Investing in comics?

[Mister_Comics]

The only people making any money from comics are people like myself that have been into the hobby for many years(started collecting in the 50's). Paid cover price. Any I sell are pure profit. I'm just not selling much right now. Just selling dribs and drabs to make a few extra bucks. Nice when ya can sell a book for hundreds that ya paid 12 cents for.

 

Unless ya come up with something new, like CGC grading, it would be hard to make money from comics.

[drbanner]

Here's a strategy that never fails if you want to make money investing in comic books - buy wholesale, sell retail. Here's another tip - buy accurately graded NM books raw, slab 'em, and sell 'em at way more than you paid for them. Any more questions?

[Bonds25]

You are correct sir. Hell, all of AZ is probably a good investment.

[murph0]

As far as your 2nd caveat goes.. for some people it's not possible to buy a house. If you've declared bankruptcy within the past couple of years, there's not a good Realtor in the state that will waste his time with you as the chances of you being qualified are between slim and none. Also, I'd rather have to eat a years worth of payments and then get a renter then to buy the house and then toss it away b/c I can't get a full time renter. You are basically throwing away money if you do this.

Btw, you're in an area where land costs are depreciating? Wow..we don't have much of that, if any where I live.

 

Brian

[dam60]

Murph, for accounting purposes all real estate depreciates. The way it works is this: assume you buy the same investment property for $1mm, assuming that the accounting life of the property is 25 years, you can depreciate 4% of the purchase of the property per year. So let's say you make $100K a year, you can depreciate that 100K by the 4% of 1mm or 40,000. Think of it like this - 100K drops to 60K that you pay taxes on.

 

Also, these caveats don't apply just to houses but are across all property types (single family, multi-family, office, retail, industrial, etc.)

 

I'm not sure what you mean with the "not being able to find a renter for a year"?

 

These are just my experiences.

 

Best,

 

DAM

[murph0]

You CAN..doesn't mean you necesarily should. If you sell the property you have to cover the difference between the value you've been depreciating and the sale price..so you don't really save all that money..it's just that if you depreciate it early you can write off THEN instead of later.

If you can't find a renter for a while, IMO..it'd be dumb to try to sell the house rather then just cover the payments until you find a new one.

 

Brian

[ninanina]

How about a guy that has good runs of ff,,justice league,green lantern,x-men,hulks,avengers,gl, creepy, eerie etc. mostly raw, mostly very-fine in silver age. Should he hang on to these for about 15 - 20 years? My first post, hello.

[murph0]

Have the keys graded..I'd probably wait until the Summer to sell any of that stuff..if you're planning to.

 

Brian

[ninanina]

Two points of view I've read are that

 

A) Most of the silver age has already "popped", except for Journey Into Mystery and FF's 1- 50

 

B) Investing in comics requires patience.

 

Can what's happened to prices in the last 20 years keep going, or have we in fact hit a ceiling of a sort. If we have, perhaps selling a collection on e-bay should be considered with the proceeds going towards stocks or mutual funds?

 

[murph0]

Noone can honestly say if there's been a ceiling hit or not. There are external factors that have also caused the price of CGC books and comic books for that matter to fall. It's anyone's guess what will happen in a few months, let alone a couple weeks.

 

Brian

[FlyingDonut]

What I mean by saying "popped" is that they've already had a rapid increase in price, due to a bunch of factors. If you already have the books, I'd sit on them. Buy-and-hold for Silver Age is always a good call.

[COI]

"Buy-and-hold for Silver Age is always a good call. "

 

The question of holding books is very complicated. The only books I would hold indefinetly are MAJOR Keys in top grades. This means #1's, Major Character first appearances/Origins and early issues of long established runs like ASM and FF all in high grade. And even these I would sell if something like hype caused a sudden "spike" in the price and a quick profit could be made.

 

Then you have the 2nd tier keys like FF48, CAP 100, SURFER 1, IRON MAN ! etc... These are hardly difficult to find, even in grade, but they should not be counted out of making short term gains either. They continue to show very strong demand, and even increases in price, in all grades despite the census #'s and high volume available. Reason being mostly because they are keys that are at an "affordable" level for most serious collectors. I would not hold these as an investment, but they can be good for short term gains. And if you can find nice unslabbed copies in VF/VF+ or better under guide, they probably wouldn't be hard to turn for profit. I have no problem turning over these books, and am always asked for copies in the VF to VF/NM range.

 

As to the original question: There's money to be made, but you have to be active in the market. Don't commit yourself solely to flipping or to holding, just go with the market and take opportunites to buy and sell as they come up.

[murph0]

Those early Cap appearances (non-main title) are a good bet too. They really tough to come up with..Sgt Fury 13, and Strange Tales 114 (not really Cap but a good book nontheless). I'd bet some of those early Strange Tales have a bit of room for growth as well..but to a point.

 

Brian

[COI]

Actually, those early Strange Tales are a decent bet, as most feature the FF and are very tough in grade. And I think most early Cap books have more upswing potential, especially Avengers 4.

[murph0]

Yeh Avengers 4 was huge for a while in the early 90's but it's basically never talked about anymore. I think that's a huge book too, but you'd almost have to get it in solid NM, as once you get above the NM- mark it gets very hard to find. Also, I think very early Spiderman appearances in non-ASM titles are a very good bet.

 

Brian

[blowout]

whats happening in the movies is interesting too, as they have the potential to elevate certain characters into 'media icons'. just as spider-man has become. the more mass exposure a character gets, the more likely early appearances are set to rise.

but investing in comics is, and has always been, a very risky way to make money IMHO.

[Rickdogg]

The #1 way to make money is to invest in your body like greggy does. All you can eat!!! Then sell your body to women for some lovin'

[greggy]

Huh?

[blowout]

can't imagine greggy making much cash that way, lets just leave him fleecing people with his overgraded books.

[greggy]

Sure, brown nosing with rickdogg!