It is accepted wisdom that the Overstreet Price Guide is high on most books. It is even widely believed it is intentionally high, for bad faith reasons.

It has often been said that this is unacceptable, because the internet has made it possible to compile a large amount of data on real sales, with no fudging (e.g. ebay).

Does anyone have an updated opinion on whether it remains high? Has it gotten better?

I haven't purchased one since I had my shop, but hopefully by now they've taken eBay into their pricing consideration.

Silly to claim that a comic is worth ten bucks when it regularly sells on ebay for a dollar.

The InterNet ruins EVERYTHING!

I like the covers...

But the prices mean very little.

I'm going to pick on Mark's answer. Remember, that the Overstreet Price Guide isn't necessarily intended to track what YOU will be able to sell a book for, but what a retailer is going to charge to keep a book in stock, and (relatively) what it might cost to obtain a given book at a given time.

If, for example, a book like The Phantom #55 is listing in VF at $12 and M/NM for $25, and you want that book, in that grade, expect to pay that price. If eBay has one cheaper'n that, GREAT! But don't expect to find it in your local shop, or at a given time for those "less-than-Overstreet" prices. For them to keep such an item in stock....well.

You can also find multiples of such a book in conditions below these, for every one you find CLEARLY in the highest grades.

Oh, I know that. I think I should have been specific in my answer. The prices mean very little TO ME.

It's an excuse for a retailer to list a price that is higher than the going rate (not that all retailers do so). You can easily track comic sales on eBay and find actual going prices for comics (as opposed to the speculated values in the guide).

You can claim that a comic has a certain resale value based on Overstreet, but the true resale value is the actual price that will get it sold.

I'm not saying that shops should price at eBay prices (you're paying for the convenience of having a local shop), but shops should keep those prices in mind when they're pricing their books.

When I priced books for my shop, I used Overstreet as a general guide, mostly to alert me to any books that had unseen value (first appearances by characters, creators first books, etc). But I wouldn't automatically price items at Overstreet or Wizard prices.

Eeeep! Either I fergot to POST my retort, or one of the newbie mods deleted it!

GLITCH!

I wuz saying that, of course, different retailers will choose to gauge their books differently for "shelf-life" but my local comic retailer will only take better grades seriously, on older books that are more in demand. Lower grade books are relegated to a shrink-wrapped "bundle" for a below-Guide price. The nicer ones are evaluated, priced and regularly don't last.

Its not fair to say that every copy has to be priced in accord with auction prices, as those are designed to "sell now" like sales or clearance items in regular stgores. If I want maximum dollar and maximum "eye-value" I'm going to wait to find the right buyer for the item, just as I do IRL. Because a guy is standing in front of me waving money for an item RIGHT NOW doesn't mean I have to take it if its less than I want.

The other thing I don't think a lot of people appreciated before it became more clear, was the VALUE in having a local shop. The "hidden costs" have come to be more appreciated, and walking in saying, "I saw that book on eBay for half the price" has almost no bearing on what the item should be priced in the store.

One of the local retail shop owners used to sell some of his product online, and some stayed in store. He found that high price stuff was best sold locally, simply because he wasn't limited by the price offered by a low-baller.

But, I can honestly say, I've rarely if ever paid full OPG for a comic. And if I don't pay that much, how can I expect to sell them for that much?

Oh, I think it very clearly states in black and white that the OPG is NOT a guide to how much money YOU are going to make on your comics. If I'm not mistaken, it states somethin g along the lines of the OPGT being a guide for the range of prices that comics sell for, and how it depends on the demand on a given day/week/month/year for THAT particular comic. Honestly, some of the articles in those books are what keep me getting it (every few years, anyway).