I’m almost finished with this very necessary project I started last week. I’m going though all the CGC-graded comics on ICE Collectibles that belong to our three largest consignors by volume of listings (including Big B) and I’m making price corrections to better reflect the current market. I remember two years ago we could not list fast enough: we’d list 30 slabs onto the site in a week and we’d have 40 sales. It got to the point where we ran down the inventory on ICE by 75%.
ICE is a Buy it Now site meaning the book sits there at that price until somebody buys it. So when it sits there at a price posted a few months ago it doesn’t have much of a chance of selling when things have been trending downward since and the latest and most current sales figures are so low compared to the posted price. A case in point is an adjustment I made to a book that I had posted: it was from that warehouse purchase I made two years ago, a CGC graded 9.8 copy of Moon Knight #25 with that tough black cover. I posted it at $1350 a while ago, probably around the time it hit its high sale of $1400, as part of my price corrections exercise I went through every book on the site and this one ended up with the most drastic adjustment. The new price I set it to is $295 USD based on the 90-day average being $367, though that last sale figure of $215 isn’t filling me with a lot of confidence. Let’s hope its an anomoly low sale…
The stack of comics heading for our weekly eBay auction is huge this week. There were, as always, lots of fun ads to choose from and since I ended up spending about five minutes enjoying the ad below I had no choice but to show it to you. This American Circle ad is from Omac #2 from February 1975. I’ve picked a few of these tacky, shystery-type ads before but I think this one may be my favourite. You won’t be able to win any scholarships here but who needs schooling when you can snag a Money Maker (just be careful you don’t shake it too hard), a Potatoe Gun to defend this newly made money, a Special Investigations Kit when someone does eventually steal the money, a Karate course to fight for your money back. Of course, if you’d ordered the Secret Safe first you wouldn’t have any of the above issues. I think the Vampire Blood was the best seller though.
Creepy is a great 1960s magazing run for Warren, most famous for those stunning Frank Frazetta covers. I was putting up a small run onto next week’s auctions when I spotted this painted cover by Gray Morrow. I almost didn’t notice it because Frazetta’s overpowering cover to #14 was right beside it but the cover fought through and grabbed my attention. I’ve always loved those Gray Morrow Gold Key covers and finding this great painted fantasy cover by the man was the bonus of the night for me.
Last night the icecollectibles weekly eBay auction wrapped up another busy week. I was very pleased with the performance of our CGC 6.5 copy of Amazing Spider-Man #15 featuring the first appearance of Kraven the Hunter. Prices for CGC 6.5s had trended down below $2000 with a late August sale of $1800 and a mid-September sale of $1740. Our copy closed out at $2025 which is a solid result for our auction. I know it’s only one sale but we’ve had a few other quality graded issues these past few weeks that have shown some strong results. Perhaps this is a sign that we are near a bottoming out?
There are 140 9.8s of that issue and counting. What is the point other than a nice cover? From 1982? That’s not a good example.
I like this example. I almost won a ASM #13 8.5 last night which I thought I had bid at 60% of its market price. But looking back at recent sales I just have to admit that my calibration was too old. I think the market of “real” silver age books is back to about April 2021, which in the grand scheme doesn’t seem so bad at all. I don’t have any sense that the bottom is dropping out, only that September-March was a bit of a bubble. And a lot of good (especially Golden Age) books are holding their highs. As I said before, the main pressure I think are macroeconomic prognostications. If things continue to decline it will continue to hit the least attractive books the most, I believe. I am not ready to say we are out of the woods, but I think the drop March-June was much bigger than the drop June-September.
I had: 101 Magic Tricks, Atomic Joy Buzzer, Money Maker (unfortunately not the shaking kind), Exploding Fountain Pen, Vampire Blood, Whoopie Cushion, and Magic Color Clouds. The Money Maker was my favorite, as it is actually a pretty clever trick – I think I still have it… I however was a Johnson Smith guy, I don’t think I ever bought anything from American Circle.
Now I just looked up your ASM #15 history and it agrees with what I wrote – very steep dropoff from March, but your result about the same as July. I think this kind of grade A material will hang in there unless we see some significant broad economic pain.
I wish that only WECA book on the site was closer to the price I was offered so long ago before you bought it. I’d hit the BIN
That thing is so underpriced already activejim.
Chris, I like your analysis, makes sense, lets have some October data come in and see how close you are
Anecdotally speaking, online sales took a major hit this summer across numerous collectibles markets. Things felt like 2008-2009 all over again. Buckle up folks: there are numerous economic indicators suggesting that we are headed for a massive recession. If so, really rare/upper echelon items will continue to be good stores of value, but stuff like this Moon Knight # 25 will continue to falter.