More comic investment advice for the mainstream

[Dr Chaos]

Movie hype isn't driving up the price of TEC 27's or Action 1's. They collectors that spend six figures or more on the hobby are not swept up by movie hype.

 

 

 

Over a dozen Superman and / or Batman movies and several TV shows beg to differ.

 

Correlation is not causation.

 

 

So you do not believe that someone paying $500,000.00 or more for a single comic book was influenced by the decades of movies and TV shows dedicated to Batman and Superman?

[comicwiz]

Publicity for our hobby is a good thing. More demand means higher prices for key comics as supply won't be increasing (unless a lot of books come out of hiding)

 

I'm not bothered by speculators and non comic people joining the fray. The more the merrier!

 

MOAR!!!

 

 

I'll throw myself to the lions and say that every time I have someone ask me which comic they should "invest" in, a little part of me wants to find the nearest hiding spot and go into a fetal position.

 

Unfortunately, I find a lot of new entrants are swept off their feet and perhaps get too easily lured in by the "cash for comics" angle. And I won't deny that I'll sooner tell them to "invest" in other things than throw a bunch of unwanted in their lap.

 

I can tell you from experience, that when you level with people that come to you for advice, you almost always gain their trust (or a good enough portion of it) by simply leveling with them, and not trying to the be that insufficiently_thoughful_person who does everything to try to prove these articles right.

 

One of the last guys who came to me with this ask ended-up telling me that he spent more with me because I put the pitch aside long enough to listen to what he was asking. It turned out he was a refined collector (salesman samples is what he collects) and he appreciated that I didn't use/abuse the situation by trying to oversell him.

[Caddotx]

I'll throw myself to the lions and say that every time I have someone ask me which comic they should "invest" in, a little part of me wants to find the nearest hiding spot and go into a fetal position.

 

Unfortunately, I find a lot of new entrants are swept off their feet and perhaps get too easily lured in by the "cash for comics" angle. And I won't deny that I'll sooner tell them to "invest" in other things than throw a bunch of unwanted in their lap.

 

I can tell you from experience, that when you level with people that come to you for advice, you almost always gain their trust (or a good enough portion of it) by simply leveling with them, and not trying to the be that insufficiently_thoughful_person who does everything to try to prove these articles right.

 

One of the last guys who came to me with this ask ended-up telling me that he spent more with me because I put the pitch aside long enough to listen to what he was asking. It turned out he was a refined collector (salesman samples is what he collects) and he appreciated that I didn't use/abuse the situation by trying to oversell him.

 

I agree with being totally honest with the customer. I get this question from time to time at shows. I try to educate them as much as possible in the time they are in front of me. If they are new to comic collecting and if they do buy something from me I want them walking away feeling like they are entering an excellent hobby. But I stress that although you can see a return on your investment, only collect what you like.

 

The more people we get into the hobby the healthier it will be and I really don't care how they got here, I just want them to stay.

[The-Collector]

Movie hype isn't driving up the price of TEC 27's or Action 1's. They collectors that spend six figures or more on the hobby are not swept up by movie hype.

 

 

 

Over a dozen Superman and / or Batman movies and several TV shows beg to differ.

 

Correlation is not causation.

 

 

So you do not believe that someone paying $500,000.00 or more for a single comic book was influenced by the decades of movies and TV shows dedicated to Batman and Superman?

 

I thought we were talking over the short term. I don't think MoS or TDKR have much to do with recent sales, which is what that article suggests re superman. Over the long term I would agree with you. Being in the public consciousness is key to continued price rises. Captain Marvel and Whiz comics 2(1) being a good example of that point.

[Dr Chaos]

Movie hype isn't driving up the price of TEC 27's or Action 1's. They collectors that spend six figures or more on the hobby are not swept up by movie hype.

 

 

 

Over a dozen Superman and / or Batman movies and several TV shows beg to differ.

 

Correlation is not causation.

 

 

So you do not believe that someone paying $500,000.00 or more for a single comic book was influenced by the decades of movies and TV shows dedicated to Batman and Superman?

 

I thought we were talking over the short term. I don't think MoS or TDKR have much to do with recent sales, which is what that article suggests re superman. Over the long term I would agree with you. Being in the public consciousness is key to continued price rises. Captain Marvel and Whiz comics 2(1) being a good example of that point.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy has one movie ever and no TV show = short term pop

 

Batman & Superman have decades of media building their legends = long term trend

[The-Collector]

Movie hype isn't driving up the price of TEC 27's or Action 1's. They collectors that spend six figures or more on the hobby are not swept up by movie hype.

 

 

 

Over a dozen Superman and / or Batman movies and several TV shows beg to differ.

