kind of jumps seems rare. Almost never anymore. It's almost surprising to have a book come out today and mere months later be worth double the cover price. More likely, the book can be found in bargain boxes for $1 or less. It's now getting to the point were you can name the books that jump up quickly.....Walking Dead, Chew, The Obama Spider-Man, Captain America #25. These kind of books are becoming rare oddities at best. The new comic speculation seems totally over and except on rare occasions, do any new books seem to be moving upwards once purchased.
I'm wondering if there is more taking place than I realize? Are there more books going up or at least maintaining their cover price value than I give credit for? Because it seems to me that I can hardly ever see a month go by and then recall 3-6 months later that ANY of the books jumped up in value even with depressed print runs. It is now just a strange oddity that pretty much everyone missed that a book ever jumps quickly anymore and even that is rare occurrence.
Someone please give me more examples if I am wrong. Is buying new comic books always like buying a new car? Worth half what you paid for it as soon as you buy it?
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Post by cyberstrike on Aug 21, 2010 10:49:24 GMT -5
I think a lot of it has to do with 2 things: eBay and CCG.
eBay is where I think most of the "hot" books are bought and sold but this tends to make books like Captain America #25 a hot item but also quickly makes the value go down.
CCG is what can really inflate a comic book's price almost to point of absurdity I over heard the manager of my LCS talking about a recent Green Lantern book that someone got slabbed and was able to fetch over $600 for, he stated that he still had copies of the same book and maybe he should do the same then I pointed out the price depends on the condition book.
I think between eBay and CCG comic collecting for money is more like the stock market with having a shorter resell and having to pay people to slab a comic in hard plastic and hope for a high grade, for any kind of profit.
Frankly I hope this shit drives the vultures out of comics. Comics should be read and enjoyed and not treated as stocks on Wall Street.
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Post by defiant1 on Aug 21, 2010 14:40:39 GMT -5
It used to be that there would always be a few books each month that would find it's way into the "HOT" column and would make an instant jump just after release. If you didn't grab the book as soon as it came out a week later you were looking to pay a premium to now obtain the book. A $2 cover price might have had you paying $5-10 a week later because the book was a buzz everywhere the comic was mentioned. In other cases, although not as often, the book may scream up to the $20 - $50 range before the books had time to settle in bags and boards. Being someone with a little foresight, this could have netted you a lot of money if you made the right picks. Of course, this is a lot how the speculator boom took place. It was almost easy pickings in the early 90s to see the new books come out and buy right off the rack only to have it sell for duplicates mere weeks later. Unfortunately, if you were wrong, you were left holding the bag of worthless comics. But even after the speculator collapse, there was still books that shot up quickly, just not as often and a bit more realistically. Now today these kind of jumps seems rare. Almost never anymore. It's almost surprising to have a book come out today and mere months later be worth double the cover price. More likely, the book can be found in bargain boxes for $1 or less. It's now getting to the point were you can name the books that jump up quickly.....Walking Dead, Chew, The Obama Spider-Man, Captain America #25. These kind of books are becoming rare oddities at best. The new comic speculation seems totally over and except on rare occasions, do any new books seem to be moving upwards once purchased. I'm wondering if there is more taking place than I realize? Are there more books going up or at least maintaining their cover price value than I give credit for? Because it seems to me that I can hardly ever see a month go by and then recall 3-6 months later that ANY of the books jumped up in value even with depressed print runs. It is now just a strange oddity that pretty much everyone missed that a book ever jumps quickly anymore and even that is rare occurrence. Someone please give me more examples if I am wrong. Is buying new comic books always like buying a new car? Worth half what you paid for it as soon as you buy it? I quit doing shows when the resistance to price increases started happening in the mid-90's. I was able to buy comics for cover price and flip them for $20 two months later. When that quit happening, the cost & time required to sell comics wasn't worth my time anymore. I think most of the books that are going up in value have a lot of room to fall. I think they are overvalued. df1 |
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Post by G on Aug 22, 2010 9:09:58 GMT -5
I've always viewed values as a bonus to collecting. We get value buying, reading and keeping our books. Anytime we want to look at them, they are still there for us to enjoy again. The face value or the price paid is worth that alone. It's a bonus that they have any resale value at all and even more so when that value appreciates over time. When we finally decide to sell, we get something back. Even if it is for less than what we bought it for, combined with the value of reading and collecting we get an even greater return from our initial purchase price.
The speculation aspect has dried up a lot and new books are no longer easy flips. If you are in it for that game it would be a disappointing affair.
I do feel also the books holding higher value now are probably over priced. Give it another five years or so and you be lucky to get half the value of today. People eventually stop caring and the prices go down.Todays values are probably fools gold on hot books.
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Post by bigw1966 on Aug 22, 2010 10:38:59 GMT -5
Comics these days seem to see the biggest jump within days of release only for titles like what you mentioned G and also for varients from really HOT stories.
They only see the increase for a short time though. Cap #25 is like $10 now. It was up to $30
Unless a book is slabbed these days, you will get $0 money for it it seems. which sucks because I am to lazy to pay and send them off.
I do have about 100 books that would benefit from slabbing. Like my high grade Hulk 181 And some of my early Avengers and Superman books.
