Is PCH down? 4 4

[Robot Man]

I have most always “traveled the road less taken” as far as collecting is concerned. Back very early, ECs were $3-5. but other PCH were dollar books under tables raw in boxes. I quickly discovered how cool they were. Same thing with Schomburg cover Timelys. I discovered the Nedor titles. Every bit as good just characters off the radar and a fraction of the price. Seems like everything has been now discovered but I still search out stuff that is not popular and off the radar. 

[waaaghboss]

1 hour ago, Robot Man said:

I have most always “traveled the road less taken” as far as collecting is concerned. Back very early, ECs were $3-5. but other PCH were dollar books under tables raw in boxes. I quickly discovered how cool they were. Same thing with Schomburg cover Timelys. I discovered the Nedor titles. Every bit as good just characters off the radar and a fraction of the price. Seems like everything has been now discovered but I still search out stuff that is not popular and off the radar. 

Kind of the approach I take.  Currently I'm slowly grabbing old strip reprint books like king comics and single series.   They can run up to $100 an issue, but in VG or better they still pop, are fun reads, and cheap relative to their scarcity.  

[Ryan.]

Sci-Fi is where it's at. You'll see. 

[adamstrange]

Seeing the results of tonight's c-link auction I think we can say that this question didn't age well.

[jimbo_7071]

14 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

Seeing the results of tonight's c-link auction I think we can say that this question didn't age well.

The prices tonight wouldn't surprise me that much if there were high-resolution scans and back cover scans. I've seen books that appear to be significantly overgraded sell for very strong prices tonight, so I guess the mantra "Buy the book, not the label" hasn't aged well, either.

Edited May 28, 2020 by jimbo_7071

[Robot Man]

8 hours ago, waaaghboss said:

Kind of the approach I take.  Currently I'm slowly grabbing old strip reprint books like king comics and single series.   They can run up to $100 an issue, but in VG or better they still pop, are fun reads, and cheap relative to their scarcity.  

I love King Comics. Popeye covers/stories, Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim by Raymond, The Phantom and other features. They are so cheap too!

[956Ref]

2 hours ago, adamstrange said:

Seeing the results of tonight's c-link auction I think we can say that this question didn't age well.

I think this comment isnt very accurate. Thats like saying "The Artist" winning an award when it came out even though its a movie in black and white could be a representation of that genre still being strong. Those are very select and handful of books. 

Not every hero book is going for AF 15 or FF1 numbers.

[jimbo_7071]

1 hour ago, 956Ref said:

I think this comment isnt very accurate. Thats like saying "The Artist" winning an award when it came out even though its a movie in black and white could be a representation of that genre still being strong. Those are very select and handful of books. 

Not every hero book is going for AF 15 or FF1 numbers.

That's true. Many of the books were highest-graded copies; some had especially sought-after covers. Maybe you could say that classic covers and single-highest-graded copies aren't down, and low-grade readers aren't down because they can't go much lower, but most everything in between may well be down.

[The-Collector]

8 hours ago, adamstrange said:

Seeing the results of tonight's c-link auction I think we can say that this question didn't age well.

I didn't follow the results very closely on PCH. What books in particular make you say this? 

[PeterPark]

On 5/25/2020 at 7:31 PM, Robot Man said:

The age group of PCH buyers and sellers in my area is expanding a lot. LOTS of 20-40 year olds, bored with the ease of obtaining SA/BA have "graduated" into GA. Mostly PCH. They have realized that a lot of this stuff rarely turns up and when it does it's like a chum pool. Lot of flippers calling me and jumping my boxes buying up anything they can flip at as low as 5-10% margins. Often to each other.

"Old guys" like me are a target for them because a lot of us got our books way back in the late '60's-early '70's for $1-5. a book. I am still buying when I can. companies like ACG, Avon and a few others tended not to have all that much in the way of gory off the hook stories. They were always, something I passed on to buy the better ones. I'd say other than those (which are still not a high priority for me), there are about 15 books that I still am after. I had my chance at the time but bought other stuff I wanted more. Chamber of Chills #19 comes to mind. It was all over the place at guide and file copies to boot. I missed the boat but if I am lucky, I will eventually have one.

The market is and will always stay strong on them. Especially if priced anywhere close to earth.

I fit into this category. And GA is almost all I collect nowadays. I got my silver age and bronze age keys and the ones you mentioned don't do much for me now. They're overpriced from what I expect but I can find some rare precode books that still fly under the radar...I ask for Baker, haha

[Black Bat]

There will always be a solid market and audience for horror- in music art drama etc- death and fear are timeless.  This PCH market is not as large as superhero but it is constant and is not generational.  Superhero books have a strong nostalgia appeal- when the source generation ages out, the books fall in price and the fan base shrinks.  I did not buy PCH books as a child, but have a strong connection to horror in all genres.  

Sales wise, over the past year or so people are trying to a sell ton of low/mid grade PCH books for crazy BIN prices.  Most of these aren't very desirable books, and sit on eBay forever, while selling for less when they appear on the auction sites.  The very desirable hard-to-find pch books still rarely turn up anywhere and command strong prices when they do.  

People talk about pch "keys" and yes there are several very hot expensive titles, but there seem to be several scarce, very cool books in every title run that command high prices.  

