The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, Vol. 43 Author: Visit Amazon's Robert M. Overstreet Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1603601465 | Format: PDF
The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, Vol. 43 Description
- Series: Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
- Paperback: 1136 pages
- Publisher: Gemstone Publishing; 43 edition (July 23, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1603601465
- ISBN-13: 978-1603601467
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I really wish I could like my annual copy of Overstreet more than I do. I have to buy it, since Alex Malloy's Comic Values Annual (a worthy contender) has tanked in the face of zero support from the dealer community, and Maggie Thompson's beautifully-produced Comics Shop destroyed itself after one release because its comics values were ten years out-of-date.
So we are left with Overstreet, a time-honored classic that is in serious need of a reboot. As always, Underground Comix still do not get listed, despite their historical importance and presence of artists like R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. "Victorian" comics and Big Little Books receive a huge chunk in front of the book, just in case your great grandfather is still around and checking his collection. Typefaces remain intensely tiny and the not much larger photographs are in B&W...and you continue to heft around hundreds of pages of ads for companies like JHV Associates and Archangels that helped "pay" for your $30 paperback. All of this needs to be re-evaluated by a new editor.
On the positive side, the market reports continue to be the best feature of the book, and they've grown more critical over the years...a few of them even take on the Guide itself. There appears to have been a serious effort to get mid-grade pricing back in line with reality, although there's a bit of ways to go here, especially for the Golden Age. We can't forget that this book, aside from representing Bob Overstreet's rather pastoral vision of what the comic market should be (yes to The Yellow Kid, no to The Freak Brothers), also represents a considerable and uneasily growing number of "advisors," most of whom are comics dealers.
A sad demise of a formerly cool and useful publication; why is it (purposely?) completely out of date with real transaction pricing? How is this possible with such established and credentialed "advisors?" The situation is suspect; all of them should have for the past several years recommended using recent/real sales data from any of a variety of sources; eBay immediately comes to mind.
For those of you familiar with the movie Dead Poets Society where Robin Williams' character instructs his students to rip out the first chapter of the book and throw it away, collectors need to rip out both the first 268 pages and the last 116 pages of this guide; these sections are mainly advertising by the "comic cartel." (I'll get to them in a moment.)
The remaining pages from 269-1052 are moderately useful if for nothing else a "historical" bookmark to where prices were 5-10 years ago.
1) Hulk 181 in Very Good $200; it hasn't sold for $200 for 10 years! Just look at the actual SELLING prices on eBay, GPAnalysis, etc. $650-700 all day long.
2) Amazing Spider-Man 1-100; off by at least 25%. Once again, just verify against REAL sales prices. Amazing Spider-Man 4 in Fine for $798? Yes please!
3) Amazing Spider-man 121, 129, 300, I could go on and on, all off by at least 50%. An ASM 121 in Fine for $60...hahaha...that's funny.
4) Giant Size X-Men 1 Fine $138; off by a whopping 100%.
5) X-Men 141 & 142...for $35...?
These prices are too much off from reality to be by chance; by some odd bolt of lightning, Rip Van Winkle time-machine there is a comic shop out
there right now with these price points call me immediately, I will buy your entire store!
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