Were you around in the 90s? This is nothing compared to that insanity.

I think of EBay as more of a market indicator than a price guide.

Counterpoint:

Your example specifically used a case of a single issue selling for outrageous price. Sometimes someone with money to burn will want to drop $50 on SuperPro 1 but since there will only be ONE example of that ever, we would see that it was an anomaly and the price is really about 30 cents. Movies and TV shows as pointed out can fan flames of Demand but thats a curve you can see as the price spikes and then goes away. The reason eBay is used as a guide is because its dynamic - it updates and trends are easily seen, without the need to have someone remember to update anything. We aren't waiting for an update, we can see months of sales ( completed ) and get an idea of approximate worth, based on Demand.

Bloodstone #1: https://comicspriceguide.com/titles/bloodstone/1/porpbt

eBay *Sold* results for Bloodstone #1: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=bloodstone+1&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

That page alone goes back to early July. Raw, it seems the book averages 75-100 and graded 9.4 or higher a couple hundred or more.

I'm going to do myself a favor and *not* sell issues 1-4 for a total of less than $20 as a formal, reliable Guide suggests, because I know I can get at least 100 for them without trying as eBay easily shows.



What is the suggested alternative? Basing Value on the prices of the comics on the wall behind the register at our local comic shop? That's as stupid as comics with 20 variant covers to assure record sales
Of course a one-off sale can make people who don't know any better assume Value is increased - but when eBay shows a consistent trend because of what people are willing to pay, then yes it does become a Guide to Pricing, even if not a Price Guide

I just don't get why you are so angry about it. The comic book market follows the same rules of capitalism as any other market. Why should comics be any different? Why do you feel there should be a code that protects our hobby from market forces. If they are priced too high they won't sell and if someone pays $100 for a $3 book they are stupid and deserve to get ripped off.

It's like when people get mad about Chuck Rozanski not giving Edgar Church's family enough money for the greatest comic score in history as if he owed it to them. It's capitalism people! It ain't pretty but it is the way it is.

Taskmaster wrote:

glorkar wrote:

Is there a specific issue you're talking about? Chances are if it's a book that's being hyped up because of a movie or something, the price will fall back down after all the masses move on to the next new thing.
A perfect example of that is Incredible Hulk 258 because of the Black Widow movie. CPG puts it at about $3, but everything listed on eBay right now is $10-$30 for midgrade copies.

See why is that book going up??? What reason none of those characters except Red Guardian are in the film and his first appearance was in Avengers

Because there is "major" speculation that Ursa Major might show up in the movie.

glorkar wrote:

Is there a specific issue you're talking about? Chances are if it's a book that's being hyped up because of a movie or something, the price will fall back down after all the masses move on to the next new thing.
A perfect example of that is Incredible Hulk 258 because of the Black Widow movie. CPG puts it at about $3, but everything listed on eBay right now is $10-$30 for midgrade copies.

See why is that book going up??? What reason none of those characters except Red Guardian are in the film and his first appearance was in Avengers

Is there a specific issue you're talking about? Chances are if it's a book that's being hyped up because of a movie or something, the price will fall back down after all the masses move on to the next new thing.
A perfect example of that is Incredible Hulk 258 because of the Black Widow movie. CPG puts it at about $3, but everything listed on eBay right now is $10-$30 for midgrade copies.

I just don't get why you are so angry about it. The comic book market follows the same rules of capitalism as any other market. Why should comics be any different? Why do you feel there should be a code that protects our hobby from market forces. If they are priced too high they won't sell and if someone pays $100 for a $3 book they are stupid and deserve to get ripped off.

It's like when people get mad about Chuck Rozanski not giving Edgar Church's family enough money for the greatest comic score in history as if he owed it to them. It's capitalism people! It ain't pretty but it is the way it is.

Taskmaster wrote:

So tell me this why do people have to sell ALL Of their books at FULL value or more???

You know how many comic shops I go to that have $1 or less bins and the books in those boxes are $3 or more and in great shape...Even I know you can't sell everything for FULL price...

Agreed. And selling online adds more expense. You have to take into account packing and shipping costs. That's why a lot of current issues that are worth $5 are being sold for $9-$10. If you can't find it locally, you /have/ to pay a bit of a premium.

So tell me this why do people have to sell ALL Of their books at FULL value or more???

You know how many comic shops I go to that have $1 or less bins and the books in those boxes are $3 or more and in great shape...Even I know you can't sell everything for FULL price...

People can list comics at whatever price they want. It is a free country. If they want to sell their comics they have to price them to sell.
Sure there will be people who overpay but generally the comics have to be priced right or they won't sell.

I look at values every day for all kinds of books. There are big differences in values. I routinely see the same book in the same week in the same condition sell for double. It makes no sense but it happens all the time. There are things that we do to help with this.
1. We will throw out (ignore) a super high or super low outlier. Example prices 70,40,30,30,30,30,30,25,22,23 We would eliminate the 70. This kind of thing happens daily.
2. Averaging prices - one price is not enough to put a value on a book.
3. Using multiple sources - In an average week, I look at Heritage, Comiclink, Ebay, and our in-house sales

No guide is perfect and should be used as a guide and not a Bible.

glorkar wrote:

When I'm looking at eBay and trying to figure out what a good price would be, I never look at listing price. There is a filter you can apply that shows sold/completed auctions. That is what people are actually paying. Sometimes you get a good deal, sometimes you over pay. All depends on how bad you want it.

The hard thing for me to accept is when I see a comic sell for $100 on ebay I think damn I could have got that for $100 but the thing is that to win that auction you would have to top the $100 bid so you are going to have to pay $110. $120, maybe $150. So sure the comic sold for $100 and that is what it is worth because that is what someone paid for it but IF YOU WANT TO BUY IT YOU HAVE TO BEAT THAT BID!

When I'm looking at eBay and trying to figure out what a good price would be, I never look at listing price. There is a filter you can apply that shows sold/completed auctions. That is what people are actually paying. Sometimes you get a good deal, sometimes you over pay. All depends on how bad you want it.

Mile High Comics is notorious for selling books at 1.5-2X "guide" price and they sell MILLIONS of dollars worth of books. It really comes down to "a book is worth what someone is willing to pay for it". For example, I (probably) overpaid for a golden age detective book but as that is the going price on ebay, that, in my opinion, is what it's worth. Guides like CPG and Overstreet are just guides; they are not the end all be all for pricing.