Long Term Value of 1985-1995 Comics

[dam60]

This will be the most thought provoking, inspiring thread that you've read . . . . in the last 30 seconds!

 

So, I am trying to make some space in my room and also get some money to reinvest in my comics so I gathered up 5 long boxes worth of primarily 1980-1995 Marvels. A bunch of Punishers, a bunch of Silver Surfers, a bunch of assorted Spider-Man titles, a few Avengers, lots of X-Men titles / related titles, and I have realized that these books are really worth maybe 1/5 - 1/4 of COVER price.

 

The question now becomes: can these things go any lower?

 

The books that I mentioned all have characters that are popular. Except for the Silver Surfer there have been movies made for all these characters. Yet the books that I have would go for between 33 and 50 cents at best on Ebay. I am not even talking about the Valiants that I love that are completely worthless thanks to Valiant going under. These are fairly major Marvel books.

 

Do you think it's worth it keeping these suckers for another 10 years somewhere hoping that they go up?

 

Please note - I am talking of a minimum of 8.5s here with most being true 9.4. These aren't readers, they are overstock books.

[Illiterati-migration]

You know, I have no idea... but I should take a moment here to step forward and just come clean about something:

 

I'm a 1980-1985 DC fetishist. I love the damned things. I have no idea why. They're my absolute favorite books of all time. I've read more to death than I care to count.

 

That's all. Please, don't judge me.

[fantastic_four]

sell sell SELL, they're worthless!

 

I think somebody with semi-deep pockets like Chuck Rozanski should buy every copy of the overprinted comics from that era like Spider-Man #1, X-Men #1, or Spawn #1 and burn them. Or, if that seems a waste, then they should intentionally rough them up into reader copies. If somebody would take this crusade on, then these books might just become a "vintage collectible" one day!

[Ariamus]

The packrat says..."Keep it all and get a bigger place!"

 

Seriously, I don't know what you should do. 33 to 50 cents a book isn't that bad a price considering most dealers will buy non-key moderns in bulk for 5-10 cents apiece (and then turn around and sell them for at least a buck if not more).

 

However, if you go to the trouble to list everything on e-bay in seperate auctions by different titles and maybe even in blocks of 25 or so books, then you'll spend a good amount in listing fees and you won't be guaranteed to sell the books. And, from what you say, their market value is so low that most people wouldn't be open to the idea of paying $5-10 in shipping to get a medium sized lot of those books, let alone throwing that on top of the 33-50 cents per book that you're expecting.

 

For example, suppose you posted a lot of 25 Silver Surfer books for sale on E-bay and you were hoping to get 33 cents per book. That's $8.25 that the winner of such an auction would have to bid. Then, on top of that, the same person would have to pay about $6 shipping charges (or more for priority mail). That means that the books would now be approaching $15 total or about 60 cents a book. Now, consider that the same buyer, if he/she got lucky, could go to a convention, fair, or flea market and run into a comics dealer with quarter boxes and get the same 25 books for $6 and change.

 

I'm not saying everyone who's interested in Silver Surfers would go to the trouble of hunting them out in bargain bins; some may be willing to scoop up your auctions on e-bay. But, speaking for myself, as a fan of X-Factor, Excalibur, and Alpha Flight (to name 3 titles from the time period you're talking about that are the fodder of today's bargain bins), I would never buy these books on e-bay. I have too many already to justify buying whole runs, even if they are cheap because I would wind up with a bunch of worthless doubles. And buying them in small lots or individually on e-bay is silly because the shipping costs would make the books much more expensive then they're worth.

 

You're best bet would be to hunt out guys such as myself that would be interested in portions of what you have to sell and unload the books piecemeal. Otherwise, you can sell them in one big auction on e-bay and hope for the best.

 

Sorry for rambling.

[Bronty]

Keep em. 33 cents a book is not worth it. Just don't accumulate any more

[Guest]

Keep them. Maybe in 200 years they might be worth something? You could leave them to your great grandchildren to read. Maybe on a cold winter night you could use them to make a nice fire? You just never know. Id keep them. There are not very many titles that will keep their value from 1985-up but some of the books from 1980-85 (if you have them) may in fact be worth something.....ala GI JOE...and Transformers.... jeez, I must sound like a broken record with the JOES.

