What's your opinion? A comic book bubble?

[Mac Man]

 

I'd sure like to see a nice, temporary drop in prices but who wouldn't?

 

Honestly, if the value of my collection drops, I'll still proudly show off my collection of "firsts" and "keys." I'll be bummed for sure, but I'll still keep them. As others have mentioned, these books are bought with my personal allowance--not with money that was supposed to have gone into savings. So there should never be a need for me to sell--unless I need to raise money for an AF 15

 

Be smart with your money and it should help you to avoid significant problems. :shrug:

 

[Wayne-Tec]

I believe that some books value will rise in "bubble" fashion during certain times. But those would be books like Spiderman #129 (when the Punisher was in theaters), but books like Amazing Fantasy #15 for instance is a totally different instance and i'll tell you why.

 

Spiderman is not just the most popular superhero of all time, but he is one of the most popular, successful, and loved fictional characters of all time. And trust me, Spiderman 3 was the highest budgeted film in the history of cinema, and that kind of backing is banking on a valuable commodity that has trancended popular entertaiment.

 

I mean this in no offense towards baseball but the popularity is not what it used to be and football has become a much bigger deal. Therefore baseball cards value and popularity go down.

 

I dont see any fictional characters giving spidey a run for his money and i dont see competition (like football has done to baseball) to take away the popularity of comics...much less Spiderman. So books like AF #15 have no bubble, they're that historic.

[Aman619]

one thing I always like to mention here is that our little hobby is just that: little. That protects us from a severe downside. We never got too big or attracted 100s of amateurs looking to get rich on comics. 95% of comics collectors love comics. Thats our strength. And less than 1% of the poplulation even cares they exist, or to read one, or buy one. So our community is pretty stable in its micro-universe.

[Aman619]

100,000s I meant, not 100s

[Mac Man]

I would agree... and it will remain relatively stable providing there is a continued population to keep the market alive.

 

But whatever, I'll just keep doing what I do: collecting. If the market falls out, I'll be able to have a better collection for less. If it keeps rising, then I'll just have to keep working harder for the deals.

[djpinkpanther67]

There will always be comic geeks. There has been a resurgence of popularity with comics due to the event arcs of the past couple of years.

If the comics market falls, I will be waiting

[cujobyte]

 

Good points, so far, however with the supply already set and only decreasing instead of increasing for keys, runs, HG, etc., do you guys think that our hobby is as susceptable to the marketplace in consideration that, unlike housing, our demand comes from a worldwide market and with the variations in currency, it may lessen the ultimate effects?

 

 

How is the supply already set? In regards to hg issues? Arent' OO collections found occasionally??

[cujobyte]

If we should be talking about bubbles lets talk about the gas bubble.

 

People created 150 a barrel not the oil supply itself.

 

Stupid oil futures and terrible investors.

 

Wall Street needed a clean out, I am glad some of these tuff times are happening.

 

I am sad some people lossed there homes, but alot of people shouldnt have even bought the house in the first place, so I blame the buyers and the sub prime lenders.

 

Honestly I believe most of the people should not be helped out what so ever because how many of you guys pay your mortgagee on time and see some dumba@@ is now getting help from the governement so they dont get foreclosed on where they should not have even gotten approved for the mortgagee in the first place.

 

Comic Bubble.....forget about it!

 

 

BUY HG AND ENJOY LIFE!

 

 

You know, not to get political, but why dont 'we place some blame on companies like BEAZER (go google them) instead of all the "people who can't afford houses". Because of all the deregulation, sure there were couples who were insufficiently_thoughtful_persons to buy houses that they could not afford, but there were alot more shark mortgage brokers selling them these shoddy loans.

 

Ok no more rant.

[Old Fashion PB and J]

If we should be talking about bubbles lets talk about the gas bubble.

 

People created 150 a barrel not the oil supply itself.

 

Stupid oil futures and terrible investors.

 

Wall Street needed a clean out, I am glad some of these tuff times are happening.

 

I am sad some people lossed there homes, but alot of people shouldnt have even bought the house in the first place, so I blame the buyers and the sub prime lenders.

 

Honestly I believe most of the people should not be helped out what so ever because how many of you guys pay your mortgagee on time and see some dumba@@ is now getting help from the governement so they dont get foreclosed on where they should not have even gotten approved for the mortgagee in the first place.

 

Comic Bubble.....forget about it!

 

 

BUY HG AND ENJOY LIFE!

 

 

You know, not to get political, but why dont 'we place some blame on companies like BEAZER (go google them) instead of all the "people who can't afford houses". Because of all the deregulation, sure there were couples who were insufficiently_thoughtful_persons to buy houses that they could not afford, but there were alot more shark mortgage brokers selling them these shoddy loans.

 

Ok no more rant.

 

Because nobody forced them to sign the contract. Both parties are guilty IMO.

[Flash105]

If we should be talking about bubbles lets talk about the gas bubble.

 

People created 150 a barrel not the oil supply itself.

 

Stupid oil futures and terrible investors.

 

Wall Street needed a clean out, I am glad some of these tuff times are happening.

 

I am sad some people lossed there homes, but alot of people shouldnt have even bought the house in the first place, so I blame the buyers and the sub prime lenders.

 

Honestly I believe most of the people should not be helped out what so ever because how many of you guys pay your mortgagee on time and see some dumba@@ is now getting help from the governement so they dont get foreclosed on where they should not have even gotten approved for the mortgagee in the first place.

 

Comic Bubble.....forget about it!

 

 

BUY HG AND ENJOY LIFE!

