I'm getting priced out of collecting 4 4

[Alawson453]

Just be patient and persistent.  It's the thrill of the hunt that excites and motivates me.  There are still tons of heat books to be found.  You may need to develop new strategies in order to be successful, but that's a small sacrifice to make if you're able to breathe new life into your collecting.  Search in new places you'll be surprised what will turn up

[Spyder!]

I too am shocked by the rate of increase in prices.  I mostly collect Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man.  I was pretty much out of the hobby for about a year recently as I interviewed for a new job, decided to move cross country, sell my house, get a rental house and then buy a house again!  By the time things settled and I started getting into the hobby again, I realized all of my price points from just a year ago are super out-dated!  Everything seems super expensive to me and I think "I can't afford this!"  

I always paid for my personal collection by flipping other books I knew I could make a profit on.  It's the only way I could justify the hobby to myself (I have 4 kids to send to college someday, so it had to be zero net cost to me...).  Anyway, what I am finding is that although books are certainly more expensive, I can still find good deals when I look hard and flip them in order to generate some spending money for my personal collection.  It's work, but it's fun work (for me) and I could never collect just based on my normal income.

[Artboy99]

59 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I think the OP is just in shock at how many people have switched over to his mindset.  He use to be able to hop in and grab some keys and hop out when ever he felt like it.  Now that everyone is using his keys only mentality he is getting shell shocked at how tough it is to find those cheap gems any longer.  Too bad he didn't keep all those keys over the years or he would be sitting on a pile of cash.

I see this mindset in a lot of the customers I see at comic shows. They are a few years behind in what the current market is and think as a seller of comics I *must* have acquired everything I have at a huge discount.

A couple of years ago at a local comic show I had 3 different people all inquire about a CGC 6.0 copy of Avengers 4 that was on my wall. The first guy took his sweet time talking about it and I had a second guy stand and wait for his turn to negotiate on the book. The first guy finally made an offer of 30% less than current GPA AND wanted an Amazing Spiderman 300 "thrown in". I declined, and even pointed out that I had another guy waiting to ask about the book. First guy said it was his final offer and I told him NO so he left my booth. Then the second guy made his offer: he was less than the first guy!

 

[entalmighty1]

7 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

I see this mindset in a lot of the customers I see at comic shows. They are a few years behind in what the current market is and think as a seller of comics I *must* have acquired everything I have at a huge discount.

A couple of years ago at a local comic show I had 3 different people all inquire about a CGC 6.0 copy of Avengers 4 that was on my wall. The first guy took his sweet time talking about it and I had a second guy stand and wait for his turn to negotiate on the book. The first guy finally made an offer of 30% less than current GPA AND wanted an Amazing Spiderman 300 "thrown in". I declined, and even pointed out that I had another guy waiting to ask about the book. First guy said it was his final offer and I told him NO so he left my booth. Then the second guy made his offer: he was less than the first guy!

 

30% below FMV on an easily moved key book, and you passed?  You must not like money Karl.  

[Artboy99]

7 minutes ago, entalmighty1 said:

30% below FMV on an easily moved key book, and you passed?  You must not like money Karl.  

don't forget that he required I also "throw in" another easily moved key book. :P

[thunsicker]

1 hour ago, Knightsofold said:

Just get lower grades.  No 2nd app or good story arc is as awesome as the first app.  

Try it out, a 1.0 AF#15 in one hand and the equivalent in price ASM minor keys in high grade.  

If you went for the minors you’d wish you had the key. 

If you have the low grade key you’d think maybe I’ll get the minors sometime.  No rush.  Or maybe I’ll upgrade the key someday.

90% of the time a major key is so satisfying that I forget all about wanting the minor keys after getting the major.  I wanted the minor keys because they were substitutes for the real deal.

Everyone’s different, but I think the disappointment of realizing the $ used for the long box of minors was enough for 3-5 satisfying keys is universal.

