how much $ have you made/lost on your comic collection?

[COI]

unfornutelly not much people around these boards show spontaneouslly this kind of attitude/philosophy.

 

There seems to be this attitude that anyone collecting high grade comics is doing so for some sort of financial gain, either now or down the road. While this may be the case for some, it isn't the rule. I buy high grade books because it's the way I enjoy the hobby. Occasionally I sell a few books to generate some cashflow for other purchases, but I almost always start my SA auctions at 12 cents with no reserve. Sometimes I make a few bucks, and sometimes I lose a few. Dosen't really matter to me in the long run because I'm not depending on them to finance my retirement. If I can recoup 75% of what I spent, I'm fine with that. I know a lot of guys who's idea of a hobby is going to a casino every few weeks and flushing thousands of dollars trying to "hit it big". By comparison, the few bucks I lose here and there selling books is a small price to pay for a hobby which I find very enjoyable. Of course I care about getting the best price possible, but If I spent all my time obsessing about the "actual value" of my collection, and whether or not I was coming out ahead, it would become more of a business than a hobby, and a lot less enjoyable to me.

[namisgr]

I've made millions on my comic collection...and YOU CAN TOO! I'm writing a book detailing my wild ride to the top. Will anyone join me in the Hamptons?

 

I increased my free cash flow by thousands each and every month by following the "Wild Ride to the Top" strategy on comic investing.

 

This has been a paid advertisement.

[FlyingDonut]

95% of all the money I spend on comics comes directly from money I make selling other comics. You guys want to be smarmy about it, but here's the "Wild Ride To Riches" strategy that has paid off for me big time. Buy for $1. Sell for $5. Repeat ten thousand times.

[shrunkenhead]

True enough, FD, but before you were in a position to do as you say you had to acquire what I assume is a somewhat massive inventory....in other words, you had to make significant use of discretionary income for a long period of time before you could officially become a full-fledged member of "the biz" and use your profits to buy more, etc...

[COI]

95% of all the money I spend on comics comes directly from money I make selling other comics. You guys want to be smarmy about it, but here's the "Wild Ride To Riches" strategy that has paid off for me big time. Buy for $1. Sell for $5. Repeat ten thousand times.

 

What do you do for a living? I only ask because what you're saying takes a heck of a lot of time.

[FlyingDonut]

True enough, FD, but before you were in a position to do as you say you had to acquire what I assume is a somewhat massive inventory....in other words, you had to make significant use of discretionary income for a long period of time before you could officially become a full-fledged member of "the biz" and use your profits to buy more, etc...

 

Not really. I have been selling/flipping books for 25 years, and have simply been accumulating stuff. I also sell on consignment (that's the real ticket!) for several stores and collectors, and I've gotten lucky on a bunch of speculative things. The real trick was to have had high grade stuff before the CGC boom and then have sold it off. For a while there, it was simply easy money.

[FlyingDonut]

95% of all the money I spend on comics comes directly from money I make selling other comics. You guys want to be smarmy about it, but here's the "Wild Ride To Riches" strategy that has paid off for me big time. Buy for $1. Sell for $5. Repeat ten thousand times.

 

What do you do for a living? I only ask because what you're saying takes a heck of a lot of time.

 

I'm a senior proposal manager for a big federal contractor, I put in probably, on average 50-60 hours a week. That is an average, however, with significantly more time when I'm actually running a bid, and much much less time when I'm not. This summer, for example, was cool because I went two months without having a major prop to run - I probably couldn't have done a week in Chicago and four days in Baltimore if I was working.

 

I do comics from 10 PM - 1230 AM every night. I try to have 10 auctions every night, which is 3000 auctions or so a year.

[Jayman]

The real trick was to have had high grade stuff before the CGC boom and then have sold it off. For a while there, it was simply easy money.

 

Amen brother, Amen!

[Red Hook]

 

I'm a senior proposal manager for a big federal contractor, I put in probably, on average 50-60 hours a week. That is an average, however, with significantly more time when I'm actually running a bid, and much much less time when I'm not. This summer, for example, was cool because I went two months without having a major prop to run - I probably couldn't have done a week in Chicago and four days in Baltimore if I was working.

 

I do comics from 10 PM - 1230 AM every night. I try to have 10 auctions every night, which is 3000 auctions or so a year.

 

Double thumbs up to you, Donut! I like it!!

[BassGMan]

I didn't read this whole thread so forgive me if I've missed something.

 

The way I look at it is this. "Back in the day" when I was buying $10 - $25 a week in new comics (most of the 80s and 90s) I was spending my money on feeding my collecting habit and on entertainment. And this is for a guy that does not usually even read my comics. Sure, I thought that maybe someday I would be able to sell them, but just "having them" and flipping through them was worth the money on it's own. Wednesdays were the highlight of my week. Just seeing the new books on the shelves and flipping through them finding the best copies was my greatest entertainment. Sure, sometimes if I did see an issue that looked like a speculative good bet, I'd buy 2-5 copies of it. Usually I just bought one though.

