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Moderns that are heating up on ebay!
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Started by thirdgreenham,

63,755 posts in this topic

spreads

spreads

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, BAT MAN said:

Thanks for the clarification on that time frame of when the price lows hit. Continual sleep deprivation on my end tends to skew my concept of time periods.  And it's hard to believe we are talking about now, what 15 something years from the days of when the Harb1 9.8 census was a handful or less with none on the horizon? 

Did you by chance pick anything up during the lows?  And do you recall how long that period lasted? I do distinctly recall upon the big news acquisition there being a rapid uptick (2015ish?) It's also amazing that present day Harb1 9.8 population is nearly 3X Solar 10 9.8 but given what a tough cover the Solar is, more so than Harb, perhaps not. 

On the flip side, if one is patient and can wait for bidding style auctions you can get a ton of value in terms of what it could cost for 9.6 slabs and if bidding is on the light side. I have watched pre-unity 9.6 slab auctions where the ending price was the nearly same as the shipping cost. 

I had to check GPA, it was in 2014, right before the launch which is what I thought it was....there was a thread with many participants watching and commenting on the prices of Harbinger 1.  If you go to the VF boards it's pretty enjoyable to read over now and see people's insight.

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divad

divad

Posted
Posted (edited)
13 hours ago, valiantman said:

It's hard to believe that both Harbinger #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #300 would have suddenly been so easy to find in CGC 9.8 compared to prior years -AND- the fact that CGC leadership changed at the exact same time that the CGC 9.8 percentages shot up.

The obvious answer is that either CGC was grading Harbinger #1 and ASM #300 too harshly and they corrected the problem, or they were grading them accurately and loosened up the standards.

Great chart! But . . . the obvious answer may not be the correct one. :hi: Most of us wouldn't dream of submitting a Harby 1 unless it was a slam-dunk 9.8, and ASM 300 is all over the map. And neither book was a true high-dollar book until 2009 or later.

 

So many variables . . . :sumo: But statistics are our friend. :grin:

 

Edited by divad
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kimik

kimik

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, valiantman said:
17 hours ago, Nico Esq said:

In today's world, I am confident that you are correct.  Every couple weeks or so I think about picking up some high grade original Solar & Magnus books just because they are so cheap.  I know they have licensing issues, but don't remember what I read is exactly going on with them.  I think unfortunately there are two groups of people when it comes to Valiant comics: (a) the people who passed on Hulk 181s to buy high grade Valiant keys in the 90s, sold those books for pennies on the dollar and hate Valiant comics as a result; and (b) the people who passed on Hulk 181s to buy Valiant keys in the 90s and still have those books and are waiting to get top dollar for them.  I am afraid that there are very few people like yourself that have a reasonable view of the books.  I've got a buddy Brandon who I think is an undercover Valiant homer who is sharp about Valiant comics too.  I still have a soft spot for that original Harbinger run I read when I was 12-14 years old, but a lot of there best titles like Archer and Armstrong are still associated with people's trauma from the 90's crash.  It will be interesting to see if they can overcome that as a publisher.  

I think there's a third set of people... let's call them group (c)... the people who never got the best Valiant books like Harbinger #1 back-in-the-day, always wanted the good pre-Unity books but settled for lesser books like Harbinger #10 or Shadowman #8 with the hopes that they would follow the pre-Unity books to the stratosphere.  When those books didn't rise, after the market crashed, group (c) people were relieved that they didn't lose a lot of money on Valiant but secretly still wished they had Harbinger #1 and the other big books in their collections.

What separates the group (c) collectors (since the crash) is when they returned to the back issue market, if they ever did.  I was group (c) but I came back in 1997 on Ebay.  Others came back around 2007, others around 2017... many others aren't back yet, may never be. Prior to 2007, it was basically impossible to get a CGC 9.8 Harbinger #1 (see the chart above), so there were a few that sold for very high prices before the CGC census exploded with (most likely) "lesser 9.8s" across the board (Harbinger #1, ASM #300, etc.).

