Comic Books: Discussions

I Purchased my 1st Over street price guide 1982 with some money for my 14th b-day I had already been spending every spare penny on comics for the last few years and now realized I could find out what they are worth! For years afterwards when I bought the next one I would curl up on the couch and compare it to last years totally geeky but very exciting! This however quite sadly is no more.The price guide now is basically a reference for 1st app's artists dates and such the prices really are a joke.The overstreet allegedly gathers info from dealers,stores shows, the internet and factors everything in.Well lets be real with the exception of whatever is hot at the moment(these days driven by whatever movie is coming out) and a few keys nothing seels for anywhere near guide! I mean especially on e-bay how often do you get more than half of guide? and trade shows at least the ones in the N.E. area where I am are ridiculus! $25 comics old for $10 and the vultures trying to get them even cheaper.There is no such thing as a real #1 anymore amongst the major publishers as they just keep restarting titles and creating variants and as far as 1st app's go well Marvel and DC would actually have to be creating new characters for that.It is sad to see silver age comics going for pennies on the dollar while a year old book like Locke and key #1 goes for $50 but my point is how do they justify the prices going up? well their answer is CGC of course if people keep overpaying for comics slabbed at 9.4 or better it brings up the market they will say but this is pure gouging.Over street sold out to CGC when they lowered thier NM from the 9.4 it had been to 9.2 as it made a 9.4 seem more NM. anyway my point is anyone dealing in comics these days unless you have golden age horror or early silver age marvel knows that the guide is worthless years ago a $100 comic sold at $70 would be a deal now even priced at $50 it generally does'nt move and starting it live i have seen more than i can count not even make $20+ all in all just very sad to see the market this watered down and have Overstreet become basically irrelevent. thanks for letting me vent! MIke
p.s. a little about me: I have been reading comics since the age of 6(starting with Swamp Thing Man Thing and any horror comic my mother would bring home) and have been a hardcore collector ever since I also owned and operated a retail store Shadowland Comics for 5 years and have been selling comics on e-bay since 2002 adopting the new value policy of not what its worth but what did i pay for it. once again just kind of sad