Collections drying up? 4 4

[Sqeggs]

16 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Hey - I'm 44!  Maybe I know that guys dad.

Depending on how active your social life was, you may be his dad. 

[F For Fake]

I am finding less stuff locally, but I'm not sure if it's collections drying up, or the fact that there's much more competition for this stuff, or that sellers are much more informed and are selling the stuff directly via eBay, etc. It's probably all three to a certain extent. I know that when I used to go to flea markets, estate sales and auctions, I'd only be competing with a couple of other guys. Now there's several folks wanting the same stuff, driving the prices up so that there aren't as many deals and steals as there used to be. But I'd echo the sentiment that the boomer collections should really be hitting shortly. I think we'll be awash in collections before you know it.

[october]

12 hours ago, followtheleader said:

Even the shops are ransacked of minor minor key issues.  

I agree with the time frame, it's been bad the last year. 

Toy collecting has been much worse the past 2 years.  

Everyone is now aware that they can quickly become an "expert" on the price of something.  

Patrick

I have also noticed that keys at my local shops are going out the door at an increasingly rapid pace. One store posts recent buys on Instagram shortly before they open in the morning. I called the minute business hours started and the books were all already sold/on hold. This all happened in the course of maybe 30 minutes, and has happened to me twice in the last month. 

Edited June 6, 2017 by october

[Get Marwood & I]

2 hours ago, october said:

8 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

I thought it was about comics pulling their weight in the kitchen. 

I thought it was about comics getting on the wagon.

I thought it was about comics forgetting their lines on stage.

[Robot Man]

56 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

I am finding less stuff locally, but I'm not sure if it's collections drying up, or the fact that there's much more competition for this stuff, or that sellers are much more informed and are selling the stuff directly via eBay, etc. It's probably all three to a certain extent. I know that when I used to go to flea markets, estate sales and auctions, I'd only be competing with a couple of other guys. Now there's several folks wanting the same stuff, driving the prices up so that there aren't as many deals and steals as there used to be. But I'd echo the sentiment that the boomer collections should really be hitting shortly. I think we'll be awash in collections before you know it.

I agree and I live in a large city with lots of estate sales, garage sales and big flea markets every weekend. Used to be me and maybe one or two people looking for comics. Sunday, I was at the flea market and I counted 9 guys either carrying comics or looking at them. Only one guy with anything of significance. He had a few crappy GA, some rough SA and a bunch of newer stuff. No keys. He was doing a brisk business. He always saves me a box to look at first though.  Bought 3 minor old books just because they were the only ones there and I had to have my comic fix. About once a year I find a decent score or a few lower grade keys. Not what it used to be like.

[thehumantorch]

2 hours ago, Fan Boy said:

14 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

They are out there.

In a way ... yes. They would have to be either 2nd or 3rd generation GA collections in smaller sizes. Forget the original owner status - this day was long gone.

Trust me, there's at least 1 OO GA collection left.  My partner Karl went over and looked at a few of the boxes before the owner got tired.  Detective 28 up, Batman 1 up, All Stars, Timelys, it's out there and when it comes to market - assuming the heirs don't toss it - it'll be huge.  The early Detectives were probably VF or better.

[Artboy99]

18 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Trust me, there's at least 1 OO GA collection left.  My partner Karl went over and looked at a few of the boxes before the owner got tired.  Detective 28 up, Batman 1 up, All Stars, Timelys, it's out there and when it comes to market - assuming the heirs don't toss it - it'll be huge.  The early Detectives were probably VF or better.

Shhhh, as per the owner we are not to talk of this in open forum.

[Artboy99]

1 hour ago, october said:

I have also noticed that keys at my local shops are going out the door at an increasingly rapid pace. One store posts recent buys on Instagram shortly before they open in the morning. I called the minute business hours started and the books were all already sold/on hold. This all happened in the course of maybe 30 minutes, and has happened to me twice in the last month. 

The way business is being done is changing. I guarantee once the store posted to an online channel there were customers replying/ responding via that channel and deals were made within moments of the posting. To wait until they opened and call them "old school" was to long. This is something I have been noticing via a few of the LCS here. Books have been sold within a minute of the first posting.

[october]

Just now, Artboy99 said:

The way business is being done is changing. I guarantee once the store posted to an online channel there were customers replying/ responding via that channel and deals were made within moments of the posting. To wait until they opened and call them "old school" was to long. This is something I have been noticing via a few of the LCS here. Books have been sold within a minute of the first posting.

I will give DMing them a shot next time. 

[1Cool]

I also find the amount of $$ available has gone way up over the last couple years.  It use to be you could flash $1,000 in hundreds and most dealers would bend over backwards to get that $1,000.  Now it seems like everyone has a huge bank roll and it takes a huge collection (+$50k) before the number of buyers shrinks considerably. 

