Hulk 181 Rookie Card sells for big money! 4 4

[F For Fake]

3 hours ago, Rip said:

The trickle down effect is real. I can't believe a box of Spider-man Fleer 1994 gets $600 a Marvel Masterpiece Tin (1992) gets $400 and a Marvel Masterpiece 1993 box gets $300.
Not sure if I should sell these now or what.

Prices are still insane, but it looks like the real feeding frenzy was last weekend. We're only a couple of weeks into this explosion, maybe we're over that initial burst? I don't see prices decreasing much so far, but they're not skyrocketing much beyond that first crazy bump, at this point. My two cents is that if you don't have a personal attachment to them, let 'em fly. But if you think you'd miss them, might as well hold on a bit longer and see where it goes. 

It's interesting, because common sense tells us that there are literally millions of these cards in existence, so population numbers are going to explode, and therefore, prices should be driven down. However, look at the census numbers on comics like ASM 300, Nm98, and other "common" books. More copies are added to an already overstuffed population every single day, and the prices keep going up. Now, it's not really fair to draw a direct comparison between the comics and the cards, when the comics exist in the hundreds of thousands, and the cards in the millions. BUT, it seems to give credence to the idea that there is hungry market for particular characters, books, cards, etc that will keep driving prices up regardless of how many copies show up, just because they love them. "First Deadpool card" or "First Wolverine" card may not seem like a big deal to most of us, but it's the sort of thing that may have some wow factor for folks showing stuff off to their friends, and casual collectors as well.

[FormerReader]

This isn’t going to end well for a lot of people who are already late to the game.

[WolverineX]

15 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Prices are still insane, but it looks like the real feeding frenzy was last weekend. We're only a couple of weeks into this explosion, maybe we're over that initial burst? I don't see prices decreasing much so far, but they're not skyrocketing much beyond that first crazy bump, at this point. My two cents is that if you don't have a personal attachment to them, let 'em fly. But if you think you'd miss them, might as well hold on a bit longer and see where it goes. 

It's interesting, because common sense tells us that there are literally millions of these cards in existence, so population numbers are going to explode, and therefore, prices should be driven down. However, look at the census numbers on comics like ASM 300, Nm98, and other "common" books. More copies are added to an already overstuffed population every single day, and the prices keep going up. Now, it's not really fair to draw a direct comparison between the comics and the cards, when the comics exist in the hundreds of thousands, and the cards in the millions. BUT, it seems to give credence to the idea that there is hungry market for particular characters, books, cards, etc that will keep driving prices up regardless of how many copies show up, just because they love them. "First Deadpool card" or "First Wolverine" card may not seem like a big deal to most of us, but it's the sort of thing that may have some wow factor for folks showing stuff off to their friends, and casual collectors as well.

Agreed. Several things I was watching all have sold for lower...

[THE_BEYONDER]

Just now, Wolverinex said:

Agreed. Several things I was watching all have sold for lower...

The attention span of the current speculator is very finite. 

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, FormerReader said:

This isn’t going to end well for a lot of people who are already late to the game.

Not sure exactly what you are referring to here?  

Is it Bitcoin which has rocketed up from the low $5K since the pandemic started back last March all the way up to $48K, or is it the stock market in terms of the Nasdaq which has risen from the high 6K point up to just over the 14K point mark or even the S&P 500 which has gone from the low 2K point mark up and now approaching the 4K point mark over the same time period?  

Definitely appears to be a ton of what they used to call in the old days as irrational exuberance and something to be careful about.     

[aardvark88]

30 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

 

Definitely appears to be a ton of what they used to call in the old days as irrational exuberance and something to be careful about.     

Is there less Covid in Dallas, TX sports card con, spec, flipping in Feb, 2021?

 

[an99]

3 hours ago, comicwiz said:

Same (I may have started out with more copies too). If I can offer some advice. And this is coming from someone who prefers keeping bagged (multipacks) sealed, if you intend on selling those cards, I'd take them out of the bags, put them first in a penny sleeve, then a top loader or card saver. Leave them in there for a few days just to try to even out any slight bends or impressions made by the other card in the bag. One of mine looks a lot better today than when I first took it out, and I didn't do anything other than what I described above.

