Comics are not an investment and never have been and never will be in the traditional sense. In their own way they are I suppose. But comic “investing” is really just flippers flipping that’s not what investing is
I found out very quicky to ignore the FMV on go collect. It didn't take long to notice the actual sale prices once you expand a particular grade or look at the last sales column next to each grade.
My thing is this. When a dealer goes to buy some ones collection Coverprice is a joke right? When the dealer goes to sell the books that he just bought, Coverprice is ok to use for resale. Spare me please.
A much needed video. I have been using eBay sold to try to get the closest fmv for my book, but we totally need a pricing guide that is accurate within margin
Hello Bry's Comics. It would seem as if gocollect does not spend as much time as you do looking into the values. I trust your prices and your integrity. I will add that I am only a collector and not a seller. Though, someday I may look into selling my Image stash after I get them graded. Have a good day.
I don't take any of the "pricing services" at face value. If you think about all of the Whatnot, UA-cam and Instagram auctions and claim sales that go unreported/untracked there's a huge amount of sales that can't be included. Then you have all of the eBay sales that close with a lower price accepted that (if I have my facts straight) don't show the actual final accepted price. Finally you have all of the brick-and-mortar stores that sell books that are "ignored" (for lack of a better term) and that's huge because the prices can vary widely based on location and/or willingness to make deals. And that's not even factoring in shows/conventions, flea markets and antique shops with people selling books. Basically there isn't a single platform that can account for a decent amount of the various methods by which people sell comics in order to come up with a decent consensus FMV. After all, regardless of the where or how, a sale is a sale.
I usually go by the 90-day average on GPA to price my books. Since there are low and high sales, and people pay more for lower-graded books, it's sometimes tough to price them accurately. Sellers on eBay price their books on what they would like to get for them, not what they're really worth. These sellers are often not in a hurry to sell. If someone is willing to grossly overpay and meet their price, they'll sell.
We need a new age wizard, man I loved getting that new issue every month, a Physical monthly (aka outdated) version and an online live version thats updated on a regular basis daily would get me to sign up ASAP
Key collector is absolutely horrendous and yet is most people’s go to. So many people swear by it. All they doing is lining nick (the creators) pocket and comic toms pocket smh 🤦♂️
People need to stop trying to squeeze every nickel they can out of every deal. Remember that the dealer needs to have room for profit. If I meet someone that haggles too hard I don’t do business with them.
Great topic! I prefer GPA to GoCollect, and I look at the 30- and 90-day sales history, not the "Valuation" figure. But there are SO many other variables... You will often see books on EBay or some of the other major auction locations just sitting, while others go at higher prices. Page quality is one of the obvious discriminators, but printing nuances such as cover wrap (for books in the eras of when that was a thing) is also important to discriminating collectors, particularly "to the right" miswraps (when there's a hideous big white stripe at the spine), or distractingly crooked wraps. Color registry is another structural aesthetic some collectors look at along with the others. Also, color richness, i.e., books printed right after they replenished the inks on the rollers, vs. toward the end when they're noticeably less vivid. X-Men #142 is a good example of this, particularly the "Everyone Dies" box. And finally, the cut...some books are trapezoidal abominations that can be quite distracting. I've learned to wait for a book that really "speaks to me" on the aesthetics. I've even upgraded some of my original X-Men #94-143 run, thinking I'd sell the lower graded book, but when I'd get the new higher grade book in hand, I'd see that sometimes the lower grade book is "stronger" in several aspects. MyComicshop knows this -- I've seen multiple slabbed books of same issue, same grade, with differing prices, and I quickly discerned why when looking at the scans. It's not just because of different consigners, they will bump a price up or down based on structural aesthetics. LOOK AT SCANS closely and buy the book, not the grade...IMO it's worth some extra $ to get a book with outstanding aesthetic appeal. It'll move better and at a higher price if you plan to resell on your own.
I use CLZ. It has a large community and and virtually around the clock support as well as a discussion forum. And it's updated with new features and services often. My collection value mirror's current sales data. My LCS uses the same data used by CLZ to price and sell their books as well. That being said, these guides and valuation tools are fairly new and can improve.