[Fan Boy]

2 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

Trust me, there's at least 1 OO GA collection left.  My partner Karl went over and looked at a few of the boxes before the owner got tired.  Detective 28 up, Batman 1 up, All Stars, Timelys, it's out there and when it comes to market - assuming the heirs don't toss it - it'll be huge.  The early Detectives were probably VF or better.

Make that two OO GA collections. Technically,  this gentleman I mentioned? He has some late GA books. I'd say about 80% are SA. He was near the end of GA era when he started to read. Nice Batmans he have.

[the blob]

16 hours ago, atomised said:

wonder if Putin is a GA guy

He collects bondage covers

[1Cool]

1 hour ago, the blob said:

He collects bondage covers

Strange I had him pegged for a red cover collector.

[youmechooz]

i get an average of 4 collections a week.  It has actually increased since last year.  There has been a huge increase in active buyers on craigslist though.

[entalmighty1]

I think the information age has finally caught up with comics.  Like Artboy said, stuff is sold the second it's posted online somewhere.  If you looked at Craigslist 5 years ago in Memphis, you'd see 1 or 2 ads for people buying comics.  Now you see a dozen different people "buying collections."  The word is out.  Flipping comics is easy money, and everybody wants their turn at the wheel.  

In addition to the influx of buyers, flippers, and semi-dealers, now everybody can get instantly educated on fair market value by doing a quick ebay search.  I think it's going to continue to get harder to find those screaming deals where somebody sells 10 long boxes full of SA hero titles for 50 bucks a box.

[buttock]

3 minutes ago, entalmighty1 said:

I think the information age has finally caught up with comics.  Like Artboy said, stuff is sold the second it's posted online somewhere.  If you looked at Craigslist 5 years ago in Memphis, you'd see 1 or 2 ads for people buying comics.  Now you see a dozen different people "buying collections."  The word is out.  Flipping comics is easy money, and everybody wants their turn at the wheel.  

In addition to the influx of buyers, flippers, and semi-dealers, now everybody can get instantly educated on fair market value by doing a quick ebay search.  I think it's going to continue to get harder to find those screaming deals where somebody sells 10 long boxes full of SA hero titles for 50 bucks a box.

In my 20-someodd years collecting I've never seen this many flippers.  People looking to make a buck hustling are like cockroaches.  The number of collectors is much higher than I've ever seen as well, which would mean more homes for books and less turnover.  

[entalmighty1]

Just now, buttock said:

In my 20-someodd years collecting I've never seen this many flippers.  People looking to make a buck hustling are like cockroaches.  The number of collectors is much higher than I've ever seen as well, which would mean more homes for books and less turnover.  

I've met probably 5 new friends over the last year or so involved in comics, and only 1 of them would I call a collector.  The other guys never seem to hold onto anything very long, and they're always after the next deal.  They build their profits into some killer books, but even those fly out the door.  I suspect the acquisition and "opening the box" are what they're really after, which is fine.  To each their own.

[october]

5 minutes ago, buttock said:

In my 20-someodd years collecting I've never seen this many flippers.  People looking to make a buck hustling are like cockroaches.  The number of collectors is much higher than I've ever seen as well, which would mean more homes for books and less turnover.  

The good thing about the Johnny-come -lately quick buck artists is that they will disappear within a few months of a downturn. 

The bad thing about them is that they will take all of their dumb money with them and precipitate an even harder crash, which will undermine collector confidence in stable prices, which causes another price dip, and so on. This will happen until prices reach a trough attractive enough for collectors to re-enter the hobby. Pretty standard market dynamics, especially in a bubble. Too bad the hobby will pay the price. 

[entalmighty1]

19 minutes ago, october said:

The good thing about the Johnny-come -lately quick buck artists is that they will disappear within a few months of a downturn. 

The bad thing about them is that they will take all of their dumb money with them and precipitate an even harder crash, which will undermine collector confidence in stable prices, which causes another price dip, and so on. This will happen until prices reach a trough attractive enough for collectors to re-enter the hobby. Pretty standard market dynamics, especially in a bubble. Too bad the hobby will pay the price. 

Provided it's just the hobby that takes a hit, and not the entire economy, I'll be one of the people doubling down on my collection.

[buttock]

20 minutes ago, october said:

The good thing about the Johnny-come -lately quick buck artists is that they will disappear within a few months of a downturn. 

The bad thing about them is that they will take all of their dumb money with them and precipitate an even harder crash, which will undermine collector confidence in stable prices, which causes another price dip, and so on. This will happen until prices reach a trough attractive enough for collectors to re-enter the hobby. Pretty standard market dynamics, especially in a bubble. Too bad the hobby will pay the price. 

Typically I'd be more concerned about a bubble, but 3rd party certification has changed the market entirely.  You no longer have to worry about being ripped off which has massively expanded the collector base.  Couple that with the huge expansion in exposure/acceptance via TV & movies and I feel that the growth to date is something that may have more substance to it.  I would expect some contraction (AF 15 prices are just dumb), but I don't see a bursting of the bubble.  I could be wrong, but this bubble has a bit more substance to it.