 

So, now, years later, I still have most of those 80s and 90s books collecting dust in the polybags that not many would be willing to pay more than a dollar for. But I do something different now which makes up for those dollars spent years ago. Flipping comics. I only buy what I like, so it is still alot of fun. But I spend my money on comics now with the intent of reselling them, either after slabbing or not, for a profit. I only buy books that are underpriced, or what I believe is currently undervalued. I have had tremendous success overall with this, and have most likely repaid myself for all those dollars spent years ago on new comics. The money I am making now provides me with airfare and hotel stays at several major comics conventions a year, along with plenty of money to buy more comics, to then resell again. It is surely alot of fun. Not everything works out like I would like it too, but overall I would definitely say that I was certainly making money on my collection at this stage of my life. -------Sid

[Kermit the frog]

Fantastic Four

 

You seem to be obsessing more on OTHER people's fixation on money than I've ever seen anybody around here directly obsess about making money themselves.

 

Sometimes things aren't what they seem...but what we want them to be.

 

Just because we think and post about it doesn't mean that's all we care about.

 

Of course not, but it can say a lot...

 

With the exception of dealers, I'd say the majority of us here who are into flipping comics are motivated to do it to help grow our collections.

 

I understand and share your point of view...but looking at some topics, sometimes it's hard to see it.

 

The reason most people don't move to "serious/high investments" like stocks or real estate is quite precisely because they're not all THAT fixated on money. It takes a lot of specialized knowledge or skill to devote yourself to those endeavors and make money unless you've already got a significant amount to invest in them

 

I see...but looking at the "daily time invested" and experience gathered/shared by a lot of us, those skills need for serious investisements end up being presented on our actions.

 

In the end, my reply was mostly to the behaviour that "modern sucks because they aren't worth much"...or simply "modern sucks because they aren't the ones i've grew up with". I think sometimes people end up creating a steryotipe towards what is bad today and what was great in the past.

 

Imho the last few years (end of the 90's and up) comics achieved an high level of quality and richness (visually and written), but people seem to be more "worried" on thinking if the money they spend is lost or not...forgetting why they buy, or better, why they enjoied buying in the past.

 

Sorry if my intial reply was a little harsh, but sometimes it revoltes me a little when people only care about grades/$$$ and labels and hardly talk about the stories (draw or written)...in the end it should be the core/purpose of being a fan (i say fan, not seller or speculator).

 

Regards, Pedro.

[BassGMan]

95% of all the money I spend on comics comes directly from money I make selling other comics. You guys want to be smarmy about it, but here's the "Wild Ride To Riches" strategy that has paid off for me big time. Buy for $1. Sell for $5. Repeat ten thousand times.

 

Cool Donut, you and I may do it a little differently (I don't do consignments) but overall it appears that we've both learned the tricks and are having some success. It sure is cool to be able to make money in a hobby that you love so much.

[lou_fine]

For some, the focus of their collecting is solely on moderns, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're looking for books that will hold their value, moderns are not the way to go. And, for many collectors--and I count myself among them---looking at a large stack of moderns and musing over the money I'll never get back was emotionally deflating and bummed me out about my involvement in the hobby in general.

 

 

Seems to me that you are approaching the Modern market from the wrong point of view. I believe the Modern market is meant more for the actual READERS whereas you are approaching it more from an investment point of view. The only way to make money on the MA books is to be quick on your toes and be able to flip books within a very short period of time before they become cold. Much more of a envirionment characterized by market hype and short-term speculation and far easier to lose money in than make actual real profits.

 

I spend about $10 a week on new comics and I find that to be expensive since I know that I will never be able to recoup that money. Actually, I guess I could if I flip some of them, but not really worth the time or hassle of doing all this just to make a few dollars.

 

You seem to be thinking more from an investment point of view and for this, you do have to go back to the older more collectible books. Even here, with all the auctions, eBay, and CGC in play now, it is tough to make money. Unfortunately, I feel that the time for making easy money in the comic market has already passed us by since everybody is asking and getting top dollar for high quality collectible books.

 

One of the only possible areas left for potential easy gains are GA keys with slight professional restoration since the current market sentiment has pummelled all books with any hint of restoration down to all-time lows. Even here, however, it may be too late as some of the smarter investors appears to have already picked up on this opportunity.

 

Oh, in answer to your question: I guess that I would be able to just recoup my money now from the "Moderns" that I bought off the newsstand in the 70's and 80's based only upon the low cover price and the passing of time. My high-grade GA books which I bought in the late 80's and early 90's, however, have all risen by huge mutiples based upon OS guide and might even supplement my retirement income one day.

