Why is ASM 630 1:15 CGC 9.8 Joe Quinones, so expensive? 1 1

[Otter1775]

Good afternoon, I recently noticed as of today, via ebay and mycomicshop, that ASM 630 CGC 9.8, 1:15 Joe Quinones variant are listed at $1750 & $1525. Is there a reason for such a price? One can pick up raw copies for way less. I do not know the print run for this issue either. Just curious, due to never hearing about this certain issue. Thank you.

[mycomicshop]

5 hours ago, Otter1775 said:

Good afternoon, I recently noticed as of today, via ebay and mycomicshop, that ASM 630 CGC 9.8, 1:15 Joe Quinones variant are listed at $1750 & $1525. Is there a reason for such a price? One can pick up raw copies for way less. I do not know the print run for this issue either. Just curious, due to never hearing about this certain issue. Thank you.

It's a consignment, and the consignor set that price. I don't have any insight to his pricing decision, and you probably don't need to read much into it unless it sells at that price.

[Get Marwood & I]

12 minutes ago, mycomicshop said:

It's a consignment, and the consignor set that price. I don't have any insight to his pricing decision, and you probably don't need to read much into it unless it sells at that price.

Hello MCS. Don't you feel any tinge of awkwardness when your consignors set books so far above average pricing that it borders on attempted robbery? If they put it on ebay that's them alone. But by allowing the price on your site, are you not condoning / encouraging ridiculously over inflated prices? Would it not be more prudent to discourage pricing above a certain % of what you yourselves would price the book at? Surely it impacts your reputation too?

[Bomber-Bob]

1 hour ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Hello MCS. Don't you feel any tinge of awkwardness when your consignors set books so far above average pricing that it borders on attempted robbery? If they put it on ebay that's them alone. But by allowing the price on your site, are you not condoning / encouraging ridiculously over inflated prices? Would it not be more prudent to discourage pricing above a certain % of what you yourselves would price the book at? Surely it impacts your reputation too?

While I totally agree, it may be difficult to police.

[Mercury Man]

It's a variant.  The variant sales process relies on at least one sucker to keep the ongoing pyramid scheme of inflated value. 

[Get Marwood & I]

8 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

While I totally agree, it may be difficult to police.

I don't know how their consignment process works, so can't really comment Bob. The inference above ("....you probably don't need to read too much into it") is that they suspect it's not going to sell at that price. I just find it odd that a company with a good reputation for service would risk damaging that reputation by advertising a wildly inflated book which will never sell. I don't see how the hobby benefits from this kind of practice. Supply and demand is usually the best determinant of price. The plucking of huge figures out of the air approach doesn't feel right to me. 

It'll probably sell now won't it!

[Get Marwood & I]

8 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

It's a variant.  The variant sales process relies on at least one sucker to keep the ongoing pyramid scheme of inflated value. 

I was that sucker once....

Never be a completist! 

Seriously, one of the reasons I gave up ASM completism was the ridiculous artificially set introductory prices on variants. If you waited, most dropped like a stone. But some sky rocketed, so the collecting instinct compelled you to buy when they came out. And it became unsavoury. So I stopped.

Now we have eye watering prices appearing from nowhere on freely available books of little note / value. I'll never forgive MHCs for slapping $100 prices on ASM newsstands, when no one was buying them (but me). Totally killed it for me.

Contrary to what that Gekko chap said, greed is not good.

In my opinion. 

[Bomber-Bob]

18 hours ago, mycomicshop said:

It's a consignment, and the consignor set that price. I don't have any insight to his pricing decision, and you probably don't need to read much into it unless it sells at that price.

Tactics like this, high pricing by seller, is effectively using your site as a free method of advertising. Sure the seller would like to sell it at the high price but what he really expects to happen is somebody contacts him for an offline transaction. Trust me, seeing this kind of pricing, discourages browsers to your website. 

[Mercury Man]

12 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I was that sucker once....

Don't be so hard on yourself, you have seen the light, rejoice & be glad.  

During the 1980's my mom had some Bradford Exchange Collectors Plates, the theme was Gone With The Wind.  Inside the shipments of her newest plate, they included some typed up data, showing 'the secondary market', and how much these things were supposedly selling for.  There was no way to verify this (keeping in mind the internet didn't quite exist).   So if she bought a plate last month, in her newest shipped box it showed that sheet and, 'oh my, a recent sale of this plate was $11 more than what I just paid'.  Again...how?  I was too young at the time to give a care, but I though it was fishy.   It was all trumped up demand by the Bradford Exchange. 

