Hey when is Silver Age going to Crash?

[Forbush-Man]

I don't know about anyone else, but I am having very little luck getting any early to mid Silver-Age books unless I'm paying well above average prices.

 

Good luck find any early TOS, TTA, JIM, ST at average prices in 9.0 or better. Oh, and if you do, leave me the scraps.

 

The Silver Age Market crashed today at exactly 7:14 PM, Pacific Coast Time. It was followed by a rally, which restored it to it's previous level.

 

Whew! That was a close one,....!

[sfilosa]

It hasn't crashed yet.

 

I seen a lot of record prices over the past two to three weeks on SA Marvel book ranging from 8.5 to 9.4.

[blowout]

It hasn't crashed yet.

 

I seen a lot of record prices over the past two to three weeks on SA Marvel book ranging from 8.5 to 9.4.

 

Yep, no sign of a slow down yet.

[Bronty]

How many board members born after 1980 are reading the last 2 posts and saying "What the HELL are you guys talking about?"

 

WE WANT,...A SHRUBERY (one that looks nice!) NEAH! NEAH! NEAH!

 

We are the Knights who say Neah!

[Bronty]

'tis a mere flesh wound!

[skybolt]

As long as Hollywood keeps producing superhero movies, the comic book market will not suffer a major crash. There are plenty of comic book fans like myself who have re-entered the market due to the X-Men and Spider-Men movies' success. I don't think we'll be leaving the business anytime soon. I love my GA and SA CGC collection.

[joe_collector]

As long as Hollywood keeps producing superhero movies, the comic book market will not suffer a major crash.

 

I agree totally.

[Aman619]

so weve got a few more years then

whew!

but - - then all bets are off!

 

happy 10K JC!!

[shrunkenhead]

I'm not as convinced about the stability of the Silver Age market. While I don't think spidey comics and the like will "crash," anytime soon, a significant cooling is inevitable. It's just the way of things. And don't count on Hollywood to keep your SA selling; the general public is an entirely fickle animal, and a couple more movies like Catwoman or Batman Forever could turn the public off to superhero flicks for a good long while. Plus, the CGC census for SA is still on the rise, and it's already clear that the high number of SA books out there in high grades vs. the number of GA's is pretty vast. I think eventually more and more collectors will turn their attentions towards those scarcer books. Am I predicting a GA boom? Well, no, not exactly, the books are too durned expensive for that. But the collecting community will, I think, gradually become more enamored with obscure titles from the 30's, 40's, and 50's and slightly less enchanted by Spidey and company. Take stamps, or coins--the rarest books are the most sought after--not the most popular coins, stamps, pieces of currency, etc. So that's my take on SA market. Or, I could be totally delusional.

[skybolt]

I'm shocked that the GA books are not selling for multiples as the SA books. I was extremely surprised that I was able to purchase an unrestored All Winners Comics #2 CGC graded at 8.0 (2nd best graded) for slightly less than the guide price (same thing with an All Select Comics #3 CGC 7.0). I would much rather have this book than to spend the same amount of money on a 9.9 CGC graded ASM # 75. I do think that SA books graded 9.4 and lower will still sell well in years to come, but I have no idea about anything higher than that. For my taste, I'd much rather have a complete collection of 9.2's rather than spend the same amount of money on 3 or 4 - 9.8's. Just my opinion.

[Aman619]

welcome to the boards, This is always a fascinating and heated discussion. Try locating some of the previous thrteads where these ideas and others were brought up, debated, etc. Between th egreat minds on these boards who live and breathe comics, there is a lot of opinion on the inevetability or possibility of a crash on prices.... AND of the entire comics collecting hobby itself.

 

IMO, to answer your comments:

I think those of us who collect are pretty much all of us there will ever be. Im not a believer that Hollywood movies are creating new HG collectors. They HAVE stimulated demand among existing collectors for certain books and titles though. But few new HG-seeking BSDs have come through the doors as yet!!

 

I agree that the run up in Silver will now affect Golden age books that look "cheap", but long term, GA will by and large have less and less demand beyond the big DC and Timely heroes. "out of sight, out of mind" will be the rule.

 

Yes the census will continue to fill up, but the consensus here on the boards is that pre 63 Marvel numbers will at worst double. True 9.4s and 9.6s from then truly are scarce, or rare, or harder to come by, whichever phrase fits your viewpoint best for 5 10 or 15 copies . (okay I made up the doubling part... I mean there will be more copies of everything showing up, but will there be 24 copies of AF15 in 9.4 ? or even ASM5??? I for one dont think so. Whether they will ever sell for double todays price is another question...

[joe_collector]

so weve got a few more years then

whew! but - - then all bets are off!

 

Exactly, and I don't see this current "movie hype" leveraging as a good thing. Everyone knows Hollywood will drive the super-hero genre into the ground, and that it's only a matter of time.

 

And what will the specs do then? Shove their CGC comics in the closet next to the Beanie Babies?