Love your content but just like grading, this is not an exact science. Thinking of the comic market like the stock market is incorrect, IMO. The main reason is that the Comic Market doesn’t have the same level of liquidity as the SM. Most comics, even if they are priced perfectly, can take days to weeks to sell, this is not liquid. These sites don’t take LCS, Comic Shows, What Not or other online sales via Insta or Facebook into consideration. Plus each sale is not equal, we have auctions, we have exact price sales, we have best offers, we have trades, different commission levels and free shipping discounts. All of these factors affect the buyers decisions but will not always show up in the tracking of the sales price. Having a FMV that takes both recent and historical data into consideration is a good thing IMO. As an example the recent book that sold for $6mill (Action Comics) based on this video it has no reason to sell at $6mill but it did. The reason it did is because they don’t come around very often (illiquid) & someone said thats what it is worth regardless of the last sale.
Meh. There is no correct pricing mechanism. I can't stand GPA, (I know you love it), which relies on sometimes 1 or 2 sales at a great, well publicized auction, or a baseball card auction that happened to have a couple comics. It is one more tool, Tim's right, there is no gospel way to price.
Imho, If they don't trim the anomalies from data, it's gonna be off. Those desperate purchase should be ignore, and they don't really contribute to fairness. And if someone want to jack up the FMV, it's gonna be easy to manipulate this type of tools. Unless there's a buy list out there, otherwise it's always a debate between sellers and buyers. Just my 2 cents of opinion.
Comic Book Price Guide used to be decent too. Now it sucks massively. It straight up tries telling me that some of my $30-$80 comics are only worth $3-$5 sometimes.
The issue here is that GP analysis is necessary to pay to anything, but go collect is parcially free. So, for non profesionals like me, go collect is enaugh
I think the chances they’d change the algorithm are sadly low, they’d have to revalue all the historical values in their charts - if they have the original transaction data. If they don’t they may just have to have a special day when every chart changes vastly.
It feeds the hobby. If people think it’s worth more than it is then it sparks interest and desire. Like it or not if you want them see the actual value it will hurt the hobby because people won’t be as interested
Have you compared CVRprice to GoCollect? I don’t use the latter, just curious if they are the same discrepancy? It’s a guide for sure, not gospel. But GPA is awesome.
And I hate to add the pricing discrepancy for page quality (white vs off-white), which may account for a not insignificant difference in selling price for same grade.
I have used go collect and it’s a crap shoot. To be honest it’s an issue no matter where I look to find FMV. Thanks for the video and insight. Keep killing it man!!!!
All the sites make mistakes in collecting data through online sales. When I used gpa, I dealt with the same issue. It's never an exact science which is why you always have to cross-reference with actual sold listings. Not to mention, that the value for most books, fluctuates on an almost daily basis.
Go Collect provides sales data which as you agree is the best source for a price guide. In fact if you mouse over their graph it gives you "present dollar value". The problem isn't that Go Collects FMV is wrong, the problem lies within the definition people are assigning to FMV. FMV is not meant to be a price guide it is a well established term that takes into account many other factors other than sales data. There are different formulas used to determine it. If Go Collect is incorporating a relative data index into their FMV calculation then that will take into account the books profitability over time and it's current price movements. Saying a pricing tool sucks because it provides extra data above and beyond a price guide is kind of disingenuous. Go Collect said their FMV is not a price guide and you used that to say Go Collect can't be used as a price guide. Go Collect provides sales data just like GPA they may have a couple differences in what data they pull in but they both provide the sales data.
Yeah I don't get it, either. I cross reference all values with actual sold listings anyway. I've been using gocollect for several months and I've never even noticed the fmv value. When I look use it, I go to the 30day average and then the actual sold listings.
I look at sold on eBay to see what actually people are paying then i go to get prices from other sites then make my assessment on the book condition,key etc.
As it should be. I use gocollect, but i cross reference with ebay sold and active listings. Doesn't matter what prices the app shows, if no one is buying at those prices, then the seller has to adjust them and the values change almost daily, especially with books that tend to be bought and sold a lot.
I don't sell a bunch of my books but when I do I usually look up what they sold for the past month and try to go under that price. I usually just flip to buy more books and keep the hobby going so I'm not trying to get top dollar for anything.
Hi Bry...Yea I also think Tim is a cool dude. Maybe they fixed that ASM 96 8.5 as I see the FMV at 250 with a 234 yr ave and an 90day ave at 258...great vid...thanks.
