Best time of year to buy comics?

[mackenzie999]

First, let me say I am not an investor. My son will eventually inherit my collection, and by that time I expect the market to have shrunk drastically, if it exists at all (grist for another thread).

 

Anyway...

 

What I collect are mainly the top ten Marvel keys, plus a few random books here and there that appeal to me for various reasons. I only buy a few books a year, and major (to me) purchases are rare (my last biggie was a mid-grade ToS #39 quite a while ago).

 

So my question is, are there any times of year better than others for getting good deals? After Christmas when people tend to be tapped out? For example the best time to buy a car is supposedly at the end of the month due to quotas, and I'm wondering if there are any similar schools of thought along comic lines.

 

I know many of you here are dealers, and this question may seem distasteful, but I recently bought my first house, so my collecting dollars are even rarer now and I am looking to maximize their impact.

 

Thanks!

[rodan57]

Not to be simplistic or heartless, but this is a time of economic distress for many and the market seems to be flooded with product.

[Random]

When they become available. Snooze you lose.

[mackenzie999]

That's true, but I'm really just looking for a time when dealers are more likely to price things to move, I'm not looking to say , "Hah-hah, you're being foreclosed on, here's fifty bucks for that sweet AF15."

[mackenzie999]

When they become available. Snooze you lose.

 

Unfortunately true especially in my case, top ten silver Marvel keys aren't exactly hard to unload.

[FlyingDonut]

Either 1) whenever I'm selling them OR

 

2) early January (now).

[TSwift25]

When you know what you're looking for and what you're willing to pay and it's available at or below that price; that's the best time.

[juggernaut]

January - February and July - August is the best time of the year to buy in my opinion.

[dupont2005]

I just lowballed somebody bigtime

 

Asking price $1,500

My offer $211

[InvstmntComcSuply]

The bad thing is that with someone on ebay asking $1500 you might be severely overpaying when offering $211

[dupont2005]

[whetteon]

I'd agree with flying donut that January is a great time to buy because so many people are trying to 1) pay off Christmas bills, 2) refocus their comic collections (i.e. selling off books) and of course 3) competing buyers don't have the necessary funds because of Christmas spending.

 

However, I've noticed another good time to be a buyer in the year. Oddly it's around August and September of each year. Check out the Lyria Comic 35 index (midnight blue line). An index that tracks the sales of 35 key Bronze Age comics every quarter! You're notice that there is always a good buying opportunity right about the same time year after year.

 

 

[paperheart]

Dec/Jan

[RockMyAmadeus]

December-February, August-October. Good times to buy.

 

Hopefully, the market will completely crash, and I can buy sweet 9.8s Neal Adams Batmans for $50.

 

[jerome34]

When you have the money (if what you want is available at a price you are

willing, and able, to pay). Rarely happens.

[the blob]

in a better economy some might say that some collectors are getting their year-end bonus in january and have some money, but there's a lot less of that nowadays. in my prior job i generally had a nice five figure check hitting me at the start of the year, even in the recession of '01, and my former colleagues did nicely this year too, but i guess the big firm lawyer/wall street/finance=bloodsucker component of the market isn't that big.

[ComicConnoisseur]

Silver/Bronze

January = Ebay

August = Comiclink

 

Copper/Modern

It doesn`t really matter what time of year as people are practically giving 90 percent of this era stuff away on Ebay all the time.

[Wally's Comics]

Christmas funds are a beautiful thing.

 

 

 

 

 

[Designer Toast]

The last hour before the closing of a comic show on the last day

[Junkdrawer]

whats the best time of year to buy wall paper? the answer is the same.