Do comics ever go down in price?

[drbanner]

I think the ant/grasshoper analogy was apt. At the end of the summer, the grasshoper had gotten laid and drunk a heck of a lot more than the ant. but who had food for th elong winter? Mr. Fun guy with memories? or the nerdy comic collecting (or in this case, asset hoarding) ant?

 

Apparently you didn't see Bug's Life where at the end of the summer the Grasshopper kicks the bugs azz and takes all his food? Well, he would have if the bird didn't eat him, but that's beside the point...

[the blob]

whenever my wife and I list comics, she always asks me "how much did you pay for these!!!"

 

"75 cents to a buck" wasn't good enough for a stack of SA store items we listed at $5-$10 each

 

no answer i give is ever good enough. she usually says "you'll never sell these for these prices" (alas, so far that has been true for most of my GA slabs listed at or around guide, but i'm willing to wait for the right buyer to come along)

 

the only times she has approved of a purchase is when i've fished some obscruties out of 50 cent bins and made a "killing" (a $2 purchase turned into $25, a $3 purchase turned into $40) --- luckily she doesn't know how many 50 cent purchases will likely net me.... 50 cents.

[burntboy]

Although I believe comics are a fantastic hobby, establishing a balance is best, and I will never view sinking an enormous amount of my disposable income into them as being wise.

 

I couldn't agree more.

A few weeks ago I used some money I'd saved up from comic sales to buy a pinball machine. It was money I was going to use to sink back into another comic, but the opportunity arose and I couldn't pass it up.

My entire family has had the most wonderful time playing it, and in my opinion, it was the best comic money I've ever spent. I can't imagine a book I would rather have.

 

Don't get me wrong; I'm still going to buy comics.

But I've already planned on where I'll be putting the new pool table and arcade game.

As a matter of fact...I think I'll drop my comic standards a few grades and sell some books I've been holding to speed up the process.

 

dice; your post reminded me that i have been dragging my feet in getting my Pinball Machines fixed. so i called a guy who popped up on Google and is here in northern NJ yesterday and have an appointment to have them both fixed.

 

one's a Williams Hayburners with the 6 metal racehorses that move across the upper part of the backsplash. the other (also from around 1950-54) is a Williams Four-bagger baseball machine which has the metal runners zip around the bases when hits are recorded.

 

but, to get back on point - i also am having him service a 1950 Seeburg 100C jukebox (happy days TV show model), that i bought last year along with a 1940 Rock Ola shuffleboard table, with the refund money i got back from Comickeys.

 

rather than dump that $26,000 back into books, i had the basement refinished, bought the aforementioned items and some Diner booths. it all looks pretty cool and is a great entertainment area...............(ok so i may have bought a few books as well..............)

[Bonds25]

It's threads like this that make me only buy comics with characters that are household names... Yes, I brim with confidence for spending thousands of dollars on the classic tales of Pyroman, The Fighting Yank, The American Crusader, Doc Strange, and The Black Terror.

 

I just hope the public's interest in them doesn't die out from overexposure.

 

[sterlingcomics]

Bring on da booze and ho's!!!

 

[Aman619]

I think the ant/grasshoper analogy was apt. At the end of the summer, the grasshoper had gotten laid and drunk a heck of a lot more than the ant. but who had food for th elong winter? Mr. Fun guy with memories? or the nerdy comic collecting (or in this case, asset hoarding) ant?

 

Apparently you didn't see Bug's Life where at the end of the summer the Grasshopper kicks the bugs azz and takes all his food? Well, he would have if the bird didn't eat him, but that's beside the point...

 

thats funny... I never saw the parallel to the old saying... I just sort of accepted the 'fact' that every summer the grasshoppers do that like an episoe of Animal Planet or something. (and of course the Seven Samurai takeoff) Im sur eit was more the latter, but choosng grasshoppers as the marauding bandits is a cool, sick twist to the kid's fairy tale... Much more realistic!

[Aman619]

Hey Burnt!! AFter knowing you for so long here, I always think of you now as the cool original owner collection guy that stuns us with his beautiful books bought of fthe racks at Sid's Luncheonette. And I totally forget t e other half of your story - - the "Origin of Burntboy" story!!

 

What a cool backstory, a guy puts his books away for 30 years, and comes back into the hobby he loved as a kid. And what greets him at the door to take his money practically on Day One? ComicKeys hisself!!! And then you extricate yourself safely from his clutches... and here we are!!

 

Bravo!! I smell screenplay!

[burntboy]

Hey Burnt!! AFter knowing you for so long here, I always think of you now as the cool original owner collection guy that stuns us with his beautiful books bought of fthe racks at Sid's Luncheonette. And I totally forget t e other half of your story - - the "Origin of Burntboy" story!!

 

What a cool backstory, a guy puts his books away for 30 years, and comes back into the hobby he loved as a kid. And what greets him at the door to take his money practically on Day One? ComicKeys hisself!!! And then you extricate yourself safely from his clutches... and here we are!!