I appreciate the advice. Thanks🙏

[comicwiz]

There's so many thoughts that I'm trying to process from watching the few videos I've watched in recent days. There are so many parallels to what was happening in coins with the crack resub game even before it shored-up in the comic hobby. Hearing these guys talking about cards that "crossed" or didn't "cross" or cracking out BGS, then thinking about what guys like Halperin were doing in coins, bringing that mindset to comics, and the grading landscape being set up in an amenable manner where you have a supposedly stricter grader being used to park resubs for people spending 5 and 6 figures on a card to double their money. Most people watching this will think, these guys have balls of steel, but the payoff involved with having a slack grader award a similar or higher grade than the stricter grader, and still allow these guys gaming grading to make money on that crack and resub play is nuts to me. It's the bizarro world equivalent of people taking a CGC slab, and sending it to PGX to get the same grade or higher, because the PGX grade is making 3-6x the values of the CGC counterpart.

I'm going to share what will probably be seen as one of the most unpopular opinions in board history by stating this. We needed people like joe_collector here on these boards to keep this unfettered madness in check. You won't see a single negative comment or any naysayers in any of the video comments, everyone is on board with this, and why wouldn't they be. They're treating the hobby like an ATM machine that keeps spitting out endless money. I want to preempt what I'm going to say by admitting that I do see a potential in certain segments of trading cards, but seeing these price resets while a show is happening, prices changing mid-deal, especially when professional sports have had to hibernate, shorten seasons, and have been struggling to keep the lights on during this pandemic, reveals some very troubling signals.

The Jordan RC's, and pretty much all the blue chip basketball in 9 or 10 grade slabs is pretty solid, and will continue to go up, provided you can sit on that type of purchase to see a return in a timeframe that you're comfortable waiting on. The 2 week bit in the video after he buys the Jordan is just hype, and I guess it's understandable in this era of monetizing content through eyeballs and YouTube subs, but it's also dangerous for people who follow the advice of these guys, who are using credit cards, rent money, and any life savings to make a move on these tips thinking they'll be able to make a quick buck, and cash out. It's never, ever that easy. Otherwise these convention rooms would be empty, and everyone would be able to stick the card in a kiosk or bank-like ATM machine to withdraw their earnings on those cards.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by comicwiz

[Roger66]

On 2/10/2021 at 10:01 PM, Buzzetta said:

Considering that full sets could have been purchased for less than $100 back in November, sales like this are concerning.

  It seems unbelievable if not incomprehensible that individuals could & would all act in unison to suddenly create a market for what is IMO a trivial and semi-cool collectible.  Maybe I am in the minority but it truly feels like a game of hot potato and when the music ends, whoever is left holding a card like this will be sucking wind.  I love comics, comic related collectibles and pretty much everything related to this crazy hobby but I draw the line on this insanity.     My 2-cents.

[THE_BEYONDER]

11 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

There's so many thoughts that I'm trying to process from watching the few videos I've watched in recent days. There are so many parallels to what was happening in coins with the crack resub game even before it shored-up in the comic hobby. Hearing these guys talking about cards that "crossed" or didn't "cross" or cracking out BGS, then thinking about what guys like Halperin were doing in coins, bringing that mindset to comics, and the grading landscape being set up in an amenable manner where you have a supposedly stricter grader being used to park resubs for people spending 5 and 6 figures on a card to double their money. Most people watching this will think, these guys have balls of steel, but the payoff involved with having a slack grader award a similar or higher grade than the stricter grader, and still allow these guys gaming grading to make money on that crack and resub play is nuts to me. It's the bizarro world equivalent of people taking a CGC slab, and sending it to PGX to get the same grade or higher, because the PGX grade is making 3-6x the values of the CGC counterpart.

I'm going to share what will probably be seen as one of the most unpopular opinions in board history by stating this. We needed people like joe_collector here on these boards to keep this unfettered madness in check. You won't see a single negative comment or any naysayers in any of the video comments, everyone is on board with this, and why wouldn't they be. They're treating the hobby like an ATM machine that keeps spitting out endless money. I want to preempt what I'm going to say by admitting that I do see a potential in certain segments of trading cards, but seeing these price resets while a show is happening, prices changing mid-deal, especially when professional sports have had to hibernate, shorten seasons, and have been struggling to keep the lights on during this pandemic, reveals some very troubling signals.

