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Is this place deader than ever?
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2,619 posts in this topic

Cue eerie silence....as the vultures gather. Do we agree with him? Maybe, but we don't like him. How can we turn this against him. Etc. 

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3 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

Cue eerie silence....as the vultures gather. Do we agree with him? Maybe, but we don't like him. How can we turn this against him. Etc. 

Nods have been mortified....., :cool: 

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I wasn't part of the good old days, so I can't comment on whether it's more or less dead than it used to be, but here's my 2 cents on the current state of things here... 

1. There seem to be at least 2 or 3 good sales threads going on every week. Sometimes more -- they seem to come in waves.
2. Sales threads have had a nice variety of GA to modern books, including many books that are tough to find elsewhere.
3. Most people here already know what they are looking for, and know what they're willing to pay. If you're looking to sell dreck here, you're probably wasting your time.
4. Pricing has ranged from Awesome_Deal to Slightly_Overpriced. I haven't really seen much in the way of price-gouging.
5. There is a subjective element to buying/selling. Every seller has their own style that takes time, and perhaps a few transactions, to figure out.
6. I know this will get me:boo:, but I don't have a problem with the UI of the new boards. And I've been able to effectively use the site on mobile devices (including running a vcc booth), which was much tougher with the old boards. Just being able to upload images directly was a huge win.

Edited by adampasz
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24 minutes ago, lizards2 said:
29 minutes ago, The Resurrection said:
40 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

I keep running into some of our current and previous frequent flyers over on eBay.  Just came across another one this morning, and I was thinking, "wow - a lot of great, tightly-graded books - wonder why they aren't for sale on the boards?"  Someone recently told me I should display my wares over there too, as I would sell more product and get more for it. 

I'm wondering too if the deadness might be caused by the exit of the SA crowd, and it being replaced by deep-pocketed GA collectors.

The reason sales do not do well anymore goes back to my response. If you cant flip it, they don't want it. I miss the old Friday/Saturday night threads of guys like FT selling off pages upon pages of nice HG non key issues for good prices. But once the new regime made it's way in it became harder and harder to move those books as the boards have been molded to a place to recycle keys, and forget ever getting a deal, if something reasonable does come along it is bought and put up on Ebay the same day it arrives in the mail. There simply just aren't many collectors left here. And don't get me wrong, I sell comics non stop, but I have never abused the community the way some of these guys do.

I guess I'm still mostly a collector, and still getting deals here.  Got some great stuff lately out of October's thread. 

However, I guess I am spending more on eBay as of late.

You got me thinking of about eight to ten years ago, when I first started selling my duplicate/undercopies here, and Arex, Doc Watson and Borock buying my 9.0s and squeezing them into 9.4/9.6 slabs. 

Nothing like seeing my $10 9.0 Nick Fury with a ghastly flaw in its new, shiney 9.6 CGC slab, going for just shy of $300 on eBay.

Maybe we're just not drawing enough new "suckers" here any more to take advantage of....., hm

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1 hour ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

I think it is the aging of the board member audience that had something to do with it. Most people when this board started where in their late 30s most likely when this board started. Same group are probably all hitting their 50s now.  At a certain age people just don't have the same passion they had when they were younger about certain subjects. Most probably moved on to other interests. Nothing wrong with that.

Hopefully some new younger board members can carry the torch going forward.

 

I'm in my mid-fifties. Don't count me out yet. :preach:

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5 minutes ago, adampasz said:

I wasn't part of the good old days, so I can't comment on whether it's more or less dead than it used to be, but here's my 2 cents on the current state of things here... 

1. There seem to be at least 2 or 3 good sales threads going on every week. Sometimes more -- they seem to come in waves.
2. Sales threads have had a nice variety of GA to modern books, including many books that are tough to find elsewhere.
3. Most people here already know what they are looking for. If you're looking to sell dreck here, you're probably wasting your time.
4. Pricing has ranged from Awesome_Deal to Slightly_Overpriced. I haven't really seen much in the way of price-gouging.
5. There is a subjective element to buying/selling. Every seller has their own style that takes time, and perhaps a few transactions, to figure out.
6. I know this will get me:boo:, but I don't have a problem with the UI of the new boards. And I've been able to effectively use the site on mobile devices (including running a vcc booth), which was much tougher with the old boards. Just being able to upload images directly was a huge win.

I don't buy or sell so that's the one area I'm not up to speed on. A lot of the software is miles better than it was, without a doubt. Direct photo-uploading is worth it's weight in gold, as you say, and likely kept many of us here. I was very positive about a lot of the new stuff, and still am.  But the new car is on the drive, has been for a year, and no one is servicing it. 

Good car analogy, no?

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Marwood you are quite right with your posting I have belonged to some great sites and over time especially recently they have dried up, I even wondered if I was the only member. Also as for posting a question I am pleased that there are still a few decent people who take the time to answer, I once heard "A question is only easy if you know the answer".   As for the recent Spidey comics I picked up issue 795 as it was part two of "The Favor " story line away back when, later that night I found out it had increased in value by four times the amount I paid. The reason was Osborn became the Red Goblin. This was lucky for me as I had stopped buying after issue 700 but there is hope on the horizon (pun) a new writer is taking over from Slott.   

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3 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:
1 hour ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

I think it is the aging of the board member audience that had something to do with it. Most people when this board started where in their late 30s most likely when this board started. Same group are probably all hitting their 50s now.  At a certain age people just don't have the same passion they had when they were younger about certain subjects. Most probably moved on to other interests. Nothing wrong with that.

Hopefully some new younger board members can carry the torch going forward.

 

I'm in my mid-fifties. Don't count me out yet. :preach:

I was going to say....., I'm almost 57 - will be there in mid-March, if I can last that long. :p

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2 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

You got me thinking of about eight to ten years ago, when I first started selling my duplicate/undercopies here, and Arex, Doc Watson and Borock buying my 9.0s and squeezing them into 9.4/9.6 slabs. 

Nothing like seeing my $10 9.0 Nick Fury with a ghastly flaw in its new, shiney 9.6 CGC slab, going for just shy of $300 on eBay.

Maybe we're just not drawing enough new "suckers" here any more to take advantage of....., hm

Good point.  When I first got here the big dogs feasted on the new, less experienced guys who may have the goods but were not as versed in selling or slabbing.  Those newbies learned and became old dogs after many years.  Now it seems like people are quick to become dealers and don't want to leave anything on the table even if the big dogs didn't become national sellers over night.  I remember I use to be able to almost exclusively buy books on the boards since there was just a plethora of books being put up at "they are not in my collection focus and need them out of the house" prices but those type of sales threads have dried up over the last few years. 

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1 minute ago, DeadOne said:

Let's not forget the huge punch in the face that was dealt by Photobucket this past year. The old boards, with their 3rd party hosting dependence, would have still taken a major hit.

Very good point (thumbsu

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3 minutes ago, tv horror said:

Marwood you are quite right with your posting I have belonged to some great sites and over time especially recently they have dried up, I even wondered if I was the only member. Also as for posting a question I am pleased that there are still a few decent people who take the time to answer, I once heard "A question is only easy if you know the answer".   As for the recent Spidey comics I picked up issue 795 as it was part two of "The Favor " story line away back when, later that night I found out it had increased in value by four times the amount I paid. The reason was Osborn became the Red Goblin. This was lucky for me as I had stopped buying after issue 700 but there is hope on the horizon (pun) a new writer is taking over from Slott.   

Exactly. Where is the thread that discusses this? It's quite staggering really isn't it. He's only Spider-Man, after all. 

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