Comic Prices During the COVID-19 Pandemic 1 1

[Math Teacher]

Every two months, I use GPA and GoCollect to value the most expensive books in my collection. Yes, I am anal, but I also send this spreadsheet to my insurance company, Collectible Insurance Services (CIS). I compared prices from the end of February to the end of April. According to GPA, the value of my books showed a 0.1% decrease; with GoCollect, the value of my books showed a decrease of 0.6%. I don't valuate my whole collection because I have a lot of 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s era comics that are virtually worthless

Based on my collection, I am not seeing the gloom and doom scenario that others have predicted. Mind you, most of the books I am describing are CGC 6.0 or lower. A collector of high-grade books might show a different result.

Anyone else do something like this? Did you see an increase or decrease in your collection?

Edited April 30, 2020 by Joe Ankenbauer

[ft88]

I don't think comics have been affected at all.  Any slow down in pricing has been made up by everyone being online buying comics and getting stimulus checks.  That might change if we were still at a standstill come the fall but it looks like things are opening slowly right now.

[Tempus Fugit]

My ebay sales are better than ever.

[Myowncollector]

2 hours ago, Tempus Fugit said:

My ebay sales are better than ever.

Majority of books are business as usual. You will see things go for 20 or 30 percent under market value, but you always see that. Same as people over paying. People freak out about certain books losing value. Xmen fantastic four books are down but for a completely normal reason, nothing to do with covid or comic bubble or anything like that.

If government stops giving full unemployment benefits and unemployment remains above 20 percent then we might so a overall downturn. 

Others have their comics in a digital database, tens of thousands of books. Dont know how often the price them. Doesn't some sites do that for you. I don't do it. Most my boxes aren't even labeled. A book pops it becomes a scavenger hunt, I have a pretty good idea most the time. My huge huge books are in the bank. Will take my chances that the bank won't be robbed or burn down. Home insurance covers some portion of what I have at home. 10 years ago I might of worried more , though prices have doubled since then, but I sold pretty much every non golden age 1st appearance that has ever appeared in any movie or tv show.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Myowncollector
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[NP_Gresham]

I would like to see your data.

Hard to reach any conclusions when a lot of books in GPA have no sales since January.

I am mainly looking at Silver Age keys. For the few sales available it is hard to draw any conclusions, certainly there seems to be some downward pressure if anything.

For instance FF #1 universal, almost all arrows are down for recent activity

Hulk #1 universal mostly all down arrows

AF #15 is a mixed bag

JIM #83 is up mostly, but a couple of "last sales" have a huge hit

 

 

[csaag]

Back last mid October, I received a set of books back from CGC. 

First thing I did was to note what GoCollect listed as a current FMV (which I wrote down on the invoice but I did not note last date of sale)

Here's each book with the FMV from last October and what GoCollect lists as FMV today

                                      Oct 19  -   May 20

Conan 1                 9.0  $500   -   $425

FF 48                      8.5  $4500  - $4700

FF 49                      8.0  $1900  - $1550

Green Lantern 85   9.0    $250  - $170

Green Lantern 86   9.4    $350  - $230   

Hulk 181                  8.5  $4300 - $3700

King Size Hulk 1      7.0  $210   - $250

Hulk 102                   8.5   $325 - $325

Iron Man 1               8.5   $1150 - $950

Iron Man 55             3.5   $350 - $325

Giant Size X-Men 1  6.5  $1700 - $1350

House of Secrets 92 6.5   $1300 - $950    

Swamp Thing 1         6.5  $160 - $100

Flash 139                  3.5  $300  - $230

Batman 237               6.5  $90 - $65

[Math Teacher]

19 hours ago, NP_Gresham said:

I would like to see your data.

Hard to reach any conclusions when a lot of books in GPA have no sales since January.

I am mainly looking at Silver Age keys. For the few sales available it is hard to draw any conclusions, certainly there seems to be some downward pressure if anything.

For instance FF #1 universal, almost all arrows are down for recent activity

Hulk #1 universal mostly all down arrows

AF #15 is a mixed bag

JIM #83 is up mostly, but a couple of "last sales" have a huge hit

 

 

OK, I'll show you data for my 15 most valuable comics.