 

Correlation is not causation.

 

 

So you do not believe that someone paying $500,000.00 or more for a single comic book was influenced by the decades of movies and TV shows dedicated to Batman and Superman?

 

I thought we were talking over the short term. I don't think MoS or TDKR have much to do with recent sales, which is what that article suggests re superman. Over the long term I would agree with you. Being in the public consciousness is key to continued price rises. Captain Marvel and Whiz comics 2(1) being a good example of that point.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy has one movie ever and no TV show = short term pop

 

Batman & Superman have decades of media building their legends = long term trend

 

I know. That is what i said. So there is no short term pop for Tec 27 and Action 1.

[zosocane]

Guardians of the Galaxy has one movie ever and no TV show = short term pop

 

Batman & Superman have decades of media building their legends = long term trend

 

Totally agree.

 

Key and semi-key issues (particularly with relatively modest supply) of characters that have withstood the test of time over generations and are part of pop culture (Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, X-Men, Wonder Woman, yes, even Captain Marvel/Shazam and I would put TMNT here) are likely to preserve their value and appreciate over time (in varying degrees), although short-term swoons in price might be lacking.

 

Key and semi-key issues (particularly with high supply) of characters getting a one-shot treatment in a film that otherwise are unknown outside of comicdom are short-term pop. E.g., Avengers #55. There are so many copies of that book floating out there and it trades freely. Those X-Men "Days of Future Past" issues cited in the article? A gizzillion copies out there. That's where new collectors can get burned, then decide they hate comics, and they get out.

[1Cool]

I for one am excited about the comic boom. I (like most of you) lived and lost through the 90's crash and I think I've learned a little bit during that process. It's other people time to lose their shirt while I use my experience to make some cash and not get driven crazy by the rush.

[Caddotx]

I for one am excited about the comic boom. I (like most of you) lived and lost through the 90's crash and I think I've learned a little bit during that process. It's other people time to lose their shirt while I use my experience to make some cash and not get driven crazy by the rush.

 

(thumbs u I'm with you!

[FineCollector]

More demand means higher prices for key comics as supply won't be increasing (unless a lot of books come out of hiding)

 

I'm not bothered by speculators and non comic people joining the fray. The more the merrier!

 

MOAR!!!

 

Newcomers should be encouraged to actually read the books they're buying, instead of joining all the brilliant, trendsetting collectors who only collect keys and #1s...

 

Buying a run to pick out the keys often leads to flushing the rest of the material for quick turnover. The books devaluate, and the entire industry suffers. Customers turn up their nose at good books because they're "worthless", and dealers can't sell their material unless they bulk it out. Said dealer doesn't make enough money to set up at a show, and little Johnny is left staring at a wall of mylar that's completely inaccessible to him.

 

This is not a good thing.

[1Cool]

More demand means higher prices for key comics as supply won't be increasing (unless a lot of books come out of hiding)

 

I'm not bothered by speculators and non comic people joining the fray. The more the merrier!

 

MOAR!!!

 

Newcomers should be encouraged to actually read the books they're buying, instead of joining all the brilliant, trendsetting collectors who only collect keys and #1s...

 

Buying a run to pick out the keys often leads to flushing the rest of the material for quick turnover. The books devaluate, and the entire industry suffers. Customers turn up their nose at good books because they're "worthless", and dealers can't sell their material unless they bulk it out. Said dealer doesn't make enough money to set up at a show, and little Johnny is left staring at a wall of mylar that's completely inaccessible to him.

 

This is not a good thing.

 

Don't know if I agree with this one. The people rushing to the market to buy the next hot thing or the keys are only bumping up the cost of those select books. The people buying the "worthless" other issues are comic collectors that have maintained the cost of these issues up to this point. My hope is some of the "kids" out there who hear about comics being valuable will start looking for books to collect. Then they will become long time collectors. I know I started collecting books because I thought they were fun and I thought I could make a million bucks in 20 years when I went to sell them (crazy kid). If the perception is that books are valuable then I think comics will get a much needed boost. I only feel bad for the key book collectors since prices may be quickly outside their budget.

[mintcollector]

A million Western genre collectors who went through this same kind of market are begging to differ that this kind of speculative bubble is good for the market or the hobby.

 

The issue with the argument that comic books are a part of pop culture is that it is irrelevant in this day and age. Truth is a lot of younger fans who enjoy Batman, Spider-Man and the like have no interest in collecting them. The medium no longer matters as much as it did to the generation before. Does it matter that Spider-Man first appeared in AF #15 ? To a kid born in 2000 they probably first encountered him on the big screen, in a cartoon, or in a video game. A book published in 1963 does not have the same meaning to a person of this age (and probably never will) when compared to a person born in 1954 or even 1979.

