eBay Sold value driving me nuts! 3 3

[thehumantorch]

2 hours ago, cigars&comix said:

This has happened to me very often and I am experiencing it more than ever recently.

In this case I have a stack of Copper Age X-Men in the 200's with a lot of duplicates. I am cataloging the values for selling purposes based on last 30-60 day sold history on eBay. The duplicates are in different conditions, so I search for an issue in VG condition and for example it'll come up selling in the $7.00-10.00 range. Then I search for the same issue in VF and the prices are $3.00-5.00.!

Its happened several times , which is what promoted me to post this because I cannot get an accurate market value for these books. Any idea whats going on?

There are so many variables to consider.  Perhaps the buyer has a previous history with the seller and is willing to pay more.  Perhaps the buyer purchased multiple books and was willing to pay more because of combined shipping.  Perhaps the VG is under-graded and the VF is over-graded.  Perhaps the buyer lives closer to the seller and believes he'll get his books quicker and/or cheaper or avoid border tax - I try to buy off Canadian sellers to avoid GST tax.  Perhaps the seller's feedback made a difference.  Perhaps there's detail in the seller's auction text that influenced the buyer.  Perhaps the buyer chose the best price at the time and a better deal came up later.  

[cigars&comix]

3 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

There are so many variables to consider.  Perhaps the buyer has a previous history with the seller and is willing to pay more.  Perhaps the buyer purchased multiple books and was willing to pay more because of combined shipping.  Perhaps the VG is under-graded and the VF is over-graded.  Perhaps the buyer lives closer to the seller and believes he'll get his books quicker and/or cheaper or avoid border tax - I try to buy off Canadian sellers to avoid GST tax.  Perhaps the seller's feedback made a difference.  Perhaps there's detail in the seller's auction text that influenced the buyer.  Perhaps the buyer chose the best price at the time and a better deal came up later.  

"perhaps" youre right..

[thehumantorch]

28 minutes ago, cigars&comix said:

Thats exactly why I do the exercise, in case a $15 book pops up then I sell that one solo. I dont have knowledge of every X-men that came out. I have 3 piles of X-men on my table now that I am pricing through, a 150-200 pile, a 200-250 pile, a 250-300 pile , plus duplicates. No major keys but to use your words I dont want to "leave money on the table". Cant put it better than that.

I like to search ebay by title, by age ie Copper or Bronze, sold items, sorted highest to lowest, perhaps with a price range of $20 to $100 to eliminate the keys I already know about, to see what pops up.  If a book is selling for $100 or more in 9.8 it probably has reasonable value even in nice but lower grades

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=x-men -amazing&_sacat=165364&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=3&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_udlo=20&_udhi=100

[the blob]

13 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

My bad on this.  I stand corrected.  My only defense is that a lot of titles are as I described, but not X-Men, which was the topic.  And other more heavily collected titles alongside X-Men. 

I admittedly have had little involvement in comics of that era and type in recent times, so should have stayed out of it.  A lot in the past, but too far back.

The mcs suggestion is a good one, using that to at least find prices relative to neighbors in a run, those that popped.  It's that, or keep up to date on all the chatter about everything, which is just about impossible these days.  You can't be an expert in all areas.

Hey listen, a boardie just unloaded a bunch of these sorts of books at under $1 each..quickly scooped up by folks who will fill in their runs and sell off the rest for $2-$5 a pop, so it isn't like they aren't out there at those prices

Edited January 28, 2021 by the blob

[Motor City Rob]

17 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

You're wondering if the right price is $3, $5, $7, or $10.  It won't matter.  If you're selling in bulk, like runs or lots, you're lucky to get a buck apiece.  Or X amount per long box. 

I'm amazed that common issues from these periods sell at all.  If an issue has SOME significance, and I don't mean some stretch of significance like 32nd appearance of some character, maybe it's worth noting and selling separately.

Not sure I agree. I've sold tons of "common" books between $2 and $10. And the condition absolutely matters. I do agree that if you try to sell the same books as a large lot, you will most likely get much less.

[William-James88]

21 hours ago, cigars&comix said:

Yes I would use this to get the most inaccurate market value for the book. Im not even sure the purpose of overstreet any more. it is such an antiquated system.

Works very well for GA comics. There aren't many sales of graded books out there for a majority of them, so many resort to the guide to price and sell so the guide ends up influencing the market which then influences the guide. 

Harley Yee, one of the best known vintage sellers in the business priced according to guide on all the books I purchased from him. When I worked at a comic shop, we sold silver age and bronze age on e-bay and to save time, we just sold at guide price. It was by far the quickest way to get things done. And when you are paying employees to list stuff on e-bay, time is money

The guide also helps you spot out really quickly which issues stands out from the rest in a run that you might not be aware of. 

The guide is just inaccurate for keys and hot books, which is just 1% of comics out there, at most.

[speedcake]

20 hours ago, adampasz said:

This seems like the inevitable end point of the obsession with "keys" over the last decade. It's a variation of the Stan Lee Principle: Every comic book is a potential key.

Maybe this means run collecting will become cool again. 

Run collecting isn't cool?   

[cigars&comix]

On 1/28/2021 at 2:05 PM, William-James88 said:

Works very well for GA comics. There aren't many sales of graded books out there for a majority of them, so many resort to the guide to price and sell so the guide ends up influencing the market which then influences the guide. 

Harley Yee, one of the best known vintage sellers in the business priced according to guide on all the books I purchased from him. When I worked at a comic shop, we sold silver age and bronze age on e-bay and to save time, we just sold at guide price. It was by far the quickest way to get things done. And when you are paying employees to list stuff on e-bay, time is money

The guide also helps you spot out really quickly which issues stands out from the rest in a run that you might not be aware of. 

The guide is just inaccurate for keys and hot books, which is just 1% of comics out there, at most.

I hear you.

I have 1 copy of guide #48. the printing is so so sooo small that i can barely make out anything. just not for me.

[littledoom]

On 1/27/2021 at 12:59 PM, miraclemet said:

When  you're talking about small dollar books (under $10) lots of things can influence the final bid from Auction description/key word, to how good/bad the photos are. Sometimes you just get a dumb buyer who clicks BIN on the first copy they find, instead of finding a better copy for less. 

combined shipping also plays a role

[thehumantorch]

On 1/30/2021 at 7:56 PM, cigars&comix said:

I hear you.

I have 1 copy of guide #48. the printing is so so sooo small that i can barely make out anything. just not for me.

As more and more comics are printed and added to the price guide the font gets smaller.  As I get older the font gets blurrier.  Bad combination.