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Confessions of a speculator.

Started by conditionfreak,

120 posts in this topic

conditionfreak

conditionfreak

Posted
Posted

Or maybe I am a hoarder?

 

Like many, back in the 90's. I had the habit of buying 3 of just about every mainstream comic (DC and Marvel). But with some issues, I went, shall I say, overboard.

 

Here are some pics of some I was going through today. I can do a lot of pics like this, for my hoards. If'en ya'll would like to see them. Or maybe you could post some of your group hoard pics here.

 

I have a lot of copies of X=Force #1. Anyone else have more than one of those? (Ha Ha). I have many, many copies of books like McFarlanes Spiderman #1, ASM 328, ASM 361, 362 and 363, Legends of the Batman, Killing Joke, and many others.

 

I once had a table at a convention and was giving away copies of McFarlanes Spiderman #1, to everyone that walked by my table. (Yes, I said "walked by").

 

All of my books were bought off the shelf new. Bagged in mylar and boarded the day I got them. I believe they are all 9.6 or better. As I said earlier, I usually bought 3 copies of every DC and Marvel, but have moved some and now only have one or two copies. But still, I have most of them in triplicate. I also usually bought one copy of anything that was not Marvel or DC. As long as the local LCS had them on the shelf.

 

I had a problem for several years back then. Now I am very particular what I purchase. Usually only golden age or silver.

 

Here are a couple of group shot examples:

 

hoards004.jpg

 

hoards005.jpg

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comix4fun

comix4fun

Posted
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500 copies of Beavis and Butthead #1.

 

Pre-ordered through Diamond.

 

 

Sold them all in 2 weeks. Made some nice money on those.

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AKA Rick

AKA Rick

Posted
Posted

The key to speculation is not being greedy.

 

If you buy 100 titles, and 80 of them fail to reach values over cover price, and 20 are getting double returns on investment, then you're potentially still losing.

 

There's rarely ever any keen ability to sell "at the top" because when you think of it, "the top" is only acknowledged when there is both a bottom and a climb up as well as a downward trend back down.

 

It's like the stock market or going to Las Vegas for gambling, you should have "win goals" and "loss limits"

 

The "loss limit" is based on liquidating trash to buy future treasure. So, if you have a book that you paid $10 that's worth $5, maybe you sell 'em for $5 at a loss, and reinvest that $5 into another book which may go up in value at a reliable pace.

 

Same goes for "win goals" if you've made money and hold quantity, the 1st genral rule of advice is sell enough to cover your initial investment, then if the bottom falls out, you'll have already recouped your initial investment and any additional sales is incremental profit. Also, keeping in mind the philosophy of making your money work for you, sometimes it's better to get out of one position (comic) and cash out to reinvest in another comic which will go up in value faster, so you're continuing to turn a $.50 book into a $1 value/sale, then that sell it off and reinvest that $1 back into two $.50 books which hit's $1 each, for a total of $2. All fine and dandy in theory, but execution is always tough of course since it is speculation, and in the world of comics, unlike stocks, it's tougher to buy/sell/trade and price guides can be very misleading to the true market value.

 

Also, it's about holding inventory. In theory, you can't (and shouldn't) horde and store everything if you're collecting as an investment.

 

Sometimes, and I remember this in the 80's when I collected, there are books that takes years to appreciate in value, mainly those "1st Appearance" of characters like Thanos in Iron Man; Sabretooth in Iron Fist; Mystique in Ms Marvel; etc. So, what I'd do is separate all of those "1st Appearance" issues of all characters and put those aside.

 

Those #1 "First Issues" lately don't seem to be that reliable, so be selective of keeping those "Walking Dead"; "Chew"; etc, but if you look today, those 1980's "Dazzler" #1's which were the hyped up book of that era, were $0.50 cover price then and can be had for easily $.25-$1.00 today 30 years later. Same goes for Spawn, Jim Lee's X-Men, and a good majority of those Image, Top Cow, Apen, DC, Dark Horse, Marvel etc books. Keep the #1 issues where out of the gate they have "critical acclaim" for the writing, then look at the art/artist. For comic collecting, often times today in the modern world, it seems good storytelling results in longevity where flashy art is a temporary short attention span type of here today gone tomorrow interest, sort of how I feel about the "variant" and retailer incentive covers... manufactured collectibles where the publishers are printing their own money by creating the scarcity, only to trump yesterdays efforts with today's latest hype.

 

Everything else, sell off sinking ships before they're sunk and move on, otherwise you're going to be continually sinking new money into inventory, holding comics that are 1) reduced in value; and 2) nobody wants. #2 is always the problem. Junk is... JUNK. So, regardless of price guides, generally nobody wants to buy trash that can't move.

 

 

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conditionfreak

conditionfreak

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Pretty well sums it up. Too bad you didn't tell me this years ago. :(

 

But, all things aside. It has been sorta fun. Having fifty copies of this and that, at cover price. More a waste of space than money, I think.

 

Do you think that my hoardes of Spiderman #1, or ASM 361,362 and 363, will ever be below cover price in value? I think not. Especially in high grade.

 

But, what do I know? Little apparently.

 

Good advice above!

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krighton

krighton

Posted
Posted
i think we know where they all went...though that's not a bad haul.

 

:whistle:

 

Ya, I don't like to get greedy on speculations.

 

my main problem is not holding on to them long enough....i always pull the trigger before their full maturation.

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WiseGuyX

WiseGuyX

Posted
Posted
i think we know where they all went...though that's not a bad haul.

 

:whistle:

 

Ya, I don't like to get greedy on speculations.

 

my main problem is not holding on to them long enough....i always pull the trigger before their full maturation.

 

I'm the same way but making a few dollars is better than loosing right? Now with that said I'm actually thinking about hanging on to these a while longer.

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