ComicLink's next Featured Auction Has Started Posting Books 17 17

[Aman619]

I’m sure you’ve got some pretty priceless treasures of your own too!

[lou_fine]

Wow, what a difference a week makes or it's probably just the usual Monday blues.  

Just went onto the CL live auction website and I must say compared to all of the action last week, seems like pretty much of a real snooze fest in comparison.  Most of the lots don't seem to be seeing any last minute action at all, and if they do, only the one single bid coming in.  

[LDarkseid1]

35 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Wow, what a difference a week makes or it's probably just the usual Monday blues.  

Just went onto the CL live auction website and I must say compared to all of the action last week, seems like pretty much of a real snooze fest in comparison.  Most of the lots don't seem to be seeing any last minute action at all, and if they do, only the one single bid coming in.  

I had a couple disappointing sales and a couple solid ones. Overall happy, but would have liked a little more.

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, LDarkseid1 said:

I had a couple disappointing sales and a couple solid ones. Overall happy, but would have liked a little more.

Are you referring to the auction as a whole or just the seemingly slow Monday night action only?  

[LDarkseid1]

15 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Are you referring to the auction as a whole or just the seemingly slow Monday night action only?  

Bit of both. My two Strange Adventures finished strong tonight. My Eternals 1 9.8 was a bit of a let down a day or so ago.

Edited March 2, 2021 by LDarkseid1

[mwotka]

Does it seems to anyone else like they stretch things out too far?  It is fairly difficult to remember to check in on my one or two interesting lots every day for a week and a half.  I think it might be better in a shorter format.  Might explain some of the second week fatigue as well. 

[adamstrange]

2 hours ago, mwotka said:

It is fairly difficult to remember to check in on my one or two interesting lots every day for a week and a half.  I think it might be better in a shorter format.  Might explain some of the second week fatigue as well. 

I find it tiresome and often fail to check back.

[manofsteel]

15 hours ago, LDarkseid1 said:

I had a couple disappointing sales and a couple solid ones. Overall happy, but would have liked a little more.

Same here. A cpl went for lower than I hoped, but a few went for more than I expected. Overall I was happy too. 
 

As for bidding, everything I wanted went for more than I expected/hoped. 

[Vince G]

On 2/28/2021 at 1:53 PM, Aman619 said:

It’s sure a mystery who these bidders and buyers are today.  A lot to try to figure out, but here’s two simple premises...  

number 1). we have seen the escalation of “highest grade madness” go from perfect 9.4s, to impossible 9.6s, to many years of first 9.8 insanity chasing, to building runs in 9.8.... so here we are at the next plateau: enough 9.9s to fuel a market.  When there were 35 9.6s the first 9.8 went ballistic.  Same thing now with the 9.8 column bursting at the seems. Grading may have gotten looser, and more unread moderns have gotten pressed and slabbed of late, but these books are still scarce out of the billions of comics printed.  CGC may have opened the door to 9.9s but they don’t give them away easily.  

number 2). Another comics collecting phenomenon we have experienced is at play with a new bunch of collectors:  we are shocked by these sales because in OUR experiences, mega keys were less than today’s cars cost, and many of these books like Transformers 1 are dollar bin non-sellers,  we have a well established sense of what comics are worth.  But repeatedly, over time, new collectors or speculators, or just people who decide one day that they gotta have something go and pay whatever it takes for it.. and at auction which as we know fuels these crazy hammer prices. And these people are fine paying the new (Absurd) price. They are new to these hobbies and weren’t collecting when we were so they don’t have the hard limits in their minds like we do.  Also, if they are young, they grew up with Moderns.  You know the mass produced stuff that was even worse then the Bronze carp that was derivative of the true silver Age classics. (from some of our personal perspectives).  
 

So long as the hobby keeps growing, and new collectors are the key to this,  the truth is, from an investment stance, they are right.  I paid some crazy prices in the oughts to upgrade HG key issues.  I was embarrassed to admit some of my purchases.  But it’s freaking 20 years later now.. the hobby demographics haven’t killed it, the death of print hasn’t hurt it, and those buys I made even have my financial guys respect.  Many of us have 40 years of collecting and have seen waves of such price increase phases. 

so yes I agree with all of you that this is whacked. and want to know WHO these new people are. And will they stick around post pandemic when there’s a lot more to do than scour the Internet buying stuff?  Or post Marvel/superhero pop culture hegemony?  I find it incredible that there’s so much new money at play, 50K comics add up to real money pretty darn quick. Let’s see where it goes....  if they win, we win.

