Are prices still climbing or have they eased up a bit??? 43 43

[The humble Watcher lurking]

On 2/21/2024 at 2:38 PM, comicginger1789 said:

I would argue too that the emergence of a lot of Youtube people in the hobby (many of whom seem to be in that 30-45 age range with a few younger and a few older) suggests to me the age of the hobby is ok, unlike something like stamps.

Agreed. On YouTube, I always see weekly what are the top 10 hottest comic books of the month or top 10 hottest sports cards of the month videos made by 30-45 year old YouTuber creators, while I have not seen one what are the top 10 hottest stamps of the month  YouTube videos. 

[buttock]

On 2/22/2024 at 10:12 AM, Stefan_W said:

True, but most adults dont run around buying $3k comics either. That group is a small subset of comic collecting. 

The absolute value was picked out of thin air, it's the concept that matters.  

[comicginger1789]

On 2/22/2024 at 12:12 PM, Stefan_W said:

True, but most adults dont run around buying $3k comics either. That group is a small subset of comic collecting. 

True as well. I think the main point is that the ones who are spending 3K on a single comic (or even monthly or yearly) are probably the older group, in that 45-60+ range because they have that level of income to do so. Obviously there is an even smaller percentage buying the extremely high priced stuff you see at the auction houses (maybe a few of them frequent here). 

[Stefan_W]

On 2/22/2024 at 2:06 PM, comicginger1789 said:

True as well. I think the main point is that the ones who are spending 3K on a single comic (or even monthly or yearly) are probably the older group, in that 45-60+ range because they have that level of income to do so. Obviously there is an even smaller percentage buying the extremely high priced stuff you see at the auction houses (maybe a few of them frequent here). 

For sure.

When I have a table at shows, those shows definitely have an older crowd who are largely interested in silver and bronze age comics. Having said this, most of them are happy trying to find affordable deals at $5-$10 rather than splurging big money on books. 

In my experience, when it comes to selling more expensive books (say $100+) the age group kind of flattens out and the collectors in their 20s and 30s make a strong showing. A lot of comics like that are flipped around where people try to buy for x-price and sell for x-price + y-percent. People who buy and sell comics in that way can be older and younger folks. 

Once you get to big ticket items, yeah much of the younger crowd is definitely screened out. I have not sold massive books, but have sold ones like ASM 1, X-Men 1, JiM 83, basically books at 10k or less. Every person who bought these books was over 30 but below 45 years of age. Younger folks may not be able to afford them as easily, and not sure what is going on with the older crowd - maybe still remembering the days when you can pick those up at garage sales for 50 bucks and hoping that will happen to them again. 

[themagicrobot]

On 2/22/2024 at 5:18 PM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

Agreed. On YouTube, I always see weekly what are the top 10 hottest comic books of the month or top 10 hottest sports cards of the month videos made by 30-45 year old YouTuber creators, while I have not seen one what are the top 10 hottest stamps of the month  YouTube videos. 

As a little kid I collected stamps before I had any disposable income to buy (and collect) comics. As family members worked in offices they would bring me hundreds of stamps ripped off envelopes and parcels. The UK had a mind boggling amount of special stamps. I still have the album full of worthless but colourful bits of paper. Then I had a phase collecting matchboxes then bubblegum (trading) cards. Later it was singles and LPs. Now it is motorbikes. But the younger generations never seemed to be bitten by the collection bug and most are happy with a minimalist lifestyle. I'd buy a 45rpm record because I wanted to own it to listen to it when I wanted. It may/may not ever have been played again on the radio whilst I was listening. If I didn't grab that current Action comics while it was new on the spinner rack I might never see another copy. Before VHS even watching Batman on TV was something you needed to do as it may/may not have been repeated again. That urgency to own stuff is unnecessary when everything new or old is available as a digital download. There will be certain comics that always have value but I can't see much future for run-of-the mill 1950s comics. In another decade who will want old Charltons or Dells or even New52 DCs? I hope I'm wrong. I've never ever purchased any stamps for money but these look interesting......

[comicginger1789]

On 2/22/2024 at 2:28 PM, themagicrobot said:

As a little kid I collected stamps before I had any disposable income to buy (and collect) comics. As family members worked in offices they would bring me hundreds of stamps ripped off envelopes and parcels. The UK had a mind boggling amount of special stamps. I still have the album full of worthless but colourful bits of paper. Then I had a phase collecting matchboxes then bubblegum (trading) cards. Later it was singles and LPs. Now it is motorbikes. But the younger generations never seemed to be bitten by the collection bug and most are happy with a minimalist lifestyle. I'd buy a 45rpm record because I wanted to own it to listen to it when I wanted. It may/may not ever have been played again on the radio whilst I was listening. If I didn't grab that current Action comics while it was new on the spinner rack I might never see another copy. Before VHS even watching Batman on TV was something you needed to do as it may/may not have been repeated again. That urgency to own stuff is unnecessary when everything new or old is available as a digital download. There will be certain comics that always have value but I can't see much future for run-of-the mill 1950s comics. In another decade who will want old Charltons or Dells or even New52 DCs? I hope I'm wrong. I've never ever purchased any stamps for money but these look interesting......

