Are price guides all that different?

[Spidey 62]

I know that OSPG is the go to guide, but short of lugging one around at work, isn't there a reasonable online alternative? I have used comic price guide .com, and it seems up to date but I don't know how it compares book price wise to Overstreet. Any suggestions?

[jaybuck43]

Buy the PDF version of OSPG? and of course if you are buying slabs, GPA.

[Brock]

I use both... OSPG has so much information in it, it's like an encyclopedia... Not so great for lugging Around, though.

 

CPG is also good, especially since it has photos of almost every book, and thousands of listings that aren't in OSPG, including many international issues/editions.

 

Personally, I think that following Overstreet every year (especially the market reports) can really build a sense of overall momentum, direction and heat, even when individual prices can be out of whack.

 

CPG and other online guides are often better at catching quick jumps and hot books, but lack the depth to create that larger sense of the overall market.

[GM8]

The best price guide is ebay completed listings. Tailor your search using "-" right before words you don't want (ie. -poster).

[Brock]

The best price guide is ebay completed listings. Tailor your search using "-" right before words you don't want (ie. -poster).

 

I disagree... It's certainly a useful tool, but where a price guide assigns values by grades, eBay is a constant and ever-variable contest between a seller's CLAIMED grades, and a buyer's PERCEIVED grades. As a result, eBay-based sales represent GUESSES at a book's value based on incomplete information. It's also awash with inaccurate and (sometimes deliberately) misleading information.

 

Even where grades are assigned to books (as with CGC books), a tool like GPA doesn't base reporting on eBay, but rather on eBay and a wide range of other sources.

 

I say all this as someone who uses eBay regularly, and watches completed listings closely. However, I feel that using this information on its own is questionable.

 

 

 

[GM8]

The best price guide is ebay completed listings. Tailor your search using "-" right before words you don't want (ie. -poster).

 

I disagree... It's certainly a useful tool, but where a price guide assigns values by grades, eBay is a constant and ever-variable contest between a seller's CLAIMED grades, and a buyer's PERCEIVED grades. As a result, eBay-based sales represent GUESSES at a book's value based on incomplete information. It's also awash with inaccurate and (sometimes deliberately) misleading information.

 

Even where grades are assigned to books (as with CGC books), a tool like GPA doesn't base reporting on eBay, but rather on eBay and a wide range of other sources.

 

I say all this as someone who uses eBay regularly, and watches completed listings closely. However, I feel that using this information on its own is questionable.

 

 

 

With respect to GPA, they only include CGC graded books and without going into the weeds on this one...today that is insufficient. They don't really indicate how much of their information comes from ebay but let's be real - it's the majority. The other auction sites that make public their information do a fraction of the volume that ebay does. Everyone already has free access to recent ebay sales of all comics, graded and ungraded. GPA to me would be useful for the historical information mainly. If you were pricing multiple books daily it would be a nice reference tool to save time.

 

Other price guides are guesses also of course and you have no idea what they're really based on. But you can wager they probably use ebay for the majority of their values. Perhaps you can use their "sifting" through to their advantage. But one would want to double check their prices on, where else, ebay.

 

I would agree that for the average person who maybe checks the prices of grandpas comics they found in the attic, finding a price guide that they trust based on their own verification is the best option. To collectors who can analyze and interpret data at a higher level, there is no substitute for ebay sold listings.

[tv horror]

Also the printed grade book is out of date before it hits the stores. In the past they used to say that the prices were based on catalogues online selling and well know dealers, I would imagine that news concerning TV or Movie related characters also knocks the grading out of whack. Much as we don't like Ebay it is a truer market value, as so many dealers have their accounts linked to their other online selling venues.

[theThreat]

Why Ebay?

 

Why does Amazon get no love?

 

Ebay shouldn't be the de facto "guide" because Ebay is dead for reasons that have nothing to do with the overall comic market. Sales are generally terrible on Ebay right now.

 

You can do better with Amazon.

 

I have sold a dozen books off of Amazon and the only way I ever sold a TPB for more than scraps was off of Amazon.

 

I have seen times when a VG copy of a key on Amazon was listed at a higher price than a NM copy of a key on Ebay...list a NM copy of a key at the cheapest price and it usually sells fast.