Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Overstreet has always been a great research tool, there is no question that they have helped tremendously in the formation of this hobby. They have cataloged a great amount of important discoveries, and I have been buying their publication for years, starting with the 1976 edition.
My concern is that the pricing in the book does not accurately refelect real market pricing, and hasn't for a long time. I am an active seller of vintage gold/silver/bronze comic books, both at conventions and online. I beleive the pricing information in the books will mislead people into thinking their comics are far more valuable than they really are. Most comics, regardless of age or type, sell for far less than this guide indicates, I don't care if it's low grade/high grade, gold, silver or bronze, all the pricing should be taking with a multiple grains of salt. I'm not saying all prices are inaccurate, just most of them.
This was echoed numerous times in the market reports by trusted dealers & comic historians as well. Overstreet needs serious pricing reform, I really didn't see that in this edition, though they said they made some "minor adjustments". When you see vintage comics selling (consistently)for 20%-30%-40% of the values listed in this book, why do they keep prices so high? They are suppose to be the leader in pricing, so I do expect much more out of Overstreet. I argued with people who say "it's a just a guide" and prices can fluctuate, I could agree with that statement if pricing were just a bit off, but not by the significantly large margins this book is off by.
Pricing is Overstreet's business, if they can't accuartely report true market pricing (which has never been so easy to find with the advent of Ebay/online sales), then why purport to be expert on pricing & publish a yearly guide that contains grossly inaccurate pricing info?
I appreciate the guide for what it has done in the past to catalog this great hobby, but I need accurate pricing info. I give the guide 5 stars on being a great general research tool, but only 1 star for realistic pricing info. That being said, I love Overstreet, I want them to continue forever, but they need a serious re-haul on pricing, a major impactful one, they need to go Freddy Kruger and start really slashing, be accurate!! Thanks!

Back in 1970, publication of the first edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Guide revolutionized the hobby. Not only did it give collectors at least a ballpark idea of what their comics were worth, but it provided answers to many mysteries with respect to the numbering and even the existence of many of the more obscure comics from the 1940s and 1950s. Maybe I should say that the first edition began the process of providing answers because new information was gradually accumulated over the years and reflected in later editions. By the time I bought my first copy, they were on the fifth edition and it provided me with answers to many questions -- such as which issues of Four Color comics actually existed, how the heck could you figure when a particular version of an issue of Classics Illustrated had been printed, and what was up with the numbering of EC comics? -- that had been puzzling me. Right from the start, though, there was controversy over how accurately the prices reflected the actual marketplace. Overstreet relied heavily on the advice of big-time dealers who, naturally enough, had an interest in seeing the prices in the guide be as high as possible. So, there was an early consensus that the prices in the guide were usually too high -- some people used to refer to it as the "Overpriced Guide" -- although occasionally a comic would become hot and the guide prices would be well below true market values. With the arrival of eBay, Overstreet was slow to recognize how the bottom had fallen out of the market for mid-grade Silver Age comics. To this day, he is overstating prices on many of those issues.

The various knocks against the guide are still relevant, but if you are interested in comics, you have to have it. You may not need to buy each new edition as it comes out, but you certainly have to buy it at a minimum of every few years. Even if you are not currently into collecting comics or if you are just interested in what comic collecting is all about, you should find the guide both useful and enjoyable. In addition to the price listings, the guide provides background material on comic collecting, current market trends, the history of comics, and the history of comic collecting. A lot of reading at a reasonable price!

Still a must have, but use prices as a starting point only. Ebays completed listings, Mile High, MyComicShop, and Comic Collector Live are more useful in determining current values. Advisor commentaries contain lots of good info, not sure why it isn't incorporated into the book more. Biggest complaint is lower grade books seem to stay flat or lose value every year when in fact the opposite is happening, GD on older books should be 1/2 of FN & VG can probably be eliminated. Years behind on pricing of many key issues. Overstreet has been great for the industry but all the movies are turning comics into a big business & the opportunity is certainly there for someone to come out with a competing guide that's more in tune or perhaps take this one over.