1983 prices VS 10 years from now?

[Agent 007]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices. The Caption also has LEARN how to BUY, SELL & TRADE for top prices.

 

Where do you think KEY books will be in 10 years? Collecting in the 1980's to NOW really do not contain the Golden/Silver/Bronze books that have skyrocketed in the past few decades. Does anyone see a trend to change that? Should we be buying these high prices today and look back in 10 years and say this was cheap.

 

I buy books that I collect and the grade I'm willing and can to pay for. Sometimes I look back and ask, should I have spent just a little more for the extra .5 bump or better page quality if I was to resell it down the road.

 

Just curious on your thoughts.

 

[PokerKid]

I loved collecting in the early '80s. We bought a bunch of GA books on a college teacher's salary (my dad's). However, while I would have loved to have bought a book like Supes #1, it was still out of reach - but not unobtainable like it is today. In about 3 years, we accumulated a big collection including Tec 28-30, complete JLA, DD, X-Men and huge runs of most major DC titles. The stuff I grabbed out of quarter and 50 cent bins would be worth thousands today. Much like the stock market, the key is holding on for the long haul. My dad preferred the 1984 Celica to the comics. .

 

For measurement, the average salary in 1980 was $11,700 per year.

 

 

[Comicdey]

so what's the average salary now mr. pokerkid for comparison, or do I have to google it.

[PokerKid]

so what's the average salary now mr. pokerkid for comparison, or do I have to google it.

 

$38k in 2007 (probably still pretty close) based on the same site.

 

Investing in Superman would have definitely been better than investing in an education.

 

I would also guess that my old collection would be worth somewhere around $1.5m to $2m now. 1984 Celica - about $5k.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

 

No, those prices were for MINT books!

 

Where do you think KEY books will be in 10 years?

 

Nobody knows, and I don't think anyone can say.

 

The market has behaved in a completely erratic manner in the last 15 years, While some things were a clear conclusion (the eventuality of a $1M sale, for example), nobody could have predicted the effect CGC has had on the market as a whole.

 

If you had told Bob Overstreet in 1974 that a Hulk #181 would sell for $250 in 16 short years, a stunning 1,000 times cover price, I'm sure he would have laughed out loud.

 

If you had likewise told a group of dealers in 1998 that a Green Lantern #76 in very high grade (because "9.6" would have been meaningless to them) would sell for $30,000, I'm sure they would have gotten a laugh, too.

 

Far too many things have changed in the last10-15 years for any sort of reliable prognostication to take place. Will comics as we know them cease to be published? Will back issue collecting become a thing of the past, maintained solely by an ever aging fan base? Will anyone even care about a 9.8 Star Wars #23 in 10 years? Will the economy recover, or are we on the brink of worldwide calamity, the prior three years having only been a small taste of what's to come?

 

Nobody knows, and there's no real way to tell.

[rjpb]

Sure, just about any Hulk for $700 sounds good now, and that's only around $1500 in today's money according to the inflation calculators (seems low), but Hulk #1 was only about a 20 year old book at the time, now it's closer to 50, and a decade earlier would only have run about $50.

 

Any "NM" copy at the time would likely have been today's 8.0 at best. Even so, a great investment, but it didn't seem like a bargain basement price at the time.

 

I would expect HG Gold and Silver keys to keep going up over the next ten years, but I would be amazed to see the quantum jumps in value we've seen in the last decade or two.

[rjpb]

Will the economy recover, or are we on the brink of worldwide calamity, the prior three years having only been a small taste of what's to come?

We can always measure the value of books in shotgun shells and beans.

[tth2]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

Since I was in college at the time, I can guarantee that you wouldn't have been paying those prices in a heartbeat at the time, unless you were particularly bold or particularly wealthy. Those prices only look great in hindsight. At the time, they would have been considered to be fully valued (assuming you could even find them in grade, which you probably couldn't, just like you can't now).

[ComicConnoisseur]

Sure, just about any Hulk for $700 sounds good now, and that's only around $1500 in today's money according to the inflation calculators (seems low), but Hulk #1 was only about a 20 year old book at the time, now it's closer to 50, and a decade earlier would only have run about $50.

 

Any "NM" copy at the time would likely have been today's 8.0 at best. Even so, a great investment, but it didn't seem like a bargain basement price at the time.

 

I would expect HG Gold and Silver keys to keep going up over the next ten years, but I would be amazed to see the quantum jumps in value we've seen in the last decade or two.

Agreed,I think the main reason is all of the major heroes have had thier big movie moments, Spidey got three, X-men got 3,HULK two and Batman had the king movie, the cats out of bag with these characters now, somewhere there are characters that haven`t taken off right now with mainstream and those characters will be the big picks ten years from now, if I told you in 2003 that Walking Dead 1 would constantly sell at $500 everyday on Ebay, you would have laughed.

[ashrael]

I I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

 

No, those prices were for MINT books!

 

...

 

I was actually thinking those were restored 5.0 prices

[FlyingDonut]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

Since I was in college at the time, I can guarantee that you wouldn't have been paying those prices in a heartbeat at the time, unless you were particularly bold or particularly wealthy. Those prices only look great in hindsight. At the time, they would have been considered to be fully valued (assuming you could even find them in grade, which you probably couldn't, just like you can't now).

