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Available older keys "drying up" a report from NYCC
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223 posts in this topic

39 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

My story of how Bob found me in 1998 without even one copy of Journey Into Mystery in my collection will be featured on the site shortly.  It's just taking a lot out of me to record the highly emotional testimonial video.

1249987651_stevemartin_edited.jpg.5e297b7c953ea9246af984906d2ff6ff.jpg

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23 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

Anyone that doesn't try to negotiate a discount of some sort is a fool with his money...2c

This is one of the major changes I have noticed the past 5-6 years selling moderns and hot variants at local shows. Prior to that, you would expect to be asked for a 10-20% discount on everything, and more if someone pulled a stack of books. The vast majority of the post 2010 new wave of collectors pull a stack of books they want, add it up, and then pay full sticker for them no questions asked. 

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On 10/4/2019 at 8:54 AM, drotto said:

I was at day one of NYCC and managed to pick up a few keys that I wanted, but was unable to find several issues I was considering.  In the past, NYCC was easy to find just about any comic you wanted, and for Bronze age and younger was still flush with copies on most big books.  The disappointing part was key GA and silver were either nowhere, or only available at unobtainable (at least more then I could spend levels). Or when issues were there I could find 1 maybe 2 copies, while in the past they were plentiful. From my observations (and I have been to NYCC every year for 10 plus years), the older keys were noticable reduced in number. The number of dealers there had remained roughly the same.

 

I commented on this to two dealers that are generally great to work with, reasonably priced (no convention premiums), and both said they had noticed the same thing.  Both parties went as far to say they brought less stuff this year because they just do not have the stock and are having problems getting it especially in mid grades (the sweat spot for many collectors). One even said he thinks the influx of new collectors have taken books up into collections, and books are being kept, not passed around as much as they used to be.

 

Any thoughts?  Are others noticing the same thing? Is this isolated to just NYCC this year?

I can only comment on the local shows here in Alberta that I set up at, but there were still plenty of GA/SA/BA/CA/Modern keys and high demand books at the Calgary and Edmonton Expos this year. The only issue is the wide variance in grading and pricing by dealers at the show, and whether they are actually disclosing restoration on their books.

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4 minutes ago, kimik said:

This is one of the major changes I have noticed the past 5-6 years selling moderns and hot variants at local shows. Prior to that, you would expect to be asked for a 10-20% discount on everything, and more if someone pulled a stack of books. The vast majority of the post 2010 new wave of collectors pull a stack of books they want, add it up, and then pay full sticker for them no questions asked. 

US collectors don't haggle anymore? I was there, and as a foreigner from a culture almost totally void of haggling, trying to go lower feels so wrong in some ways. Did manage to overcome that block on sunday and got some great deals, but still felt wierd. 

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3 minutes ago, Ssantoss said:

US collectors don't haggle anymore? I was there, and as a foreigner from a culture almost totally void of haggling, trying to go lower feels so wrong in some ways. Did manage to overcome that block on sunday and got some great deals, but still felt wierd. 

I should have qualified that as new wave Canadian collectors of hot moderns and variants. The same people that were buying Naomi 1s for $100 at the Calgary Expo this spring were back paying top dollar for Immortal Hulk and the latest House of X/Power of X issues at the Edmonton Expo in September. Hot variant covers were snapped up with no price resistance at both shows as well. It is also happening more with GA/SA/BA collectors now. Older collectors haggle, while younger collectors buy the keys at full sticker since "they will go up for sure" in their opinion. 

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18 hours ago, whomerjay said:

Someone pulled one of his books, something like a Conan 1. and started trying to beat him down on the price.  It went on for a few minutes. The prospective buyer got to "come on, I really want this book."   To which the dealer ripped the book out of his hands, and said "You want this book?" and proceeded to rip it into little pieces and threw it at his feet. "Take the F'in book!"

Gotta say, part of me really enjoyed that. 

Oh, the horror...the horror...

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16 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

Maybe that's why I couldn't find any LOL.  I have to say that I was looking for a handful of specific issues as opposed to the full 1964 - 1967 range and more leaning to the "white" page designation.

As a high grade collector, I usually have trouble finding books that fit into the scope of what I'm looking for, especially when it comes to page quality. So I pass on a lot of books for one reason or another. But as someone else mentioned in this thread, most of us old guys have learned to be patient...  :gossip:

Not only that, IMO most Silver Age Marvels have always seemed to be more plentiful than most Silver Age DC books, especially in high grade...

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3 hours ago, kimik said:

This is one of the major changes I have noticed the past 5-6 years selling moderns and hot variants at local shows. Prior to that, you would expect to be asked for a 10-20% discount on everything, and more if someone pulled a stack of books. The vast majority of the post 2010 new wave of collectors pull a stack of books they want, add it up, and then pay full sticker for them no questions asked. 

:screwy:  this "new wave" probably can pay attention long enough to do the back and forth required...