When I was co owner of a comic shop back in the 90's we would use Overstreet's guide and Wizard's guide (which was always really high) and we would minus 10 percent at the minimum depending on which book and take it from there, back then kids were trying to do a quick turnaround with image books trying to get $75 for a $15-20 book....the 90's were a weird time.
Thanks for the video Bry. Interesting to learn how different companies use “tools” to determine price/value. Consistency would be ideal. Have to wonder what would motivate Go Collect to NOT change? Keep grinding bro!✌️
A interesting way is to have a dealer con, where the buying and selling of every comic is recorded on that day. The pricing would be based on current GPA and used going forward by dealers to quoting a price, just like you illustrated in this video with the spider-man comic.
I’m just wondering if a place like Beckett being that they are familiar with Kahn books being that they own CCS would be a place to create a reasonable comedy book price guide?
Thank you for this video Bry, I have been having these issues with determining the FMV of books as well. I utilize both Cover Price and GPAnalysis to try to come up with looks like fair pricing but I always come in knowing that Cover Price much like your example with GoCollect is way off as well in most instances. The other thing that I question as well is how they come up with FMV on these sites for books that don't move much in the market. Its much easier to determine the FMV in my mind for a book that has constant sales data like an ASM 300 or an Ultimate Fallout 4 for example than a book that does not sell as often. Plus I don't know if it is the same case with GoCollect as it is with Cover Price but with Cover Price they do not always take into account the difference in an FMV would have for certain variants like DC Multi-Pack editions which are much rarer and tend to sell for more.
We definitely need a straightforward price guide, especially in the digital age. Hopefully, they come on your channel and you guys can discuss ways to improve the system.
I am primarily a seller. I look at what's currently available on Ebay and see what are the lowest couple of prices for the same grade book. You can't expect to get more than the lowest price unless you want to wait until the other copies sell first and also hope no new listings undercut you. Ebay sold is good for a few more price points and seeing how often the book sells. There isn't enough sales volume per month for most books for these tools that only look at "sold" prices. Some 9.8s haven't sold since 2022...
When I started really collecting we used wizards. Grading was the real issue. Comics were more of a buy what you love more than an investment.
They still are. Don’t let anyone tell you different.✌️
Comics are not an investment and never have been and never will be in the traditional sense. In their own way they are I suppose. But comic “investing” is really just flippers flipping that’s not what investing is
I found out very quicky to ignore the FMV on go collect. It didn't take long to notice the actual sale prices once you expand a particular grade or look at the last sales column next to each grade.
My thing is this. When a dealer goes to buy some ones collection Coverprice is a joke right? When the dealer goes to sell the books that he just bought, Coverprice is ok to use for resale. Spare me please.
I hate that!
Good video. I like to compare go collect to other sites like pricecharting. Gives me rough idea of what I want to pay.
bring back wizard price guide monthly
A much needed video. I have been using eBay sold to try to get the closest fmv for my book, but we totally need a pricing guide that is accurate within margin
I agree, but there will always be a confusion between monetary and sentimental value.
Hello Bry's Comics. It would seem as if gocollect does not spend as much time as you do looking into the values. I trust your prices and your integrity. I will add that I am only a collector and not a seller. Though, someday I may look into selling my Image stash after I get them graded. Have a good day.
I don't take any of the "pricing services" at face value. If you think about all of the Whatnot, UA-cam and Instagram auctions and claim sales that go unreported/untracked there's a huge amount of sales that can't be included. Then you have all of the eBay sales that close with a lower price accepted that (if I have my facts straight) don't show the actual final accepted price. Finally you have all of the brick-and-mortar stores that sell books that are "ignored" (for lack of a better term) and that's huge because the prices can vary widely based on location and/or willingness to make deals. And that's not even factoring in shows/conventions, flea markets and antique shops with people selling books. Basically there isn't a single platform that can account for a decent amount of the various methods by which people sell comics in order to come up with a decent consensus FMV. After all, regardless of the where or how, a sale is a sale.
I usually go by the 90-day average on GPA to price my books. Since there are low and high sales, and people pay more for lower-graded books, it's sometimes tough to price them accurately. Sellers on eBay price their books on what they would like to get for them, not what they're really worth. These sellers are often not in a hurry to sell. If someone is willing to grossly overpay and meet their price, they'll sell.