 

My question has always been, where's the money coming from?  This has been driving me crazy for the past month or two but I think I partially answered my own question after doing some research.  I think part of what we're seeing is the 401k penalty-free withdrawal provision of the 2020 Cares Act.  I did not know this, but there is no penalty for withdrawing up to 100k, and you can spread the income taxes on the withdraw over three years.  Additionally, if you can pay the full amount you withdrew back, you can claim a refund on those taxes.  So, it could very well be that some are pulling money and splurging, particularly on collectibles, but others may be buying with the hope of reselling at a profit, before replacing their initial withdrawal.  Then again, maybe it's just all those investors who cashed out on Bitcoin and GameStop thenn decided to throw some money into comics?  

If you're interested in a short high-level blurb about the 401k provisions in the Cares Act, here's a link:  https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/cashing-out-401k-covid-19 

[lou_fine]

20 hours ago, LDarkseid1 said:

Bit of both. My two Strange Adventures finished strong tonight. My Eternals 1 9.8 was a bit of a let down a day or so ago.

Although we always hear about and focus our attention on the flashy headline grabbing results like the TOD 10 for $106,350; the Transformers 1 for $44K, or what have you, I think a bit of both is actually the norm for all of these auctions, whether it be CL, CC, or Heritage.  

Glad to hear that you did okay and I certainly don't think there was a real letdown with respect to your CGC 9.8 Eternals 1.  Looks like the 2 copies went last week for $2K and $2,200 which seems to be a continuation of where this book has been going recently.  Especially with the HA archives indicating that their last 4 CGC 9.8 sales from November through February had a price range of $1,560 to $2,040; with their last recorded sale being one for $1,920 on February 28th.  Not sure if I would trust any numbers that I see on eBay, especially since virtually all of them would be on a Best Offer basis and not the big hyped BIN price that you see in the listing.  

Definitely a whole lot more than what this relatively common book was going for back in the summer.  Not sure what the slightly lower grades would fetch today, but probably tempting enough that I really should get around to finding the copies which I had cherry picked off the shelves of the LCS for cover price or slightly less way way back in the day.  Especially since I remember liking the Eternals enough to have picked up the entire short 19-issue run plus Annual and the usual hoarded  duplicates or possibly even triplicates for the first few issues.    

Edited March 3, 2021 by lou_fine

[LDarkseid1]

25 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Although we always hear about and focus our attention on the flashy headline grabbing results like the TOD 10 for $106,350; the Transformers 1 for $44K, or what have you, I think a bit of both is actually the norm for all of these auctions, whether it be CL, CC, or Heritage.  

Glad to hear that you did okay and I certainly don't think there was a real letdown with respect to your CGC 9.8 Eternals 1.  Looks like the 2 copies went last week for $2K and $2,200 which seems to be a continuation of where this book has been going recently.  Especially with the HA archives indicating that their last 4 CGC 9.8 sales from November through February had a price range of $1,560 to $2,040; with their last recorded sale being one for $1,920 on February 28th.  Not sure if I would trust any numbers that I see on eBay, especially since virtually all of them would be on a Best Offer basis and not the big hyped BIN price that you see in the listing.  

Definitely a whole lot more than what this relatively common book was going for back in the summer.  Not sure what the slightly lower grades would fetch today, but probably tempting enough that I really should get around to finding the copies which I had cherry picked off the shelves of the LCS for cover price or slightly less way way back in the day.  Especially since I remember liking the Eternals enough to have picked up the entire short 19-issue run plus Annual and the usual hoarded  duplicates or possibly even triplicates for the first few issues.    

Yeah I just selfishly felt mine should have sold for more as it presented nicer than the other 9.8 😁. I’m letting one of my bigger books go in the may featured so we’ll see how it does.

[lou_fine]

34 minutes ago, LDarkseid1 said:

Yeah I just selfishly felt mine should have sold for more as it presented nicer than the other 9.8 😁.

Yes, I imagine we all would feel the same way if it's our book that the clock is winding down on.  

In terms of wishing and hoping that just one more bidder will step in and bump it up just before the final buzzer goes off.  

 

37 minutes ago, LDarkseid1 said:

I’m letting one of my bigger books go in the may featured so we’ll see how it does.

