50th annual Overstreet - What does he get right? What does he get wrong? 3 3

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

I first posted this under “Water Cooler”, but it wasn’t getting much notice. I am hoping to hear the thoughts of others as to where Overstreet is missing the boat. My motivation is probably mostly focused on Planet Comics, but surely there are other pockets of inaccuracies. What do you guys see?

oh, here is my original post:

         
 

       Just got mine.
 

The usual suspects got some small bumps - like lower grade Cap 1 and Bat 1 and pre-Robin tecs. 

I’m a little surprised there was such little movement on Cap 3, and NO movement on Planets. Why no movement on Planets? Maybe I’m the only one who likes em.

 

 

Here’s another thing surprised me. AA 16 slipped ahead of Batman 1 in the Top 100 Golden Age comics. AA 16 is now #4, and Bat 1 dropped back to #5. 
 

I realize the final hammer is days away, but in the upcoming Heritage auction, AA 16 is currently losing to a lower grade Bat 1.   

 

How about you guys? What changes do you see? What changes don’t you see that you would have expected?
 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by GreatCaesarsGhost

[Chicago Boy]

Bob has a lot of love for AA 16 ( as do I ) but it certainly doesn’t reflect the market. Requests or pricing.  The mystique of its rarity has also gone out the window in recent years.  Still a great And  very important book 

[pemart1966]

1 hour ago, Chicago Boy said:

Bob has a lot of love for AA 16 ( as do I ) but it certainly doesn’t reflect the market. Requests or pricing.  The mystique of its rarity has also gone out the window in recent years.  Still a great And  very important book 

But no where near as important as Batman #1 IMO.  Agree with you about the rarity mystique being gone.  1st Golden Age GL - meh...

Edited September 3, 2020 by pemart1966

[jimbo_7071]

I haven't looked at this edition yet. What I used to like about Overstreet was that he didn't allow values to be overly influenced by books that were "hot" at the moment. I liked that approach because the inflated prices of hot books don't necessarily reflect long-term value. Over the past few years, it has seemed like Bob has been raising guide values on hot books a little too much; it seems like the old caution has been thrown to the wind somewhat.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

4 minutes ago, jimbo_7071 said:

I haven't looked at this edition yet. What I used to like about Overstreet was that he didn't allow values to be overly influenced by books that were "hot" at the moment. I liked that approach because the inflated prices of hot books don't necessarily reflect long-term value. Over the past few years, it has seemed like Bob has been raising guide values on hot books a little too much; it seems like the old caution has been thrown to the wind somewhat.

I get that, and I respect that.  But there have been some books that have been hot for so long (think Cap 3), that his reluctance is hard to understand.

[Robot Man]

It blows me away that The Overstreet Guide is 50 years old. I started collecting fairly seriously about 3 or 4 years before it came out. It sure was a game changer. And, it was fairly well accepted until the birth of the internet. In the old days, if you were asking “over guide” you were a rip off. Still THE reference book for information not so much for pricing but there are now other sources for that. 

What frustrating me is the amount of information I have submitted that never shows up every year even though I give documentation. 

[sfcityduck]

32 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

It blows me away that The Overstreet Guide is 50 years old. I started collecting fairly seriously about 3 or 4 years before it came out. It sure was a game changer. And, it was fairly well accepted until the birth of the internet. In the old days, if you were asking “over guide” you were a rip off. Still THE reference book for information not so much for pricing but there are now other sources for that. 

What frustrating me is the amount of information I have submitted that never shows up every year even though I give documentation. 

I have given them some substantive information about rare books that they have taken on board (e.g. number of known copies, etc.).  But, they don't seem to believe the actual sales price info for books that rarely appear on the marketplace.  

[Robot Man]

5 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

I have given them some substantive information about rare books that they have taken on board (e.g. number of known copies, etc.).  But, they don't seem to believe the actual sales price info for books that rarely appear on the marketplace.  

Rare books that rarely appear on the marketplace are often freaks of nature. Very hard to put a price on them. What a couple of people run a book up to shouldn't be reflected as fact in the guide. 95% of collectors would never pay those prices.

Overstreet has always taken a bit of a conservative approach to pricing. Trends move way to fast for a yearly printed guide to reflect.

A "guide" is just what it says it is, a "guide". Any experienced collector with any finger on the pulse of the market already knows better. No one says you have to use Overstreet pricing as the gospel. There are a number of on line venues that can give you more up to date pricing info.

Buy the book if you want it for information (other than prices) and entertainment or don't. Obviously, the detractors who come out very year are keeping it in print...

[Mmehdy]

50 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Rare books that rarely appear on the marketplace are often freaks of nature. Very hard to put a price on them. What a couple of people run a book up to shouldn't be reflected as fact in the guide. 95% of collectors would never pay those prices.

Overstreet has always taken a bit of a conservative approach to pricing. Trends move way to fast for a yearly printed guide to reflect.

A "guide" is just what it says it is, a "guide". Any experienced collector with any finger on the pulse of the market already knows better. No one says you have to use Overstreet pricing as the gospel. There are a number of on line venues that can give you more up to date pricing info.

