Ultimate Spider-man Picking up some heat?

[murph0]

Not to mention people are starting to buy multiples of new issues now in order to CGC them in hopes of a super high grade..this wasn't the case before as much, so that slightly artifically inflates new sales.

 

Brian

[delekkerste]

While I realize that readership is down among younger kids, from where I'm sitting the market is healthy...

 

Here's Chuck Rozanski on the subject from CBG #1522 (1/17/03):

 

"On the surface, [the state of the comics industry] looks OK, as the graphs show that the dollar volume of product shipped during the past few years has been holding fairly steady, which is an enormous relief after the catastrophic declines from 1993 to 1999. It was during that dreadful seven-year period that we lost approximately 7,000 of the 10,000 comics retailers active in the business in 1992 to bankruptcy and voluntary liquidation.

 

"What the graphs do not clearly show, however, is the continuing steady erosion in unit sales of comics. It is fairly self-evident, however, that, if cover prices are rising steadily yet overall sales are not increasing, then unit sales must be going down. Making matters worse, in my opinion, is the fact that comics retailers keep closing up shop. Just last week I heard a rumor that the last direct-market comics store in Santa Fe, NM was closing. Santa Fe is not a large or populous market area, but there has been a comics shop in that town for more than 20 years. What is wrong with this picture?

 

"I don't present this grim news to depress you but, rather, as a wake-up call..."

[jman8778-migration]

How about helping a newbie out? USM prices have been going up steadily. But I was interested in getting all your inputs on the first issue and your view on what a fair market value would be for the comic(CGC graded 9.4+) or a raw comic that is graded "NM".

[Darthdiesel]

fair market value would be for the comic(CGC graded 9.4+) or a raw comic that is graded "NM".

 

CGC graded 9.4 - $100 - $125

 

Raw graded as NM - $30 - $50