 

[Dr. Balls]

Publicity for our hobby is a good thing. More demand means higher prices for key comics as supply won't be increasing (unless a lot of books come out of hiding)

 

I'm not bothered by speculators and non comic people joining the fray. The more the merrier!

 

+1

 

I agree. We need as much new blood in the hobby as we can get. Because mintcollector is right (I have said much about this as well). New converts are not getting introduced with tangible comics, they are finding these characters through their perferred medium (i.e., video games, television, digital). Their personal ties to *actual* comic books are not the same as most of us.

[zosocane]

To a kid born in 2000 they probably first encountered him on the big screen, in a cartoon, or in a video game. A book published in 1963 does not have the same meaning to a person of this age (and probably never will) when compared to a person born in 1954 or even 1979.

 

I don't think this will categorically be the case. I think as we go deeper into the 21st century and deeper into the digital age, having a physical piece of "history" will continue to hold appeal, particularly where AF15s -- and for that matter, other quality, limited-supply books of tried-and-tested, pop culture-recognized characters -- aren't manufactured anymore and their supply base contracts as new potential buyers with inflation-adjusted purchasing power (e.g., a 30-year-old Y2Ker in the year 2030) flow into the marketplace and many of us look like . This goes back to my earlier post on this thread that keys and semi-keys of tried-and-tested, pop culture-recognized characters should continue to hold and increase in value.

 

But I would agree with you that Y2Kers in 2030 are not likely to care much, if at all, about a run-of-the-mill issue of, say, Superman from 1951, ASM from 1967, X-Men from 1982, or any issue of The Living Dead.

[ComicConnoisseur]

So Y THE LAST MAN STANDING movie is being written by David S.Goyer of Batman and Man of Steel fame? That definitely got my interest to invest in Y The Last Man Standing comic books.

[Captain Canuck]

To a kid born in 2000 they probably first encountered him on the big screen, in a cartoon, or in a video game. A book published in 1963 does not have the same meaning to a person of this age (and probably never will) when compared to a person born in 1954 or even 1979.

 

I don't think this will categorically be the case. I think as we go deeper into the 21st century and deeper into the digital age, having a physical piece of "history" will continue to hold appeal, particularly where AF15s -- and for that matter, other quality, limited-supply books of tried-and-tested, pop culture-recognized characters -- aren't manufactured anymore and their supply base contracts as new potential buyers with inflation-adjusted purchasing power (e.g., a 30-year-old Y2Ker in the year 2030) flow into the marketplace and many of us look like . This goes back to my earlier post on this thread that keys and semi-keys of tried-and-tested, pop culture-recognized characters should continue to hold and increase in value.

 

But I would agree with you that Y2Kers in 2030 are not likely to care much, if at all, about a run-of-the-mill issue of, say, Superman from 1951, ASM from 1967, X-Men from 1982, or any issue of The Living Dead.

 

I think you will find most people will choose to spend their money elsewhere and if they do want to read that book from whenever, it will be done digitally, even AF15. The medium will survive, but I think purely in a digital form and these prized paper copies will have a diminished fan base or be to a select few. We are pricing the younger generations out before they even get a chance. Most kids now would rather look at a picture of Michael Jordan on the Internet than own an expensive sports card with him on it.

[The-Collector]

A million Western genre collectors who went through this same kind of market are begging to differ that this kind of speculative bubble is good for the market or the hobby.

 

The issue with the argument that comic books are a part of pop culture is that it is irrelevant in this day and age. Truth is a lot of younger fans who enjoy Batman, Spider-Man and the like have no interest in collecting them. The medium no longer matters as much as it did to the generation before. Does it matter that Spider-Man first appeared in AF #15 ? To a kid born in 2000 they probably first encountered him on the big screen, in a cartoon, or in a video game. A book published in 1963 does not have the same meaning to a person of this age (and probably never will) when compared to a person born in 1954 or even 1979.

 

I was born in 1988 and it matters a whole lot to me. I also have many friends born from 1988-1992 to whom it also matters. My LCS is filled with people under twenty.

[1Cool]

Even if comic books are a potentially going to be phased out then that will not be for another 40 years or so since there is a glut of 30 year old collectors that have not even reached their maximum income yet. I agree comics and almost all collectibles are on the way out but it will be a slow death.

 

I had my daughters 5th grade open house last night and we all got a little book the kids in the class put together about who they are. No one kid said they collected anything other than rocks, stuff animals. I guess that 70% said "nothing" in that section. Kids today do not collect - they use and throw away.