FineCollector

I'm in no hurry to see the day-traders and profiteers make a mess of DC prices like they've done with Marvel. The Eternals movie is probably going to be the first of the Marvel stinkers that sets the ball rolling back downhill.

I'm not sure it's crypto profits as much as market manipulation a la Game Stop stocks. Imagine, you buy a book off eBay at a stupid price, and everyone just agrees that's the price from now on? Couple that with new collectors who hear the muppets on Youtube pushing them to buy at any price, and you have a runaway train that's destined to crash. There's plenty to buy that hasnt spiked. I'm a run collector, so I just move to other titles and plug away. I wont own the Marvel mega keys, but finishing runs of non keys has never been easier, when the online flippers desperately liquidate an

Spider-Man has the most keys, but few with any real significance outside of the Spider-Man title. What effect did Chameleon, Vulture, Dr Octopus, Electro, Mysterio, or Shocker have in the rest of the Marvel Universe? Absolutely none. Fantastic Four is the title from which the Marvel Universe was built.

The way I see it, there are three kinds of buyers at work in the market: - day traders who dont care what they're buying as long as they can flip to someone else for more than what they paid. They're the ones setting new highs, flipping back and forth with each other. - old guys, who mostly have what they want already. They are largely unaffected by the mob, because they're not chasing trends. - the young collector, who was told by some of the old guys "buy what you like, but you really want to buy keys." They're buying books they cant afford and are afraid to touch. They're

I could use a list if you have one.

I think the run ups in price are from people who have no interest or attachment in the books themselves. Collectors don't want to set new highs, they want bargains. I think prices are being driven up by speculators selling to other speculators, as long as they think someone else will pay a little more than they did. It's like day trading stocks, except the market is far easier to manipulate. I'm already tired of this... bring on the crash.

I don't do "keys." If I don't like the title enough to attempt the run, I don't need the single book. The phrase "quality over quantity" makes flame shoot from my eyes. A complete run to me is one of each standard, original cover. I don't care if it's newsstand or direct, Jeweler insert or not, it's all the same, because I'm not selling it. Canadian versions are fine for the 80s, but Canadian prints of GA books have terrible color and are often missing a story, so I avoid those. I can have pence copies, 2nd prints, or variants in addition to the original US cover, but they can't be m

I'll be watching. Let's have none of this "not shipping outside the US due to COVID" nonsense I'm seeing in other sales lately!

The books don't bother me, it's how young collectors want every "key" indiscriminately. As soon as something's announced, there's no longer a question if there will be enough demand to drive up the price of a book, only how much it will go up by. It doesn't matter how insignificant the character, the people buying it have no sense of context.

Bonkers is I start typing "Avengers" in Google, and 186 is the first option. I'm so sick of people flowing from hot book to hot book like locusts.

Those aren't socks... it's natural protection from the cold. Same for the "sweater."

A week or two ago, I was checking eBay for a different Canadian variant, JIM Annual 1, and the blank copy was selling at a premium over the more plentiful US copies. I get the sense that since 80s Canadian price variants like ASM 238 or Thor 337 sell for more, buyers feel justified in paying more for other Canadian variants.

It depends on your means of selling them. Do you want someone to come haul them away? Are you going to advertise a yard sale? Do you want to get a table at a con? Do you want to sell on eBay? Do you want to start an online store, or sell on Facebook? Prices realized will be different in all of those scenarios.

Frankly, if you collected them because they're worth money, then the end goal was always to liquidate, and profit from their sale. I wouldn't expect a lot of sentimentality for random books that were purchased because the price tag was impressive. The person with a more emotional attachment to their collection wouldn't feel that same sense of relief.

UPS enjoys sending you a $50 brokerage invoice a month after your package gets there. It's not fun.