When I closed CPV Comics in March, I wasn’t really sure where this whole COVID-19 thing was going to go. In that time, I’ve joined a number of comic groups on Facebook and have seen the online comic community continue to roll on. I’ve acquired a number of comics in the last few weeks and have had mixed experience with the postal system. One of the things I’ve been waiting for to reopen is an order of 10 short boxes to move my comics. I ordered them and they were shipping on April 15th. Canada Post finally updated the tracking (for the first time) yesterday, May 2nd to tell me they were in Stoney Creek – which is in the opposite direction from where they should be going. Now they are back in Mississauga where they started their journey and hopefully coming to me soon. Thankfully, my comic orders have been arriving within normal timeframes.
So if I get the comic boxes this week, I could be in a position to officially reopen the shop early next week (around May 11th). I might start adding some new stock to the site this week. Please check back often for updates or follow me on Instagram @cpvcomics.
When I do reopen, for the foreseeable future, I will only be shipping comics once or maybe twice a month (depending on volume) in order to limit my trips to the post office.
In the meantime, be sure to check out my eBay market report on Canadian Price Variant comics sales.
Last Fall, I started tracking data on Canadian Price Variant comic sales through eBay. The Canadian Price Variant comics price guide is a useful tool but like any price guide, what you see in the guide and what you see in the real world are often quite different. When we think about something like the Overstreet Price Guide, the most long-standing comics price guide on the market, very few people, for example, are willing to pay full guide price when buying a comic in the real-world. It’s no different in any collectibles industry – as a child, I remember buying the Beckett price guides to evaluate the “value” of my huge sports card collection. Two years ago, I wound up recycling 90% of that same collection, which as a child, would have been unfathomable to me.
So while the price guide gives a good sense of relative value between comics, I’ve been looking for a better way to value my inventory and set prices which both reflect the current market as well as my own personal valuation of the comics. If you’ve browsed my site, you’ll notice that I will list some comics at full guide price and many others 1-2 grades below guide price. Factors that go into this include my own personal desire to sell the comic and the time/effort required on my part to acquire the comic.
But I digress…you’re here for the market report! Here are a few notes to keep in mind when interpreting the data:
I generated this data by performing a search of completed sales on eBay using the keyword “Canadian Price Variant”.That means I’m only capturing sales of comics that are clearly labeled as Canadian price variants.The search also only captures sales of comics that were available to Canadian buyers on eBay (with one mega-sale exception that I’ve included and noted in the report below).
The report reflects the period from December 8, 2019 to March 7, 2020.As I mentioned, this pretty neatly falls into the three months before COVID started seriously affecting the economy. I’m really interested to see how this will compare to data from March to June due to the economic impacts of COVID.
Where a comic was sold on a Best Offer, I assumed the sale price to be 70% of the list price. This figure was chosen based on my own personal experience with using the Best Offer feature of eBay and it’s roughly midway point between 50% (which I feel is the lowest most people are likely selling at) and full list price. I know I’m probably overvaluing some of the sales but I figure I’m also undervaluing others and hoping it breaks even on the whole.
All sales figures are reported in Canadian dollars.Conversion of USD sales on eBay.com was done based on the conversion rate on the day the data was pulled (which was done on several different dates throughout the period.
OK, so let’s begin…
Time Period
Total Sales
Entire Period (Dec-Mar)
776
Dec 8/19 – Jan 7/20
334
Jan 8/20 – Feb 7/20
274
Feb 8/20 – Mar 7/20
168
Table 1 – Total Sales of Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay from December 2019 to March 2020
First off, we can see that there was definitely a drop-off in sales in February. This isn’t totally unexpected given that after the holidays, people are likely cutting back on their discretionary spending. I think most industries expect a slowdown in sales starting mid-January lasting into the spring.
Figure 1 – Sales of Canadian Price Variant Comics on eBay per day from December 8, 2019 to March 7, 2020
If we look at sales per day, we can definitely see that there is a slight downwards trend from an average of 10 to an average of 5 sales per day over the three-month period. Notice that there were several significant sales days prior to the Christmas holidays and in the 2 weeks after. From roughly January 12th onwards, there was only one significant sales day in the two months after the holidays, confirming that the January-March period is not a great time for sales.