 

 

I was a freshman in college in January 1983. People thought 10K for a comic was the highest price you'd ever see.

[Agent 007]

Thanks for some Insight all. I look foward to what happens in the next 10 years.

[PokerKid]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

Since I was in college at the time, I can guarantee that you wouldn't have been paying those prices in a heartbeat at the time, unless you were particularly bold or particularly wealthy. Those prices only look great in hindsight. At the time, they would have been considered to be fully valued (assuming you could even find them in grade, which you probably couldn't, just like you can't now).

 

 

I was a freshman in college in January 1983. People thought 10K for a comic was the highest price you'd ever see.

 

Of course, I remember thinking how awesome it would have been to buy those books at 1973 prices.

 

Comic books have had one heck of a huge run up in price for a "dead" hobby. We keep thinking the prices are getting too high and wishing we had bought earlier. It would be great if the hobby maintains enough popularity to sustain another boost in the next decade.

[tth2]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

Since I was in college at the time, I can guarantee that you wouldn't have been paying those prices in a heartbeat at the time, unless you were particularly bold or particularly wealthy. Those prices only look great in hindsight. At the time, they would have been considered to be fully valued (assuming you could even find them in grade, which you probably couldn't, just like you can't now).

 

 

I was a freshman in college in January 1983. People thought 10K for a comic was the highest price you'd ever see.

To give people some perspective, this was the exact period when the Dentist bought the Mile High Action 1-20 run for $20K or so, and people thought he was absolutely insane. Paying $700 for a Hulk 1 was a massive amount of money.

 

If I recall, Avengers 4 was just barely breaking $100 at that time. As a big Captain America collector, I dearly coveted that book but would not have paid that much because that seemed an insane amount of money for the book compared to what it cost just a few years earlier.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

 

No, those prices were for MINT books!

 

...

 

I was actually thinking those were restored 5.0 prices

 

 

Just pointing out that "NM" and "9.2" were unknown concepts back in 1983. "NM" maybe, but 9.2 fo sho.

 

(thumbs u

[RockMyAmadeus]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

Since I was in college at the time, I can guarantee that you wouldn't have been paying those prices in a heartbeat at the time, unless you were particularly bold or particularly wealthy. Those prices only look great in hindsight. At the time, they would have been considered to be fully valued (assuming you could even find them in grade, which you probably couldn't, just like you can't now).

 

 

I was a freshman in college in January 1983. People thought 10K for a comic was the highest price you'd ever see.

 

What a lot of folks don't know (but which I'm sure you do) is that, in the mid-80's, becaue of the run-up in Marvel prices from the late 70's, the market actually CORRECTED for all Silver Age Marvel. From 1983-1986, prices for all SA Marvels were stable, or went DOWN.

 

 

Strange, but true.

[mt1000]

Its funny i think about this all the time, Example pretty much an entry level AF 15 is around 2K give or take, which seems like alot for a beat up book, but if you think about it we may look back in 5-10 years and say "wow remember when we could get that book for 2K, i wish i bought more". I doubt the value will crash but what do i know.

[mt1000]

I also remeber being like 12 and went to a Con with my mom and i saw a ASM 1 for i think 5K and i was like holy mess, it was NM (or there definition of NM way before CGC). If only we knew now what we could have known then,

[tth2]

I was reading the Jan 1983 issue for Green Lantern #160 today. I may have been only 10 years old when this book came out, but if I had the $$ I would have bought these in a heartbeat. $700 Hulk #1 & $8250 for Superman #1. I assume they were NM (9.2) prices.

Since I was in college at the time, I can guarantee that you wouldn't have been paying those prices in a heartbeat at the time, unless you were particularly bold or particularly wealthy. Those prices only look great in hindsight. At the time, they would have been considered to be fully valued (assuming you could even find them in grade, which you probably couldn't, just like you can't now).

 

 

I was a freshman in college in January 1983. People thought 10K for a comic was the highest price you'd ever see.

 

What a lot of folks don't know (but which I'm sure you do) is that, in the mid-80's, becaue of the run-up in Marvel prices from the late 70's, the market actually CORRECTED for all Silver Age Marvel. From 1983-1986, prices for all SA Marvels were stable, or went DOWN.

 

 

Strange, but true.

Yup, the B&W craze pulled a lot of money away from the SA and GA market. If I recall, the GA market started coming back with a vengeance in the late 80s, and then the SA market in the early 90s.

[tth2]

I also remeber being like 12 and went to a Con with my mom and i saw a ASM 1 for i think 5K and i was like holy mess, it was NM (or there definition of NM way before CGC). If only we knew now what we could have known then,

What gets me is how so many people continue to fail to learn from this. They still nickel and dime on books and lose out, only to see the book move up so much over the next few years that the additional $10, or $100, or $1000, that they were unwilling to pay wouldn't have made any difference because they would've made back their money many times over. But all they do is lament how they let a book get away, but then they never seem to learn from their experience and continue to be a cheapskate and lose out on books.

 

Sure, everybody likes to feel like they got themselves a bargain, but the history of comic collecting has shown that in the vast majority of cases, when you're buying quality vintage books and not speculative books like mid-80s B&Ws or Valiants, that amount that you overpaid won't matter in the long run.

 

I have a saying: "10 years from now, today will be '10 years ago'." If you really want something, go for it and don't sweat the small change.