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Are comics in their infancy compared to Coins, Stamps, and Baseball Cards?

Started by showcase4,

239 posts in this topic

showcase4

showcase4

Posted
Posted

...Man I hope so!

With todays already high prices on comics, just think what the future will bring if our hobby really is in its infancy compared to other established collectibles markets, with their multi-million dollar "grails".

What do you guys think.....how does the comic book market compare to other collectibles markets? Are we really only in our 'infancy' as I have been hearing for years, with tremendous room for growth and unheard of appreciation for the "big books"?

 

Steve

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Shadow

Shadow

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My only guess is that there is more room for comic to continue as collectibles due to the marketing of comic book icons in movies, toys, etc. At least compared to stamps. I think coins are far more historical in terms of collecting.

 

Funny you should bring this up as I commented to a friend recently that I haven't seen a Coin/Stamp store in years. There used to be a couple in Toledo in the 70's/80's but I can't think of any. I have some stamps I collected in the late 70's about the time I started with comics. I quickly gave it up, along with a brief fling with coins. I still have them but have no clue as to their worth.

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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Professional grading is commonly associated with a mature collectibles market.

 

This is a dealer/BSD-orchestrated move to "take the hobby to the next level" and get the highest resale for their long-held grails. Then comes the speculators, the cheaters, the scammers, the restorers, the constant Census growth.. and then comes the crying, the screaming, the bleeding, the divorces, the bankruptcies, the suicides...

 

It never ends well.

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
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and then you come along in the middle trying to sarcastically predict te sad sorry future for all the .

 

Nah, I stopped that long ago. I think we all know this is going to end badly, as they all do, but are happy to go along for the ride. Life is short, and the sheer entertainment value of being part of a market crash just might be worth it to some people. (shrug)

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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stopped what? the kind of posts you just made tonight?

 

I answered a question truthfully, and backed up with results from other hobbies where professional grading took hold. None of them ended well, and none of them ever will.

 

I don't go looking for trouble anymore, but if you dislike answers, then don't ask questions.

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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

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I don't go looking for trouble anymore, but if you dislike answers, then don't ask questions.

 

If I can speak for aman here...it isn't that we dislike the answers, it is that we think they are so pathetically useless to the discussion that we can't understand why you even give them.

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DrWatson

DrWatson

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I don't go looking for trouble anymore, but if you dislike answers, then don't ask questions.

 

If I can speak for aman here...it isn't that we dislike the answers, it is that we think they are so pathetically useless to the discussion that we can't understand why you even give them.

:eek:
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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

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Coins and stamps are certainly much further along than comics in terms of the numbers of people and total dollars involved. One of the big differences is that both coins and stamps have an acceptance among investment money folks that comics is just starting to get. Coins and stamps still attract new collectors every year even with all the investment money that pours in. It doesn't detract from the enjoyment that those new collectors have in those hobbies. Just because some are beginning to look at comics as commodities doesn't mean that those who do not will enjoy collecting any less. It certainly doesn't mean that the end is near for comics.

 

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lou_fine

lou_fine

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What do you guys think.....how does the comic book market compare to other collectibles markets? Are we really only in our 'infancy' as I have been hearing for years, with tremendous room for growth and unheard of appreciation for the "big books"?

 

Steve

 

Steve;

 

My personal take on the situation is that the realizable price of comics will never catch up to the other collectibles. Not because it is in its infancy in relationship to the other collectibles, but due more to the lack of supply out there.

 

There are just so very few exisitng HG copies of the grails in the comics hobby in comparison to the other collectibles. The ones that do exist all seems to be tied up in permanent collections. This has basically resulted in a market vacuum in the high end of the comics hobby with no supply, no sales action, and no realizable upward movements in prices.

 

This hobby is really left with speculative or extrapolated price movements based upon sale prices for inferior copies of the grails in the comics hobby. The other collectibles such as coins, stamps, and even cards does not seem to have this same supply problem. hm

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

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Coins and stamps are certainly much further along than comics in terms of the numbers of people and total dollars involved. One of the big differences is that both coins and stamps have an acceptance among investment money folks that comics is just starting to get. Coins and stamps still attract new collectors every year even with all the investment money that pours in. It doesn't detract from the enjoyment that those new collectors have in those hobbies. Just because some are beginning to look at comics as commodities doesn't mean that those who do not will enjoy collecting any less. It certainly doesn't mean that the end is near for comics.