Next, let’s have a look at sales methods on eBay:
Sales Method
Total Sales
Average Sale Price
Auction
389
$ 50.40
Buy It Now
204
$ 44.78
Buy It Now – Best Offer
183
$ 34.34
Buy It Now – Either Method
387
$ 39.84
Table 2 – Total Sales of Canadian Price Variant comics by Sales Method on eBay
There is a nearly perfect 50/50 split between sales by auction and Buy It Now sales. Within the Buy It Now sales, there is a nearly 50/50 split between those selling at full list price and those selling on a best offer. Auctions have a slightly higher average sale price and this is likely due to several huge sales on graded comics. Speaking of graded comics…
Comic Type
Total # of Sales
Sales via Auction
Sales via BIN
Sales via BIN-Best Offer
Average Sale Price
Graded
94
50
19
25
$ 246.09
Raw/Ungraded
678
339
184
151
$ 17.43
Table 3 – Sales data for graded and ungraded or raw Canadian price variant comics on eBay
As we expect, you can see that graded comics pull a significant premium over ungraded comics. Nearly all the sales of graded comics were CGC-graded (out of 94, there were 2 from CBCS and 1 from PGX). As with regular comics, the grade is everything. Below a grade of 9.2, it’s questionable whether it’s financially viable to have a Canadian price variant comic graded.
Figure 2 – Average sale price of CGC-graded Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay
There were some pretty impressive sales in the three-month period from December to March. The top 21 highest sales of Canadian price variant comics were all graded through the CGC, with the top 10 sales all over $500 CAD.
Comic
Issue #
Grade
Sale Price (CAD)
Amazing Spider-Man
238 (with Tattooz
CGC 9.8
$ 6,200.00
Amazing Spider-Man
238 (with Tattooz)
CGC 9.6
$ 2,177.50
Amazing Spider-Man
252
CGC 9.8
$ 1,581.20
Amazing Spider-Man
238 (with Tattooz)
CGC 9.2
$ 1,395.64
Secret Wars
8
CGC 9.8
$ 1,125.32
Detective Comics
576
CGC 9.8
$ 998.30
Swamp Thing
37
CGC 9.6
$ 799.99
Amazing Spider-Man
238 (with Tattooz)
CGC 9.2
$ 617.69
Amazing Spider-Man
238 (with Tattooz)
CGC 9.2
$ 590.00
Punisher
1
CGC 9.6
$ 549.99
Table 4 – Top 10 sales of graded Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay from December 2019 to March 2020
We can see that Amazing Spider-Man #238 continues to be THE Canadian Price Variant comic to own in high grade. The 9.8 copy sold on eBay.com and wasn’t even accessible to Canadian buyers (the price is a rough estimate based on a conversion of $4650 USD). It is possible it could have sold for more were it available to Canadians.
If we filter out the graded comics, the top 10 sales show a couple of other high performers.
Comic
Issue
Sale Price (CAD)
Amazing Spider-Man
238 (No Tattooz)
$ 310.67
Batman
386
$ 305.00
Amazing Spider-Man
238
$ 280.00
Transformers
1
$ 249.99
Batman
386
$ 225.24
Batman
357
$ 222.50
Thor
337
$ 205.00
Thor
337
$ 202.50
Secret Wars
8
$ 187.50
Detective Comics
524
$ 175.00
Table 5 – Top 10 sales of ungraded Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay from December 2019 to March 2020
We can see that key issues sell for very respectable amounts even without grading. Over 65% of Canadian Price Variant comic sales are above $5 CAD/issue, with the largest number of sales in the $6-$20 range, which is commensurate with typical prices attributed to non-key CPV comics in the CPV price guide.
Figure 3 – Sales of Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay broken down by price range
The most frequently sold Canadian Price Variant comics were reflections of speculation and upcoming film/TV projects. Thor #337 and #338, the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill and Stormbreaker was the frontrunner, due to the rumoured possible appearance of Beta Ray Bill in an upcoming MCU film. New Mutants #1 was also a big seller, again due to the upcoming New Mutants film from Fox along with Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1, due to the upcoming Wandavision TV show.
