Bronze age comics that are heating up on eBay... 38 38

[ThothAmon]

8 hours ago, MGsimba77 said:

Here's hoping early new X-men and IH 181 have enough safeguards against possible headwinds be it economic or comic market turmoil 😓

C’mon man, you know that’s wishful thinking. A rising tide lifts all boats and the inverse is certainly true also. 

[Hamlet]

9 hours ago, Broke as a Joke said:

I'm really thinking of cashing out on my bronze keys right now.  Eternals 1 being a $1000+ book is so absurd that it's practically a no brainer.

Yeah, I keep wondering who the end buyer for a lot of this stuff is.  So much of it appears to be flippers selling to other flippers.  

 

[kimik]

56 minutes ago, Hamlet said:

Yeah, I keep wondering who the end buyer for a lot of this stuff is.  So much of it appears to be flippers selling to other flippers.  

 

Some of it is, but you would be surprised at how many young/new collectors there are that just have to have the latest hot key/hot modern #1/hot variant and are willing to pay for it. This spring you could not keep a copy of Naomi #1 on the table for more than 10 minutes at $100, or some of the latest 1:50 and 1:100 ratio variants at $50-$200 apiece. These collectors buy them, put them away, and do not think of them again. They just need to have the book.

[the blob]

Where is the money coming from? 

[ygogolak]

23 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

Its ironic and just plain arrogant to think with all these websites available for information that any app 
is worth paying for.

Its like that website a few years ago that wanted people to pay him to tell them what comics to buy.
I cant remember the name now I will look it up later.

The latest push is for Gocollect.com now. I mean I get it if you don't want to do the work then its a 
cheap alternative. But honestly between all the speculation web sites, facebook and ebay ended sales
its really not that hard to keep up with books moving.

Trickle in a few websites like Hollywood reporter, Comicalliance, CBR, Yahoo, Some YouTube shows and its all free.
Nobody has it right all the time, but it gives you a round look at the industry in general.

Nobody can keep a secret anymore.

 

It's not the fact that you can't get MOST of the information for free. It's the fact that it aggregates it and sends you an alert as soon as it's known to them. I guess you could keep visiting the 10 sites you listed all day long and refresh constantly. I'll gladly kick in $2 to have someone do that for me as my time is worth more than that. Other not so much I guess.

[kimik]

5 hours ago, the blob said:

Where is the money coming from? 

Their work, or their parents (for the teenagers). There are a ton of single collectors in their 20s and 30s with decent incomes and minimal expenses. That means plenty of disposable cash to toss at funny books.

[the blob]

1 hour ago, kimik said:

Their work, or their parents (for the teenagers). There are a ton of single collectors in their 20s and 30s with decent incomes and minimal expenses. That means plenty of disposable cash to toss at funny books.

To have a "decent" enough income for all these $1-5K books you need to be making like $250-300K a year. Did these folks all show up recently? When I was making that kind of money (adjusted for inflation 20 years ago) a $1K book was a huuuge purchase. Hindsight being 20/20 in 2000 I should have plopped down $20K on as many slabbed AF 15s as I could buy with it.

I understand the money is there. I just don't get $1,000 for an eternals 1 or $90K for the Blade book. I can understanding scraping together $5K for an AF 15 or something. That's a centerpiece.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by the blob

[BrooksR]

On 9/1/2019 at 10:37 PM, kimik said:

Which is why now is the time to be chasing Copper keys...... 

Is there a list of major copper keys? That’s the time I grew up collecting and I can’t think of many...TMNT, maybe Venom and Deadpool?

[Hamlet]

57 minutes ago, the blob said:

To have a "decent" enough income for all these $1-5K books you need to be making like $250-300K a year. Did these folks all show up recently? When I was making that kind of money (adjusted for inflation 20 years ago) a $1K book was a huuuge purchase. Hindsight being 20/20 in 2000 I should have plopped down $20K on as many slabbed AF 15s as I could buy with it.

I understand the money is there. I just don't get $1,000 for an eternals 1 or $90K for the Blade book. I can understanding scraping together $5K for an AF 15 or something. That's a centerpiece.

