What would you collect if...

[drall]

I have been collecting since I was 12, im 37 now and have built up a substantial modern collection. As of late I have been becoming aware of my age, gray hair, barber shaving eyebrows, the usual midlife stuff that wakes you up and says you are mortal dummy.

 

That said I have been thinking about what I am building up to leave behind for my kids. I love moderns and some of my collection has really shot up in value lately. I also love early action and similar series.

 

What is the better option for long term investment? Thousands of slabbed moderns or a couple hundred slabbed GA books (thinking early action 8.0 or better).

 

Just trying to get a feel for what everyone else would do to help make my decision.

 

Thanks folks

[Ryan.]

Sell everything off and buy a high grade Amazing Fantasy 15.

[DiceX]

GA and SA keys.

Out of your thousands of moderns, sure you'll have a couple of home runs, but you also have thousands of clutter.

 

When you die, do you want your kids to have the headache of trying to sell a room full of quarter comics, hoping they'll be able to find the handful of books that are worth $200, or have 20 books they can sell on eBay with a few hours of work?

 

 

[hbo_boxingfan]

I'm not sure where the comic market will be when the long term collectors start dieing off due to old age but if the market is still healthy for investing i'm certain GA and SA will still be the much better route to travel.

[Chespirito]

In 120 years the books will be dust, we'll be nothing but photographs on old hard drives. Buy for personal enjoyment I say..

[brendanb438]

In 120 years the books will be dust, we'll be nothing but photographs on old hard drives. Buy for personal enjoyment I say..

 

This is a lie, CGC told me their cases can withstand a nuclear blast and are rated to last for 500+ years.

 

For an investment of say less than 50 years I would have to go with GA/SA books over any moderns as others have mentioned. Those older books will always be in demand and there is simply way less of them out there in high grades than the tons of moderns.

 

Now will anyone be collecting comics 10 years, 30 years, 50 years from now or will we all be living in a scenerio like out of the book The Road, who knows.

[Waylander]

In 120 years the books will be dust, we'll be nothing but photographs on old hard drives. Buy for personal enjoyment I say..

 

This is a lie, CGC told me their cases can withstand a nuclear blast and are rated to last for 500+ years.

 

For an investment of say less than 50 years I would have to go with GA/SA books over any moderns as others have mentioned. Those older books will always be in demand and there is simply way less of them out there in high grades than the tons of moderns.

 

Now will anyone be collecting comics 10 years, 30 years, 50 years from now or will we all be living in a scenerio like out of the book The Road, who knows.

 

I thought CGC books had to be re-slabbed every 7 years?

 

I buy for the personal enjoyment not investment - what my off spring does with the books is up to them, but what I buy now is for me to enjoy now not the future.

 

 

[Speedy-D]

I have been collecting since I was 12, im 37 now and have built up a substantial modern collection. As of late I have been becoming aware of my age, gray hair, barber shaving eyebrows, the usual midlife stuff that wakes you up and says you are mortal dummy.

 

That said I have been thinking about what I am building up to leave behind for my kids. I love moderns and some of my collection has really shot up in value lately. I also love early action and similar series.

 

What is the better option for long term investment? Thousands of slabbed moderns or a couple hundred slabbed GA books (thinking early action 8.0 or better).

 

Just trying to get a feel for what everyone else would do to help make my decision.

 

Thanks folks

There's no question that, as an investment, modern comics suck. There is no investment there. To compare them, as investments, with 8.0+ early actions is a no-brainer. However, if you're looking at this purely as an investment, I'd say any comics at all are a risk if you're talking 50+ years.

[KirbyJack]

A friend of mine came to a realization about his collection; His kids don't want it.

 

He had been telling himself that he was buying all that stuff for them. One day, he actually spoke to them about it and they let him know (I'm told they let him down very easy).

 

So now he's at a point where anything he buys, he buys for himself. So he buys what he likes. He loves the stuff, so if he goes before he sells if off himself, (which is the long term plan) he has left very detailed, written instructions on how the kids should go about liquidating his collection.

 

For him, the bottom line is that The Rules are still the same. Buy what you like and don't worry about investment.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Sell everything off and buy a high grade Amazing Fantasy 15.

