What is the best comic investment decision you ever made?

[Comicdey]

Can't remember the exact amount but I'm thinking about $12 grand for (almost) complete runs of Silver Age X-Men, Justice League, Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Journey Into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, along with early issues of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Werewolf by Night,

Dracula, Savage Sword of Conan, Eerie, Creepy,Turok, Star Trek and probably a couple other runs I can't remember.

 

The runs for the most part started in and around 1963 so most of the early issues weren't there...although I did manage a #1 Green Lantern in 3 pieces though.

 

Thanks to my wife mentioning I collect comics, I was able to get to this collection before the dealers did.

 

Does that mean you don't need a spare Avengers #1 :: I still haven't replaced my copy.

 

 

I actually got one from a Secret Santa Gift exchange on the forum a couple years ago. Amazingly, I mentioned I needed one and the fellow forumite that pulled my name had a beat-up copy he gave me as a gift.

 

(thumbs u

[CAP Freak]

I joined the CGC Boards!

[binarysunrise]

Well, the best personal comic investment decision was deciding to have my Superman collection bound into hardcovers. I never planned to sell them anyways, but now have turned a closet full of long boxes into a glassed-in bookcase full of heirlooms

[juggernaut]

I joined the CGC Boards!

 

Ditto (thumbs u

[catrick339]

I was noodling south toward Mid Ohio COn a few years back, driving on surface roads, and stopping at the odd junk shop and antique store, and found a stack of 50's DC's in a display case. I dickered with the store manager for a while and snagged 30 decent 50's DC superhero books for $100...including an Adventure 247 and 267. Flipped the 247 the next day at the convention for $300, paid for the weekend and some nice comics off my wantlist to boot.

 

Bought Cerebus 1 off the newsstand new for cover price: one buck.

[Designer Toast]

Okay, this will likely make folks here cringe, but I traded a kid in junior high school a few bucks and one of those big foam glider planes for a shoebox full of comics. Here's what was in the box:

 

Young Allies 12 or 13

Actions Comics (two copies in the twenties)

Thrilling Comics 33

Pep 20 or 22

Sensation Comics (low number from what I remember)

And a few other GA books.

 

My mom drove me 75 miles to the nearest city with a comic shop, one of the most memorable times I spent with my mom who went well out of her way to make sure I was able to go to this shop (thumbs u . I was big into Marvel books and traded the Actions for GS X Men 1, X Men 94, Hulk 181 and some other X type books. It was not a good trade at all looking back on it, but I was so friggin' happy to get those books I didn't care. So, for me, it was the best investment I made as a kid who loved comics and it wasn't the last kid-to-kid trade I made involving comic books.

[mysterymachine]

In 1990 I went into a jewelry/hobby store and the owner was unpacking old boxes of a large collection of Golden age DC comics that he just recieved including a large run of More Fun Comics.

I picked up a very good copy of More Fun #67 for $350, a fine copy of batman 22 for $250, and a very good copy of Comic Calvacade #2 for $200.

A week later I went back to his store and now he had a large run of Marvel Mystery including a coverless (Marvel Comics) #1 that he proudly displayed and a large run of Captain America Comics.

Unfortunately I had spent all my money the week before.

 

[kenglo]

My best comic investment is NOT buying moderns :-)

[electricprune]

Two non-comic yardsale finds:

 

Box of approx. 500 1956-1958 Topps baseball cards: $2.00

Beatles "Yesterday & Today" butcher cover: $1.00

 

Sir, that is downright stealing.

[the blob]

in terms of ratios i've probably done better like the stack of albedo 3s I picked up for 50 cents each and sold for $10-$20 a pop, but in terms of ratio + amount cash buying a VF+ FF 49 on ebay a couple of years back for $23 (including shipping if I remember correctly) and selling it last year during the movie hysteria for $230 or thereabouts comes to mind. of course, it was only a great "investment" because the advertised grade turned out to be spot on and not a VG+.

 

The TOS 39 I picked up for $75 in about 1999 and sold for $600+/- was also nice.