"Foreign" Comics : What's the Market and Future? 0

[D R Stater]

So, I love foreign editions of American comic books. I've had the pictured books in my collection for a long time. I recently joined CGC and these were part of my first submission. The other book I submitted was the Hopalong Cassidy and the Mad Barber SOTI book that came back 9.6, but that's a subject for another post. I'm looking for opinions from you good people on foreign editions, especially the older ones. A quick search shows a dearth of graded foreign editions in the census. What kind of market is our there for these editions? Will the world-wide popularity of superhero movies bring out more foreign collectors? Did I just waste time and money grading comics that nobody cares about? What do you all think? Thanks in advance! -Darin

[shadroch]

The market for these books currently sucks. The good news is it can only go up from here.  I wouldn't spend money stabbing them . I buy raw ones on occasion, but solely based on the covers. If it reprints a key story, that's better.

[Krismusic]

the market for these books currently is soft compared to US books, but they only have the ability to go up and I guess their appeal will lie in if foreign buyers enter the market and want these but chances are they will still desire the US versions. 

It also depends on how much you paid for the books and fees associated with slabbing etc.. you might make some profit. 

[D R Stater]

Thanks, guys. I paid next to nothing for them about 12 years ago, in the range of $4-$5 per book, so I'm really not out anything. I'm happy to keep them on the shelf and see what happens. Just like shadroch, I bought them for the covers. I'm never going to afford the US versions of these books, and these are a great substitute. 

[elfboy]

from the facebook groups I'm currently a member of, a vast majority of people trust their foreigns to CBCS.  one of the leading Foreign Comic Book people in the country works for them.  it's obviously too late for these books, but I would suggest you submit a couple to them, and you can see a lot more information on the labels.

[Kromak]

Hi, I am Brazilian. I already sold a couple of Brazilian books to Americans, so there is definitely a Market for them.

First I think we should classify the comic books in four categories. 1) The ones that reprint stories or covers that are key from a US perspective but are not from the local country origin. 2) Then there are the ones that are keys from both perspectives. 3) Finally there are the ones that are keys from the local country perspective but are not from a US perspective. 4) Of course there are ones that are not key from both POV (and these are obviously the vast majority of the comic books)

The ones that belongs to the first category definitely are the best option. And the good news is that the amount of keys from a US perspective is vastly bigger than the amount of keys from a local country POV. For instance, practically no one here is going to pay tons of money for the first Octopus appearance. Although they might pay a decent amount of money because its one of the first editions. But with the tax exchange rate heavily shifted in favor of dollar, I have been experimenting a really big proportional gain selling international versions of US keys. However keys from the a US perspective from late 60's and latter used to be fairly easy from the our standards to find. They are becoming harder and harder, so I am not the only one aware of this.

 

The ones that belong to category number 2, might be able to be sold by higher prices. For instance Brazilian's first Daredevil is usually sold between 100-200R$ or a quarter of that value in dollars. It's definitely something I would bet in selling to an American at a higher value and perhaps faster than to someone from my country. Now, the first Brazilian ASM is usually sold between 700-1000R$ or  again a quarter of that value in dollars. There are definitely people from the US that would pay that value or even higher if in good condition, but the amount is likely smaller than the first Daredevil.

Number 3 is a lost cause, or in another words, as one would lost money selling to an American compared to someone from the local country. For instance this Brazilian Iron Man edition:  

was published by small publisher that had far smaller print runs than most Brazilian Marvel editions. End result: there is only one copy available and Brazil's biggest online MarketPlace. And it's price is above all the US editions that I saw on a quick look in Ebay (outside a signed series one)

4)This one at first does not seem like a winner, but it might be. I sold a couple of Brazilian's Batman for US consumers at a higher value than I would to a Brazilian. Most importantly I sold them likely much, but much faster than I would by a comparable price on the biggest Brazilian MarketPlace (there are other places I could have sold faster of course, but likely at lower prices) simply because the US used comic book market is much bigger than ours and likely from anywhere else. And of course the current tax exchange rate helps a lot.

However with Disney stuff that would never happen. I look at the price of most US stuff and outside stuff from around 1945 and before, high grade editions (that you have decent chances of never find a comparable foreign edition, especially on mint level) and the few key editions that exist in the Disney world, I found most of the stuff fairly cheap.

As a curiosity its also possible to sell US stuff to foreigners at higher price than US consumer would likely pay. That happens specially with modern stuff in mid grade, perhaps on VF as well.

 

Talking about your specific Brazilian editions, I definitely think there is a market for them. All depends on how much do you expect to get from it. If you expect anything remotely close to the US price range, it might never sell or take years. Now to sell them above the average Brazilian price, definitely. Might even be easy.

 

Forgot to add that you have higher grade editions that are always rare to find in material bellow the 80's, so that's definitely a big advantage to selling to the US market, specially because the vast majority of the local consumers will be happy with a middle grade version.
 

By the way, there is an user here, called Komic Kaze that is an American whose family  lives here at many decades and has a world class level collection of foreign editions. He posted a lot about Brazilian and international editions. Might be a interesting read even though its focused in early 40's material.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Kromak
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