Went to a con and didn't buy a comic book 1 1

[RockMyAmadeus]

....which makes me doubt the idea that the "run collector" is dead. Not everything from the GA is Action #1-50, or Batman #1-49, or Tec #27-75, or "the keys or classic covers (which are now keys.)"

Schomburg did a TON of work in the 40s and into the 50s. Not all of them are Startling #49, or Suspense #3, but all of them have gone up in the last 2-3 years.

Ok, so no, that's not a specific "run"...but again, not every Schomburg cover is a "key", nor is it a "classic cover"....and yet...still eagerly sought after by all sorts of people, including younger generations who didn't have access to any of this stuff when it was cheap.

[punksdropdirtysrh]

This happened to me at C2e2 this year. Had around $300 cash on me. Spent $40. One half price TPB and a cool print. 

Books are so high these days it’s exhausting. Lots of books I’d like to own...but just not worth the $$$ to me. I got over needing to be a show off. I really feel that’s what happens to a lot of collectors. I bet a lot of them put themselves in debt too. I’m just over it lately. I don’t know what some of these guys do for a living, good for them I guess. I know a lot of collectors started early so all they have to do is sell a book or two to be flush with cash. 

I really try to stay optimistic and I’m glad the market is booming (I guess...) but dang...Collecting comics is like collecting cars or something nowadays. You gotta rich or it’s not much fun. But I still have fun reading, hooray. 

[VintageComics]

1 hour ago, Westy Steve said:

TampaCon.  Again, not an indictment to the dealers or even the show.  I think it's just the market place and the market forces in general. 

Fair.

 

 

[NoMan]

will they ever come down? Prices, I mean. Will the superhero film genre go the way of the westerns and just vanish and the convention crowds thin  out? Will the Funko-Pop-Os become like the Benie Babies?

if there any hope for us normal pocket guys?

[Mercury Man]

2 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

TampaCon.  Again, not an indictment to the dealers or even the show.  I think it's just the market place and the market forces in general.  Dealers can't afford to display the cheaper wall books, and typically need to seill their bread and butter cheap books to help pay for table space.  I suspect the books in my budget get left at home.

How was it overall?   Did it seem less or more crowded?   Same number of Cosplayers?  This was the first TampaCon I missed in like 6 years.  I simply didn't have any disposable income lying around at this time.   I don't even think I will make it to MegaCon Tampa just around the corner.  

[Robot Man]

55 minutes ago, thunsicker said:

I started GA looking for Schomburg Timelys.  Those became too expensive so I looked for Scomburg Nedors.  Those also got too dear so I started to look for Schomburg Real Life or It Really Happened.  Now that those have started to jump there aren't GA that I can afford that fit my focus.  And I don't have the money to switch GA focus.  Plus with how few there are of most GA comics simply starting a new focus (Reed Crandall or Lou Fine covers) my starting to collect them means that the prices on them will start to jump as well.  Not that those aren't expensive as well.  Oh well, at least I can occasionally find a decent Spirit Section priced in my range.

They are still out there. I bought a 3.0 Fighting Yank #22 stickered at $90. and a 2.0 Exciting #42 stickered at $125. at the Torpedo show. Low grade but nice presenting copies that I could live with. I'm sure that to some spending $100. on a GA comic seems "expensive" but when you consider what that same money would buy in the SA/BA/Copper or Modern market. This seems like a great deal. 

[VintageComics]

51 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

They are still out there. I bought a 3.0 Fighting Yank #22 stickered at $90. and a 2.0 Exciting #42 stickered at $125. at the Torpedo show. Low grade but nice presenting copies that I could live with. I'm sure that to some spending $100. on a GA comic seems "expensive" but when you consider what that same money would buy in the SA/BA/Copper or Modern market. This seems like a great deal. 

I'd like to reinforce that the books are generally out there. It might take a little more elbow grease to find them but they can be found.

[NoMan]

just occurred to me that the title of this tread sounds like the title of a country song!

[RockMyAmadeus]

58 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

They are still out there. I bought a 3.0 Fighting Yank #22 stickered at $90. and a 2.0 Exciting #42 stickered at $125. at the Torpedo show. Low grade but nice presenting copies that I could live with. I'm sure that to some spending $100. on a GA comic seems "expensive" but when you consider what that same money would buy in the SA/BA/Copper or Modern market. This seems like a great deal. 