Maybe at most +/- 5% ideally 2.5% +/-
We need a new age wizard, man I loved getting that new issue every month, a Physical monthly (aka outdated) version and an online live version thats updated on a regular basis daily would get me to sign up ASAP
I miss wizard magazine.
Key collector is absolutely horrendous and yet is most people’s go to. So many people swear by it. All they doing is lining nick (the creators) pocket and comic toms pocket smh 🤦♂️
Key Collector is great for getting a view on what should be considered a "key" but I would never use it for pricing.
Cover Price is Pretty Good
People need to stop trying to squeeze every nickel they can out of every deal. Remember that the dealer needs to have room for profit. If I meet someone that haggles too hard I don’t do business with them.
I tend to ignore fmv and look more at the 30 90 day 1 year averages
Great video!
What’s your opinion on CLZ’s (CovrPrice) pricing accuracy?
It’s been a while but in the past it too was 10-20% over
Ernst Gerber = Founder of E.Gerber: mylites n fullbacks. E.Gerber now owned by Geppi. Geppi owns Diamond. Hmmm
Sometimes I just use EBay.
They undervalue as well. Check out the x-men 266 9.6 signature series.
1 year average 474
30 day average 596
FMV 320
Why do they even have the FMV?
Great topic! I prefer GPA to GoCollect, and I look at the 30- and 90-day sales history, not the "Valuation" figure. But there are SO many other variables... You will often see books on EBay or some of the other major auction locations just sitting, while others go at higher prices. Page quality is one of the obvious discriminators, but printing nuances such as cover wrap (for books in the eras of when that was a thing) is also important to discriminating collectors, particularly "to the right" miswraps (when there's a hideous big white stripe at the spine), or distractingly crooked wraps. Color registry is another structural aesthetic some collectors look at along with the others. Also, color richness, i.e., books printed right after they replenished the inks on the rollers, vs. toward the end when they're noticeably less vivid. X-Men #142 is a good example of this, particularly the "Everyone Dies" box. And finally, the cut...some books are trapezoidal abominations that can be quite distracting. I've learned to wait for a book that really "speaks to me" on the aesthetics. I've even upgraded some of my original X-Men #94-143 run, thinking I'd sell the lower graded book, but when I'd get the new higher grade book in hand, I'd see that sometimes the lower grade book is "stronger" in several aspects.
MyComicshop knows this -- I've seen multiple slabbed books of same issue, same grade, with differing prices, and I quickly discerned why when looking at the scans. It's not just because of different consigners, they will bump a price up or down based on structural aesthetics. LOOK AT SCANS closely and buy the book, not the grade...IMO it's worth some extra $ to get a book with outstanding aesthetic appeal. It'll move better and at a higher price if you plan to resell on your own.
I use CLZ. It has a large community and and virtually around the clock support as well as a discussion forum. And it's updated with new features and services often. My collection value mirror's current sales data. My LCS uses the same data used by CLZ to price and sell their books as well. That being said, these guides and valuation tools are fairly new and can improve.
Love your content but just like grading, this is not an exact science. Thinking of the comic market like the stock market is incorrect, IMO. The main reason is that the Comic Market doesn’t have the same level of liquidity as the SM. Most comics, even if they are priced perfectly, can take days to weeks to sell, this is not liquid. These sites don’t take LCS, Comic Shows, What Not or other online sales via Insta or Facebook into consideration. Plus each sale is not equal, we have auctions, we have exact price sales, we have best offers, we have trades, different commission levels and free shipping discounts. All of these factors affect the buyers decisions but will not always show up in the tracking of the sales price. Having a FMV that takes both recent and historical data into consideration is a good thing IMO. As an example the recent book that sold for $6mill (Action Comics) based on this video it has no reason to sell at $6mill but it did. The reason it did is because they don’t come around very often (illiquid) & someone said thats what it is worth regardless of the last sale.
Meh. There is no correct pricing mechanism. I can't stand GPA, (I know you love it), which relies on sometimes 1 or 2 sales at a great, well publicized auction, or a baseball card auction that happened to have a couple comics. It is one more tool, Tim's right, there is no gospel way to price.
Imho, If they don't trim the anomalies from data, it's gonna be off.
Those desperate purchase should be ignore, and they don't really contribute to fairness. And if someone want to jack up the FMV, it's gonna be easy to manipulate this type of tools.
