Ok, this speculation has gone beyond ridiculous!!!13953

Originally Posted by Tedsaid
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Originally Posted by MatterEaterLad
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Originally Posted by esaravo
I just saw a 9.4 Star Wars #1 offered for $1,000! Can these prices stay at close to these levels for very long? I am seriously thinking about selling off my #1, #2, and #3 while the prices are Skywalker-high! What is everyone else doing with these red-hot books? And if you do sell them, what would you buy, since it seems like every key book has blown up over the last year?

I saw that too and did a double-take.

Right now I'm holding. I'm not sure these prices will be going down any time soon. It feels like the price manipulation that's been rampant in the fine art world for decades has finally reached the collecting world.

3-4 years ago I bought a few Star Wars #1 raw, in trying to get a 9.8, which was too expensive for me. I didn't have any luck. When I came across a very nice 9.6, about two and a half years ago, for $350, I bought it. It was a little over priced at the time, maybe, but I was happy about it.

When I saw that prices on all things Star Wars - even more so than the rest of the collecting universe - were sky-high, I sold it. It was on Facebook Marketplace back in January, for $1100. I was very happy with that amount and still am. I plowed it back into more comics, mostly to sell, so it's okay if it's even higher now. That's the game.

Yeah, if I had a 9.8, I'd sell it now. Even if not to buy more salable comics. It will come back down, after the pandemic. Not to where it was, but not this high, either.

We are seeing a once-a-generation surge in the comic market. Sometimes - even often - comics will languish at the same price for many years in a row. Even in this market, some have crested and come back down. Venom #3 topped out around $450 and is now 30% lower. Thor #2 and #5 have been cut down to a third of what they were. Others, too.

I expect there will be a general correction at some point. Part of the drive of any bubble is how easy it is to make money. Investments become less cautious and easy money plows in. Once a few go bad, that easy money pulls out, and it encourages more dumping, etc.

But for now, I am trying (and mostly failing) to stick to the old collecting adage: if the price is too high for you to buy it, then you should sell the one you have. The only thing sweeter than buying at the low, is selling at the high.

Originally Posted by Tedsaid
I think most marketplaces work well 95% of the time, so I don't let myself worry beyond reasonable precautions about the 5% that don't.

Originally Posted by Bronte
So. Does anyone have any thoughts on what to speculate on right now? I recently noticed in another thread that Peggy Carter as captain America is actually a book. Exiles #3. In another thread, there is a TV show coming out as a what if Peggy Carter became captain America. I bought 5 copies in hopes it gets some love....

Originally Posted by Tedsaid
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Originally Posted by EbayMafia
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Originally Posted by Tedsaid
Holy crap! $2800 for a 9.8! Man, that's amazing. I sold my 9.6 a year ago (January) for $385. I wonder what that would fetch now? (It cost me $155 raw, plus $35 or so for pressing and grading, so I did alright. But man, I wish I could get some of these back now.)

I feel like we are all getting the sense that something is not right with some of these public sales. Maybe even marketplace manipulation or 2 scammers bidding against each other, neither of which is actually going to pay with their own money. Is there any way of verifying that these sales were made to reputable buyers and they were completed successfully? Would we know if the sales were ultimately canceled or reported as fraud?

Honestly, I don't worry a whole lot about fake sales like you are describing. I think it would either be too much work for too little payout (by creating fake accounts that never pay, and are ultimately removed from the data); or too expensive to do often (due to the 10% commission of eBay).

Anyway, I assume other people worry about it more, and are in a better position to do something about it. I assume eBay generally get most shill bidders, eventually, and remove their accounts, etc. Maybe that is naive, but it is easier than stressing over it.

I think most marketplaces work well 95% of the time, so I don't let myself worry beyond reasonable precautions about the 5% that don't.