Buying Valiants from 1998 - 2002 was easy money. I can remember cleaning LCSs out of their remaining pre-unity/VVSS/Gold/Red/Blue/Platinum/etc. back stock at $0.10 to $1 per book. Those were the days...... lol 

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Nico Esq

Nico Esq

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, kimik said:

Buying Valiants from 1998 - 2002 was easy money. I can remember cleaning LCSs out of their remaining pre-unity/VVSS/Gold/Red/Blue/Platinum/etc. back stock at $0.10 to $1 per book. Those were the days...... lol 

I often wonder what I am not buying today that is considered today's trash that is tomorrow's treasure.  A lot of my problem is a refusal to not move product out the door too.  I rarely have the patience to sit on books and sell them at or near a peak with the kind of discipline that I should.  I think some of that is my fear of becoming a hoarder and some of it is my short attention span. lol

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Aweandlorder

Aweandlorder

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Nico Esq said:

I often wonder what I am not buying today that is considered today's trash that is tomorrow's treasure.  A lot of my problem is a refusal to not move product out the door too.  I rarely have the patience to sit on books and sell them at or near a peak with the kind of discipline that I should.  I think some of that is my fear of becoming a hoarder and some of it is my short attention span. lol

A lot of people would say that you're the smart one (as long as u move inventory at a gain). I know that many dealers/hobbyists prefer to "sell current keys and move the junk" and they're doing quite well for themselves truthfully. It all comes down to crunching the numbers and seeing exactly how much drek has turned to gold in previous years, to see if it justifies holding on to it. I hold on to everything now. Period. 

God knows I came across boxes and boxes of cheap drek that turned to easy 5-10$ books throuought the years. 

I wont amass more drek, but organize my current inventory so it will be readily available when cheap books become a hit

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valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, kimik said:
23 hours ago, valiantman said:
On 3/5/2019 at 7:59 AM, Nico Esq said:

In today's world, I am confident that you are correct.  Every couple weeks or so I think about picking up some high grade original Solar & Magnus books just because they are so cheap.  I know they have licensing issues, but don't remember what I read is exactly going on with them.  I think unfortunately there are two groups of people when it comes to Valiant comics: (a) the people who passed on Hulk 181s to buy high grade Valiant keys in the 90s, sold those books for pennies on the dollar and hate Valiant comics as a result; and (b) the people who passed on Hulk 181s to buy Valiant keys in the 90s and still have those books and are waiting to get top dollar for them.  I am afraid that there are very few people like yourself that have a reasonable view of the books.  I've got a buddy Brandon who I think is an undercover Valiant homer who is sharp about Valiant comics too.  I still have a soft spot for that original Harbinger run I read when I was 12-14 years old, but a lot of there best titles like Archer and Armstrong are still associated with people's trauma from the 90's crash.  It will be interesting to see if they can overcome that as a publisher.  

I think there's a third set of people... let's call them group (c)... the people who never got the best Valiant books like Harbinger #1 back-in-the-day, always wanted the good pre-Unity books but settled for lesser books like Harbinger #10 or Shadowman #8 with the hopes that they would follow the pre-Unity books to the stratosphere.  When those books didn't rise, after the market crashed, group (c) people were relieved that they didn't lose a lot of money on Valiant but secretly still wished they had Harbinger #1 and the other big books in their collections.

What separates the group (c) collectors (since the crash) is when they returned to the back issue market, if they ever did.  I was group (c) but I came back in 1997 on Ebay.  Others came back around 2007, others around 2017... many others aren't back yet, may never be. Prior to 2007, it was basically impossible to get a CGC 9.8 Harbinger #1 (see the chart above), so there were a few that sold for very high prices before the CGC census exploded with (most likely) "lesser 9.8s" across the board (Harbinger #1, ASM #300, etc.).

Buying Valiants from 1998 - 2002 was easy money. I can remember cleaning LCSs out of their remaining pre-unity/VVSS/Gold/Red/Blue/Platinum/etc. back stock at $0.10 to $1 per book. Those were the days...... lol 

I think some of my earliest posts on this board (2002) were pointing out that exact situation, since I can't get to every shop in the world... I was trying to pass along the info.  Good Valiant - go get it, Bad Valiant - leave it in the bargain bins.

Joe_Collector pretty much tried to run me off the boards for that kind of heresy. According to him, it was all Bad Valiant, there was no Good Valiant, and I needed to leave the boards completely. :boo:

(My laughter was hard to contain even then... much more so now.) lol

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valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, divad said:
23 hours ago, valiantman said:

It's hard to believe that both Harbinger #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #300 would have suddenly been so easy to find in CGC 9.8 compared to prior years -AND- the fact that CGC leadership changed at the exact same time that the CGC 9.8 percentages shot up.