Unless there's a buy list out there, otherwise it's always a debate between sellers and buyers.
Just my 2 cents of opinion.
I remember looking through wizard, we looked forward to getting a new issue.
There's never an easy way, is there? i'd have thought that graded comics would be much simpler but it's all just chaos.
I agree with this video 100%... Some seller's tend to sell extremely high and the comic is not even been graded...
Comic Book Price Guide used to be decent too. Now it sucks massively. It straight up tries telling me that some of my $30-$80 comics are only worth $3-$5 sometimes.
Yes, I know how your feel.
The issue here is that GP analysis is necessary to pay to anything, but go collect is parcially free. So, for non profesionals like me, go collect is enaugh
Yeah, can't even think of using go collects pricing. Ridiculous
No no no......my collection is worth half a million dollars. Go collect and myself said so. Now I'm rich! Lol
they likely inflate values intentionally so buyers, and I’m sure somewhere along the line themselves, get more monies #cynic4life
👏👏👏👏
I think the chances they’d change the algorithm are sadly low, they’d have to revalue all the historical values in their charts - if they have the original transaction data. If they don’t they may just have to have a special day when every chart changes vastly.
I’ve just used eBay sales to get ballpark estimates for pricing.
Gocollect needs raw comicbook value versus slab value
It feeds the hobby. If people think it’s worth more than it is then it sparks interest and desire.
Like it or not if you want them see the actual value it will hurt the hobby because people won’t be as interested
Are you officially in MT now ? I hope the move was uneventful.
I just average the last 5 sales unless there is one that’s ridiculous then I drop that one from the average.
What’s the difference between go collect and GP?
definitely not alone. the hobby is screaming for something buyres and sellers can agree on
Is there any decent pricing tool for raw books?
It’s a struggle. I use multiple sites to get close and then it comes down to what people want to pay.
I’m subscribed to so many tools like this and none are consistent.
Their price guide is inflated for other things too
This was a great video. Thank you.
I thought the Overstreet price guide was the go to?
So when is your pricing tool coming out? Lol 😊
No matter how hard I try Grading is so hard for me to do.
Have you compared CVRprice to GoCollect? I don’t use the latter, just curious if they are the same discrepancy? It’s a guide for sure, not gospel. But GPA is awesome.
Great video ... following
Inconsistency is the standard in GoCollect's FMV, but on HOT books, their stated FMV is almost always UNDER the actual going rate.
Raw books, cover price or eBay sold listings. Graded books GPA analysis
And I hate to add the pricing discrepancy for page quality (white vs off-white), which may account for a not insignificant difference in selling price for same grade.
I have used go collect and it’s a crap shoot. To be honest it’s an issue no matter where I look to find FMV. Thanks for the video and insight. Keep killing it man!!!!
All the sites make mistakes in collecting data through online sales. When I used gpa, I dealt with the same issue. It's never an exact science which is why you always have to cross-reference with actual sold listings. Not to mention, that the value for most books, fluctuates on an almost daily basis.
Always a pleasure young one
Go Collect provides sales data which as you agree is the best source for a price guide. In fact if you mouse over their graph it gives you "present dollar value". The problem isn't that Go Collects FMV is wrong, the problem lies within the definition people are assigning to FMV. FMV is not meant to be a price guide it is a well established term that takes into account many other factors other than sales data. There are different formulas used to determine it. If Go Collect is incorporating a relative data index into their FMV calculation then that will take into account the books profitability over time and it's current price movements. Saying a pricing tool sucks because it provides extra data above and beyond a price guide is kind of disingenuous. Go Collect said their FMV is not a price guide and you used that to say Go Collect can't be used as a price guide. Go Collect provides sales data just like GPA they may have a couple differences in what data they pull in but they both provide the sales data.
Yeah I don't get it, either. I cross reference all values with actual sold listings anyway. I've been using gocollect for several months and I've never even noticed the fmv value. When I look use it, I go to the 30day average and then the actual sold listings.
You losing money, Bry?
I always take these pricing tools with a grain of salt. Lots to consider when pricing books
So all they have to do is subtract 20% to their current formula!
Totally agree. I usually cant trust these sites at all, and just have to spend time on ebay lioking up sales.
eBay is the easiest for me
Preach Brother Bry!