Oh, come on.........you can't just leave us hanging like this with bated breath since that would simply be  .

How about just one little hint as to your big big book that's coming up.  

[LDarkseid1]

7 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, I imagine we all would feel the same way if it's our book that the clock is winding down on.  

In terms of wishing and hoping that just one more bidder will step in and bump it up just before the final buzzer goes off.  

 

Oh, come on.........you can't just leave us hanging like this with bated breath since that would simply be  .

How about just one little hint as to your big big book that's coming up.  

This guy.

[lou_fine]

15 minutes ago, LDarkseid1 said:

This guy.

Well, that definitely takes the fun and suspense out of it if you simply give us the answer right away.  

Seriously though, that's most definitely a big big book, and also both a key and in grade to boot.  In fact, from the census, it would be one of the highest graded top copies of Supes 76 that's been graded and slabbed to date.    

Looks like there's a mid-grade copy coming up in this next CL Focus Auction starting March 11th, just in case you wanted a free advance look.  

[LDarkseid1]

15 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, that definitely takes the fun and suspense out of it if you simply give us the answer right away.  

Seriously though, that's most definitely a big big book, and also both a key and in grade to boot.  In fact, from the census, it would be one of the highest graded top copies of Supes 76 that's been graded and slabbed to date.    

Looks like there's a mid-grade copy coming up in this next CL Focus Auction starting March 11th, just in case you wanted a free advance look.  

Yeah sorry I’m bad at the suspense thing 😬. From my research it’s also the highest graded copy with white pages. So yeah, it’s solid. I’m keeping my expectations low though to be safe lol. Whoever missed out on that 9.4 in the auction a year or so ago, here’s your chance to get a super nice copy for considerably less.

[batman_fan]

54 minutes ago, LDarkseid1 said:

This guy.

Awesome book 

Edited March 3, 2021 by batman_fan

[LDarkseid1]

7 minutes ago, batman_fan said:

Awesome book 

Thanks, yeah it’s a super nice copy. Doesn’t compare to the one 9.6 I’ve seen, but it’s up there. Everyone honestly has such amazing books on here I generally feel second rate in comparison haha.

[fishbone]

23 hours ago, Vince G said:

My question has always been, where's the money coming from?  This has been driving me crazy for the past month or two but I think I partially answered my own question after doing some research.  I think part of what we're seeing is the 401k penalty-free withdrawal provision of the 2020 Cares Act.  I did not know this, but there is no penalty for withdrawing up to 100k, and you can spread the income taxes on the withdraw over three years.  Additionally, if you can pay the full amount you withdrew back, you can claim a refund on those taxes.  So, it could very well be that some are pulling money and splurging, particularly on collectibles, but others may be buying with the hope of reselling at a profit, before replacing their initial withdrawal.  Then again, maybe it's just all those investors who cashed out on Bitcoin and GameStop thenn decided to throw some money into comics?  

If you're interested in a short high-level blurb about the 401k provisions in the Cares Act, here's a link:  https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/cashing-out-401k-covid-19 

Don't drive yourself crazy ..... how should I say .... some people just have "more" and more as in disposable income, and actually some are  doing BETTER because of the pandemic believe it or not ....

350 million in the US plus 35 mil in Canada - just North America, I'm sure there are some there  in the "have" category in the GA collecting community 

and remember those that have been collecting for a long long time have lots of goodness to trade with as well ............

[fishbone]

16 hours ago, batman_fan said:

Awesome book 

     luv In Living Color  !!!

[Patriot6]

3 minutes ago, fishbone said:

Don't drive yourself crazy ..... how should I say .... some people just have "more" and more as in disposable income, and actually some are  doing BETTER because of the pandemic believe it or not ....

350 million in the US plus 35 mil in Canada - just North America, I'm sure there are some there  in the "have" category in the GA collecting community 

and remember those that have been collecting for a long long time have lots of goodness to trade with as well ............

This may mean nothing to anyone but you since you're in Canada, but how many people went from making $600 a month after tax to $2,000 a month during the pandemic because of government hand outs? Most people spent like drunken sailors thinking it was a windfall, but the tax man is coming. If the government decides to forgive a lot of the money owed then it is status quo, but some people may be scrambling to liquidate things to ease back into their pre covid means. Granted, many of the people I am speaking of likely don't collect high end comic books, but these situations always cause ripples.