The obvious answer is that either CGC was grading Harbinger #1 and ASM #300 too harshly and they corrected the problem, or they were grading them accurately and loosened up the standards.

Great chart! But . . . the obvious answer may not be the correct one. :hi: Most of us wouldn't dream of submitting a Harby 1 unless it was a slam-dunk 9.8, and ASM 300 is all over the map. And neither book was a true high-dollar book until 2009 or later.

 

So many variables . . . :sumo: But statistics are our friend. :grin:

The counts are far too high and the differences far too great for it to simply be a "people got smarter with submissions" answer.  That didn't happen overnight. It hasn't really happened completely over a decade. Those are gradual shifts.  Charts meander, as those did for about 8 years. Then, suddenly, major upheaval.  Steve Borock left at the same time.  That's just coincidence because it was actually submitters all getting smart at the same time, right? lol

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spreads

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Posted
Posted
On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 10:54 AM, valiantman said:

I think there's a third set of people... let's call them group (c)... the people who never got the best Valiant books like Harbinger #1 back-in-the-day, always wanted the good pre-Unity books but settled for lesser books like Harbinger #10 or Shadowman #8 with the hopes that they would follow the pre-Unity books to the stratosphere.  When those books didn't rise, after the market crashed, group (c) people were relieved that they didn't lose a lot of money on Valiant but secretly still wished they had Harbinger #1 and the other big books in their collections.

What separates the group (c) collectors (since the crash) is when they returned to the back issue market, if they ever did.  I was group (c) but I came back in 1997 on Ebay.  Others came back around 2007, others around 2017... many others aren't back yet, may never be. Prior to 2007, it was basically impossible to get a CGC 9.8 Harbinger #1 (see the chart above), so there were a few that sold for very high prices before the CGC census exploded with (most likely) "lesser 9.8s" across the board (Harbinger #1, ASM #300, etc.).

I'm in group C, this demographic is a lot larger than what most people who are not in groups a-c don't realize.  There is a small group of people that are new to Valiant after VE1 launched that have gone after VH1 books.  It is nice to have a small and relatively affordable set that can be completed...

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Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, kimik said:

Buying Valiants from 1998 - 2002 was easy money. I can remember cleaning LCSs out of their remaining pre-unity/VVSS/Gold/Red/Blue/Platinum/etc. back stock at $0.10 to $1 per book. Those were the days...... lol 

Even well into the 2000s....I flushed an absolute gem of an Armorines #4 from a LCS back issue bin many years after it came out - just sitting there ignored.  Around that time I grabbed a sharp Mag/Pred TPB for $5 at a show and the guys selling it were so happy they acted like I was doing them the favor!  Many books like that went ignored for so long....

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spidermanbeyond

spidermanbeyond

Posted
Posted (edited)

Immortal Hulk is HOT!  I just sold a copy of Avengers #684 CGC 9.8 1st Immortal Hulk for $300, a record high.  Crazy high for a modern book.  Timing is everything.  Price on this book was $150 in CGC 9.8 a few weeks ago.  Can't see the book stay at this high as tons of sellers will be sending their copies to CGC.  Love CGC.  Turned a $4.99 comic to $300.

Edited by spidermanbeyond
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spreads

spreads

Posted
Posted (edited)
19 hours ago, BishopT said:

^I saw a Magnus/Predator TPB at 2nd and Charles the other day and didn't know it was rare/valuable. Just went back and picked it up, thanks for the tip.

You should have bought it for the cover alone!

EDIT: the prices have dipped on this recently, but it's still a solid book and quite rare.

Edited by spreads
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johnenock

johnenock

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, spidermanbeyond said:

Immortal Hulk is HOT!  I just sold a copy of Avengers #684 CGC 9.8 1st Immortal Hulk for $300, a record high.  Crazy high for a modern book.  Timing is everything.  Price on this book was $150 in CGC 9.8 a few weeks ago.  Can't see the book stay at this high as tons of sellers will be sending their copies to CGC.  Love CGC.  Turned a $4.99 comic to $300.

hm I just sent 3 to Sarasota. Please stay hot:wishluck: for a week or two.

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