I look at sold on eBay to see what actually people are paying then i go to get prices from other sites then make my assessment on the book condition,key etc.
Nice collection Bry and nice pick-up Markus!
Yea we need better
Good info here.
I usually ebay prices before any of the apps for consensus on comic book value.
As it should be. I use gocollect, but i cross reference with ebay sold and active listings. Doesn't matter what prices the app shows, if no one is buying at those prices, then the seller has to adjust them and the values change almost daily, especially with books that tend to be bought and sold a lot.
Can't be as bad as CLZ. It says my collection is worth 80k. I'd be happy with 20k
Good for you for being reasonable!
Agree..agree
You rock
Wow. That was very informative. Thanks for sharing, Bry.
Great video. Thanks
You right about us needing a pricing tool for sure
thanks for keeping us informed on these pricing issues
I don't sell a bunch of my books but when I do I usually look up what they sold for the past month and try to go under that price. I usually just flip to buy more books and keep the hobby going so I'm not trying to get top dollar for anything.
Killing it, bro
Hi Bry...Yea I also think Tim is a cool dude. Maybe they fixed that ASM 96 8.5 as I see the FMV at 250 with a 234 yr ave and an 90day ave at 258...great vid...thanks.
When I was co owner of a comic shop back in the 90's we would use Overstreet's guide and Wizard's guide (which was always really high) and we would minus 10 percent at the minimum depending on which book and take it from there, back then kids were trying to do a quick turnaround with image books trying to get $75 for a $15-20 book....the 90's were a weird time.
Thanks for the video Bry. Interesting to learn how different companies use “tools” to determine price/value. Consistency would be ideal. Have to wonder what would motivate Go Collect to NOT change? Keep grinding bro!✌️
A interesting way is to have a dealer con, where the buying and selling of every comic is recorded on that day. The pricing would be based on current GPA and used going forward by dealers to quoting a price, just like you illustrated in this video with the spider-man comic.
Start one up. Can’t be easy as comic values like any other commodity goes up and down depending on what buyers will pay for said commodity.
I’m just wondering if a place like Beckett being that they are familiar with Kahn books being that they own CCS would be a place to create a reasonable comedy book price guide?
Thank you for this video Bry, I have been having these issues with determining the FMV of books as well. I utilize both Cover Price and GPAnalysis to try to come up with looks like fair pricing but I always come in knowing that Cover Price much like your example with GoCollect is way off as well in most instances. The other thing that I question as well is how they come up with FMV on these sites for books that don't move much in the market. Its much easier to determine the FMV in my mind for a book that has constant sales data like an ASM 300 or an Ultimate Fallout 4 for example than a book that does not sell as often. Plus I don't know if it is the same case with GoCollect as it is with Cover Price but with Cover Price they do not always take into account the difference in an FMV would have for certain variants like DC Multi-Pack editions which are much rarer and tend to sell for more.
Thats exactly what I was looking, ive done many hours pricing but at the end of the day I still need to meet buyer‘s demands…
thank you for the video,Bry. i recently tried using go collect for my slabs.I will remember to cross/compare more often.
We definitely need a straightforward price guide, especially in the digital age. Hopefully, they come on your channel and you guys can discuss ways to improve the system.
Great video, bro. 100% correct on all points. Also, props on hooking Mint James up with some sweet start-up inventory.
I am primarily a seller. I look at what's currently available on Ebay and see what are the lowest couple of prices for the same grade book. You can't expect to get more than the lowest price unless you want to wait until the other copies sell first and also hope no new listings undercut you. Ebay sold is good for a few more price points and seeing how often the book sells. There isn't enough sales volume per month for most books for these tools that only look at "sold" prices. Some 9.8s haven't sold since 2022...
I agree - we need an actual price guide that follows SALES, like you said that’s the Real guide
I echo what others in the comments have said, Ebay is the quickest and cheapest way to estimate an FMV.
This is a good info for sellers. And buyers for collections. Thanks ❤
Excellent video. Lots of useful information.
Thank you for the information and your perspective! Yes the number one thing the community needs is a better pricing tool
Excellent video, appreciate your time to explain this
I totally agree with you. Its so strange that a website dedicated to comic prices wouldnt care about giving the accurate FMV
Hello Bry. Thank you for the many hours you put into this research. It really helps.
It would be incredible if they were able to fix this