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Well if you know it, don't bid it! End of the day people will pay what they want to to get something they desire - doesn't have to be a 'movie' maybe someone wants to fill a run. At the end of the day I will only pay what i consider is reasonable for a comic i want. I'll be honest too may people on here get caught up in what a certain issue/run/title is going for. Buy what you like and you will not go wrong

Taskmaster wrote:

Defiant1 wrote:

Not sure, but people invest in collectibles when they don't have confidence in the stock market.

Because people see it on E-bay so that's "THE" price....WOW!

That is the danger of using eBay as a price guide.


I was smiling the other day.

Someone who hoards a certain scarce comic was showing off how many copies he had online.

He had a dozen or so (just guessing), and he felt the comic was worth maybe $100 each.

He was complaining that a seller had the book listed for $675 on eBay and wouldn't sell his copy for the price he felt it was worth.

The seller was getting annoyed with the constant lowball offers from the guy who just wanted to add to his hoard.

I happen to know the guy who has the book listed for $675. He said he owns more copies than the guy who was showing off his hoard.

The really funny thing is that the seller who has the book listed for $675 gave me a copy for free and paid for the shipping on top of that.

He won't take the other guys offer for $100 or more, but he gave me a copy.


I knew the guy who owns the only known surviving copy of My Secret #2, a magazine published by Atlas/Seaboard. I offered to buy it. He said it wasn't for sale.
I told him what it was worth to me, he just smiled and said it wasn't for sale yet. I'm not going to whine or beg. I just let him know what I'd pay.

The question then becomes....What is a one-of-a-kind desirable item worth in the market.

It's worth what the seller wants for it. At any given time, the buyer is not only in competition with other consumers to offer the best price to the seller.

He's also in competition with the seller to offer more than what the book is worth to the seller.

It's not a situation where the seller is desperate and necessarily needs money. He's probably a fan of comics too and the book is worth to him whatever he priced it.

Taskmaster wrote:

Defiant1 wrote:

Not sure, but people invest in collectibles when they don't have confidence in the stock market.

Because people see it on E-bay so that's "THE" price....WOW!

That is the danger of using eBay as a price guide.


I was smiling the other day.

Someone who hoards a certain scarce comic was showing off how many copies he had online.

He had a dozen or so (just guessing), and he felt the comic was worth maybe $100 each.

He was complaining that a seller had the book listed for $675 on eBay and wouldn't sell his copy for the price he felt it was worth.

The seller was getting annoyed with the constant lowball offers from the guy who just wanted to add to his hoard.

I happen to know the guy who has the book listed for $675. He said he owns more copies than the guy who was showing off his hoard.

The really funny thing is that the seller who has the book listed for $675 gave me a copy for free and paid for the shipping on top of that.

He won't take the other guys offer for $100 or more, but he gave me a copy.


I knew the guy who owns the only known surviving copy of My Secret #2, a magazine published by Atlas/Seaboard. I offered to buy it. He said it wasn't for sale.
I told him what it was worth to me, he just smiled and said it wasn't for sale yet. I'm not going to whine or beg. I just let him know what I'd pay.

The question then becomes....What is a one-of-a-kind desirable item worth in the market.

It's worth what the seller wants for it. At any given time, the buyer is not only in competition with other consumers to offer the best price to the seller.

He's also in competition with the seller to offer more than what the book is worth to the seller.

It's not a situation where the seller is desperate and necessarily needs money. He's probably a fan of comics too and the book is worth to him whatever he priced it.

Dear Taskmaster,

I've come to see that you're again requesting the same information of WHY, WHEN, WHERE. The fact is, you're in the same boat as everyone else and no one is trying to keep any secrets. For example, aren't you posting in the forums under "Market Watch"? Isn't it obvious that we post things here when we see an increase in prices for a particular comic? We often times post when we see a big change. Do we know every time why? Of course not, but we share it here for everyone to take note and for those that take the time to read the comment and want to take advantage of it. Please do the research like everyone else. Do a search on the internet for "comic book speculation" (Speculation - invest in stocks, property, or other ventures in the hope of gain but with the risk of loss.) There are a PLETHORA of websites available, there's youtube channels, podcasts, knowledge of certain comic book movies or shows coming out, certain facebook pages... etc. available to anyone that takes the time to look for themselves. There you may be able to gleam the insight and answers you're so desperately searching.

At any given moment, there are going to be thousands of comics I would like to own, but I'm too cheap or not rich enough to afford them.

It's easy to look at Action #1 and think how cool it would be to own one. In truth, I'm not really that big of a fan of Superman, so I'm fine not owning one.

I think everything comes down to why you want the comic. Do you want it because you like the character? If you like the character, why did you wait until it was already hot?

Do you want it because you think the price will increase? Why did you wait until everyone else felt the same way?

Do you want it because other people told you it was good to own? I hope not. Why would anyone need another collector to tell them what to collect?

It's harder to predict what new releases will spike in price. I used to read Previews 3 months in advance. I hung out at the comic book store the day new comics were released. The store owners and managers were my friends. I knew which books were interesting or great quality the day they were released. I did pretty good at predicting which comics were a good investment. In the end though, new comics are a huge high risk gamble today. There are far more duds than there are good investments. If your goal is to buy all the newly release hot books before anyone else discovers them, the odds are not in your favor. I can assure you that people who did score a popular comic also wasted money on a lot duds. It balances out. You might have gotten some cool comics, but the odds are you paid for it in other ways.


