Bronze age comics that are heating up on eBay... 38 38

[dikran]

Plus cowboy & western interest is cyclical... Unforgiven, Hateful 8 and Brokeback Mountain all modernized the genre in their own way. Coon skin caps are back in Disney World, wouldn't be surprised if a modern version of Davy Crockett or Zorro makes a comeback soon on D+...

[KCOComics]

 

I'm 38 and was told over and over that my generation doesn't collect comics and prices would plummet in the next decade.

Well, the decades have come and gone and price drops haven't materialized.  My wallet wishes they had. 

Maybe we couldn't have anticipated the movies and sales platforms making even rare comics easy to find. But the bottom line is, the hobby has just grown and grown. The movies are bigger, the cons are bigger, CGC can't keep up, pressers and Auction houses are thriving. 

I think part of the pricing run up we are seeing is not from kids who grew up reading comics. It's kids that were 12 and 13 when the first X-Men and Spiderman movies came out. 

And behind them will be the kids that were 12 and 13 when the Avengers movies came out.  

As for this generation not spending money on material possessions, I think that's an over generalization.

I would argue the younger generation is very materialistic.  They are growing up in a world with unlimited access. Click a button and have it delivered by tomorrow for free.  There is an entitlement and expectation of instant gratification that is unfamiliar to many of us.  

When they are older and think back to their childhood, of Avengers lunch boxes and Spiderman backpacks, they will not hesitate to put money into comics. 

I also think comics is a very different type of collectable than Stamps or Trains.  Stamps aren't exciting. There are no stamp movies. No kids dress up as a stamp for Halloween.  Comics have allot of cross over appeal.  Some collect for art, some for stories, some for the history. There aren't allot of collectables that appeal to so many. 

One final note. My kids are 8 and 4. Elementry school and Pre school. Besides maybe Baby Shark, superheroes are more represented than anything else at the schools. Clothing, masks, backpacks, lunch boxes... 

 

[thehumantorch]

7 hours ago, mcduckz said:

Also, there is a HUGE following for Disney ducks in Europe.  Much, much more than here in the US

Absolutely.  Don Rosa told me when he goes to European Comic shows as a guest the lineups to meet him are huge.  He's the Stan Lee of comicon there.

[dikran]

13 minutes ago, KCOComics said:

No kids dress up as a stamp for Halloween

Ahem 

[WolverineX]

I guess concern is I've never seen a kid read an analog comic.  I've only see kids on tablets and phones now.  Why too  addicting of a technology...

[mcduckz]

2 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

Absolutely.  Don Rosa told me when he goes to European Comic shows as a guest the lineups to meet him are huge.  He's the Stan Lee of comicon there.

Truth... he's a rock star over there.  Makes me feel lucky when I catch him at a show in the US and the line is only a few people deep.

[MGsimba77]

3 hours ago, KCOComics said:

I think part of the pricing run up we are seeing is not from kids who grew up reading comics. It's kids that were 12 and 13 when the first X-Men and Spiderman movies came out. 

And behind them will be the kids that were 12 and 13 when the Avengers movies came out.  

Absolutely! Nostalgia can be way more than just having read comics as a youth. I'm on the very latter end of Gen X and I'd say those in my age range were not exactly tripping over themselves buying comics to read. There wasn't an MCU or much at all on the big screen other than Keaton's Batman, no social media, purchasing options in the early 90s seem primitive in comparison. The old back issues were tougher to come by -- yet here we are. So I don't know if comic floppies are anything worth panicking over. Floppies have been decreasing for a loooong time since their prime in the 12 - 30 cent issue days and the hobby has only become more not less popular. Once the collecting bug takes hold people want the best regardless of having read it. If that means an FF5 slab in any grade then that's what these kids will eventually gravitate to. So yeah I agree with you in that the super-heroe genre is more transcendent than Elvis or stamps or even Baseball cards. 

Okay so in any regard....as for bronze age heating...X-men 120 cgc 9.8 auctioned for 10k on Clink Thursday night. I know not Ebay but still noteworthy. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by MGsimba77

[MGsimba77]

16 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

On 5/27/2021 at 10:59 PM, FlyingDonut said:

My daughter and her hipster 20 year old friends buy vinyl.

Would they buy vinyl for $1,000 though?

The small sliver of Vinyl enthusiasts who become serious collectors will not when they're 20 but maybe when they're 30. 

[jcjames]

13 hours ago, KCOComics said:

....

I also think comics is a very different type of collectable than Stamps or Trains.  Stamps aren't exciting. There are no stamp movies. No kids dress up as a stamp for Halloween.  Comics have allot of cross over appeal.  Some collect for art, some for stories, some for the history. There aren't allot of collectables that appeal to so many. 