Amazing Fantasy #15 - CGC 0.5. 90 day average (1 sale) = $8625, last sale = $8625 in April 2020. Four total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Fantastic Four #1 - CGC 2.5. 90 day average (3 sales) = $7553, last sale = $8500 in April 2020. Thirteen total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Tales of Suspense #39 - CGC 4.5. 90 day average (1 sale) = $5000, last sale = $5000 in March 2020. Six total sales in this grade for all of 2019. Man, I wish I could have purchased my ToS #39 for that price!
Amazing Spider-Man #1 - CGC 3.0. 90 day average (5 sales) = $6105, last sale = $5775 in April 2020. Thirteen total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Journey Into Mystery #83 - CGC 3.0. 90 day average (1 sale) = $4600, last sale = $4600 in February 2020. Four total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
X-Men #1 - CGC 3.0. 90 day average (1 sale) = $3801, last sale = $3801 in February 2020. Seventeen total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Incredible Hulk #181 - CGC 8.5. 90 day average (9 sales) = $3874, last sale = $3700 in May 2020. Fifty-six total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
The Brave and the Bold #28 - CGC 4.5. 90 day average (3 sales) = $2815, last sale = $2640 in April 2020. Eight total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Fantastic Four #5 - CGC 2.5. 90 day average N/A (no sales), last sale = $2500 in September 2019. Two total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Daredevil #1 - CGC 6.0. 90 day average (4 sales) = $2779, last sale = $2880 in March 2020. Fourteen total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Showcase #22 - CGC 4.5. 90 day average N/A (no sales), last sale = $4000 in November 2019. Five total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
The Black Knight #1 - CGC 4.5. 90 day average (1 sale) = $1850, last sale = $1850 in April 2020. One total sale in this grade for all of 2019.
Tales to Astonish #27 - CGC 3.5. 90 day average N/A (no sales), last sale = $1900 in November 2019. Six total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Amazing Spider-Man #3 - CGC 4.5. 90 day average (3 sales) = $1563, last sale = $1950 in March 2020. Ten total sales in this grade for all of 2019.
Fantastic Four #48 - CGC 6.5. 90 day average (10 sales) = $1569, last sale = $1648 in April 2020. Four total sales in this grade for all of 2019.

I think any data point for Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 0.5, Tales of Suspense #39 CGC 4.5, Journey Into Mystery #83 CGC 3.0, Fantastic Four #5 CGC 2.5, Showcase #22 CGC 4.5, The Black Knight #1 CGC 4.5, Tales to Astonish #27 CGC 3.5, and Fantastic Four #48 CGC 6.5 is questionable. If a book changes hands six times or less during an entire year, one very high sale or one very low sale can skew the data.

I guess I could have gone farther, but finding the information you requested was tedious enough. Feel free to make your own judgement. All that I did was provide information about my collection. I certainly didn't say that this applied to all collections, or to any individual issue. YMMV.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Based on anecdotal evidence, there appears to be about a 10% drop in sales prices. That's mostly limited experience based on SA keys and Moderns, though. I also haven't looked at anything for about 3 weeks, now.

[evilskip]

A lot of people right now are more concerned with keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table. If things get better for the economy as a whole, then we'll probably see a steady rise in prices.

[Keys_Collector]

The panic over comics is about the same as people panicking over toilet paper.  This too will pass.  The market is readjusting itself more than anything as it seems like most books became overpriced from MCU impacting prices to a rush on overpaying for PCH books.  Stay the course.  I would drive myself crazy if I was checking my PC pricing the same way I do my 401K.  I check pricing when ready to sell but other then that, its in my personal collection and not going anywhere so why bother?

[Math Teacher]

3 hours ago, Keys_Collector said:

The panic over comics is about the same as people panicking over toilet paper.  This too will pass.  The market is readjusting itself more than anything as it seems like most books became overpriced from MCU impacting prices to a rush on overpaying for PCH books.  Stay the course.  I would drive myself crazy if I was checking my PC pricing the same way I do my 401K.  I check pricing when ready to sell but other then that, its in my personal collection and not going anywhere so why bother?

I check the value of my investments once a month. This helps me deal with the tremendous day-to-day fluctuations of the market. I check the pricing of my high-priced books every two months, as I said. As you said, I don't plan on selling any of these books soon, but I need to have a FMV estimate for my insurance company. If I only did this once a year, it's possible that I would underestimate an issue that has become red-hot. On the other hand, I could also overestimate an issue that has become ice-cold.