Ditto. I did that, although it's only a 3.0. I sold 70 longboxes of invetory and bought that AF #15 and my 1st X-MEN #1.

 

No regrets. If anything those 2 books are worth more, and the 70 longboxes are worth less today.

[Ryan.]

Sell everything off and buy a high grade Amazing Fantasy 15.

Ditto. I did that, although it's only a 3.0. I sold 70 longboxes of invetory and bought that AF #15 and my 1st X-MEN #1.

 

No regrets. If anything those 2 books are worth more, and the 70 longboxes are worth less today.

 

Heh. I have sold off almost every comic I own in order to get an AF 15 and an X-Men 1. No regrets.

[oakman29]

Gold,Silver,Bronze keys for long term is a much wiser investment than modern drek. (thumbs u

[catrick339]

Yeah, what KirbyJack said.

 

 

I've been reading funnybooks since 1959, and collecting on and off since Mom threw away my stuff the last time, circa 1968.

 

At one time or another I've probably owned every SA Marvel and DC (Exceptions: Showcase 8, Lois Lane 1, most Jimmy Olsens in the single digits) and massive bunches of all the other 50's and 60's publishers, and enjoyed the heck out of most of them.

 

Having no kids to pass them on to, and confirming that my nephew and his kids have zero interest years ago, I've ALWAYS bought for my enjoyment, and the older I get, the more disposable income I have, and the deeper I dig into the Golden Age and early 50's stuff.

 

My wife will have a nice little windfall if she outlives me, and she knows enough about the collection to pull the keys and sell them individually, and has the names and numbers of several reputable local dealers.

 

She'll be okay, and my collection will move on piecemeal to more worthy collectors.

 

Investment? Well, I paid a bunch of money for the stuff, and mebbe we'll break even some day or even make a nice profit on the GA, but that's strictly a side issue.

 

If you prefer to buy for investment then by all means do so and God Bless, but it's really all about the art and the stories!

[Whizzer]

Sell everything off and buy a high grade Amazing Fantasy 15.

Ditto. I did that, although it's only a 3.0. I sold 70 longboxes of invetory and bought that AF #15 and my 1st X-MEN #1.

 

No regrets. If anything those 2 books are worth more, and the 70 longboxes are worth less today.

 

Heh. I have sold off almost every comic I own in order to get an AF 15 and an X-Men 1. No regrets.

 

 

These three posts are all

[rodan57]

A friend of mine came to a realization about his collection; His kids don't want it.

 

He had been telling himself that he was buying all that stuff for them. One day, he actually spoke to them about it and they let him know (I'm told they let him down very easy).

 

So now he's at a point where anything he buys, he buys for himself. So he buys what he likes. He loves the stuff, so if he goes before he sells if off himself, (which is the long term plan) he has left very detailed, written instructions on how the kids should go about liquidating his collection.

 

For him, the bottom line is that The Rules are still the same. Buy what you like and don't worry about investment.

 

(thumbs u

[Whizzer]

Rodan, I love your sig line. A very cool way to look at this hobby (thumbs u

[Ryan.]

The last couple of years have seen a sort of renaissance of collected editions, between quickly released trades of storylines or handsomely-produced hardcover sets (such as IDW and Fantagraphics specialize in), which are all available quickly and cheaply on places like Amazon. Because of this I have completely shifted my individual issue collecting focus towards key SA books and preferred my "reading for enjoyment" in nice collected editions that are durable and look great on a bookshelf. Stan Sakai and Dark Horse have really perfected the collectibility of the collected edition with the annual release of signed, sketched and numbered Usagi Yojimbo hardcovers. I may not spend the $3 for the Usagi floppy every couple months but I happily drop $60 for a hardcover that collects 6 issues once a year.

 

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, AF 15s are the ballz.

[drall]

Thank you so much for all of your feedback!

 

I love both moderns and GA/SA, I guess it's not so much about the investment as trying to strike a balance between investment and feeding my addiction to collecting at the same time as leaving something worthwhile behind if that makes any kind of sense.

 

I made the decision tonight to start selling off most of my moderns and move to a GA/SA based collection. Thanks again folks, I really do appreciate it.