[Kevin Boyd]

Keep them. The US economy sucks right now and everything seems to be taking a hit. However, we could be on the cusp of a new wave of interest in Marvel books from this bevvy of Marvel flicks coming out. Summertime is always a good time to sell comics anyway.

 

Some ideas:

 

- try to sell them in large lots on e-bay

- have a rummage sale and put them out for a $1 each

- put out a classified ad in your local newspaper (1500 comics - Spider-Man, X-Men, etc. make me an offer!)

- become a dealer and sell them yourself at a local show (get a half table) - that's how I started selling my comics - now I have an inventory of about 10000 books to sell - I sell about 500-1000 comics per show (3 x year) at the prices I want to sell them (although sometimes there is haggling) and these are mostly the same kind of comics as you are discussing and I'm definitely getting 75% or higher of cover price. Granted I don't sell them all each time, but I still do OK.

- contact your local store and see if he'll make you an offer - if he offers you 5-10 cents a book, ask him what he'll give you in trade instead - maybe he'll give you a better deal

- give the forum members a better idea of what you've got in the marketplace sectiion and maybe someone here will make you an offer - maybe someone will make you a trade for something you do want

 

Kev

[bronzejunkie]

I think if you have the room for them, Keep them. I remember back in the day when people used to [!@#%^&^] and moan all day that bronze age stuff isn't worth the match to burn it up, that they had so much high grade copies that there would be no way in hell they would be able to sell any of it even at a quarter a piece. they called it and now alot of us are fighting tooth and nail over high grade copies of any number of them crappy comics that we all secretly loved for all these years and we're afraid to say it.

 

Granted alot of hoarding went on back in the eighties, but didn't hoarding happen in the seventies as well(from what i'm reading here) if you can afford the space, throw it in the basement and open it all in ten years I'm sure alot of bronze age hoarders are damned happy they did that with all the they snagged back in the seventies.

 

Another thing, myself and a bunch other collectors I know, have in the past few years dumped all our so called (I'm still in the process) and this included almost all my eighties stuff(excluding any keys that I know of) so that we could work on creating solid collections and I am sure in a decade or so, I am going to be e-mailing you asking for a NM run of Crisis Of Infinite Earths or whatever unhot title we are person_without_enough_empathying about today. The same way I am wanting to buy high grade copies of Werewolf by night#1-32 today, (remember when that series was pure ? Now high grade copies are demanding big bucks) and TOD(another seemingly bad title that could never be worth any real cash, so why collect it, man'o man am I eating those thoughts right now)

 

'hoard on

 

Bronzejunkie

[dam60]

Thanks very much to all of you for the advice! One more thing - what about the DD books? Should I try to unload them now, or in 10 years will some DDs in the 180-300 range be worth more?

 

Thanks,

 

DAM

[chromium]

I guy I knew had the same problem...

He listed all the books on his webpage, advertised it on websites, bulletin boards and through other friends and charged about 50cent per book with a ten book minimum.

The more books you bought, the cheaper the individual issues got.

He had the website up for 6 months, didn't cost hem a single cent and he sold about 800 books to fans who were looking for holes to fill in their collection.

 

The other 500 or so books he put on ebay is lots of 20 at a $5.00 starting price...

I don't think he sold 10 lots this way

[delekkerste]

My guess is that DDs in the #180 to #300 range will be worth LESS in 10 years time than they are in the current market environment. This Movie Mania has been a godsend for sellers - even as recently as a 12-18 months ago, you could find NM+ quality DDs in the #180s in the 50 cent bin or $1 boxes at some conventions. It's become very evident that there is a near-unlimited supply of Miller DDs from #180 to #191 and I doubt whether the other post-#180 books (with few exceptions) are ever going to be widely collected. By this time next year, I am pretty sure that DD movie mania will have fizzled out to a large extent and prices will have retreated. IMO, there will never be as good a time to sell your DDs than NOW (well, technically, than the last 9 months, before every seller on the planet started listing DDs for sale...)

 

Plus, for all the fanboy talk about collecting full runs, I don't think that even hard-core DD fans like BronzeBruce, for example, are doing this. The demand for the later books is never going to be there to support significant price increases. Not to mention, the quality of those books was absolutely atrocious. Even the much-hyped "Fall From Grace" storyline was one of the worst DD stories I've ever read.

 

The same poor quality/lack of demand/huge supply argument can also be applied to many of your 1980-1995 books as well. Maybe we should split a table at the next Con in NYC and try to sell off all our junk books!

