What is the best comic investment decision you ever made?

[dekeuk]

 

Even if you just collect for fun, making what turned out to be a great investment in the long run can be an unintended result of comic collecting. So what is the best decision you made, either on a single issue, a run, an era, or a collecting philosophy.

 

(note - saying you bought a comic for 12 cents off the news stand and kept it all these years does not count)

 

Examples might be:

 

I bought my high grade ASM run before prices got too high

 

I bought 10 copies of Green Lantern #76 in the 1980s

 

I bought all the Neal Adams covers over 20 years ago

 

I bought Pedigree comics

 

I started bagging and boarding my comics before everyone else started doing this

 

I cherry picked high grade silver comics at comic shows for 20 years

 

etc.

 

Feel free to show some nice examples of what turned out to be great investments.

 

 

[Rich_Henn]

The wife and I invested in a sweet copy of Amaz. Fant 15 six years ago.

Which CGC graded and I sold for a sweet ammount that would clear out all our debt and pave the way for our daughter.

 

Hence the CGC baby!

 

 

[mackenzie999]

Back in the 70's I traded a kid five joints for a gorgeous ASM #7.

(I was a kid too, wasn't corrupting a minor!)

[paperheart]

always bought high grade

[brasseye]

Been buying HG, and being able to predict the trends, ....though still waiting for a few to happen

[whomerjay]

I stopped buying comics around 1989 and didn't start again until around 2001.

 

And almost all of what I've bought since 2001 is GA.

[Dick Pontoon]

Joining the CGC Boards and finding all kinds of new comic pals to have fun with!

[Annihilus]

Bought Amazing Spider-Man #50 from a kid in 6th grade (1980) for $5.

 

Unfortunately sold it (at a tidy profit) in college

 

Also bought ASM #1 back in '90 for $800 and sold it for $1700 in '01. Of course that could be considered a bad decision since the price has spiked so much lately, but needed the money, so $900 profit wasn't too bad at the time.

 

Would love to have both of those back!

[cloudofwit]

Back in the 70's I traded a kid five joints for a gorgeous ASM #7.

(I was a kid too, wasn't corrupting a minor!)

 

Ah, the temporal pleasures of the THC high versus the tangibility of an early Spidey--poor kid. :think: He must've been taking jones to another level.

[Old Fashion PB and J]

X-Force #1 !!!!

 

I bought a bag of comics from the paper boy when I was 11 5 bucks got me my VF/NM ASM 300, and about 100 other comics. I bought 2 long boxes of comics from a shop that closed down, and still have a few. I sold various books some UXM and ASM's to dealers and bought ASM 252 for $20.00 which is still in my collection and an easy NM+. Now being as I have about 15 copies of about 8 issues of these 2 titles from the early copper I may submit them and end up with a few 9.8's . Which would make my $12.00 well spent.

 

these were all purchases before being 13 years old.

[OldGuy]

What is the best comic investment decision you ever made?

 

I never bought a comic thinking "I'll make money off of this some day."

[dekeuk]

Back in the 70's I traded a kid five joints for a gorgeous ASM #7.

 

[alecholland]

What is the best comic investment decision you ever made?

 

I never bought a comic thinking "I'll make money off of this some day."

 

Agreed. The best comic investment decision I ever made was realizing very early on that (with a few exceptions) comics were not a wise choice for investment purposes.

 

 

Now if this question were about Beanie Babies, then I'd have to say either Valentino or Squealer.

[dekeuk]

What is the best comic investment decision you ever made?

 

I never bought a comic thinking "I'll make money off of this some day."

 

I did preface the question by saying "even if you only collect for fun". Sometimes making a great investment is a by-product of the collecting.

 

 

 

 

 

[g-man]

when going to shows in the 80s i would be buying books from teh 60s and 70s (as nice as i could afford)....most kids my age were buying new stuff or in the early 90s the crapola that emerged.

 

next best decision was selling my asm cgc run a few years back.

[Mac Man]

Best investment... would probably be a tie between my Avengers #4 and Amazing Spider-Man #1. I bought the Avengers #4 for a steal of a deal, and while I was sad to let it go, it help me afford my ASM #1. While I tell family that the ASM #1's value continues to rise even in with its low, low grade, I find it's "buzz" factor still kills me every time I take it down off the top of my book shelf. I don't think I could have picked a better book unless it was an AF 15.

[DiceX]

Popped a freshly listed BIN on a full run of Ms Marvel in "NM" condition for the hefty sum of $10 plus $5 shipping.

Sent the #18 to CGC.

Put the run (sans #18) back on eBay and sold them for $25 plus shipping.

 

Get the CGC package, and the #18 was the first 9.8 on the census.

Sold the #18 in the CGC 9.8 slab for $1,300.

 

But that was years ago. Never had anything remotely as lucky as this since.

And probably never will.

 

 

[VintageComics]

My best investment was buying a run of the 300 Mini Series #1-5 just weeks before the movie was announced. GA Collectibles lost out HUGE on that one!

 

[akaSteveRogers]

im waiting for the worst investments thread!

 

 

great stories guys.. (thumbs u

[VintageComics]

Actually, I don't know what you mean by investments. Do you guys mean long term, thought out investments or just "luck of the draw" buys?

 

For short term I bought a stash of Secret Wars #8 a few years ago. There were 10 total. I sent the books in to get graded 5 at a time. the first 5 got damaged during shipping and they graded 9.0/9.2/9.4/9.6. So I tried the second batch. They graded 9.6, 9.8, 9.8 and two unbelieveable 9.9's!!

 

 

I sold both 9.9's for about $1200 each.

 

I should have waited for the venom movie.

 

 

Just imagine if the first 5 didn't get damaged.

 

R.