People still want to buy books, but they primarily go for CGC books since they will maintain whatever value/grade has been attached to it
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Post by defiant1 on Aug 22, 2010 15:56:25 GMT -5
I've always viewed values as a bonus to collecting. We get value buying, reading and keeping our books. Anytime we want to look at them, they are still there for us to enjoy again. The face value or the price paid is worth that alone. It's a bonus that they have any resale value at all and even more so when that value appreciates over time. When we finally decide to sell, we get something back. Even if it is for less than what we bought it for, combined with the value of reading and collecting we get an even greater return from our initial purchase price. The speculation aspect has dried up a lot and new books are no longer easy flips. If you are in it for that game it would be a disappointing affair. I do feel also the books holding higher value now are probably over priced. Give it another five years or so and you be lucky to get half the value of today. People eventually stop caring and the prices go down.Todays values are probably fools gold on hot books. Walking Dead will spike until it gets to the screen, then people will quit caring. Look at X-Files stuff. Now that the show has gone off the air, you can pick up most issues for a dollar. Some of the oddball limited stuff has retained some of the value, but for the most part people are looking and stuff that was tough to get pops up for sale pretty regularly. df1 |
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Post by defiant1 on Aug 22, 2010 15:57:59 GMT -5
Comics these days seem to see the biggest jump within days of release only for titles like what you mentioned G and also for varients from really HOT stories. They only see the increase for a short time though. Cap #25 is like $10 now. It was up to $30 Unless a book is slabbed these days, you will get $0 money for it it seems. which sucks because I am to lazy to pay and send them off. I do have about 100 books that would benefit from slabbing. Like my high grade Hulk 181 And some of my early Avengers and Superman books. People still want to buy books, but they primarily go for CGC books since they will maintain whatever value/grade has been attached to it Prices are resistant to drop on keys like #181, but regular issues are going to struggle to keep value as most people are not going to pay CGC prices. df1 |
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Post by bigw1966 on Aug 23, 2010 8:45:24 GMT -5
Oh yeah, there are many books resistent to a drop because they are sought after keys. I now have 3 FF48's in various conditions and multiples of pre-issue #101 Uncanny X-MEN books but something like the X-Files to me always had an extremely limited shelf life because it was based on a Television show which will only run so long, then it is forgotten by the wider public. Sure they could have continued to publish a comic, but its audience was brought in from tv fandom.
Walking Dead on the other hand has a good following that I do not see dying of when the show starts.
Especially considering they have said that to get to where the book is currently would take 3-4 seasons. As long as the show maintains the level of quality as the book, it will have the potential to reach that point.
I am currently reading Vol. 12 and it is GREAT! but those books don't see huge numbers anyhow.
Another problem I see is that there is really very little coming out that can be called -NEW- most things are updated versions of existing characters. Like Ultimate Thor for example.
It seems that the new books that have potential for price increases without slabbing are things like Chew and Tooth Fairy and Mesmo's Delivery Service among others. And even those you have to look for trends or short term interest.
I am just mad because I want to sell a bunch of books but you cannot get shit for them online.
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Post by defiant1 on Aug 23, 2010 14:53:04 GMT -5
Oh yeah, there are many books resistent to a drop because they are sought after keys. I now have 3 FF48's in various conditions and multiples of pre-issue #101 Uncanny X-MEN books but something like the X-Files to me always had an extremely limited shelf life because it was based on a Television show which will only run so long, then it is forgotten by the wider public. Sure they could have continued to publish a comic, but its audience was brought in from tv fandom. Walking Dead on the other hand has a good following that I do not see dying of when the show starts. Especially considering they have said that to get to where the book is currently would take 3-4 seasons. As long as the show maintains the level of quality as the book, it will have the potential to reach that point. I am currently reading Vol. 12 and it is GREAT! but those books don't see huge numbers anyhow. Another problem I see is that there is really very little coming out that can be called -NEW- most things are updated versions of existing characters. Like Ultimate Thor for example. It seems that the new books that have potential for price increases without slabbing are things like Chew and Tooth Fairy and Mesmo's Delivery Service among others. And even those you have to look for trends or short term interest. I am just mad because I want to sell a bunch of books but you cannot get shit for them online. The reason you can't get anything for them is that is that speculators are still the people driving up the prices on books. Speculators will never go away. The price increases are what attract new readers. If I saw a Walking Dead #1 for $10, I'd buy it in a heartbeat because i know I could flip it for more. It wouldn't be because I want to read it because I don't care anything about reading a comic about zombies. There is a dynamic in this hobby where people create a self-fulfilling prophecy by saying something is great and then subsequently hoarding the books. If everyone that had 3 copies of the key books tried to dump them at once, would the keys maintain their value? A lot wouldn't I had a friend with about 30 copies of Hulk #181 in NM but he sold them off before the CGC prices spiked. He made good money, but only a fraction of what the book sells for now. The hoarding is what keeps the values high on these books. I have another freind that hasn't bought comics in 25 years. He has a Hulk #181. He doesn't care about any of his comics, but he keeps certain ones because he knows that others want it and the price will increase as time goes by. The "value" of most comics is far less that what they sell for in the market. All it would take is a serious calamity in the US bigger than 9/11 to realize it. df1 |
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Post by bigw1966 on Aug 23, 2010 17:46:56 GMT -5
Yeah I don't disagree with any of that.
Well, except for the Walking Dead. Mainly because It actually is not about Zombies.
In fact I just finished the most recent trade and there were 11 pages in the entire book that showed zombies.
But, I am mainly trying to thin my collection down. I want to keep all of my worthwhile books and then just get rid of the rest. So I want to dump about 12,000 books. that will leave me with 4-5000
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