 

Gene

[COI]

If you want to raise some extra cash, and you really don't care about the books, then by all means sell, and for these books whether you do it in the summer or now won't make much difference.

 

I grew up reading this era of comics, and while I agree with delekkerste that the demand on these will likely never come close to the supply, I've got a couple of friends my age who all intend to put together 80's runs of books they grew up reading. or not, we all have soft spots for what we grew up with. I myself will eventually buy some runs just for the hell of it, but I'm too busy with Silver and bronze at the moment. Anyway, there's no rush on picking these up, as they are disgustingly cheap. I managed to get a complete NM run of DD #250-#300 for $9.00.

[delekkerste]

friends my age who all intend to put together 80's runs of books they grew up reading

 

They'll be able to get many of those runs dirt cheap...I recently saw some near-complete NM runs of 1980s/1990s Alpha Flight, New Mutants and Thor go for about a buck a book. Not exactly a great return on your investment, but wonderful if you are a reader/collector.

 

I should clarify my view towards Modern books: I think many books published between 1980 and 1986 were excellent...1986 to 1990 was not a bad era, though certainly a step down from the first half of the 1980s...1990 to 1993 saw a sharp decline in both collectibility and product quality and almost everything between 1993 and 1998 is both uncollectible and unreadable, IMO.

 

The problem is that, while we can speculate on whether mid-1970s books like Hulk 181 were hoarded or not, there is no question that thousands/tens of thousands of pristine (9.4 to 9.8) copies of nearly every single key and semi-key book published from 1982 to the present (except, of course, those with low print runs, like TMNT #1) have survived. Anyone with a modicum of common sense, a reasonable amount of interaction with collectors, and any connection at all with the major dealers of post-1980 books knows this to be true and can probably name names and tell where at least some of the bodies are buried, so to speak. That's why I would avoid "investing" in Moderns at all costs!

 

Gene

[dam60]

So does anybody have any space where I can store some of these books for a decade or so? It would be even better if you would come and pick them up

 

I think I might try to sell some now to get some more space more than anything. I am getting ready to make the plunge and get mylars for all my books that I want to keep, and for about 50 cents a bag and board, any book that isn't worth at least that is gone.

 

Wait - do you think it is better to just get Mylars for the price gems and leave the rest in Bags and Boards? Do you guys really change your bags/boards every 3-5 years?

 

DAM

[ninanina]

In the General comic section, read Ultra-Pro comic bag problems.I've put in my 2 cents on comic bags / longevity et all. I'm sure you'll find it at least quite interesting. It should solve your concern right now.

[Guest]

Wait - do you think it is better to just get Mylars for the price gems and leave the rest in Bags and Boards? Do you guys really change your bags/boards every 3-5 years?

 

ULTRA - PRO Comic Bag Problems

 

Easier to just click here than to go search for it. ...

BTW - FWIW, IMHO I would still go mylar with acid free back boards!....

[Guest]

have to dissagree with only one thing you said. Try finding me 9.6-9.8 early GI JoES for me! If there are thousands of NM copies out there I would have already found them!!

[delekkerste]

I said "keys and semi-keys", not piece of $#** books based on a toy line!!

 

Just kidding...after I wrote that, I thought about GI Joe #21, which I suppose qualifies as a semi-key, but, in my defense, I did say "nearly all", not "all"!! Joe #1 certainly didn't escape preservation & hoarding, however...the book is ubiquitous in high grade.

 

You do realize that those Joe comics will likely never be worth more than they are today...all of us children of the '80s have been enjoying that decade's revival the past couple of years in music, TV and comics...after the craze eventually dies out, there will be no one left (except maybe RickDogg) to pay higher prices than have been paid the past couple of years!

 

Gene

[Guest]

Honestly, I know this.....I am NOT collecting these for profit. I dont care if they are worthless in 10 years. I just want these books in 9.8 condition because I want the best and I want to preserve them because i enjoy them. Simple....I am the rare case of a true collector. My DVD player I paid 200 bucks for wont be worth 25 bucks in 10 years but that doesnt mean I shouldnt have bought it. I like it. Besides, porn is much better quality on DVD!

[Guest]

Most of the early Joes are VERY difficult to locate in super high grade, and there are A LOT of us collectors out there. They may not be worth the thousands Spidey gets but at least theyll never end up in the quarter boxes like they were for the past 10 years!