The Jordan RC's, and pretty much all the blue chip basketball in 9 or 10 grade slabs is pretty solid, and will continue to go up, provided you can sit on that type of purchase to see a return in a timeframe that you're comfortable waiting on. The 2 week bit in the video after he buys the Jordan is just hype, and I guess it's understandable in this era of monetizing content through eyeballs and YouTube subs, but it's also dangerous for people who follow the advice of these guys, who are using credit cards, rent money, and any life savings to make a move on these tips thinking they'll be able to make a quick buck, and cash out. It's never, ever that easy. Otherwise these convention rooms would be empty, and everyone would be able to stick the card in a kiosk to withdraw their earnings on those cards.

 

 

Yup

 

Would love to hear Vince’s thoughts on the current market.  Miss his rants.  I wonder if J_C still has his Byrne X-Men hoard,  or if he cashed in .

 

 

[manetteska]

I mean if Sasha’s got fire and he’s throwing up gansgsters on the trading table at the end of the day, ride it ‘til it dies. 

[FormerReader]

33 minutes ago, Roger66 said:

  It seems unbelievable if not incomprehensible that individuals could & would all act in unison to suddenly create a market for what is IMO a trivial and semi-cool collectible.  Maybe I am in the minority but it truly feels like a game of hot potato and when the music ends, whoever is left holding a card like this will be sucking wind.  I love comics, comic related collectibles and pretty much everything related to this crazy hobby but I draw the line on this insanity.     My 2-cents.

I have several complete sets of the series 1 set and lots of extras. I’m not unique. There is nothing rare about these cards or even these cards in high grade. They just weren’t worth submitting until now. I expect to see some talk about what an untapped market this is and why these cards will continue to hold value... until the market is flooded and we watch the value collapse. Good luck to those that pay these prices or pay to have their cards submitted. 

[Roger66]

5 minutes ago, FormerReader said:

I have several complete sets of the series 1 set and lots of extras. I’m not unique. There is nothing rare about these cards or even these cards in high grade. They just weren’t worth submitting until now. I expect to see some talk about what an untapped market this is and why these cards will continue to hold value... until the market is flooded and we watch the value collapse. Good luck to those that pay these prices or pay to have their cards submitted. 

Covid19 and sitting at home in front of one's computer for hours on end as well as looking to supplement household incomes - is likely part of the perfect storm, which is the HOT collectible market now.  I don't begrudge anyone one iota who sells these cards for lots of money or those who in turn buy them for said prices.  From a purely mid-century man's spectator's viewpoint it just seems like an obvious self-fulfilling prophecy, which we have seen over and over and over in years past in various other forms of so-called collectibles that went from boom to bust seemingly overnight.  

[FormerReader]

3 minutes ago, Roger66 said:

Covid19 and sitting at home in front of one's computer for hours on end as well as looking to supplement household incomes - is likely part of the perfect storm, which is the HOT collectible market now.  I don't begrudge anyone one iota who sells these cards for lots of money or those who in turn buy them for said prices.  From a purely mid-century man's spectator's viewpoint it just seems like an obvious self-fulfilling prophecy, which we have seen over and over and over in years past in various other forms of so-called collectibles that went from boom to bust seemingly overnight.  

Well said. I also do not begrudge anyone who makes money, but anyone who thinks this is anything but a house of cards, well good luck to them.

[F For Fake]

I definitely wouldn't be buying at market prices these days, but it's fun to buy them locally for 5 to 10 cents a card and then sell them right away. Craigslist has been helpful! Ordinarily I'd say this is a perfect example of a situation where you can make good money on drek and then put that back into something like silver and bronze key books; but, the comic market these days is similarly nuts, so I'm just taking the money from this worthless junk and putting it back into other, different, worthless junk. I never claimed to be a savvy investor.

The upside is that I finally got the Wolverine and Spidey/Goblin cards I needed to complete my personal keeper set, on the cheap! And while all comments regarding the insanity/stupidity of investing in these things are no doubt true, the fact is that I still love em. I was 13 when they came out, so this is squarely in the center of my nostalgia zone. Wouldn't want to put real money into them, but I'm glad I have mine.

Edited February 15, 2021 by F For Fake

[Rip]

It's a crazy world. Here's an example of my week. Tonight I've already seen some auctions close for 3X what they sold for 8 days ago, so the insanity is still very much alive.
For example I sold a Star Wars card for $315 that went for over $900 tonight.

