Ebay - you want how much for it???

[Lew Stringer]

Since he sold off another very rare Beano with gift last month it would appear pretty obvious he's downsizing his collection or indeed slowly selling off completely.

His current activity may have something to do with his recent decision to relocate from Brighton to somewhere near Cambridge. A more challenging mortgage perhaps.

if other collectors get wind of other high profile collectors selling off their collections it tends to lead to they themselves looking at their own collecting habits and deciding that now might be a good time to get out as well.

Surely that's just guesswork, koollectablz. Collectors, as I have been for many years, are not sellers by nature so why would any one of them, simply by discovering that a collector somewhere, even a major one, is, or appears to be, selling off his entire collection, be necessarily influenced to the point where he decides that he must do the same. My reaction would actually be the opposite, that being to seize the opportunity to acquire some previously-unobtainable gems new on the market for my own collection, preferably, but not necessarily, at bargain prices.

I agree with Derek (Phoenix). People downsize their collections for all sorts of reasons. For example, every few years I sell off a load of comics just to free up space. None of us are getting any younger and unless one has kids to leave a collection to there's no point in hanging onto some items that one will never get around to (or have the inclination to) reading again. Sell off the unwanted items, hold onto the stuff you want to re-read.

[koollectablz]

Hmmm, tbh my whole point was... not the reasoning behind selling stuff off, more that was it wise to tell people that you are?

And no, it's not guesswork as to wether one collector influences another - as mentioned in my original post it's already happened within the Dr Who collecting sphere. Prices of items even five years have been completely obliterated by the off loading of items from just two peoples very high profile collections. I've even spoken to people who have said they then sold to make sure they weren't left 'holding the baby'.

Phil is pretty much THE go to collector of Beano/Dandy items. He even ran the collectors club and published a book on the subject. When he stars to sell up - AND advertises that he is, then if I had a collection comprising of the same sort of stuff...

Well then yeah, I'd start to think.... do I need all this? Phil sure doesn't....

What isn't immediately clear is that it only takes one or two people to make a market for rare collectables, and once there's a hint that even one of them is moving on then it's pretty much a snowball effect.

Anyways, time will tell. Me? I buy what I like. But yeah I certainly make sure I sell it off again ASAP. For me it's enough to have had an item, I don't need to hang onto it.

As ever, YMMV.

[Lew Stringer]

Anyways, time will tell. Me? I buy what I like. But yeah I certainly make sure I sell it off again ASAP. For me it's enough to have had an item, I don't need to hang onto it.

So you're a buyer/investor, not a collector.

[Phoenix]

Me? I buy what I like. But yeah I certainly make sure I sell it off again ASAP. For me it's enough to have had an item, I don't need to hang onto it.

I buy what I like as well, but I never buy something just to sell it on. That would just be mercenary. If I remember correctly I have only ever sold five items on eBay, in every case duplicates of items in better condition, all of which are still in my collection today.

[Adam Eterno]

Don't get me wrong, but I would love to get this display unit for the house. But at that price? I would have to be on serious drugs to pay even a tenth of that price.

£250 now

[dandy mad]

£25,000!
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/First-Oor-Wulli ... Ciid%253A1

[blaing]

Now that's just plain greedy

[irishjohnp]

I hope more people follow Phil like sheep thinking the bottom of the market has fallen out of old beano & Dandys cause I'll be there waiting... watching.. and being outbid as usual.
Phil selling his collection has not put me off. I'm looking forward to more rarer items coming on the market at last, rather than the same old low grade stuff at stupid prices.

[koollectablz]

£25,000!
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/First-Oor-Wulli ... Ciid%253A1

Now that ones quite interesting. The first Oor Wullie is undeniably rare, but the same seller has another two copies up for sale... at the same time!

Is it worth £25,000? Who knows... But it sure seems a bit self defeating to advertise another two at the same time albeit at lower prices. I just assume they're doing it to push traffic to their shop and they're not actually looking to ever sell it.