[skybolt]

Plus, how will we ever know whether the same 20 high grade books will keep getting resubmitted for CGC grading. Are there truly 60 Amazing Spider-Man #1's CGC graded at 8.0 and above, or only 40?! For instance, I have an ASM #1 CGC graded at 8.0. However, based on it's slab number it seems that it was one of the very first ones graded. To me it looks like an 8.5 or maybe even a 9.0. CGC says that slabs should be replaced after 7 years. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years I might just remove it from its slab and resubmit it for grading again. Perhaps, a lot of other people will do the same thing if they feel CGC has become a little more lacks in their grading standards. So my advice would be that if you own the only 9.4 CGC graded book for any given title, do not resubmit to CGC (to gain a higher score), since you might be depreciating the value of your own book (since now there will be 2 copies graded at 9.4).

[Aman619]

takes bigger cojones than mine to resubmit a 9.4 hoping for a 9.6!!!

but its been done...

[rjpb]

As long as people collect comics at all, there will be a steady demand for GA, and not just DC and Timely. The Gerber guides, Comic Book Marketplace, and Ebay have all contributed to a renewed interest in GA in the last 15 years, where esoteric titles have increased in value more significantly than better known titles in many cases. Sure, some of the following criteria must apply; cool and oddball covers, cool stories, great art, covers with popular themes, historic importance, general scarcity and the like, and much of the stuff that never sold will continue to languish (Don Winslow of the Navy, anyone), but I would venture to guess that most currently active collectors of GA books, are too young to remeber the era firsthand, and consider current popularity of the characters only marginally when making purchases.

 

Also, the expense of the more popular titles will aid the value of lesser known ones. Can't afford Timelys, collect MLJ or Nedor instead.

[sfilosa]

takes bigger cojones than mine to resubmit a 9.4 hoping for a 9.6!!!

but its been done...

 

 

I know one BSD that resubmits his 9.6's to get a 9.8, and half the time he's right.

 

Regarding the census, if you send in the old label (probably when you resubmit), it gets removed from the census.

 

Also, I'm a proponent of reviewing the census when I purchase books.

 

But the CENSUS and the AVAILABILITY of a book are two different things.

 

If someone submits books, just so they can have them graded (and checked for restoration), then takes the books and puts them in their collection, the CENSUS amount grew but the AVAILABILITY did not.

[shrunkenhead]

As long as people collect comics at all, there will be a steady demand for GA, and not just DC and Timely.

 

 

I totally aqree with ya there, and I agree with the criteria you mention as well. I definitely believe that most serious GA collectors are too young to share an "immediate" connection with the era they're collecting, and, in a way, I think that adds to the appeal of GA books. It's more foreign, a time when the world was weirder and newer, etc etc.

 

And yes, superheroes do sell big-ticket books, but so do books of historical importance, and those books sell to more people than just comic collectors. Stuff like anti-communist comics, Hitler covers, and so forth. I definitely think there's an untapped market there...I mean, surely there are a lot of folks out there who collect commie propaganda who aren't even aware that comics fit into their niche. If they become aware, they'll buy, and that stuff goes for big dollars and appeals to an audience beyond that of the drooling fanboys (that's not as derrogatory as it sounds!)

 

I think the market for pre-code horror will only get bigger too, because bronze horror is coming out of the closet these days and sooner or later the BA horror fans will dig back to the roots of it all, if they haven't started doing that already.

 

Plus, everything old is new again, after a while. Swing dancing came back a few years ago, for god's sake.

 

My interest is GA and I'm 28 years old. I realize that puts me in a minority camp, but who's to say the ranks won't grow?

 

And thank you for the kind welcome to the boards everybody!

[skybolt]

I'm 33 years old and I'm fascinated with GA books. Especially old Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and any comic books with good girl art covers (Kamen-Blue Beetle, Rulah, Sheena, etc.) . Being a bronze and modern age reader all my life, I never knew such books existed. The main reason I mentioned Hollywood movies having an impact is not because of long time fans like myself and the rest of the people on this board, but because of the young kids who will begin to love the DC and Marvel characters and start spending the big money purchasing these old books when they're old enough and have nice paying jobs. Comic book collecting is a continuous cycle that will never end as long as the younger generation is being introduced to the market.

[joe_collector]

The main reason I mentioned Hollywood movies having an impact is not because of long time fans like myself and the rest of the people on this board, but because of the young kids who will begin to love the DC and Marvel characters and start spending the big money purchasing these old books when they're old enough and have nice paying jobs.

 

Please alert your doctor that you need a new prescription.. ASAP!!

[drbanner]

My interest is GA and I'm 28 years old. I realize that puts me in a minority camp, but who's to say the ranks won't grow?

 

Actually, I believe you're in the majority here in the most GA collectors are not 60+ year olds that read the books in their youth, but are in the 25-40 range that "graduated" from silver and bronze (and in some case, just graduated from college and now have the $$ to buy these pieces of Americana) to collect GA. I know there must be a poll around here somewhere about the demographics of the GA collecting base, let's see if I can find it...