Just had a disturbing thought 1 1

[Skunkboy]

50 minutes ago, silverseeker said:

This is key when looking at GPA data...sometimes the last sale will be a high or low outlier data point.

Let's face it though - with the way the current market is moving on many titles, you almost have to stick to the most recent sales to have a feel for the market.  90 Days ago is ancient history with what's going on.

[B2D327]

4 hours ago, Terry_JSA said:

It could happen, but who would willingly go through the trouble just to do that? 

Whoever owns a ton of drek in multiple copies that sat in the $1 bin for 30+ years (until the character popped up on Disney+....or a 1st appearance of Squirrel Girl)

[Terry JSA]

18 minutes ago, B2D327 said:

Whoever owns a ton of drek in multiple copies that sat in the $1 bin for 30+ years (until the character popped up on Disney+....or a 1st appearance of Squirrel Girl)

I wouldn’t know what to think if I saw a 1st appearance of Squirrel Girl for for $3,000.

[B2D327]

10 minutes ago, Terry_JSA said:

I wouldn’t know what to think if I saw a 1st appearance of Squirrel Girl for for $3,000.

That it’s not in dollar bins where it belongs is cause enough for alarm

[Terry JSA]

4 minutes ago, B2D327 said:

That it’s not in dollar bins where it belongs is cause enough for alarm

I’ve never came across one in dollar bins, then again it’s not like I deliberately look for the book. 

[Mercury Man]

5 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

This has been happening in comics since forever, long before the internet came on the scene.

Mile High Chuck even detailed it in one of his "Tales from the Database" columns back in 2003 or so: https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg81.html

Everyone should read this, as I still remember it, even 10+ years later. An example from his column:

"The thing to realize here is that Bob Overstreet does not sell any comic books. He compiles sales data that he receives from comics dealers. That makes him a prime target for all sorts of efforts to raise the values of certain genres. The simplest trick is for two dealers to "sell" each other books at inflated values. Let's say that dealer #1 has an ACTION #1 that hasn't been moving, while dealer #2 has a set of Captain America #1-#10 that he hasn't turned over in a while. Each dealer writes the other dealer a check for $200,000, and they swap inventory. The checks cancel each other out, but now each can report that they "sold" those books for record prices. This happens far more frequently than you would think..."

And yet Chuck still prices his books based on the sales records of this method + 20%

[rjpb]

31 minutes ago, Mercury Man said:

And yet Chuck still prices his books based on the sales records of this method + 20%

If he's running a half price sale.

[bluechip]

3 hours ago, the blob said:

sure, but now you may be paying fees on $4000 vs. $3000 and have more explaining to do to the tax man (the $1000 kick back deduction might now work?)

 

Not to mention you'd owe taxes on 1K of profits you didn't actually receive

[silverseeker]

3 hours ago, Skunkboy said:

Let's face it though - with the way the current market is moving on many titles, you almost have to stick to the most recent sales to have a feel for the market.  90 Days ago is ancient history with what's going on.

This is so true, especially this year...new GPA highs appear to be constantly getting set for some books.

I should have qualified my statement with "before Covid" or "before 2021"...

[the blob]

2 hours ago, B2D327 said:

Whoever owns a ton of drek in multiple copies that sat in the $1 bin for 30+ years (until the character popped up on Disney+....or a 1st appearance of Squirrel Girl)

1st squirrel girl has been expensive for a while. her comic series got a lot of good reviews (fanboys being who they are probably didn't buy it), in particular, outside of comicdom, the series lasted 50 issues, and they like to use her on the disney cartoons, and the TPBs sold well. Don't knock the squirrel.

[the blob]

1 hour ago, rjpb said:

If he's running a half price sale.

If you spend 4 hours looking on his site you will find 2 or 3 decent deals after the codeword sale.

correction, he just jacked up all the prices another 25-35% since i last looked there a few months ago, so forget that

Edited March 13, 2021 by the blob

[the blob]

oh lordy, just randomly looking up $3-$7 books on ebay and he has them all at $70-140. even 50% off, who is buying anything other than some of his cheap low grade and filler books?