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2 hours ago, kimik said:

I should have qualified that as new wave Canadian collectors of hot moderns and variants. The same people that were buying Naomi 1s for $100 at the Calgary Expo this spring were back paying top dollar for Immortal Hulk and the latest House of X/Power of X issues at the Edmonton Expo in September. Hot variant covers were snapped up with no price resistance at both shows as well. It is also happening more with GA/SA/BA collectors now. Older collectors haggle, while younger collectors buy the keys at full sticker since "they will go up for sure" in their opinion. 

This younger group of collectors must be a used car salesman's dream!  

"That '02 Toyota is $8K?  OK - I'll take it.  How much are the floor mats and snow tires?  OK - I'll take those too.  I'm paying full sticker since the value "will go up for sure"."

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as to the OP comment i think the lack of keys at reasonable prices is long gone for now. A lot of speculators are in the market cause of many reasons as mentioned on the many and various threads here. Such as investment, speculation, New comers, etc... So it seems reasonable to expect a few more keys to dry up at reasonable prices as key books are all going up in value i mean you can always find a book but you just have to pay the price to get it out of someones hands. 

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8 hours ago, blazingbob said:

Lou,  to be fair I had 4 wall displays at this show. 

I dedicated an entire wall to raw pre-code horror and Atlas.  

1 full rack of CGC keys covering all genres/price points,  another CGC rack of other issues,  Eternals and Nova's in 9.8 made the wall this year.    

1 full wall display of raw marvel/DC and some Golden Age.

I brought 16 boxes of CGC books,  if a person asked it was possible I might have what they were looking for.

However,  if the quest was Werewolf by Night #32 then the answer would have been no.  

There were many cases where a customer asked to see if I had a copy of a particular key.  4 copies will be presented and I get "I was looking for a 8.5" and I had a 8.0, 9.0, 9.2 and 9.4.

 

 

How was the show sales wise?

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4 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

This younger group of collectors must be a used car salesman's dream!  

"That '02 Toyota is $8K?  OK - I'll take it.  How much are the floor mats and snow tires?  OK - I'll take those too.  I'm paying full sticker since the value "will go up for sure"."

No, I think it is more a function of the instant gratification we see in society now - I see it and want it so I buy it. That and the fact that a lot of these collectors are educated, employed, technology oriented/innate and have high levels of disposable income pre-marriage. Instead of saving up to get married and buy a house in their mid 20s, these collectors will rent and enjoy life before settling down in their 30s. That means several years with extra disposable income to spend before real expenses hit.

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On 10/7/2019 at 9:00 PM, whomerjay said:

Someone pulled one of his books, something like a Conan 1. and started trying to beat him down on the price.  It went on for a few minutes. The prospective buyer got to "come on, I really want this book."   To which the dealer ripped the book out of his hands, and said "You want this book?" and proceeded to rip it into little pieces and threw it at his feet. "Take the F'in book!"

Hopefully it wasn't the 1970's Conan #1 :roflmao:.

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4 hours ago, kimik said:

No, I think it is more a function of the instant gratification we see in society now - I see it and want it so I buy it. That and the fact that a lot of these collectors are educated, employed, technology oriented/innate and have high levels of disposable income pre-marriage. Instead of saving up to get married and buy a house in their mid 20s, these collectors will rent and enjoy life before settling down in their 30s. That means several years with extra disposable income to spend before real expenses hit.

That car example is how it is in this case except let's say that Toyota is 2018 and price is 20k. Why would you accept the asking price?!?!  cos if the seller is a car dealer and you say NO I offer 19 500$ then they say sold! Maybe if you offer them 18k then they say NO but we can sell it for 19k.. Why spend extra 500-1000 dollars?


Only reason I can think off is that it would be a bro deal like the seller would know that he could easily sell it for 25k but he is your friend and he knows that you have been looking for a same type of car and you have been talking to him that those car dealers want at least 26-27k for a good car and he has decided to sell you his car for 20k cos he has money, he don't use it that much or whatever. In that case haggling would be rude.

Edited by godzilla43
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15 hours ago, kimik said:

No, I think it is more a function of the instant gratification we see in society now - I see it and want it so I buy it. That and the fact that a lot of these collectors are educated, employed, technology oriented/innate and have high levels of disposable income pre-marriage. Instead of saving up to get married and buy a house in their mid 20s, these collectors will rent and enjoy life before settling down in their 30s. That means several years with extra disposable income to spend before real expenses hit.

I find younger buyers are very frugal but they use online price comparisons to get the best bang for their buck.  Maybe they just do not like face to face haggling and grab books at ask price since there is no cheaper copies online. 

Edited by 1Cool
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On 10/7/2019 at 3:51 PM, pemart1966 said:

Anyone that doesn't try to negotiate a discount of some sort is a fool with his money...2c

When I was at NYCC last week I negotiated a discount on almost all of my purchases. There were a couple of occasions however, where I didn't ask because the prices were so clearly rock bottom that it would have been pointless.

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