That's how I feel about variants (Marvel).  But at least they have ebay, and auctions to sort of track this.  But I think the variant crowd are a bunch of hyper active children who missed their Ritalin doses. 

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, Mercury Man said:

Don't be so hard on yourself, you have seen the light, rejoice & be glad.  

During the 1980's my mom had some Bradford Exchange Collectors Plates, the theme was Gone With The Wind.  Inside the shipments of her newest plate, they included some typed up data, showing 'the secondary market', and how much these things were supposedly selling for.  There was no way to verify this (keeping in mind the internet didn't quite exist).   So if she bought a plate last month, in her newest shipped box it showed that sheet and, 'oh my, a recent sale of this plate was $11 more than what I just paid'.  Again...how?  I was too young at the time to give a care, but I though it was fishy.   It was all trumped up demand by the Bradford Exchange. 

That's how I feel about variants (Marvel).  But at least they have ebay, and auctions to sort of track this.  But I think the variant crowd are a bunch of hyper active children who missed their Ritalin doses. 

Heh heh, thanks.

I don't mind the odd variant.  Most of my threads are about them, albeit older price ones. But I don't like the moderns that proliferate like rabbits on heat, often with poorly conceived covers with no relevance to character or content, and that are priced artificially high from the off. 

I certainly don't like to see otherwise respectable dealers encouraging eye wateringly off pricing. 

[Djrodunchained]

Variants, bagged, foil, etc covers were the reason I stopped collecting comics for a long time. Soured me on the industry, as the stories and art crapped out and gimmick covers seemed to be how companies propped up their sales.

[Get Marwood & I]

16 hours ago, Djrodunchained said:

Variants, bagged, foil, etc covers were the reason I stopped collecting comics for a long time. Soured me on the industry, as the stories and art crapped out and gimmick covers seemed to be how companies propped up their sales.

I know what you mean, but don't let it sour the habit - just collect old stuff and ignore them!

That said, I do like that ASM 630 variant. Should I buy the CGC 9.4 currently on eBay for $34.99 (or best offer) or MCS's 9.8 for $85 million though? 

[Djrodunchained]

It did sour me... but I am back! And you are absolutely correct, I am focusing on the old stuff I enjoy!

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, Djrodunchained said:

It did sour me... but I am back! And you are absolutely correct, I am focusing on the old stuff I enjoy!

That's the spirit! Now, do you want to but an ASM 630 variant? To you, 60 meelion sesterces 

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, Get Marwood & I said:

That's the spirit! Now, do you want to but an ASM 630 variant? To you, 60 meelion sesterces 

Or you could buy it!

[mycomicshop]

On 3/18/2018 at 5:42 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Hello MCS. Don't you feel any tinge of awkwardness when your consignors set books so far above average pricing that it borders on attempted robbery? If they put it on ebay that's them alone. But by allowing the price on your site, are you not condoning / encouraging ridiculously over inflated prices? Would it not be more prudent to discourage pricing above a certain % of what you yourselves would price the book at? Surely it impacts your reputation too?

Yes, I agree with you. We would rather not have any consigned items priced so high that they're unrealistic and make us look bad.

We are making some changes over the next few months that should help deal with this.

[Mercury Man]

2 hours ago, mycomicshop said:

Yes, I agree with you. We would rather not have any consigned items priced so high that they're unrealistic and make us look bad.

We are making some changes over the next few months that should help deal with this.

And that my friends, is what makes certain online comic shops more reputable than others.   Smart move MCS. 

[Get Marwood & I]

9 hours ago, mycomicshop said:

Yes, I agree with you. We would rather not have any consigned items priced so high that they're unrealistic and make us look bad.

We are making some changes over the next few months that should help deal with this.

7 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

And that my friends, is what makes certain online comic shops more reputable than others.   Smart move MCS. 

+1

[Otter1775]

To all that have answered and participated in this discussion, thank you.  Bravo Zulu to MCS for taking the time to answer and possibly make changes in the near future.

[AJD]

On 3/21/2018 at 7:45 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

That's the spirit! Now, do you want to but an ASM 630 variant? To you, 60 meelion sesterces 

400 quatloos!