 

As someone who has actively collected each of these collectibles, but especially comics, stamps and baseball cards, they are very different from each other though to be sure there is overlap. I have two depositions tomorrow to prepare for so can't write much now, but let me just make a couple of quick comments on stamps.

 

I love that hobby. I was probably at least as big a collector as comics, and perhaps even more so for stamps when I was a kid. I was already purchasing "investment" quality stamps back in the very early 1980s. While I only sporadically purchase stamps now I have continued to observe what is going on in the market place. In fact, I attended a very large stamp show here in DC earlier this year. The stamp market has generally been, and I would say in my opinion but I don't even believe this can be refuted, terrible for investments. The "investment" quality stamps I purchased 25 years ago, which were primarily US stamps issued during the 1920s and 1930s are actually worth less now than they were when I purchased them. That is not to say that some issues or segments of the hobby haven't proved fruitful for people, but in general they have not seen anywhere near the return that comics have developed.

 

And the hobby, and perhaps this is more of my opinion but it seemed to be reflected by who attended the show and from my conversations with dealers, has not aged well. By this I mean when you walk around the shows you see a lot of old people. I was one of the youngest at this huge show! I witnessed the same when I attended a smaller show in VA about 10 years ago. There is far more youth being brought into comic collecting than stamps, which is sad to see because the latter is a great hobby.

 

More to follow.

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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

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Posted
Coins and stamps are certainly much further along than comics in terms of the numbers of people and total dollars involved. One of the big differences is that both coins and stamps have an acceptance among investment money folks that comics is just starting to get. Coins and stamps still attract new collectors every year even with all the investment money that pours in. It doesn't detract from the enjoyment that those new collectors have in those hobbies. Just because some are beginning to look at comics as commodities doesn't mean that those who do not will enjoy collecting any less. It certainly doesn't mean that the end is near for comics.

 

As someone who has actively collected each of these collectibles, but especially comics, stamps and baseball cards, they are very different from each other though to be sure there is overlap. I have two depositions tomorrow to prepare for so can't write much now, but let me just make a couple of quick comments on stamps.

 

I love that hobby. I was probably at least as big a collector as comics, and perhaps even more so for stamps when I was a kid. I was already purchasing "investment" quality stamps back in the very early 1980s. While I only sporadically purchase stamps now I have continued to observe what is going on in the market place. In fact, I attended a very large stamp show here in DC earlier this year. The stamp market has generally been, and I would say in my opinion but I don't even believe this can be refuted, terrible for investments. The "investment" quality stamps I purchased 25 years ago, which were primarily US stamps issued during the 1920s and 1930s are actually worth less now than they were when I purchased them. That is not to say that some issues or segments of the hobby haven't proved fruitful for people, but in general they have not seen anywhere near the return that comics have developed.

 

And the hobby, and perhaps this is more of my opinion but it seemed to be reflected by who attended the show and from my conversations with dealers, has not aged well. By this I mean when you walk around the shows you see a lot of old people. I was one of the youngest at this huge show! I witnessed the same when I attended a smaller show in VA about 10 years ago. There is far more youth being brought into comic collecting than stamps, which is sad to see because the latter is a great hobby.

 

More to follow.

 

When was the great stamp crash?

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CAP Freak

CAP Freak

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Posted
My only guess is that there is more room for comic to continue as collectibles due to the marketing of comic book icons in movies, toys, etc. At least compared to stamps. I think coins are far more historical in terms of collecting.

 

Funny you should bring this up as I commented to a friend recently that I haven't seen a Coin/Stamp store in years. There used to be a couple in Toledo in the 70's/80's but I can't think of any. I have some stamps I collected in the late 70's about the time I started with comics. I quickly gave it up, along with a brief fling with coins. I still have them but have no clue as to their worth.

I just noticed a coin shop two stores down from my LCS when I bought donuts this morning. I think next Saturday I'll go in there just to check it out,

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