 

 

I rode XOM and SLB up to 140.00 a barrel and decided that was enough. I actually shorted oil stocks in July with DUG and rode it all the way down to 102/ barrel and pocketed about 48% return. Now I wish I had kept it another month and made another 20% but as the saying goes bulls make money, bears make money, and pigs get slaughtered.

 

The same goes for comics. Keep buying through all economies, buy what you like, and don't get sucked into what is hot. AF15 is hot. I want one but now is not the time. There are deals in every Heritage and Comiclink auction. It is ok to be the only bidder on a book if it is one you want.

 

As far as a bubble goes, the dealer/collector will provide a floor for prices for rare books. There just aren't that many high grade silver and gold keys. Common books are always at risk but for the collector that provides oppurtunity.

 

[kidcolt]

Card collecting go in cycles. Right now there is still a core vintage group but a huge part of the market has moved to the new GU and autographed cards. I am blown a way that collectors are paying between $300-500 for a single 4-6 card pack of cards. The market is flooded with auto's and Gu and the secondary market for singles suck. I expect that the card market (modern) will crash, it has to there is no way for it to remain the way it is in its current state. The vintage cards will survive as they are old and limited and really have not taken a huge spike in price. The only difference in the vintage cards is that the graded stuff has become popular and demands a big premium.

[joe_collector]

There has been a comic pricing bubble for decades. Every time record prices have been set there have been naysayers pointing fingers and screaming "the end is near!!".

 

Spoken like a true Johnny-Come-Lately who only buys during the hot periods.

 

If you were around for the crashes, you would know that the "end" did come for tons of hot comics, and whatever the masses are buying and speculators are attracted to, tends to bubble up then crash back down.

 

A lot of people forget that in the 80's, the hot back issues were Independents and Copper, not BA, SA or GA - same with the 90's, it was all Valiant and the Chrome Hype back issues that more people were clamoring for. Now it's CGC graded books that are receiving the lion's share of the back issue money, with a heavy concentration on SA and BA.

[joe_collector]

The same goes for comics. Keep buying through all economies, buy what you like, and don't get sucked into what is hot. AF15 is hot. I want one but now is not the time.

 

This is the kind of advice you can take to the bank.

[kidcolt]

I don't see TRUE key books dropping in price. IMO a lot of these books have been undervalued for a long time.

[the blob]

not BA, SA or GA - same with the 90's, it was all Valiant and the Chrome Hype back issues that more people were clamoring for.

********************************

 

not necessarily true. BA (and to a lesser extent SA) characters that had been brought back in the 90s/late 80's or had been given their own series also saw their earlier issues jump: Punisher appearances, Ghost Rider, Morbius (for 5 minutes), Guardians of the Galaxy (for 3 minutes), Deathlok (for 6 minutes), Son of Satan (for 2 minutes), Animal Man, etc. And Hulk 181 was a strong book throughout. Not to mention, GI Joe #1 was a 25 cent box book.

 

SA X-Men and Spidey were always strong.

 

I have to say though, the shows I went to in NYC, the emphasis was on vintage material, mainly SA, at least in the 1993-1995 period.

 

With that said, yes, once you got outside of the hot BA books, there was a ton of stuff that could be gotten, often in nice shape, for the price of a new comic. Not to mention, DC was mostly dead (despite Death of Supes and Batman 496 supposedly breathing life into DC), particularly most of the BA and late SA. It pains me how much high grade early DC BA I passed over in dollar boxes because I only collected SA DC. By high grade I don't mean 9.8s and such, although I guess some of them might have been had they been dug up out of storage. The money was spent on other BA (or SA), but not necessarily HG, and not necessarily on the most liquid titles... (yeah, i know, but buying what I liked didn't help so much!)

[joe_collector]

I'm not saying SA was dead, I am only stating where the majority of back issue attention was.

 

If you took 1,000 people who walked into a comic shop in pre-crash 1980's and pre-crash 90's and polled them, what back issues would they be looking at.

[Ogami]

one thing I always like to mention here is that our little hobby is just that: little. That protects us from a severe downside. We never got too big or attracted 100s of amateurs looking to get rich on comics. 95% of comics collectors love comics. Thats our strength. And less than 1% of the poplulation even cares they exist, or to read one, or buy one. So our community is pretty stable in its micro-universe.

 

I agree with this, within a 5% margain, which is why I see AF15 having significance, in it's current value.

 

 

[Ogami]

.

 

A lot of people forget that in the 80's, the hot back issues were Independents and Copper, not BA, SA or GA - same with the 90's, it was all Valiant and the Chrome Hype back issues that more people were clamoring for. Now it's CGC graded books that are receiving the lion's share of the back issue money, with a heavy concentration on SA and BA.

 

true.

[precodekeith]

So what's you opinion? Is comic book collecting safe from a "bubble" like cards ...

 

Nope.

[the blob]

I'm not saying SA was dead, I am only stating where the majority of back issue attention was.

 

If you took 1,000 people who walked into a comic shop in pre-crash 1980's and pre-crash 90's and polled them, what back issues would they be looking at.

******************

 

I dunno about the 80's, I just bought what I liked to read then, the usual Marvel suspects.

 

The 90's...sure, I guess, though most of the real action seemed to be at shows. Well, actually, the shops I tended to frequent catered to collectors, so there was still a lot of emphasis on the vintage material. Admittedly, I got back into comics in 1993 just the Valiant/Image hysteria was deflating. My pal who ran the LCS pretty much thought the valiant hysteria was a complete joke and that it was actually fueled by valiant employees calling comic shops over and over again pretending that they were looking for back issues. Not that he was exactly Nostradamus when it came to this, he got stuck with about 1000-1500 copies of various Jim Lee X-Men #1 covers.