Comic
Issue #
Total Number of Sales
Thor
337
15
Thor
338
9
New Mutants
1
9
Amazing Spider-Man
238
9
Vision and the Scarlet Witch
1 (vol 1)
8
Secret Wars
8
7
Amazing Spider-Man
252
6
Amazing Spider-Man
265
5
Alpha Flight
1
5
Magik
1
5
Secret Wars
1
5
Shazam! : The New Beginning
1
5
Table 6 – Most frequently sold Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay from December 2019 to March 2020
Taking a look at which series generated the most sales, we see some similar titles and trends though some of the titles which sold well didn’t actually sell well as a series, which points to people accumulating key issues as opposed to run building. A prime example of this is Vision and the Scarlet Witch – although there are 16 issues across two volumes, there was only one issue sold outside of Vol 1 #1, which was the 5th best selling issue in the quarter. Clearly the Wandavision series has people speculating! On the flipside, New Mutants has proven to be a popular series across the board thanks to a large number of keys spread out through the run and a movie coming out soon.
Series
Total Number of Sales
Amazing Spider-Man
68
New Mutants
34
Uncanny X-Men
34
Batman
33
Thor
30
Star Wars
24
Secret Wars
23
Detective Comics
21
Alpha Flight / Conan / GI Joe / Spectacular Spider-Man / Superman
15
Avengers / DC Comics Presents / Fantastic Four
13
Table 7 – Most frequently sold Canadian Price Variant series on eBay from December 2019 to March 2020
There is so much analysis I could continue to do with the data, but to conclude, I’ll post one other piece of information I dug up during the process. I was interested in determining what the best day of the week to sell comics was, having read on many a site that eBay auctions work best when the end on Sundays. The data certainly supports that, though it’s hard to know if that’s just because the majority of sellers end their auctions on Sundays. Friday through Monday certainly seems to be the optimal time for an eBay auction. That said, there is no pattern to Buy It Now sales.
Figure 4 – Sales of Canadian Price Variant comics on eBay broken down by day of the week
I hope this article has been enlightening and I look forward to comparing the data to the March-June period, to see what impact the COVID situation has had on comic sales.
Since early March, I have being living at my family’s cottage, which is in a significantly less populated and more rural area than Toronto. I am therefore unable to access the majority of my stock and have thus made the decision to stop sales of comics on both this site and eBay until I feel it is safe enough to return to Toronto full-time. I expect this will likely mean that sales will not restart until July at the earliest. No new stock will be added to the site either. Please check back often for updates or follow me on Instagram @cpvcomics.
I wish you all the best of health in this time and urge you to respect the directives coming from your public health agency so that we can all return to a normal state of being as soon as possible.
In the meantime, I’ll likely be focusing on writing some more informative blog posts about Canadian Price Variant comics.
I’ve been very busy adding new stock throughout the month of February as I get down to processing all the books I picked up over the holidays. You’ll find a number of new Canadian Price Variant key issues available on the site from the Top 100 Collection including:
A few small changes to the site design. Firstly, the search box is now responsive and will provide real-time search results within the box which should help cut down on the number of clicks required to get to what you want. Secondly, the browse functionality in the sidebar menu is now a searchable drop-down, to once again get you where you want to be faster.
In other news, we’re now offering International Shipping to most of Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand!
To close out the year, we’re offering two opportunities to save money on purchases at CPV Comics, until December 31st! Firstly, use the code 15OFF to save 15% on any order. On top of that, any order of $100 or more will automatically receive free shipping.
Some changes on the site this month! First, I’ve reduced the number of categories to speed up the site a little bit. So a number of comics have been combined into “Other DC Comics” and “Other Marvel Comics” categories. Also, I’ve bundled some comics where I have the complete run and am now only selling those issues as a run. Among the new stock this month, the entire run of Blue Devil, almost entirely Canadian Price Variants!
What a busy end of November and early December! First off, the new CPV Price Guide from the Rare Comics Blog is now live! I sold more comics In the weeks that followed its release than I did in all of 2019 prior to November! I’ve also just revised my shipping fees to the United States to make it a little cheaper for bigger orders.
Green Arrow #1 Canadian Price Variant – First solo series for Green Arrow and origin of Oliver Queen. We now have the entire 4-issue miniseries in stock.