Buy the book if you want it for information (other than prices) and entertainment or don't. Obviously, the detractors who come out very year are keeping it in print...

It has always since day one been a guide...in the old days it was a year or two behind of the actual prices serious collectors were paying, after 50 years still have some relevance in terms of price guiding is amazing. Happy 50 Bob

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

I’m a fan of OPG. I think most people are.  

[lou_fine]

9 hours ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I first posted this under “Water Cooler”, but it wasn’t getting much notice.

Yes, this is a much better forum to discuss the Overstreet Price Guide, as compared to the Water Cooler where I had posted the following response to you original post:

12 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Would definitely agree with you on the Cap 3 as even RESTORED mid-grade copies have been selling in the low $20K's and old slow Bob still have unrestored mid-grade copies listed for less than $7K.  Not sure why he still has Cap 3 valude at less than Cap 2 since this has not been the case for well over a decade now.      

As I had just mentioned in the Mask Comics Pricing thread on the GA boards, a bit surprised that he jack the top of guide price for Mask 1 from $8K all the way up to $20K in one shot since this is so un-Overstreet-like, even though it is fully deserved.    

Also a bit surprsied that it's a noticeably thinner guide with 100 less pages, including 60 less pages of market reports.  

Question for you:  Why is this topic posted in the Water Cooler since discussion about the Overstreet Price Guide is 100% comic book related and should really be on the regular boards?  

 

[comicginger1789]

Is Overstreet even relevant anymore? How does it survive? Don't get me wrong, I love physical copies of things but in today's ever changing market, it is hard to pin down prices. I can see it for benchmarks but even that seems harsh. It used to be great to reference for the info it had on first appearances and such but I find there are better resources at my fingertips that are much more accurate. Takes time but then again, so does flipping through the giant guide. I almost think they should publish 5 books (one for Gold, one for Silver, one for Bronze, one for Copper and one for whatever era we are in) and have experts devoted to each book. That way, collectors could buy the guides that most apply to them. I would likely go for the first three. Would have more space for expert analysis, sales trends and info on each book.

My two cents

[pemart1966]

The first Overstreet guide that I bought was #6 - 1976.  If I remember correctly it only showed Good, Fine and Mint prices.

There were no notations as to rarity of books as I recall and I remember thinking that OK - one book must be as easy to find as any other and No, I'm not going to buy that VF+ copy of Batman 7.  I'll wait for a mint copy, after all, it's not that much more expensive if I extrapolate the guide price.   

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by pemart1966

[bluechip]

2 hours ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I’m a fan of OPG. I think most people are.  

With SDCC canceled I completely forgot about the Overstreet 2020 edition.  

[OtherEric]

4 hours ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I’m a fan of OPG. I think most people are.  

I don't necessarily find it terribly useful as a price guide any more.  But as a single book reference it remains wonderful, even with all the online sources we now have.  I don't pick it up every year, but every 5 years or so I wear out my old one and get a new copy for reference.

I mentioned this to my LCS owner today and he gave me last year's free; so I'm set for a while.

[sfcityduck]

5 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Rare books that rarely appear on the marketplace are often freaks of nature. Very hard to put a price on them. What a couple of people run a book up to shouldn't be reflected as fact in the guide. 95% of collectors would never pay those prices.

Overstreet has always taken a bit of a conservative approach to pricing. Trends move way to fast for a yearly printed guide to reflect.

A "guide" is just what it says it is, a "guide". Any experienced collector with any finger on the pulse of the market already knows better. No one says you have to use Overstreet pricing as the gospel. There are a number of on line venues that can give you more up to date pricing info.

Buy the book if you want it for information (other than prices) and entertainment or don't. Obviously, the detractors who come out very year are keeping it in print...

I completely agree.  I buy it for for the substantive information, so I'm glad they have on occasion taken on board the substantive info I've offered them.

[circumstances]

Back in the day it was indispensable, and anxiously awaited.

Now I buy one every two or three years.

That's sad.

The Spirit of '76 was my first one also (issue #6).

As far as All-American 16 and Batman 1, I have both books, I love both books, I can't agree with AA16 moving ahead of Bats 1 on the top GA value list.

[sfcityduck]

6 minutes ago, circumstances said:

Back in the day it was indispensable, and anxiously awaited.

Now I buy one every two or three years.

That's sad.

The Spirit of '76 was my first one also (issue #6).

As far as All-American 16 and Batman 1, I have both books, I love both books, I can't agree with AA16 moving ahead of Bats 1 on the top GA value list.

My ocd makes me buy it every year I colllect.

[Jim Wedaa]

Personally, I think. the book is too unwieldily. Print is too small and there are too many pages. I think the guide should either be a two volume set (A-L in one and M-Z in the other book.) or three volumes which could be divided as DC, Atlas/Marvel and other. 

[circumstances]

2 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

My ocd makes me buy it every year I colllect.

I haven't collected since the 1990s, and have probably bought 7 or 8 OPGs when they were released in the past 20 years.

I also bought it every year that I was collecting, and probably for the first five years after I stopped.

Then it became sporadic, lol.