When the Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out and Rocket Raccoon's appearance spiked in price, there were decades that you could've bought the book cheaply. Ask yourself why you want it now? Is it because you like the character, or is it because you want bragging rights? If it's for the bragging rights after everyone else decided they want it too, you're like a flag flapping in the wind. The market is deciding which way your interests swing and you will forever be at it's mercy.

In the 90's, I had a friend who would buy any copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (1st Machine Man) that he saw. He had at least 20 copies and only paid about $1 each. He liked the character. If Marvel ever makes a movie featuring Machine Man, he'll be sitting nice. Regardless, he was proactive. He believes in the character and he was willing to wait for others to agree. If you want to be ahead of the curve, you have to believe in something and you have to be knowledgeable enough about the hobby to know what others will believe in.


If you are waiting on someone else to tell you what's worth owning, you are going to lose out more than you will succeed.

Taskmaster wrote:

Can anyone explain with NO movie and NO TV are "Common" books going crazy.....

Because it doesn't take a movie or a TV show for all books to increase in price the vast majority of books that go up in price because other books around it that may be tied to movie or TV get dragged along with it. There isn't any particular reason other than when the market is hot most books usually will benefit from it. There are loads of apps and forums and whatnot that "help" buyers but really most are just reporting after the fact or, like the key collector app, trying to direct the market. The thing is you don't need any of that stuff because if you buy what YOU want to read and your tastes are fairly diverse you will inevitably purchase books that will go up. 95+% of books are going to be slow appreciators but eventually they will go up.

There are times, like now, where you hit a sellers market and almost everything goes up significantly but those are pretty rare and definitely not the time that you should be buying for the investment.The vast majority of those people who wait for the apps, forums or social media are going to be spending more money. They still may profit but not if you just buy what you like when it comes out. 99% of what apps like key collectors lists in any given week aren't what I would even call key because not enough time has passed to REALLY determine that. But that doesn't seem to matter much because many of the books end out going up a bit many just for maybe a month before they level off. Key Collector is definitely the new Wizard Top Ten (for those old enough to remember that mag and it's list). It's all rather amusing. You can make money at it but it's not going to last because eventually people figure out that everything goes up in price, the vast majority slowly. That is never going to change.

I consider all of my books an investment but I really don't worry about value unless I am looking to unload some books. When you think like this though you realize that you can make money on everything if you are patient and understand that no matter what the market is doing it is going to take time to get a return on your investment. This market is in a self fulfilling prophecy mode right now so it's a good time to sell. It will end at some point and for a large part is slowing down and becoming a buyer's market again.

This is why I don't sell online anymore. To be honest, I don't think messageboards should be used for private disagreements. Not complaining. I can easily skip this thread in the future.

There are several Gold members who sell something every day. Overall it is very smooth.

People will send me an issue like a seller not responding and I will contact them. Or a buyer doing something wrong and I deal with them. 99.9% of the time it's a great place to buy and sell.

On occasion, I step in and ban an account, like the lady who was trying to sell a reprint of Action 1 as real. "Yeah, I'm sure you picked up this Action Comics 1 at a flea market for $20"
Ron

It's the sellers prerogative if they want to accept an offer or not.
And when someone offers an insane amount of money, it would be silly not to accept.
However, it's absolutely ridiculous when the person who offered the money says, "Oh, never mind. I don't really want to pay you that much. I was just hoping that it would start a conversation and I could get it for less than I said I was willing to pay".
That's the sort of behavior that should get called out.

If a comic is listed at a price and an offer is received at that price the Seller DOES NOT have to accept it, seems Taskmaster is expecting this to happen. Many things could influence this, what if a comic was listed years ago and has become hot and the value soars, is the expectation that a seller has tabs on their full inventory and adjust prices in a heartbeat??! To offer a stupidly over the odds amount to get it accepted and to then use this as an opportunity to say ' actually i'm not paying that' is completely ludicrous. I would argue that you made an offer that was accepted so you better dig deep in your pockets and honour the sale!

Btw, please don't make any offers on my books.

Thanks

Joe

Our Policy
1. Offers do not have to be accepted by the seller whether you like the price or not.
2. If a buyer makes an offer AND it's accepted that is the agreed-upon price. It is not a negotiating platform for a lower price
3. If a buyer makes an offer and doesn't hear anything, please let me know. I will check their most recent login and contact them. We want seller to respond even if the answer is no thank you.
4. We are thinking about adding a block feature for paid members. This would block another member from messaging them or seeing their books. I've spoken to our programmer about it and he assures me, it's possible.
5. The sale is ultimately between the buyer and seller, it's just our platform that connects you.
6. Paypal is recommended to protect both parties involved unless you know and trust the other person.


Laughing at all these comments but stating just the facts,
Ron
edited by ronbatman on 9/24/2021

Taskmaster,


People like you are one reason I do not sell online.

The deals you want to get are the ones you are running off.



If a comic is going for $100 and I only have $3 invested in it, I've been known to sell things like that for $50 to cut someone a deal.

I can assure you that your price would be $200.
I have zero patience for people who make an offer and don't follow through. Zero.

Sorry. It's not a title I collect. Never really got into Cap for some reason.