 

seriously, a few years ago I probably put in 3 or 4 orders with him orders big enough for free shipping, carefully selecting stuff that turned out to be deals with the 50% off codeword. I am not sure that is possible right now. Ironically, I was looking at a CGC book pon his site and it is actually priced right for the market, but the codeword doesn't apply to cgc books

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by the blob

[Doctor Dositheus]

Chuck doesn't need me to white knight for him but he prices for the long term future. The world population will likely increase, and the available comic books can only decrease.

IF you accept his premise that people will always love comic books, you can see why owning ALL the comix books and pricing them accordingly makes internal sense.

[Pat Thomas]

1 hour ago, Doctor Dositheus said:

Chuck doesn't need me to white knight for him but he prices for the long term future. The world population will likely increase, and the available comic books can only decrease.

IF you accept his premise that people will always love comic books, you can see why owning ALL the comix books and pricing them accordingly makes internal sense.

That isn't realistic, though. Chuck won't be around for that to happen anyway, if it was even a possibility.

[JollyComics]

I have heard that before.

[Ride the Tiger]

If you are going to manipulate the prices do it the right way. Get like 4 or 5 guys all tight friends. Pick a book that has potential for growth and start buying up the copies available. Put the high grade ones up for sale at crazy prices. Have your buddies purchase them. Give your friends their money back. Continue to do this. Ching ching.

[Timely]

16 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Disclaimer:  In now way, shape, or form am I advocating the following.  Just pointing out a flaw in the system:

(I mean, it *is* Friday, after all)

Suppose I had a comic book that was fairly valued at $3,000.  Let's pretend that my friend, "Billy Bob", has been pestering me to sell it to him.

Finally, I relent and say, "OK, Billy Bob,...give me $3,000".

He then says, "I have a better idea...I'll buy it from you for $4,000 in a public venue...Then you give me back $1,000 in 'change' later (under the table)".  

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000.  Everyone would proclaim the book was "hot", and Billy Bob could then sell his copy for a fat profit.

This could happen, right?  

Shenanigans!

[Bookery]

14 hours ago, MyNameIsLegion said:

how is this really any different than what happens with HA with every single auction? I sell a $3000 book through ha, it hammers at $3600 with juice. I only get $2550 from HA after their sellers fee. GPA says it sold for $3600, but I only made $2500.  Oh, and the seller "bought" it will money they had in their HA account from something they consigned, so it wasn't really cash. 

This is not the same thing though.  The book did indeed sell for $3600.  What you received personally from the sale is not relevant.  The mistake here is that consignors sometimes believe the auction fees are 20%, but in reality are really 33% (the way the math works out), because both buyer and seller are being charged 20% (usually).  But bidders know this, and bid accordingly (I always do).  If I'm willing to go $1200 on a book, I bid $1000 knowing that $1200 will be the end-price.  The seller receives $800.  Sotheby's and Christie's work similarly.  I wish all auction houses worked like Hershenson's (the commission is charged only to the seller) as it makes things easier when bidding... but the big international auction houses use this as a marketing mechanism, as I guess the assumption is that sellers don't like to be told they are actually getting only 67% of the retail sale.

[Bird]

sellers fees are negotiable. I consider myself a small fish and get a better deal than 20% by far. And it was easy to do so.

[Buzzetta]

14 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

This has been happening in comics since forever, long before the internet came on the scene.

Mile High Chuck even detailed it in one of his "Tales from the Database" columns back in 2003 or so: https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg81.html

Everyone should read this, as I still remember it, even 10+ years later. An example from his column:

"The thing to realize here is that Bob Overstreet does not sell any comic books. He compiles sales data that he receives from comics dealers. That makes him a prime target for all sorts of efforts to raise the values of certain genres. The simplest trick is for two dealers to "sell" each other books at inflated values. Let's say that dealer #1 has an ACTION #1 that hasn't been moving, while dealer #2 has a set of Captain America #1-#10 that he hasn't turned over in a while. Each dealer writes the other dealer a check for $200,000, and they swap inventory. The checks cancel each other out, but now each can report that they "sold" those books for record prices. This happens far more frequently than you would think..."

You mean... like... what goes on with some of the comic art sometimes?