 

To each his own.  For me there have been three main collecting periods.  The late 70's when I was young (Miller's Daredevil and Clairmont/Byrne X-Men).  The late 80's when I owned my comic book store (Miller and Moore redefining comics), and the last 15 years or so when the movies reignited my interest.  While the keys have always interested me they aren't what hooked me or what my focus is.  If I can find a nice Bronze age Daredevil or X-Men and remember what it was like to read it with my best friend when it came in the mail or find some nice Alan Moore Swamp things and remember how blown away I was when I saw what comics could be it means a lot more personally to me than to buy a Silver Age key that came out five or six years before I was born.  Even for older comics I'm more interested in things that aren't what everyone else I wanting.  I love Spirit Sections and Schomburg covers (and not just All-Select, All Winner, and Marvel Mystery).  Give me a choice between getting a lower grade Marvel Comics #1 and a few nicer later Marvel Mystery's with Schomburg covers and it's a no brainer for me.  Give me a choice between very low grade Cap #1 and a Cap #3 and some in the 20's, I'll take the Schomburg covers every time.  It's great if the key's are what do it for you, but it's definitely not the only way to collect or to get satisfaction from this hobby.

[adamstrange]

1. The upside of dramatic price increases is that the books you own are worth more.

2. The downside of dramatic price increases is that the books you don't own will cost more.

Most people would be happier if there was a way that #1 could be true without #2 being true.

[october]

16 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

1. The upside of dramatic price increases is that the books you own are worth more.

2. The downside of dramatic price increases is that the books you don't own will cost more.

Most people would be happier if there was a way that #1 could be true without #2 being true.

There is a way, it just involves switching to Westerns and Dell photo covers. 

[Knightsofold]

57 minutes ago, thunsicker said:

To each his own.  For me there have been three main collecting periods.  The late 70's when I was young (Miller's Daredevil and Clairmont/Byrne X-Men).  The late 80's when I owned my comic book store (Miller and Moore redefining comics), and the last 15 years or so when the movies reignited my interest.  While the keys have always interested me they aren't what hooked me or what my focus is.  If I can find a nice Bronze age Daredevil or X-Men and remember what it was like to read it with my best friend when it came in the mail or find some nice Alan Moore Swamp things and remember how blown away I was when I saw what comics could be it means a lot more personally to me than to buy a Silver Age key that came out five or six years before I was born.  Even for older comics I'm more interested in things that aren't what everyone else I wanting.  I love Spirit Sections and Schomburg covers (and not just All-Select, All Winner, and Marvel Mystery).  Give me a choice between getting a lower grade Marvel Comics #1 and a few nicer later Marvel Mystery's with Schomburg covers and it's a no brainer for me.  Give me a choice between very low grade Cap #1 and a Cap #3 and some in the 20's, I'll take the Schomburg covers every time.  It's great if the key's are what do it for you, but it's definitely not the only way to collect or to get satisfaction from this hobby.

When you get that low Marvel #1 I'll trade you the later Schomburgs no problem! 

I think keys only would be pretty boring as well, that's why I also collect tons of 80's books from when I bought em off the stands.  Super fun, cheap, and makes for a good weekend local hunt.    

[Westy Steve]

5 hours ago, Mr.Mcknowitall said:

I have never met a PE that can work on his/her own car.

Well now you have

[Westy Steve]

4 hours ago, Mr.Mcknowitall said:

 Now we know why Japanese and Korean autos work......

Mechanical Engineering in U.S. schools is hard. It has mechanics and stuff.

True fact though...I knew a Mechanical Engineer who ended up getting a Master's degree and working for NASA.  Couldn't work on her own car.

[Spyder!]

1 hour ago, adamstrange said:

1. The upside of dramatic price increases is that the books you own are worth more.

2. The downside of dramatic price increases is that the books you don't own will cost more.

Most people would be happier if there was a way that #1 could be true without #2 being true.

This right here.  Just like when property values go up in your area.  Your house is worth more, which is great!  But the other houses are more expensive too, so it's not like it's easy to move.

