Incredible Hulk #181 - is it *that* red-hot? 17 17

[MGsimba77]

Sorry if this was already posted but a 9.4 off white sold a couple weeks ago for 7900 on a best offer. I don't think it's a record high but its up there. I won't link the listing directly from eBay since they redirect people now. 

Here's the flipper tool link that shows actual best offer prices. If you click the item title on top it might actually take you to the sold eBay listing.  http://www.flippertools.com/tools/ebayOfferHistory/ebay-best-offer-actual-price.htm?itemId=142865539555

Edited July 31, 2018 by MGsimba77

[Bomber-Bob]

Just a comment on selling a book with intent to upgrade. From experience, I have learned to have the upgrade purchased and in hand before moving the undercopy. The same should be said for a downgrade (yes, sometimes I downgrade), have the new book in hand before selling. Both scenarios are especially true when the book is hot. Failure to heed my advice will cost you !

[rogue14]

3 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Just a comment on selling a book with intent to upgrade. From experience, I have learned to have the upgrade purchased and in hand before moving the undercopy. The same should be said for a downgrade (yes, sometimes I downgrade), have the new book in hand before selling. Both scenarios are especially true when the book is hot. Failure to heed my advice will cost you !

I don’t understand. I’m a bit slow at times. Can you further explain?

[Bomber-Bob]

1 minute ago, rogue14 said:

I don’t understand. I’m a bit slow at times. Can you further explain?

Say, if you want to upgrade from a 9.0 to a 9.6. Most will sell their 9.0 to have money to go after a 9.6 . I'm saying do not sell the 9.0 until after a 9.6 is purchased. You never want to be without a copy, especially on hot books.

[rogue14]

4 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

Say, if you want to upgrade from a 9.0 to a 9.6. Most will sell their 9.0 to have money to go after a 9.6 . I'm saying do not sell the 9.0 until after a 9.6 is purchased. You never want to be without a copy, especially on hot books.

Got it. That makes absolute sense. Thanks!

[cortown71]

I did that last year with FF1 should of kept the 1.0 under copy.

[jason4]

Only problem is a lot of collectors like myself don’t have the money to do that (buy the upgrade before selling the old copy). 

So what I did to get from 5.0 to 7.0 was find a buy it now for a good price for the 7.0. Saved up a little less than half the money based on recent sales , sell my copy quickly with 5 day auction, and buy right away with the money. A bit risky but it paid off for me every time with this method.

[Callaway29]

Note: This methodology only applies to a bull market. If the book is declining and you want to upgrade, it would be more advantageous to sell first (realizing a higher price for your book) and buying later (possibly acquiring your upgrade at a lower price). But it goes without saying, the current climate is def. bull. 

[Lundon44]

This strategy is ideal, but as someone else mentioned.. if you don't have a money tree growing in the back yard buying a $10k or more book BEFORE selling the old copy is literally not an option. My big loss was soley due to the poor timing of my decision to upgrade. Had I done it a few weeks later I would have been happy. Or if I had done it a year earlier I would have been happy too. Same goes for selling a stock too soon then it rockets the next week. Sometimes things like that unfortunately happen! 

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

a 6.5 just sold for over $3,000

I'm thinking that the ratio of people with $3,000 that just want a copy are taking anything that they can get.....

In other words people have that amount of $$ and are "seeing" the price "rise" and think "Oh, it will rise faster than I can save for a copy" and they make a purchase for the "going rate"....

IDK! but how else does anyone explain this  

[valiantman]

2 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

a 6.5 just sold for over $3,000

I'm thinking that the ratio of people with $3,000 that just want a copy are taking anything that they can get.....

In other words people have that amount of $$ and are "seeing" the price "rise" and think "Oh, it will rise faster than I can save for a copy" and they make a purchase for the "going rate"....

IDK! but how else does anyone explain this  

I think it was a discussion a couple years ago, @G.A.tor had a "price per CGC point" method for books like Hulk #181 that was good up to about CGC 7.0, then the price goes higher.  I think it was something like Hulk #181 was about $200 per CGC point, so a CGC 2.0 was $400 and a CGC 6.5 was $1,300.  When you look at books that don't feature the first full appearance of the 2nd or 3rd biggest Marvel character, you will find that some of them have "price per CGC points" of $100, like Moon Knight (WWBN #32).  

If the first appearance of Moon Knight is $100 per CGC point, and the first appearance of Spider-man is at least $5,000 per CGC point... where should the first appearance of Wolverine be?  I don't think it's completely ridiculous that $500 per CGC point might be the answer... both now and long-term.

