Buyers: What is your plan for the current insanity? 3 3

[Mr bla bla]

5 hours ago, blazingbob said:

Highgradecomics.com is proud to announce the partnership with Shady times Funeral homes.  With the new escalation in prices we are now co-marketing burial plots,  marvel character tombstones and superhero caskets so that you have a place to be buried with the books.  

 

That was dark.

(but fun)

[serling1978]

On 4/4/2021 at 1:27 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Not sure what grades those TTA books are in, but I might be interested.

Well looks like I'm out of luck on the JIM 83. I guess GPA doesn't mean a whole lot in today's crazy market. On a 2.5 the high sale from Dec is $4700 and the average is around $4600, but I can't find anything even in that universe. Had one offer here for $7600 for a 2.5 .  I really hope speculation isn't rendering GPA obsolete. 

Long story short, looks like I won't be moving those ant man keys. 

[the blob]

31 minutes ago, serling1978 said:

Well looks like I'm out of luck on the JIM 83. I guess GPA doesn't mean a whole lot in today's crazy market. On a 2.5 the high sale from Dec is $4700 and the average is around $4600, but I can't find anything even in that universe. Had one offer here for $7600 for a 2.5 .  I really hope speculation isn't rendering GPA obsolete. 

Long story short, looks like I won't be moving those ant man keys. 

sell a stack of slabbed x-men 282s and half a stack of slabbed thor 338s and you can afford the key you've been looking for. easy peezy. its the bitcoin of 2021

[OuterBanks]

I think it’s all about hunting for deals - I got a major Silver Age key for about 1/2 what it should go for off a major auction site recently.  That’s an anomaly but I also saw an AF15 2.5 on that site go for “pre crazy” prices the prior week.

I’d say deals are out there but much harder to find.  I might look into buying collections from people who just want to get rid of stuff.

[Joe Lindsey]

On 4/4/2021 at 9:43 AM, Off Panel said:

I'm of two minds when looking at the staggering run-up in prices over the past few months. On the one hand, I own some top keys (Bronze Age, anyway) and I'm thrilled to see them climbing to brain-bending heights right now. On the other hand, I have a lot more books to purchase before I'm done and the doubling and trebling of prices across the board seems like nothing less than mass insanity.

I have built up a war chest that would make me feel flush in any other year, and normally I would be working on buying a big book right about now. However, after thinking about it over the past month. I'm putting myself on the sidelines. Even though I could still afford some of these big books at the going rate, I frankly don't want to do anything to "normalize" these prices. So, I'm going to climb out of the pool and do my small part to reduce the Demand side of the equation by at least one.

Could I end up regretting it? Sure. If that Hulk 180 I was looking at goes from $10,000 in 2020 to $30,000 in 2121 to $60,000 in 2022, then I will have missed the boat. However, at that point, this will likely be a hobby I can no longer afford anyway, at least not the way I have enjoyed it in the past.

So, what about the rest of you? Are you swimming with the sharks or eating popcorn on the sidelines?

 

I’m a firm believer in normalizing. I think I’ll sell my slabs to the middle class for roughly fmv and they can sell them to the elites. Everybody wins! Comics aren’t my bread and butter anyhow. But yeah I’m not buying slabs that’s for darn sure. I will buy raw books and send em as long as they don’t climb to slab prices(which I see happening) I’ll take mine with light butter 🍿

[serling1978]

On 4/16/2021 at 3:48 AM, VikramK said:

I think it’s all about hunting for deals - I got a major Silver Age key for about 1/2 what it should go for off a major auction site recently.  That’s an anomaly but I also saw an AF15 2.5 on that site go for “pre crazy” prices the prior week.

I’d say deals are out there but much harder to find.  I might look into buying collections from people who just want to get rid of stuff.

What auction site? I'm in the market for a grail myself, and these are difficult times. 😭

[cgcmod8]

I have removed some posts.  Lets keep politics out of the discussion.

[the blob]

I dunno, with all the money coming in it has been easier to justify buying stuff. I just bought a group of Batmans I will probably break up and hope to sell for double what I paid and keep an issue or so. A group of books here I bought I have sold less than half of, already turned a profit, and still have the rest. I just bought a Goon 2 (Avatar) 9.8 at a decent price (quite possibly a price well below what it was at its peak, not sure)... but a price I NEVER would have paid were I not selling other stuff for crazy money ... of course, I immediately had regrets as I really want the #1, but am not paying that kind of money for a nice one and wonder if a 5.0 has upside?) ... and i threw some fun bids at OA and wound up getting a Ron Lim piece that I think has enough going for it at that price that I did not think I would win the auction on. So, yeah, my sensiibilites are warped when I sell some former dollar box aquisitions for $90, $150, and $150 like I did last week and every 4th book in a box turns out to be a $10-15-25 book when 2 or 3 years ago I'd find like 5 or 6 such books in a box. Most of my stuff is still relatively worthless (realistically, under $3-5), sure.

[the blob]

On 4/16/2021 at 3:48 AM, VikramK said:

I think it’s all about hunting for deals - I got a major Silver Age key for about 1/2 what it should go for off a major auction site recently.  That’s an anomaly but I also saw an AF15 2.5 on that site go for “pre crazy” prices the prior week.