 

 

You and I might need to be making that kind of money to be comfortable buying books at those price points.  Many people appear to be willing to spend a much greater percentage of their income on comics than we are though.

There are also a lot of people that buy the very occasional expensive book, but don’t do it often enough to impact their finances that much.  Back when I was actively collecting, I budgeted about $250/month or $3000/year.  If I bought above my budget, I would dial back the comic spending until my planned budget caught up.  It wasn’t huge money for my income, but it added up over the years.  

Prices got high enough a couple years ago that I mostly stopped buying.  Now they are high enough that I’m starting to sell books.  The selling activity actually has generated a little collecting interest in me again.  So I will be buying some books here and there that I still think are rationally priced, but I’m going to be a net seller unless something big changes in the market.

[fastballspecial]

19 hours ago, Broke as a Joke said:

I'm really thinking of cashing out on my bronze keys right now.  Eternals 1 being a $1000+ book is so absurd that it's practically a no brainer.

I agree wait until I finish cleaning mine out. 

[fastballspecial]

10 hours ago, Roger66 said:

11 hours ago, Jaydee said:

I always enjoy your posts.  and NO one can keep a secret even some of us that do not like to feed the bears (or Spec buyers) .  Even on my Shows we started out as no Speculation talk but that is also what the viewers wanted.  So we started doing Alternative or Undervalued keys that tie in to Mega Keys or Higher end keys.  For Example Avengers 47 and 48 may be High for some but a Bronze age book that has Origin is MSH 17 a Nice Book not for the Black Knight but the Golden age Reprints IMHO but it is heating up.  

 

On 9/2/2019 at 11:58 AM, fastballspecial said:

Its ironic and just plain arrogant to think with all these websites available for information that any app 
is worth paying for.

Its like that website a few years ago that wanted people to pay him to tell them what comics to buy.
I cant remember the name now I will look it up later.

The latest push is for Gocollect.com now. I mean I get it if you don't want to do the work then its a 
cheap alternative. But honestly between all the speculation web sites, facebook and ebay ended sales
its really not that hard to keep up with books moving.

Trickle in a few websites like Hollywood reporter, Comicalliance, CBR, Yahoo, Some YouTube shows and its all free.
Nobody has it right all the time, but it gives you a round look at the industry in general.

Nobody can keep a secret anymore.

 

I have found if you buy comics out of love with a manageable budget (with no buying on credit) and only look at these “speculative talk shows” as simply entertainment or a casual reinforcer of your innate-intuitive feelings on keys etc than you cannot really go wrong in this hobby.    If, however, you are into this hobby purely to make money and need someone else to point a finger as to where to buy/invest than you are possibly always going to be behind the 8-ball, chasing your own tail and finding yourself vexed more often then not.  There is a lot of market manipulation (or so I believe) and there are no ‘secrets’ unless you buy into them.  Be wary and have fun......  my 2 cents.  

Yes no one talks about their loses. Set a budget and stick to it. I pass up books all the time because they have exceeded my buying threshold.

 

[TrayKnight]

11 hours ago, Roger66 said:

 

I have found if you buy comics out of love with a manageable budget (with no buying on credit) and only look at these “speculative talk shows” as simply entertainment or a casual reinforcer of your innate-intuitive feelings on keys etc than you cannot really go wrong in this hobby.    If, however, you are into this hobby purely to make money and need someone else to point a finger as to where to buy/invest than you are possibly always going to be behind the 8-ball, chasing your own tail and finding yourself vexed more often then not.  There is a lot of market manipulation (or so I believe) and there are no ‘secrets’ unless you buy into them.  Be wary and have fun......  my 2 cents.  

Well said brother.....totally agree.

[Roger66]

1 hour ago, fastballspecial said:

Yes no one talks about their loses. Set a budget and stick to it. I pass up books all the time because they have exceeded my buying threshold.