[ADAMANTIUM]

1 minute ago, valiantman said:

I think it was a discussion a couple years ago, @G.A.tor had a "price per CGC point" method for books like Hulk #181 that was good up to about CGC 7.0, then the price goes higher.  I think it was something like Hulk #181 was about $200 per CGC point, so a CGC 2.0 was $400 and a CGC 6.5 was $1,300.  When you look at books that don't feature the first full appearance of the 2nd or 3rd biggest Marvel character, you will find that some of them have "price per CGC points" of $100, like Moon Knight (WWBN #32).  

If the first appearance of Moon Knight is $100 per CGC point, and the first appearance of Spider-man is at least $5,000 per CGC point... where should the first appearance of Wolverine be?  I don't think it's completely ridiculous that $500 per CGC point might be the answer... both now and long-term.

That's helpful in how it relates to other characters popularity.... I can see that

[ADAMANTIUM]

Also @valiantman I think that I made that corallation a few pages back about wolverine and Thor. I would argue Wolvie is as or more known or popular, and Thor 3.0 goes and stops for about $3-4,000. 

Understanding there are other factors like availability, condition in grade etc. 

Edited August 1, 2018 by ADAMANTIUM

[valiantman]

7 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

That's helpful in how it relates to other characters popularity.... I can see that

It's not completely fair across the different eras, since the first appearances of Superman and Batman are about $100,000 per CGC point, while Spider-Man is about $5,000 (or so), but it does make sense to me when you think about "Marvel books that are about 45 to 55 years old" and you realize that 1st Spider-Man, 1st Wolverine, 1st X-Men, 1st Thor, 1st Iron Man, 1st Hulk, etc., all fit in to that age range now.  Collectors may not care that 1974 has a lot more copies of Marvel books than 1962 because we're talking about books that are (basically) 45 years old already.  The "price per point" (for books under CGC 7.0/8.0) makes some sense, even if the number of copies available is different.  Spider-Man is leading the way, but collectors could be seeing that "price per point" for Ant-Man ($600 to $800 per point) or Groot ($500 per point) and they could be thinking "Wolverine is a bargain!" even at $500 a point.

Edited August 1, 2018 by valiantman

[MGsimba77]

1 hour ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

a 6.5 just sold for over $3,000

I'm thinking that the ratio of people with $3,000 that just want a copy are taking anything that they can get.....

In other words people have that amount of $$ and are "seeing" the price "rise" and think "Oh, it will rise faster than I can save for a copy" and they make a purchase for the "going rate"....

IDK! but how else does anyone explain this  

That's literally double the average going rate for a 6.5 at the time this thread was started in January!

Not bad

[kimik]

Hulk is basically a $500/point book under 9.0, which is an okay value for the top BA key. 

Like I posted earlier, for the price of a dogmeat bigger SA key you can get a nice mid grade to high grade Hulk 181. Right now CGC 0.5 AF 15s go for around the same as CGC 9.4 Hulk 181s. Which book would you rather look at? If anything, BA keys should see a nice run up now as the value for most other keys in CGC 9.4 = CGC 1.8 for second tier Marvel SA keys. We have seen this play out several times in the past 20 years. GA and SA run up, and then BA does. Now is the time to lock in the BA keys in CGC 9.4 as the Hulk 181 jump will spread to the other books as well.

[Bobbyusc]

Here is a question for some of the older collectors....  has there been major bubble/crashes in comic book prices in the past?  

 

From what ive seen it been a steady increase with a recent explosion in prices, never a tumble though. 

 

[Bomber-Bob]

9 hours ago, Bobbyusc said:

Here is a question for some of the older collectors....  has there been major bubble/crashes in comic book prices in the past?  

 

From what ive seen it been a steady increase with a recent explosion in prices, never a tumble though. 

 

Never a tumble though there was a decline during the 2008 era of the economic crisis. Back in the 90's, I remember both Hulk 181 and ASM 129 declining a lot with a high grade 181 in the 400 range and ASM 129 down to 150 range. Of course Bronze just wasn't quite old enough(25 year rule) and didn't hit it's stride until after CGC came along.  

[tdotcbc84]

Didn't Hulk 181 9.8 drop to 50% of value after 2008?

[Howling Mad]

2 hours ago, tdotcbc84 said:

Didn't Hulk 181 9.8 drop to 50% of value after 2008?

Likely the record high, completely possible. Granted people were in dire straights at that time, so it's not surprising that people were liquidating assets as needed.