I’d say deals are out there but much harder to find.  I might look into buying collections from people who just want to get rid of stuff.

which key? it does seem some of the DCs are doable right now. I just sold a showcase 23 and to think that is the second appearance of the SA GA we know and how cheap it is compared to anything Marvel...

[mcribar]

I just sold over 3000 books (mostly bronze) through a local auction house.  Did much better than anticipated.  I'm now going to sell all of my GA and SA that are under 4.0.  I'm also going to sell some slabbed books on Heritage, currently talking to one of the consignment directors.  From what I can get there the 15% commission is well worth it.  This will leave me with just my favorites (I'm a collector first) while at the same time reducing my collection by 60% when the market is hot.  The local auction is great.  No hassle, no E-Bay, no problems, no complaints.  I drop off my stuff and a week later go pick up my check.  I know I can do better on E-Bay but it would take far longer to sell and it would be in bits and pieces that I don't have the time or desire to deal with.  The auction commission of 35% works fine for me since many of these books I bought out of the quarter boxes back in the early 90s. 

[Vince G]

4 minutes ago, the blob said:

which key? it does seem some of the DCs are doable right now. I just sold a showcase 23 and to think that is the second appearance of the SA GA we know and how cheap it is compared to anything Marvel...

I agree.  DC keys are cheap in comparison.  Focusing attention there and on mags is the direction I've set for myself for the immediate future.

[the blob]

37 minutes ago, Vince G said:

I agree.  DC keys are cheap in comparison.  Focusing attention there and on mags is the direction I've set for myself for the immediate future.

I kind of regret selling it, but someone made an offer than seemed very reasonable and I felt like a jerk not accepting it. True, it is kind of a "nothing" appearance (generic evil alien) and was lower grade.

[The lips]

Having recently got back into it, I’m just focusing on quality not quantity. 
ive just sold around 400 issues of bog standard Marvel stuff to concentrate on ASM minor keys and to plug gaps in my ASM run. 
I’m not bothered now about having a large volume collection just a good, important to me with some hot issues in there. 
I’ll continue trading like this until ( if ) the market calms before adding in some of the more expensive keys namely ASM 129 and 50. 
if it doesn’t then I’m happy enough with what I’ve got and the route I’m on. 

[pickycollector]

With the craziness of surging prices on many SA/BA Marvel key issues, most of the DC key issues look incredibly cheap by today's new standards.

[Dark Knight]

I'm just going to sick back and chill and not let FOMO get the best of me. Hopefully the price I'd want to pay for some books will come to me. Not going to be chasing.

[piper]

When did FOMO become an expression/acronym?

For me it’s not a fear of missing out so much as a realisation that I will soon be priced out of the market.

I have two big keys left on my wish list: Avengers 1, Hulk 1.

FF 1 is no longer doable without selling off a ton of stuff.

[thehumantorch]

15 minutes ago, piper said:

When did FOMO become an expression/acronym?

For me it’s not a fear of missing out so much as a realisation that I will soon be priced out of the market.

I have two big keys left on my wish list: Avengers 1, Hulk 1.

FF 1 is no longer doable without selling off a ton of stuff.

FOMO has been around a while.  I've typically seen it in regards to investing/stock buying.

[Hollywood1892]

....hold....begrudgingly!

It's like oil, sell the drainage, everybody thinks it will become the oil underneath, buried

[Michelangelo]

I sold most of my books last year to fund a new business venture. Could I have made 2-3x more for my books today? Yes. Do I regret selling? Kinda bittersweet, but not because of the dollars ... it’s because I loved the books.

 I love the hobby, the medium, the hunt and everything that true collectors value. I always thought that some day, I’ll jump right back in. That some day might be decades from now...  

people driving up prices today are nothing more than speculators. The anti-hobbyists 

As an equities/stock trader, I see this happen all the time, especially the past year or so.. These GameStop-buying  nuts are driving up the prices and are going to be bag-holding overpriced books just like they lose their shirts in the stock market when they chase and go all in on stocks that have already run 200%+

volatility/change is wild in the markets and glacial in comic collecting with low liquidity and other factors... the prices will drop and the time will come, but I expect it to take a while. 
don’t go buying because of FOMO.. 

stay solvent and continue to love the hobby as we always have

Edited April 24, 2021 by Michelangelo

[the blob]

No. I think stimulus money might help in creating a lot more $10-$50 books, but not your $1000 9.8s that used to be $250. something else is going on.

But the sales have definitely warped my brain. Yestersday we went into Manhattan for a doctor's appointment for one kid and while I was parked outside waiting I listed about $200 in books based on some pics I had on my phone. We decided to go back home to Brooklyn and go to a diner for dinner. I don't think all 4 of us have been in a restaurant since August. I fully expected a few sales on the way back to pay for dinner! It didn't happen, but I had just gotten paid for some earlier sales that did pay for dinner. seriously, $114 for 3 books I fished out of $1 or less bins. yes, I dropped a chunk of a cgc 9.8 the other day (over $250). but how did I justify it in my head? the money from that had come from sales of $10 worth of former dollar books, so i was really only paying $10....