Amazing Spider-Man #1
I was rummaging through a bunch eBay auctions when I came across some interesting activity around Amazing Spider-Man #1.
Amazing Spider-Man #1, Marvel Comics (March, 1963) Graded by CGC at 2.5 with Off White to White pages sold on eBay for $1,434.00 on October 6th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 2.5 is $1,875.00. That’s only 76% of guide for one of the big Marvel keys (click here for my list of the important Marvel keys). Mind you, this book did have 3 pieces of tape on the front cover, 2 on the back and 1 on page 10. I’m sure the tape had much to do with the poor performance (since the GP Analysis site shows the last CGC 2.0 copy sold for $1,525.00). I hate tape! Advantage seller.
Amazing Spider-Man #1, Marvel Comics (March, 1963) Graded by CGC at 6.0 with White pages sold on eBay for $6,799.95 on October 10th. Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 6.0 is $4,500.00. That’s just over 1.5 times guide and much more like it! A big Marvel key like this at a grade of 6.0 or above with White pages should be getting more than the current guide value. This is a great long term investment. Advantage buyer.
How are these results interesting you ask?
These results may not have been that interesting but there were some very interesting posts for this book that did not sell. I won’t mention the name of the seller since the company’s business model has sold about 100 times more books than mine has (you can easily do some digging if you wish). Still, this stuff makes me scratch my head.
A very prominent eBay seller posted the following;
Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 1.8 – Buy it Now $6,160.00 + $11.00 shipping
Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 3.0 – Buy it Now $10,010.00 + $11.00 shipping
Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 4.0 – Buy it Now $14,437.50 + $11.00 shipping
These copies were offered at just under 5 times the Overstreet Price Guide value for the grades. All the auctions ended on October 6th with no takers.
The first thing I though of was that the seller was throwing up some very big books to direct traffic to their other postings. This is indeed what it looks like since each of these listings has a huge write up about the seller’s eBay store.
Here’s the blurp from the seller;
“We list over 200,000 items in our eBay Store. Shipping costs apply only to the first item. All additional items in the same order ship for free!
The image in this listing is from a random copy of this product that we have had in stock recently. It probably will not be the item we send you, nor even representative of the grade of this item, but is meant to help you determine if this is the item you want. Please view our grading standards for details on a specific grade.”
The write up goes on to say that they sell over a million comics per year and that they just don’t have the time to scan everything. A money back guarantee is in place (and I’m positive they always honor it since they have over 100,000 eBay transactions with a high repeat average).
That’s all fine and dandy for the postings on their eBay store. If I’m buying a book you have listed at $10,000 I don’t want to be reading that this may not actually be the book I’m getting. I also don’t want to read a description like this; SPIDER-MAN #1 CGC 3.0 Good Comics Book. Is it a Good Comics Book? What the hell does Good Comics Book mean when it follows CGC 3.0?
Again, these guys do more business in a month than I do in a year and I am in no way questioning their integrity but damn. Tighten things up a bit will you!
Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Price Guide Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