[october]

6 minutes ago, Black Bat said:

There will always be a solid market and audience for horror- in music art drama etc- death and fear are timeless.  This PCH market is not as large as superhero but it is constant and is not generational.  Superhero books have a strong nostalgia appeal- when the source generation ages out, the books fall in price and the fan base shrinks.  I did not buy PCH books as a child, but have a strong connection to horror in all genres.  

Sales wise, over the past year or so people are trying to a sell ton of low/mid grade PCH books for crazy BIN prices.  Most of these aren't very desirable books, and sit on eBay forever, while selling for less when they appear on the auction sites.  The very desirable hard-to-find pch books still rarely turn up anywhere and command strong prices when they do.  

People talk about pch "keys" and yes there are several very hot expensive titles, but there seem to be several scarce, very cool books in every title run that command high prices.  

This sums it up pretty perfectly. 

The cream of the crop still command ever higher prices (see the last BC 50 and Blue Bolt 115 results from CLink), but the middling stuff has cooled off. VG-F copies of random Superior tiles, for example, are not $300-600 any more...and they were for awhile.  

[956Ref]

On 5/25/2020 at 6:31 PM, Robot Man said:

The age group of PCH buyers and sellers in my area is expanding a lot. LOTS of 20-40 year olds, bored with the ease of obtaining SA/BA have "graduated" into GA. Mostly PCH. They have realized that a lot of this stuff rarely turns up and when it does it's like a chum pool. Lot of flippers calling me and jumping my boxes buying up anything they can flip at as low as 5-10% margins. Often to each other.

"Old guys" like me are a target for them because a lot of us got our books way back in the late '60's-early '70's for $1-5. a book. I am still buying when I can. companies like ACG, Avon and a few others tended not to have all that much in the way of gory off the hook stories. They were always, something I passed on to buy the better ones. I'd say other than those (which are still not a high priority for me), there are about 15 books that I still am after. I had my chance at the time but bought other stuff I wanted more. Chamber of Chills #19 comes to mind. It was all over the place at guide and file copies to boot. I missed the boat but if I am lucky, I will eventually have one.

The market is and will always stay strong on them. Especially if priced anywhere close to earth.

Its funny you mention that you get raided by flippers trying to make 5-10% on each other. I feel like I see that alot with PCH, dealers and collectors passing the same books to each other over and over after owning it for 3-6 months. The question is then....are the flippers and resellers keeping the PCH market hotter than it really is? I feel like I see many people buy a PCH book with the intent to flip it, or they get their satisfaction of owning it and after few months try to sell for a small profit to get another PCH book just to own for a few months. Like a small gratification of saying "I used to own that book". 

When it comes to Hero books yes there are flippers as well, but I feel there are a larger number of people whom have multiple hero books that you can not pry from their dead hands and they keep for years. Example...someone owns a BA 12 because they love harley quinn, they will not sell it 6 months to a year later to buy a batman 181 because they also love poison Ivy. Just doesnt happen. With PCH I feel it does. What does that say? Im not exactly sure, but I think its something to think about...

Maybe this goes back to the genre's interchangeability. ...BUT this may also go back to "there's always buyers" because they are caught in a loop that creates a false market.

[Black Bat]

11 minutes ago, 956Ref said:

I feel like I see that alot with PCH, dealers and collectors passing the same books to each other over and over after owning it for 3-6 months.

hmmm... i don't see much of this.  Maybe with the pedigree books.  There's been many books over the past several years I had a chance to buy but didn't and haven't seen since.  Nobody flipping those.  Harley who?  Harley Yee!  Ha ha.  False market because of a few flippers?  False.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Black Bat

[IngelsFan]

Yesterday on eBay a Tales From the Crypt 24 in 4.0 sold (at auction, not BIN) for almost 4 1/2 times OPG. PCH is very much alive and kicking.

[Ryan.]

1 hour ago, 956Ref said:

Example...someone owns a BA 12 because they love harley quinn, they will not sell it 6 months to a year later to buy a batman 181 because they also love poison Ivy. Just doesnt happen.

Except it happens all the time. 

[waaaghboss]

14 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I love King Comics. Popeye covers/stories, Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim by Raymond, The Phantom and other features. They are so cheap too!

Yah, loving the old popeye books.  I picked up popeye and his papa for a song, and it was a trip.   Plus the deep blue cover and imposing size, it barely squeezes into my magazine box!  Another funny strip charactor I'm enjoying is tarzan, although his books seem to be going for a bit more than the other books of the era, but still feel cheap compared to PCH.

[fifties]

1 hour ago, IngelsFan said:

Yesterday on eBay a Tales From the Crypt 24 in 4.0 sold (at auction, not BIN) for almost 4 1/2 times OPG. PCH is very much alive and kicking.

You can pretty much ignore Overstreet's estimates when it comes to PCH, and it's been that way for ages.

[waaaghboss]

9 minutes ago, fifties said:

You can pretty much ignore Overstreet's estimates when it comes to PCH, and it's been that way for ages.

Wait, you mean i cant get NM copies of Torchy for $200? 

one of the surprising ones is they still list the horror copies at the end of Jumbo Comics as if they were part of the run, and not 3-5X more expensive every time they sell.

[IngelsFan]

57 minutes ago, fifties said:

You can pretty much ignore Overstreet's estimates when it comes to PCH, and it's been that way for ages.

Agreed, but at least the multiple of guide used to be lower (or at least steady), especially for lower grade PCH. Now I’m seeing lower graded books at multiples that usually were commanded by higher graded books.