Be Very, Very, Very Careful - Ebay listing warning

In an earlier blog, I spelled out some keys to getting the prices for your variant books if you wish to list them on ebay.  Unfortunately, there are ebay sellers who are hitting paydirt by listing books as 35 cent variants when, in fact, they are not.

Ebay seller jordanbay listed this Daredevil 153 as a 35 cent variant.  There is just one major problem.  There is no 35 cent variant of this issue.  The listing quickly sold for $12 which must be a record for a mid-grade copy of this issue.  The 35 cent variant issues of Daredevil are 146, 147, and 148.

Ebay seller mmbuff listed these copies of Eternals 17 and 18 as 35 cent price variants.  They are not price variants.  They are regular issues, but the incorrect listing helped the books quickly sell at $14.99 each.  There are five 35 cent variant issues of the Eternals - 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.

The moral of the story?  While it would certainly be a great deal to find a nice 35 cent variant for fifteen bucks or so, check to make sure that the issue is actually a variant before hitting the BIN.  Caveat Emptor...

High-Grade Amazing Spider-Man 35 centers - Updated Price Information

There is nothing like a well-followed auction with fresh, never-seen material to check the real price levels on great 35 cent variant books.  Long-time variant collector Darthdiesel auctioned off several top-census 35 cent books on ebay recently, including two very high grade Amazing Spider-Man 35 cent books.

Spider-Man 173 in CGC 8.5 Off-White to White (tied for highest graded, and only six books on the census) brought a hammer price of $612.  Eight bidders were recorded with fifteen bids and three bidders registered bids in excess of $500.  There was definately at least one additional bidder as I really wanted that book (my copy is a 4.5) but didn't snipe high enough and my bid was never entered.  I suspect that there were other bidders/snipers as well.  This result is now the only recorded sale of this issue in GPA.  By the way, assuming that you could sell a CGC 8.5 regular issue 173 for the cost of the slab, this price is forty times the price of the regular issue.

The other high grade Spidey 35 center that Darth auctioned was a beautiful CGC 9.2 Off-White to White 171.  This auction registered five bidders and 10 bids before the Buy It Now option was utilized for $800.  Since the 8.5 173 went for over $600, this might have been a smart move, but until another comes up for auction, we will never know.  The problem is that currently there is just one additional 9.2 and a lone 9.6 that are locked up in collections, so it may be awhile before we find out.  The BIN price of $800 is about twenty-five times the price of a regular issue CGC 9.2 171.  Twenty-five times the price of of a regular issue 9.6 would value the CGC 9.6 35 center at over $2000.