 

Bravo!! I smell screenplay!

 

i talk to "Dr Koos" occasionally on the STLComics board. it's all very weird as he knows who i am and what i know about him. as much as i disapprove of his antics, i do find him entertaining.

 

(his newest mission in life is to shed light on the continuing story/relationship between PGX and Leder/Christina Collectibles/TDComicsWiz/PCX-It/etc. (he seems to feel that having two remotely related folks in the same area, both with PO BOXES is practiacally proof-positive of some conspiracy). he is SO like a dog with a bone.

 

and over on that board, he and others have pretty much convinced the masses (as small as they may be) that CGC has been Pressing books for BSD's for some time................

[Aman619]

Yeah.. Im over there too. Hammers got his usual front level sychophantic pawns agreeing with every joke, criticism amnd comment he makes. Gets kinda tiring facing off against the "Amen chorus" he's got. As well his campaign to point out every suspicious looking scan he can find to prove everyone else is a crook too.

 

 

sigh..... same as it ever was...

[awe4one]

(his newest mission in life is to shed light on the continuing story/relationship between PGX and Leder/Christina Collectibles/TDComicsWiz/PCX-It/etc. (he seems to feel that having two remotely related folks in the same area, both with PO BOXES is practiacally proof-positive of some conspiracy).

 

Well in this case, he's probably right. There has been something going on between the two since the beginning...

 

Jim

[goldust40]

Well in this case, he's probably right.

 

And he'll never let us forget it.

[awe4one]

Well in this case, he's probably right.

 

And he'll never let us forget it.

 

But the thing is...we were on to TD before Hammer. In fact Greggy was the first to out them with his restored Avengers #4...

 

Jim

[goldust40]

Well in this case, he's probably right.

 

And he'll never let us forget it.

 

But the thing is...we were on to TD before Hammer. In fact Greggy was the first to out them with his restored Avengers #4...

 

Jim

 

In Hammer's world, that scarcely matters. The guy is incapable of anything but original thoughts.......

[Aman619]

Well in this case, he's probably right.

 

And he'll never let us forget it.

 

But the thing is...we were on to TD before Hammer. In fact Greggy was the first to out them with his restored Avengers #4...

 

Jim

 

righto. I was thinking of going into that in my post, but agreing with Hammer is a line thats just hard to cross...even by adding that our intrepid analysts HERE at CGC Boards put 2 and 2 together long ago.

[burntboy]

Well in this case, he's probably right.

 

And he'll never let us forget it.

 

But the thing is...we were on to TD before Hammer. In fact Greggy was the first to out them with his restored Avengers #4...

 

Jim

 

In Hammer's world, that scarcely matters. The guy is incapable of anything but original thoughts.......

 

the big difference here is that Awe said "probably". Hammer doesn't seem to know that word. he's armed with all this background info that has heretofore transpired and has somehow concluded that PGX-it (formerly ChristinaCollectibles) is ABSOLUTLY joined at the hip with PGX - (drum roll) BECAUSE both have PO Boxes as addresses.

 

forgive me if i see that as less than even remotely conclusive. he has vowed to not give up until he can prove his assertions. should be interesting............

[krazykat-migration]

If you drop a comic book, it will go down in price. there you go. Comic do go down in price.

[esquirecomics]

Mark, good post, and I agree with your sentiments. Since you have some knowledge of the baseball card market, maybe you can provide some thoughts on the following question (you kind of have to read through the preambles to get to the question):

 

It's been conjectured on these boards that each era of comics will eventually stagnate or drop in price as that era's core generation of collectors dies off, because there will be insufficient numbers of younger collectors to fill the void, since the interests of the majority of these younger collectors will lie more with comics from their own eras. So, on the assumption that a majority of the core GA collectors are in their 50s and 60s, it has been hypothesized that as this generation moves on in the next couple of decades, GA prices will stagnate or decline. I would say this hypothesis does not apply to iconic books like Action #1, Tec #27, Cap #1, etc., which will probably always transcend pure nostalgia and emotional attachment.

 

Analogizing the baseball card market to the comic market, then you could say that baseball cards from the 1920s and early 1930s are where comics from the late 1930s and 1940s will be in 10-20 years, which means that the collectors who had an emotional attachment to players from the 1920s and early 1930s would now be in their 70s and 80s (i.e., most have passed on by now).

 

So finally to my question: from your knowledge of the baseball card market, has there been any stagnation or decline in the value of cards of players from these eras as their core audience moved on? I don't mean players like Ruth, Gehrig or Cobb in this question, because like Action #1 et al, their iconic status transcends mere nostalgia. My question really focuses on ordinary players from that era, and even superstar/Hall of Fame players from that era who are no longer household names, such as a Tris Speaker or Mel Ott. Did support for their prices disappear as the next generation of collectors took over, who were more interested in Joe DiMaggio, or Ted Williams, or Mickey Mantle cards? Or if prices did maintain or increased, was it because there were sufficient new collectors interested in those players' cards? Or simply a function of scarcity overriding declining demand?