But earlier this week I spent $325, bought some boxes and cards from some old school dealers, and now according to recent past E-bay sales over the last 2 days, I can sell those boxes and cards for $1600+. Basically these are all graded Star Wars cards and unopened Marvel boxes. If I was smart, I guess I wouldn't have sold the card that went for 3X. 

So you win some and loose some, but the fear of selling is certainly at an all time high for me, as you just don't know whats going to happen. 
I've already started to list most of them and see what happens next
I mean, how much longer can this keep going?

[comicwiz]

8 hours ago, Rip said:

For example I sold a Star Wars card for $315 that went for over $900 tonight.

If you don't mine me asking @Ripwhich card was it? I got an offer of $200 on that OPC 1 Luke and haven't accepted yet. Because of some machine marks on the back, I don't think it would grade more than a 6, but it presents better than that for a 70's era card that was wirecut.

[Dergrosse13]

10 hours ago, Rip said:

It's a crazy world. Here's an example of my week. Tonight I've already seen some auctions close for 3X what they sold for 8 days ago, so the insanity is still very much alive.
For example I sold a Star Wars card for $315 that went for over $900 tonight.

But earlier this week I spent $325, bought some boxes and cards from some old school dealers, and now according to recent past E-bay sales over the last 2 days, I can sell those boxes and cards for $1600+. Basically these are all graded Star Wars cards and unopened Marvel boxes. If I was smart, I guess I wouldn't have sold the card that went for 3X. 

So you win some and loose some, but the fear of selling is certainly at an all time high for me, as you just don't know whats going to happen. 
I've already started to list most of them and see what happens next
I mean, how much longer can this keep going?

I’ve seen the same thing with Star Wars cards.  I started collecting PSA graded ones about a year ago - mostly 1977 Wonder Bread cards and the series 1 blue cards and stickers.  I mostly bought higher grades - 8s and 9s.  I never paid more than about $40 for any card.  Last week I sold 3 of the Wonder Bread cards because the prices on offer were just insane.  Last night’s 4 Sharp Corners auction tells me I can sell one of my blue 77s for about 10x what I paid for it.  I like these cards, and maybe they’ll go up more, but I’m going to sell some more now.  I just can’t imagine prices will continue to climb inexorably, and even if they do, I can live with this kind of profit margin.

Someone pointed out to me that the stickers might eventually be the most valuable since so many of them were peeled and stuck on 40+ years ago, limiting the population.  Maybe I’ll hold on to those.

[Rip]

2 hours ago, comicwiz said:

If you don't mine me asking @Ripwhich card was it? I got an offer of $200 on that OPC 1 Luke and haven't accepted yet. Because of some machine marks on the back, I don't think it would grade more than a 6, but it presents better than that for a 70's era card that was wirecut.

Card 3 "the little droid" Blue Series PSA 9

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-STAR-WARS-3-THE-LITTLE-DROID-PSA-9-A3016655-147/383931240049?hash=item596415ce71:g:~EkAAOSw0pBgGXcQ

If you are selling the card you showed earlier in the thread your card (I can't see the back side) but judging from the front, it looks like a no brainer purchase at $200.  

Edited February 15, 2021 by Rip

[comicwiz]

35 minutes ago, Rip said:

Card 3 "the little droid" Blue Series PSA 9

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-STAR-WARS-3-THE-LITTLE-DROID-PSA-9-A3016655-147/383931240049?hash=item596415ce71:g:~EkAAOSw0pBgGXcQ

If you are selling the card you showed earlier in the thread your card (I can't see the back side) but judging from the front, it looks like a no brainer purchase at $200.  

Wow, nice! Too up and down to predict right now I think, shouldn't beat yourself up over that. I saw some listings where the seller just provided pics, called it case fresh, and got twice what every other listing got as an ungraded card. Seems too random, and a weird timing thing, than any method to the madness.

That's another card where I only have one extra from my master set. All my other low number cards in the multiples pile have several, like the Leia, Han, Vader, Ben, and even 3-P0, but the Luke and R2 only that one extra of each. The ones sitting in my master set are nice, but I don't want to break up that set just to sell in this frenzy. I sold my original set in my final year of high school, along with my original owner toy collection, regretted that decision much later, so this stuff is staying with me.