A 2.0 non-key, non-DC, non-Timely Exciting for $125....?

Relatively speaking, sure, I understand your point, but....Just a few degrees up from "beat to hell" for the price of a VERY nice dinner, or maybe 1/2 to 1/3 a car payment...?

Those are the $10 GA cheapies from 10-15 years ago.

[FSF]

39 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

I'd like to reinforce that the books are generally out there. It might take a little more elbow grease to find them but they can be found.

But that's a problem as far as I'm concerned.  While the "thrill of the hunt" is fine and all, no one wants to work THAT hard to find reasonably priced material that is by no one's definition rare.  It's not like collector's go expecting to find a ton of stuff on their wantlists at bargain prices or even reasonable prices. But no one wants to walk away with little to no material when there's so much of it out there (in general) but either the price is unreasonable or sellers are hanging on for speculative purposes.

[DavidTheDavid]

4 hours ago, thunsicker said:

I can beat you.  I haven't bought a book for 2-3 years.  It's just hard to buy a Schomburg Nedor for $350 when I was just buying the same books a short while ago for $75-$150.  Or buy a Schomburg Timely for $2k when it was $800 just a short while ago.  Just recently I decided I'm ready to start buying again, but I'm looking for newer stuff that scratches that itch and isn't too expensive.  I've decided I'm going to see if I can put together a high grade (9.6-9.8) run of Sienkiewicz covers.  Those can still be had for reasonable prices, comparatively.  Since my prime early years of collecting were 70's through 80's his Moon Knights and New Mutants scratch that itch for me.  And I've always found his painted covers to be pretty awesome.

Hit me up for some Sienkiewicz. Love his stuff.

 

[Dwitkin82]

I struggle in the same context when it comes to art/art commissions......it just seems like every artist is out of my range or I can only afford 1 item.......makes it hard...

[Dormian]

I went to TBCC with Westy and had the same experience. I had $400 in cash on me and a budget of 2k. There were definitely cool books but pricing put me out of the market.  Some key books are twice what they were a year ago. There were 6 copies of a semi key book at the con that is on my buy list and every copy was $25 to $50 more that it would cost to buy on eBay. I did buy a copy of Batman 675 for $2, Kansas Dust in the Wind album for $5, and a comic frame for $25. If you haven't checked them out yet the comic frames made by https://www.dynamiccomicdisplays.com/ are pretty cool.

[Number 6]

5 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Yup. That's the market we're in right now. Everything except very low grade common 70s and later material is up for prices that are higher than they were even a year ago. Want a Joker Batman cover before #100? Forget it. You're paying for it. How about high grade anything even remotely key? Like Starlin Warlocks, or X-Men #102+, or Spidey #298-328? Yup. $$$

The only thing to do is wait it out, and hope the situation improves. We haven't seen a market like this in a very long time; we've never seen a market like this with the kind of money involved.

I think this kind of touches on where I’m at with the hobby and why I’ve been on a bit of a break. 

It’s not so much that I’ve been priced out of everything - though there is plenty of that - but that even the stuff I can afford seems really bloated. I keep asking myself whether I’m getting the most bang for my discretionary buck at these prices. 

Not that I’ve stopped collecting altogether. If I see something that catches my attention and seems reasonable I’ll pick it up. 

But the days of aggressively pursuing runs is on hold for now. 

[FineCollector]

5 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

So I went to a comic book show this weekend.  I only had a couple hundred $$$ to spend at the show because times are tight right now. 

For the first time ever, I went home from a show without a book.  I couldn't find anything I wanted that was either (a.) in my price range (b.) not "drek"  (c.) too new to be interesting to me or (d.) above ebay prices.

Are there any titles or creators under the radar that would interest you?  Are there gaps in your numbers that you could fill, even though they're not standouts from the run?  There's always something else to buy.  Whether or not you think it's worthy of you is the big speedbump.

eBay is always going to have better selection than any collection of dealers, but buying from someone I know and trust, along with being able to look at a raw book in hand, is worth a premium to me.  Might you turn up a bargain anyway?  Sure.  Can you expect it every time you walk in the door of a con?  Depends on how rare the stuff you're looking for is.  If you're limiting yourself to Schomburg, I'm not expecting much success, but you have to admit that's not unreasonable.