[NoMan]

is what i learned from Human Torch's thread where he looked at a collection (mostly Sterenko stuff) and the owner wanted 200k (I think) which is 4x more than HT wanted to pay (I think) is that you're gonna lose money in the end so collect what you love?

Sorry to anyone if I remembered the thread wrong or if what I took away from it was wrong. I'm wrong mostly but I do know this, whenever I've had to sell a comic from my collection, I lose money

[Westy Steve]

To answer a question, the Copper books I like are Spidey 300 and TNMT.  When I first got back into collecting after a long period of time, those were reasonably priced cool books to seek out and that stuck with me. (Ok,TNMT #1 wasn't cheap).

The suggestions put forward are good.  I guess I could go for lower grades.  I like seeking out eye appeal in lower grades.   I've done that with coins, but hadn't considered it for comic books.

FWIW, yes, I'm shell shocked, but I don't expect something for nothing.  My mode of operations has been to buy things when I get a good deal on them, but when I sell them, I also sell at a good price to facilitate the sale...and it usually evens out OK.  When I sell, if I were to have the time to sell for top dollar, then I wouldn't sell.

In a way, I have changed genres.  I used to collect silver age keys almost exclusively.  Now I'm buying Bronze keys.  But I have to tell you, seeing the price of certain issues of Bronze Age Batman based almost entirely on the cool cover (not key, not a great story) boggles my mind.  You want HOW MUCH for a 7.0 copy?  I once bought a nice X-men #1 for that kind of money!

Thanks for letting me vent.  I enjoy reading your responses.

Steve

 

 

[NoMan]

i never got into buying a house (in Los Angeles) because when I finally had the capital it was like, "You want HOW MUCH for that shack next to the Tidy Muffler shop on the corner of Stench and Urine?" I just couldn't do it.

UNTIL i got married and my wife said, "You will do it." and it's turned out to be a wise move. Who knows the low grade copies of the mega keys do very well. Maybe low grade is the new mid grade.

again, what do i know?

[COI]

The current key craze is hilarious. It's people buying keys to flip for more keys to flip for more keys to flip for more keys. Not sure how much actual collecting is going on. It's a race to literally and figuratively squeeze (look, a pressing joke!) every last dollar out of whatever hot potato you're currently trying to sell to free up cash for the next movie announcement.

The idea of dealing to collect is what has created this monster in the first place.

[Artboy99]

59 minutes ago, NoMan said:

is what i learned from Human Torch's thread where he looked at a collection (mostly Sterenko stuff) and the owner wanted 200k (I think) which is 4x more than HT wanted to pay (I think) is that you're gonna lose money in the end so collect what you love?

Sorry to anyone if I remembered the thread wrong or if what I took away from it was wrong. I'm wrong mostly but I do know this, whenever I've had to sell a comic from my collection, I lose money

It was 60K. But yes it was 4x more than we wanted to pay for it.

In the end our patience was rewarded!

[Aweandlorder]

Wait for a correction. Either collectively (in form of a "crash") or on individual books. Most books tend to fluctuate in price, even keys, set your search for the books that you want to get and check daily

[Kevin76]

12 minutes ago, COI said:

The current key craze is hilarious. It's people buying keys to flip for more keys to flip for more keys to flip for more keys. Not sure how much actual collecting is going on. It's a race to literally and figuratively squeeze (look, a pressing joke!) every last dollar out of whatever hot potato you're currently trying to sell to free up cash for the next movie announcement.

The idea of dealing to collect is what has created this monster in the first place.

Flipping to buy more comics has been going on since as far back as I've been alive. 

Now it's a race to the dollar boxes after a movie announcement. Get in, get your money and get out. People paying it still haven't learned.  

[Kevin76]

1 minute ago, Aweandlorder said:

Wait for a correction. Either collectively (in form of a "crash") or on individual books. Most books tend to fluctuate in price, even keys, set your search for the books that you want to get and check daily

I do this with Hulk 181 and AF 15 everyday, I'll pick those up when they crash and then i'll pounce on them !