Be interesting to see it in an auction format, start at 99p, no reserve. I don't think it'd go over £4k.

[dandy mad]

The price for a softcover Oor Wullie annual #1 1941 around £7,000 and needs to be in very high grade for that price but £25k for one nope it wont sell. I don't even think the hardback version would achieve £25k and there are only one of those in existence in private hands!

Edit; This is the previous record price for an Oor Wullie book #1 and its much less than £25k
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21870/lot/412/

[koollectablz]

The price for a softcover Oor Wullie annual #1 1941 around £7,000 and needs to be in very high grade for that price but £25k for one nope it wont sell. I don't even think the hardback version would achieve £25k and there are only one of those in existence in private hands!

Edit; This is the previous record price for an Oor Wullie book #1 and its much less than £25k
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21870/lot/412/

Less than £7k and that's with 25% added on as buyers premium. Def a pricey item but as with everything like this there's only a very small pool of people actually willing to pay that amount, and as soon as one out of that pool gets a copy then the price drops accordingly.

Certainly far rarer than the corresponding Beano or Dandy annuals though, I've seen or had multiple copies go through my hands but I've never even seen a #1 Oor Willie in the flesh (or print so to speak).

It's not a genuine 'for sale' item imo.

[dandy mad]

The price for a softcover Oor Wullie annual #1 1941 around £7,000 and needs to be in very high grade for that price but £25k for one nope it wont sell. I don't even think the hardback version would achieve £25k and there are only one of those in existence in private hands!

Edit; This is the previous record price for an Oor Wullie book #1 and its much less than £25k
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21870/lot/412/

Less than £7k and that's with 25% added on as buyers premium. Def a pricey item but as with everything like this there's only a very small pool of people actually willing to pay that amount, and as soon as one out of that pool gets a copy then the price drops accordingly.

Certainly far rarer than the corresponding Beano or Dandy annuals though, I've seen or had multiple copies go through my hands but I've never even seen a #1 Oor Willie in the flesh (or print so to speak).

It's not a genuine 'for sale' item imo.

The reason early Oor Wullie/The Broons are rare is because they where only produced for the Scottish market only thus had a reduced print run and with the only new artwork being the covers and title pages the rest were reprint strips from the Sunday Post fun section. You can actually get the first Oor Wullie annual in facsimile form these came out in mid 2006 and srill wildly available through amazon and ebay. On a side note the seller of the £25k Wullie book had a Beano book 1940 in imaculate condition probably the best one in existence up on ebay last year for £7000 and was snapped up within days of it being listed so there are still some well heeled collectors out there still willing to pay big bucks for the rarer items

[Phoenix]

Def a pricey item but as with everything like this there's only a very small pool of people actually willing to pay that amount, and as soon as one out of that pool gets a copy then the price drops accordingly.

I really don't see why the asking price would be lowered just because someone has bought one of the few available copies. The number of potential buyers has dropped by one, so human nature being what it is, sellers would surely be more likely to put their price up.

[Adam Eterno]

Def a pricey item but as with everything like this there's only a very small pool of people actually willing to pay that amount, and as soon as one out of that pool gets a copy then the price drops accordingly.

I really don't see why the asking price would be lowered just because someone has bought one of the few available copies. The number of potential buyers has dropped by one, so human nature being what it is, sellers would surely be more likely to put their price up.

Koollectablz's point is that there is a VERY small pool of buyers at that price level. Imagine if there were only two big buyers and one bought an item. If the same item came up again, there wouldn't be the competition between the two buyers to increase the price and if the 2nd buyer had wanted to spend an increased amount, he/she would have bought the first item. He is only talking about high ticket items.

I've seen rare items come up on ebay, sell for a packet and then the same seller has loaded a similar item and only achieved half the price. It happens with Phil Shrimpton frequently.

[Phoenix]

Imagine if there were only two big buyers and one bought an item. If the same item came up again, there wouldn't be the competition between the two buyers to increase the price

But imagine if there were three or four, or even half a dozen.