If we're talking about GA material to buy in the $100-500 range, yes, there's plenty at any convention worth mentioning.  Is there any from a narrow list of things you're looking for?  Dunno... as RMA has stated, a lot of cheap stuff has risen in price.  Are you keeping up with the trends, or are you expecting prices of yesteryear?  Considering how much modern keys and flavor of the month books cost nowadays, comparatively cheap GA was too hard to resist at discounted pricing, and prices had to come up.

[Samoyed Sabaka]

Thanks for this thread!  I've been feeling this way at cons for a long time and I was wondering if it was just me.  I used to bring at least 1k "just in case" money to SDCC and Wondercon and even some smaller Socal shows, but really, it's been going on 5+ years for me since I've found anything "reasonably" priced - by which I mean - comparable to what I can purchase the books for on ebay.  I'm not talking about keys either, just regular "common" 8.0 or higher silver and bronze.  For many of the bigger dealers, when I peruse their stock, its almost as if they are taking the ebay price and practically doubling it.  I'm still kind of shocked that these dealers seem to be able to get enough sales to keep attending these shows.  I still spend several thousands a year on ebay, so I'm getting my "fix" satisfied.  So is ebay still the best place to shop then?

[RockMyAmadeus]

1 hour ago, DavidTheDavid said:

Hit me up for some Sienkiewicz. Love his stuff.

 

Ooo, me too!

[RockMyAmadeus]

28 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

I think this kind of touches on where I’m at with the hobby and why I’ve been on a bit of a break. 

It’s not so much that I’ve been priced out of everything - though there is plenty of that - but that even the stuff I can afford seems really bloated. I keep asking myself whether I’m getting the most bang for my discretionary buck at these prices. 

Not that I’ve stopped collecting altogether. If I see something that catches my attention and seems reasonable I’ll pick it up. 

But the days of aggressively pursuing runs is on hold for now. 

I REALLLLLLLY wanted the Batman #426 cover art that sold last week at Heritage. I mean, like I could taste it. I'm finally at a point where I can afford more spendy things, but...it sold for $33k and change.

The next bid alone would have put it at $35,000, and that's if I was high bidder.

I can't spend that kind of money. I have it, but it would have put me in trouble. So, now that piece goes to someone else, probably forever, and I'll never have the chance again.

It's like the closer to my dreams I get, the further they keep going towards the horizon. Want a copy of Tec #27 with a cover?  Good luck, if you don't have $250,000 or more to spend.

[ADAMANTIUM]

Without getting to involved, sometimes the price for books at a con that I'm interested in make me not feel too bad about paying prices for signature series.... I always try to buy a couple of books too

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by ADAMANTIUM

[justafan]

yep, I can relate to what the OP is saying and what many on here are starting to feel.  it's gotten to be where everything being sold is either a key or being priced like a key.  couldn't place it but that was what i was experiencing at heroes con (last con I attended).  I brought a few k but only spent $900 the whole weekend and that's on heavily negotiated items in the last 3 hours of the show.  just couldnt justify the prices for the grades on a lot of books, even long box diving. it just didn't feel fun any more.

I could blow that on a lot of drek or lower grade stuff but that ties up money I could just roll over to the next auction or show. 

I decided it was time to take a break overall and just sat out the last few cons and auctions. my bank account has been so much happier. I used to justify the inflated comic prices at $1k-$2k as potential investments I could possibly recoup on resale but at $5k+ it's harder to justify enjoying owning and reading a comic. I'm seeing other opportunities as a better place to invest money and some that's more liquid than comics. for now I'm hunting for very specific under the radar type of items, value items or the 1 or 2 comics that are the absolute best copy for the price. 

one thing that helps is to ask yourself when trying to justify the purchase: if you ever had to sell but when the time came you couldnt recoup more than half of the cost on resale would you still pay the asking price?  

I dont know if prices will ever come back down but it's not my goal in life to try and keep up with them.