Hypothetical question on cornering the market

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[Gatsby77]

I've thought about "cornering the market" (i.e., investing in 50-100 copies) on books like:

 

Brave & Bold 34 (1st SA Hawkman, classic Kubert cover, easy to find, but still key w/ potential)

 

Brave & Bold 54 (1st Teen Titans, fun cover)

 

and even Tick Special Edition # 2 (3,000 copies, I have four of the 55 slabs -- I reckon I'd only need 20 slabs to have a legit market-moving hoard.)

 

It can be done profitably, but it's more a matter of market timing. Best case I saw was an add in Overstreet's back in 1990-1991 with a dealer looking for NM/M copies of Peter Parker # 1. Guide at the time was $10 and he was offering $14 per copy or $1,500 per hundred.

 

Granted, at the time everyone thought it would follow Iron Man # 1's trajectory as the highest-numbered Marvel series still being produced. And it worked. Three years later the book was selling for $35. Four years later it was going as high as $45-$50.

 

I also saw it happen with Marvel Spotlight # 2 back in 1998, where I lost out on 20+ consecutive auctions for the book. Somebody was buying every copy that came up for sale, regardless of the price.

 

On other books, it can be foolhardy. Lois Lane 70's a good example. Prices on this are volatile, with Fine copies available for $30-$50, and CGC 9.6s having fallen 40% over the last three years as supply has more than doubled. Still a good book? Yeah--I love it. But that it's as common as it is in Mid-Grade, as a 1966 Lois Lane comic, speaks of just how common actual popular books like Amazing Spider-Man are by comparison.