[shrunkenhead]

So BassG, you don't fancy youself a collector at all? You buy books only to flip them? There are no particular books you have that you wouldn't ever sell, or you're not working on any runs of anything? Not knocking your strategy, just always curious as to what makes other movers and shakers in the hobby tick...

[sterlingcomics]

congrats, Donut. I only wish I had come back to comics before CGC. Alas, I didn't. I too try to sell comics to finance future purchases. It's simply not as easy as finding good raw books is becoming increasingly difficult, coupled by the fact that CGC books don't command as much as when they first arrived.

 

And I definitely agree with COI. Love for the books come first with me (everyone knows my fondness for BA Horror-HOM specifically), hence the financial aspect is a secondary effect. My Hamptons location has been foreclosed. I'm trying to buy more comics

[shrunkenhead]

Hmmm...Lou, you're saying I'm coming from the "wrong" point of view when it comes to moderns, yet your sentiments about modern purchases seem to sync up somewhat exactly with my own...I for one do NOT view moderns as a "investment" material (nor do I really view any comics as "investments"..but I've already been through that shpiel on another thread). But if somebody, like johnny who started this thread for example, is going to be concerned with what his collection is going to be "worth", then I merely suggested that moderns are not the way to go, and for the same reasons that you're also suggesting.

 

So do we really disagree?

[Larryw7]

I've never been into comics for the money, and it's a good thing, because I've never really made any. Back in the pre-eBay days, whenever I sold books it was to dealers, and they always lowballed the prices and grades, and I always lost money. Now, with eBay, I still really don't make any money. I either break slightly even, or sell the book for less than I paid for it. It's still a much higher percentage than what I made from selling to a dealer, but I can't think of any book off the top of my head that I made a killing with.

[shrunkenhead]

Doiby, that must be because you're more into collecting for love of the books than the almighty buck...shame on you!!

 

Seriously, though.

[BassGMan]

So BassG, you don't fancy youself a collector at all? You buy books only to flip them? There are no particular books you have that you wouldn't ever sell, or you're not working on any runs of anything? Not knocking your strategy, just always curious as to what makes other movers and shakers in the hobby tick...

 

Shrunk, good question. For a long time, up until about four or five years ago, I surely did have two collections within a collection. One half of the stuff that I really didn't care about, and the other half as my "keepers" never to sell. Well, with Ebay, conventions and all, I sold everything that was worth anything from the half that I didn't really care about, and then I was stuck with just thousands of cheapo books. But hey! What about all those nice books in my keeper collection? Let's start selling those. You know, some people may say that I am not as attached to my books because I am not a reader, but the way I look at it is that there are so many cool books out there, even duplicates of what I am selling now, why not just sell what I have (assuming I can make a profit) and then buy more cool ones again later, either ones I never had before, or the same ones again?

 

No, I don't care about completing runs anymore, but I sure used too. That gave me a little stress. Some people feed off the hunt like that. It's cool. I'd rather hunt for good deals that I can profit off of more than just issues to complete a run. But don't get me wrong, I still do seek out certain titles or issues just because I like them, and often I won't sell them for years, until the excitement on those books is replaced by others.

 

With this strategy, over and over again I have been accused of not really caring about comics and just want to make money. Totally untrue. I love comics AND like to make money. I will always have thousands of them. But to me, for the most part the actual specific issues to me is not what is imprtant. I want a mass of comics. The content of specific books keeps churning. It keeps it fresh for me. I like the feeling of change. My interests change as well, and thus what I flip changes. I don't care about Superman or Conan for example, so I'd never flip one of their books. I'm into Bronze horror now, so I love buying them and selling them. Later, I'll be into something else. It's fun. -------Sid

[lou_fine]

Hmmm...Lou, you're saying I'm coming from the "wrong" point of view when it comes to moderns, yet your sentiments about modern purchases seem to sync up somewhat exactly with my own...I for one do NOT view moderns as a "investment" material (nor do I really view any comics as "investments"..but I've already been through that shpiel on another thread). But if somebody, like johnny who started this thread for example, is going to be concerned with what his collection is going to be "worth", then I merely suggested that moderns are not the way to go, and for the same reasons that you're also suggesting.

 

So do we really disagree?

 

Shrunk;

 

I guess I misunderstood your point when you stated that you was emotionally delated and bummed out whenever you looked at your MA collection. I understand your point of view and how you feel. You should try not to feel this way, however, since Moderns should generally only be viewed from a entertainment and reading point of view. This is your true rate of return from Moderns, even though some of them may now take only 5 to 10 minutes to read.

 

Actually, come to think of it: the latest issue of Penthouse Letters would be a better buy since it costs only a little bit more, but has a lot more repetitive fantasy stories with nice pictures in them, and guaranteed to provide more than 5 to 10 minutes of reading pleasure for your entertainment dollar.