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How To Tell Marvel Graphic Novel printings
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84 posts in this topic

 

As I noted, it seems a bit disingenuous to tout prices of 150 to 500% of the regular prices for $1-$5 books.

 

"I sold this book, and made 500% of what I paid for it!!"

 

"Wow, that's amazing! How much did you buy it for?"

 

"$1! And I sold it for $5!!"

 

hm

 

 

I actually think this is the heart of Sulipa's data, and that there are several conclusions we can draw:

 

1. Sulipa is a dealer located in Canada, and therefore is likely to have higher numbers of Canadian price variants in stock. This may or may not give him an incentive to "pump" these variants, but he will nevertheless have a greater volume of sales data than many other dealers.

 

2. Having said that, Sulipa is not primarily a dealer in high grade or CGC-graded books, so the comparisons of sales of such books may not mirror his experience in the marketplace, which tends to focus on books that are a) low to mid grade and b) not always mainstream in appeal (i.e. they're "oddball" books)

 

Basically, if you're looking for a CGC 9.8 of Tales of the Teen Titans #44, Sulipa is probably not the first place you'd go. But if you're looking for an obscure issue of Yogi Bear or Mod Wheels to fill a hole in a run, he's your man... The nature of that market (in my mind anyway) is that he specializes in books that guide for $2 or $3, and will sell them to you for $10 or $15 - i.e. 150% to 500% of guide or more. A quick browse through his website seems to bear this out.

 

This market structure eventually brings self-reinforcing results. If you want to find Canadian price variants, because, hey, that's your thing, Sulipa is probably the one consistent place you can go to find them. And if that's your thing, you're likely to pay the premiums he's reporting... In turn, this will prompt him to buy or identify more of them, and raise his prices, even though other dealers (with only a small selection or no reputation in this field) will struggle to achieve the same premiums.

 

It's also worth noting that Sulipa's model is not local... he's based in the Winnipeg area, which isn't exactly the centre of the comic collecting world (no offence to the 'Peg). His market is primarily mail order and online, and heavily skewed towards European collectors, and to collectors of genres that don't usually crack the "hot books" mindset of those of us who spend time on "mainstream" sites like the CGC boards.

 

Having said all that, I love reading his thoughts on the market, because he's sometimes a kind of bellwether of future trends... I've scooped up a fair bit of weird stuff like Gold Key Scooby Doos or 75c Canadian price variants of late Whitman issues over the years because of the data he reports, and have done alright.

 

All fair points. :)

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So......the $5.95 version is that at least the same value as the $4.95 or is it considered not a first edition? Reason being I just found one here in the UK....

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