 

Further proof of how addictive if not crack-like comics are to collectors is the rampant ‘buying on credit / payment plans’ by many an over-zealous hobbyist.  This growing pool of crazed and sometimes defaulting buyers are unfortunately a portion of the catalyst of any eventual bubble in this hobby. IMO 

[kimik]

3 hours ago, Hamlet said:

5 hours ago, the blob said:

To have a "decent" enough income for all these $1-5K books you need to be making like $250-300K a year. Did these folks all show up recently? When I was making that kind of money (adjusted for inflation 20 years ago) a $1K book was a huuuge purchase. Hindsight being 20/20 in 2000 I should have plopped down $20K on as many slabbed AF 15s as I could buy with it.

I understand the money is there. I just don't get $1,000 for an eternals 1 or $90K for the Blade book. I can understanding scraping together $5K for an AF 15 or something. That's a centerpiece.

 

 

You and I might need to be making that kind of money to be comfortable buying books at those price points.  Many people appear to be willing to spend a much greater percentage of their income on comics than we are though.

There are also a lot of people that buy the very occasional expensive book, but don’t do it often enough to impact their finances that much.  Back when I was actively collecting, I budgeted about $250/month or $3000/year.  If I bought above my budget, I would dial back the comic spending until my planned budget caught up.  It wasn’t huge money for my income, but it added up over the years.  

Prices got high enough a couple years ago that I mostly stopped buying.  Now they are high enough that I’m starting to sell books.  The selling activity actually has generated a little collecting interest in me again.  So I will be buying some books here and there that I still think are rationally priced, but I’m going to be a net seller unless something big changes in the market.

These people are making $60-$120K in Edmonton/area where the cost of living is still low. Some are definitely buying raw to press and flip, but others just buy at the two big Expos and save up for them. We have a number of regulars that pull out envelopes of $100s when paying at the shows. They put aside a few hundred per month for feeding their collecting habit and just buy what they want at one or two shows per year. I had one count out $10K in $100s once when mulling over a big buy, but then he backed out and only spent $2K since he wanted to make sure he had enough for the next show.  

The variant collectors are a bit more interesting. They have to have the latest hot variant and pay full market without hesitation. Some acknowledge that they are buying high, but mention that they would rather have a copy for their collection right away than wait a few months to see if the books drop in value or not. 

[Broke as a Joke]

A person in their 20's or 30's buying an Eternals 1 for over $1000 has no real emotional attachment to the book or characters.  It is all movie fueled speculation that drives them to pay these prices which when the bottom falls out they will be stuck with a book that will be hard to get rid of for even half of the current asking price.  

Not the best torch bearers for the future of the hobby.

[shadroch]

13 hours ago, ygogolak said:

It's not the fact that you can't get MOST of the information for free. It's the fact that it aggregates it and sends you an alert as soon as it's known to them. I guess you could keep visiting the 10 sites you listed all day long and refresh constantly. I'll gladly kick in $2 to have someone do that for me as my time is worth more than that. Other not so much I guess.

Seriously.  I can check a dozen sites, then check sold items on eBay or.I can pay someone $2 a month to do that and alert me when something pops. I realize some might be able to do that while playing multiple poker hands and tracking two dozen auctions  but if it does what it seems to, it's a bargain.

[FlyingDonut]

7 hours ago, shadroch said:

Seriously.  I can check a dozen sites, then check sold items on eBay or.I can pay someone $2 a month to do that and alert me when something pops. I realize some might be able to do that while playing multiple poker hands and tracking two dozen auctions  but if it does what it seems to, it's a bargain.

Absolutely. If I can pay someone $2 per month to do the work for me, thank you very much.

[ygogolak]

7 hours ago, shadroch said:

Seriously.  I can check a dozen sites, then check sold items on eBay or.I can pay someone $2 a month to do that and alert me when something pops. I realize some might be able to do that while playing multiple poker hands and tracking two dozen auctions  but if it does what it seems to, it's a bargain.

24 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

Absolutely. If I can pay someone $2 per month to do the work for me, thank you very much.

Right? I guess some people put not value on their time, and $2 at that.

 

[faster friends]

[divad]

Oy!