 

-Tim

 

Tim, written like a good lawyer!

 

It is an interesting question. I am certainly not an expert on baseball cards and their value, but let me give you some observations as they can relate to foretelling trends in the comic community.

 

There are many similarities between the two hobbies, as well as differences. Modern day baseball cards started early in the 20th Century (though there are some examples of 19th Century cards). Modern day comics started in the 1930s. For both hobbies the 1940s and 1950s were more about participating in the hobby then collecting. That started to change in the 1960s and was instilled by the 1970s. The 1980s were very similar in that both hobbies saw an influx of participants, and the commercialism was exploited to the hilt. Major overproduction.

 

Comics saw such titles as GI Joe, the Punisher, Crisis on Infinite Earths go through the roof. Multiple spin-offs were published, sometimes even multiple printings. Demand was high, costs were high. 20 years later, these titles have lost luster and value, particularly because they became so common.

 

The same occurred with baseball cards. The sets from 1981-1983 rose in value very quickly in the mid to late 1980s as popularity increased, and then dropped in the 1990s. The 1984 and 1985 sets have some key rookies like Roger Clemens and Mark McGuire and the prices soared, and still remain high. But interestingly by 1987 and through the mid-1990s the companies overproduced and the sets are mostly dirt cheap, and that includes Barry Bonds' rookie card of 1987.

 

So in many ways the commercial trend of comics and cards have tracked nicely. Now, to the specific question you raise. It is not a black and white issue because of the distinctions between the two hobbies. For one thing, as you noted, many baseball players are not household names and can became complete unknowns after passage of a decade or two. Even many Hall of Famers from the early days fit within this category. I would not say that the reputational disappearance has significantly impacted the value of these early cards, at least not downward. No doubt it impacts the level and rate of upward growth. Although part of those who now enter the baseball card community are, like me, I believe not only interested from an investment standpoint but from a love of the game and a fascination with history. Cards from the early 20th Century are, at their heart now, antiques.

 

The one thing about many GA comics is that the primary characters still exist today. So I don't think it is just about the fact that Action #1 or Detective #27 will not seemingly decrease in value, but that the characters of Superman and Batman are never out of the limelight whether that be through continued publication of comic books or movies. It is also easier to take even a long forgotten comic book character and give them a revival in modern day. If the current community develops an interest, well you can postulate how that will positively impact the earlier issues, even if those existed 60 years ago. Not the same for baseball cards because you cannot obviously bring back the player for a revival. The closest that can occur is what Topps started doing in the late 1990s or so and that was to start issuing some really beautiful archive reproductions of their cards, dating back only to 1952 as I recall.

 

Of course, just as with comics, movies and television can revive an interest even in the old timers. The most valuable baseball card is that of Honus Wagner from, I believe, 1909. It was even the topic of a movie starring Matthew Modine a few years back. Eight Men Out revived an interest in the 1919 White Sox. Field of Dreams is another example. Each of these can bring new blood into the community.

 

So, to bring the rambling to a close, I think the answer to your question is blurry. There is a legitimate premise therein, but as the degree of stagnation may spread through the hobby due to the passing of the original collectors of that day, I would submit that at the same time or not too far in the future there is an infusion of collectors/investors who start focusing on the same items, but perhaps for different reasons.

[Aman619]

Im not so sure any movies had any impact on the Honus Wagner card. It is th ebaseball card equivalent of Action #1 and has its elite status in stone regardless of the popularity of Honus or any bio info any body has of his actual life and times.

[esquirecomics]

Im not so sure any movies had any impact on the Honus Wagner card. It is th ebaseball card equivalent of Action #1 and has its elite status in stone regardless of the popularity of Honus or any bio info any body has of his actual life and times.

 

No, I did not mean to imply that. The Wagner card has been the most expensive card for a long time, primarily due to the scarcity and the storyline on how he didn't want his likeness on a tobacco card. I simply meant that movies and television contribute towards reviving or continuing an interest in either the underlying player or character. Sometimes they can certainly impact the value of either (i.e., no doubt a movie about the Wagner card did not cause a decline in value, if anything it might have created an interest in other collectors), but for certain cards, comics, characters or players, it doesn't need to have an impact, as you note.

[Warlord]

"bragging" about the prices only leads to more head-scratching, not respect. sigh... I dont even go there. Sometimes a lay a few new HG key books in front of the wife and cant contain myself at the idea of tens of $$$s just sitting there and I'll blurt it out cause its so 'incongruous' that a couple of comisc are worth a years pay or whatever. She looks at me patronizingly like Im Jack and the Beanstalk or something crowing about my magic bean collection.