 

I understand completely that stamps are dead, dead, dead. I collected in high school and college and know how dead it is. But no, kids don't dress up as comicbooks for halloween either - it's what's printed on them that matters. Same with stamps. And stamps have a far far FAR wider variety of art and history portrayed on them than comicbooks do.

There are some quite beautiful original art found on stamps, every possible topical (including comicbook-related stamps) some obvious historically significant runs and sets and even the HTF error-variant stamps that are still worth plenty of money even today. Stamps CAN appeal to any interest, topic or niche collector.

But, the key difference is story-telling and characters. New stories or characters have never been developed through philately, and that's where the generations have passed them by. The question is, will the comicbook source for story-telling and characters be valued in the next generation or two? As has been mentioned, there are a lot of dead comicbook genres that were once thriving. Who knows, maybe Marvel superheroes may become the Duck books of the Covid generation adults. 

[Jeffro.]

13 hours ago, KCOComics said:

One final note. My kids are 8 and 4. Elementry school and Pre school. Besides maybe Baby Shark, superheroes are more represented than anything else at the schools. Clothing, masks, backpacks, lunch boxes... 

I don't doubt it but does that translate into kids who actually want to read and collect comics? That's the question that I don't have an answer to.

[mcduckz]

10 hours ago, MGsimba77 said:

Absolutely! Nostalgia can be way more than just having read comics as a youth. I'm on the very latter end of Gen X and I'd say those in my age range were not exactly tripping over themselves buying comics to read. There wasn't an MCU or much at all on the big screen other than Keaton's Batman, no social media, purchasing options in the early 90s seem primitive in comparison. The old back issues were tougher to come by -- yet here we are. So I don't know if comic floppies are anything worth panicking over. Floppies have been decreasing for a loooong time since their prime in the 12 - 30 cent issue days and the hobby has only become more not less popular. Once the collecting bug takes hold people want the best regardless of having read it. If that means an FF5 slab in any grade then that's what these kids will eventually gravitate to. So yeah I agree with you in that the super-heroe genre is more transcendent than Elvis or stamps or even Baseball cards. 

There is a high degree of accuracy to this.   It is why despite there being a lot of them in 9.8, first appearances of Venom, Harley Quinn, and Deadpool will eventually hit a level of inexplicable demand like we see in BA keys now.   

You can gauge that future nostalgia by what kids are eating up now.  If you can go to a con,  keep an eye on the tee shirts and cosplays that are in abundance.  That is the next wave of nostalgia personified

[KCOComics]

47 minutes ago, Jeffro. said:

I don't doubt it but does that translate into kids who actually want to read and collect comics? That's the question that I don't have an answer to.

It's a good question and only time will tell. 

For me personally, I felt like I would get caught up worrying about the market and miss out on unique opportunities to own books I'll never get another shot at. 

My local comic shop just got an awesome GA collection with a few Pep comics and GA Daredevils. I'm going to spend a good junk of change to buy them and I'll probably have them for decades. Decades from now they could be worth less than today. They aren't big marvel keys and probably appeal to an older generation. But I will get allot of joy out of owning them and there is a value in that.  

[Jeffro.]

2 hours ago, KCOComics said:

But I will get allot of joy out of owning them and there is a value in that.  

Absolutely!

[OtherEric]

14 hours ago, mcduckz said:

Truth... he's a rock star over there.  Makes me feel lucky when I catch him at a show in the US and the line is only a few people deep.

He’s enormously fun to talk to, we actually mostly discussed EC’s when I saw him at ECCC a few years ago.

 The ducks did come up, of course:

[drmanhattanite]

Did yall see this for 28k...

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dmarvel%2Bpremiere%2B1%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1475176&id=1475176&itemType=0

[kimik]

2 hours ago, drmanhattanite said:

Did yall see this for 28k...

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dmarvel%2Bpremiere%2B1%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1475176&id=1475176&itemType=0

Good. I hope it floats the boat for all sub-9.8 grades as well. 

[comic_memories]

19 hours ago, drmanhattanite said:

Did yall see this for 28k...

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dmarvel%2Bpremiere%2B1%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1475176&id=1475176&itemType=0

RARE in grade and white pages too! 

 

[World Devourer]

On 5/30/2021 at 2:00 AM, mcduckz said:

 

You can gauge that future nostalgia by what kids are eating up now.  If you can go to a con,  keep an eye on the tee shirts and cosplays that are in abundance.  That is the next wave of nostalgia personified

Ah, someone is paying attention. If you can understand the psychology, there is money to be made.

 

[batmiesta]

23 hours ago, drmanhattanite said:

Did yall see this for 28k...

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dmarvel%2Bpremiere%2B1%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1475176&id=1475176&itemType=0

There seems to be no end to the madness. 

[mcduckz]

3 hours ago, World Devourer said:

Ah, someone is paying attention. If you can understand the psychology, there is money to be made.

 

LOL... I've had decades to perfect my craft.   If only I had more capital to invest, I'd already be retired.