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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Deal, July 10, 2001
This review is from: The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 31st Edition (Paperback)
The Overstreet Price Guide is, without a peer, the best annualized report that can be published for the entire sphere of comic book price indexing. Of course you're going to have the sellers who peddle their wares online and otherwise, disputing this fact, using their record-breaking "...ten times guide..." reports as their alibi, but they've got to realize that the guide is based on a broader sales arena. Not just the trendy sales, fresh after a movie and not just the eccentric purchases of a few mega-rich individuals. You'll notice the guide shows a generally upward trend on the prices of the comics throughout the years...similar to the nation's economy. If they were to bump prices up based on every outstanding report, there would be up and down prices more reflective of the stock market. For the future sake of everyone's investments in the comic book product, it is much better to have conservative growth. It may not appeal to the greedy seller, but to the average investor The Overstreet Guide is safely and effectively the best comic guide for "tout le monde". It may not be perfect, but it is The Best so far...it keeps a lid on the sales-hounds, and it allows the average Joe-collector, like myself, to at least have an overview of what to expect when going in on a purchase. With the exception of a few books (esp. those with characters appearing, or soon to appear on movies), both Sellers and buyers bend towards the guides price. This over time has proven, not to be a bad thing. ~C'est tout.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comic Collecting and Information Right At Your Fingertips, April 7, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 31st Edition (Paperback)
I have been an on again/off again/on again type of collector. I started collecting back in the mid 70's when I really didn't know what/how to collect (age 9). Sometime in the early 80's, I found a book that had information within, that explained some of the confusion about collecting. The book explained what type of comics were worth collecting (aka pricing) and explained (in the best terms of that time) how a collector should properly care for the comics in their collection. It also explained how a comics condition could be determined. There were also articles relating to the authors/writers/inkers/publishers of the comics I was collecting. The name of that book was the Overstreet Price Guide. The # was 13. What caught my eye initially about the book was that it had my favorite superhero on the cover (Superman) and there were many pictures of some of the most expensive comic books. Throughout the years, the Overstreet price guide has reflected well upon the different aspects of comic collecting. With issue #31, the Overstreet Price Guide reflected upon the newer standard of grading. It mentioned a little about CGC and predicted that CGC would not die out, but become a better stronghold in the industry. With CGC, a person could command a better price for their collected memory. With e-Bay starting to show some of the sales in the market, CGC was a natural for online reliablility. There were other articles in the book as well. Wonderwoman and the Fantastic Four had their history explained. There were articles about Murphy Anderson, the story of Palmer Cox, information about Bendis, information about 1st appearances, crossovers, and so much more. Yes, the Price Guide is about pricing, but it covers many other areas of collecting. It has so much information to the point that it is a collectible in and of itself. A collector that doesn't consider investment potential, is a foolish collector in my opinion. Yes, a person should purchase a comic because it has some meaning to them. I buy for the stories/art, or pivotal meaning, but in a day and age where layoffs happen to someone you know everywhere in the country, or other hardships occur that could be eased by the knowledge that this book could provide (which issues might be profitable over the long run), it makes sense to understand the importance of what you collect. The price guide is but a tool. If all you buy the book for is for the pricing, then I would suggest it might not be the book for you. If you are a true collector though, a great deal of information lies at your fingertips when you own this book. One of the best features that I like about it, is that the price guide lists dealers. Without this book, I would have to go to great efforts to find a store that I can buy rare comics from. Just recently, I purchased Action Comics #17 from Metropolis Comics. Would I have known where to find this without the price guide? Possibly. But what effort would I have had to go through? Within a week, I had located a copy. I tried looking everywhere in my own hometown. NOBODY had one available within a 4 city radius. I say that there is a reason many people consider this book, "The BIBLE of the comic book industry." To the person asking about Whitman and Gold Key (sorry, don't know how to e-mail you), the difference is in reprints. Gold Key started the line and Whitman finished it. Whitman also reprinted the earlier stories as well (which may be why you are seeing two different indicia) They didn't always state they were reprints back then. The main difference was the logo on the cover. Some people find no price difference whereas others find Gold Key over the Whitman. Because the reprint line (Whitman) wasn't produced with the same volume that Gold Key was, some people find Whitman more collectable than the Gold Key. As to worth, it mainly goes by the collector. In any case, the price shouldn't be too far off of what you see in the guide though. Hope that helps.
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19 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not for People Who Care About Comics, May 11, 2001
This review is from: The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 31st Edition (Paperback)
To get my biases out of the way: I am of the opinion that comics should be collected for their entertainment value and not as an investment. Even then, collectors need protection from price gouging, so if the guide actually played the role of protecting collectors by helping establish what a good price is for each comic it would be of some use. However, it has earned the nickname of the "Overprice Guide" for a good reason, and as a result isn't even of much use to investors, let alone collectors. 1. Many comic stores use the latest guide as an excuse to raise their prices as much as possible regardless of their own experiences of supply and demand. Many stores will even charge over the priceguide listing suggesting that the demand has continued to rise since the book was published when the opposite is usually true. Then, in a vicious cycle, the next guide reflects these changes. Speculators taking note of brief trends in the price guide will also temporarily incr!ease demand and decrease supply of the listed comics by buying them out, thus lending the Price Guide some artificial legitimacy through self-fulfilled prophecy. This sort of thing then usually winds up collapsing in on itself when speculators try offloading their hoards of speculative treasure and wind up flooding the market with titles with little actual demand. Look for example at the death of Superman issues or the brief Valiant craze. Hot titles one year are found collecting dust in bargain bins the next, thanks in part to the speculative market supported by the price guide. By basing its own listing on irrational market activity, Overstreet (which is unfortunately the most influential guide) contributes to this problem. 2. It is easy to compare two editions of Overstreet's Price Guide one or two years apart and find many listed prices that have dramatically decreased because the Guide has fallen into the trap of reflecting brief trends. The Guide is obsolete almo!st as soon as it comes out. The only areas in which the Guide IS useful are for titles whose trends have been well-established over many years (e.g. old EC comics, Action Comics #1, etc.) and how many can afford that? Sure, the rolling average helps a bit, but most irrational inflation occurs with new titles that haven't yet been listed and therefore are immune from the rolling average. The rolling average then helps keep these titles listed at an inflated price even while the market tries to correct itself. 3. If you try TRADING, let alone selling, a comic to a comic store, you can only expect a small percentage of the priceguide list (unless it is a classic collectible) because the store will refuse to gamble on the possibility of selling the latest overpriced dud or probably already has it in stock or doesn't need it wasting valuable space that could be put to better use. If the Overstreet, as it claims, reflects the market accurately, customers should get better !rates on trade. They don't because THE OVERSTREET HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ACTUAL RATES OF DEMAND. 4. If the book were truly for collectors, it would list as many lesser known titles as possible. But it doesn't. Many titles that aren't trendy are not even listed, and I'm not referring here to totally obscure self-published mini-comics and their ilk, but to well respected alternative and underground titles, etc. Thus the Price Guide is very incestuous, keeping some titles in the limelight and others in obscurity. 5. For a book that is half full of paid advertisements, the price is horrible. It seems like the book could be free and the publisher would still make a profit. The advertisements aren't even much of a service. You can locate most of the stores listed for free on the internet or, if you're visiting a new area, find a larger number of local stores listed in the yellow pages. Why should the buyer pay for largely useless paid advertisements? I consider! the price guide a sad, unfortunate waste. Buy some comics instead and enjoy yourself.
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