With reference to Dell and Charlton stuff though, has anyone ever wanted those ever? I mean the mass comic collector...sure there are people who do but they sure don't pay a lot for 98% of it. I think the goal for this hobby to maintain itself is for the key books or revered stories or desired covers to continue to at worst maintain a constant (or slight increase over time) value. Run of the mill stuff is always gonna be $1-10 fodder depending on the grade. In 2000, I was spending $2-5 for mid grade Peter Parker Spec Spidey. I feel that those prices are not far off today because again, most of what I was grabbing was the reader/run filler.

Also, and maybe I am wrong here, but the emergence of the internet seemed to really kill stamps. I would argue the opposite has happened for comics.

Edited February 22 by comicginger1789

[Ryan.]

On 2/22/2024 at 11:14 AM, Robot Man said:

Bang it and off to the next one

Ah, to be 25 again...

[The humble Watcher lurking]

On 2/22/2024 at 2:28 PM, themagicrobot said:

As a little kid I collected stamps

This was my stamp. both my grandfather and great-uncle where into stamps and coins. They did everything to get me into stamps and coins but I love comic books, baseball cards, Star Wars figures and video games more.

Here is the stamp I love as kid in 1980s

 thought he was Sherlock Holmes brother as a kid. found out he was a successful lawyer. 

well when they bought it in 1980s it was 5, now worth maybe a dollar. A TERRIBLE investment. 

 

[Microchip]

On 2/23/2024 at 3:05 AM, buttock said:

One thing you have to consider about the age of collectors is that it takes a certain income level to be able to buy vintage books with discretionary income.  Most people don't reach that income/stability until their mid-30s.  So not seeing a bunch of teenagers running around buying $3000 comics isn't surprising.  

The books the younger/less affluent buyers have been chasing are now turning into modern era keys.   They drive this part of the market, and the characters coming through, who is going to be the next Wolverine etc.    This generation, and social media has made 'hot' characters as a democratic process. 

[mephistopheles]

https://blog.gocollect.com/the-impact-of-changing-demographics-comic-book-investing/

 

[Robot Man]

On 2/22/2024 at 11:27 AM, Stefan_W said:

For sure.

When I have a table at shows, those shows definitely have an older crowd who are largely interested in silver and bronze age comics. Having said this, most of them are happy trying to find affordable deals at $5-$10 rather than splurging big money on books. 

In my experience, when it comes to selling more expensive books (say $100+) the age group kind of flattens out and the collectors in their 20s and 30s make a strong showing. A lot of comics like that are flipped around where people try to buy for x-price and sell for x-price + y-percent. People who buy and sell comics in that way can be older and younger folks. 

Once you get to big ticket items, yeah much of the younger crowd is definitely screened out. I have not sold massive books, but have sold ones like ASM 1, X-Men 1, JiM 83, basically books at 10k or less. Every person who bought these books was over 30 but below 45 years of age. Younger folks may not be able to afford them as easily, and not sure what is going on with the older crowd - maybe still remembering the days when you can pick those up at garage sales for 50 bucks and hoping that will happen to them again. 

I represent the “older crowd”. I have been collecting almost continuously since I was a kid and have kept most of my books. Believe me, I remember going to garage sales, flea markets ect and finding comics  for in most cases, below 50 cents. Including Marvel keys and even GA books. Many times.

I have almost no hope of doing that anymore but you never know I guess.

With all that in mind, and the prices that comics go for now, I personally find that money is better spent on travel and experiences now.

I will, on occasion, pony up here and there for a big book from time to time. But, I am content to enjoy the books I already have and just dabble a bit to fill some holes once in a while.

And occasionally, get a little smile when I hand over a book to one of you younger folks for a fist full of cash…

[Robot Man]

On 2/22/2024 at 6:54 PM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

This was my stamp. both my grandfather and great-uncle where into stamps and coins. They did everything to get me into stamps and coins but I love comic books, baseball cards, Star Wars figures and video games more.

Here is the stamp I love as kid in 1980s

 thought he was Sherlock Holmes brother as a kid. found out he was a successful lawyer. 

well when they bought it in 1980s it was 5, now worth maybe a dollar. A TERRIBLE investment. 

 

I read new comics as a kid but got a long time never paid above cover price. My grandfather gave me a cigar box full of old coins. I went through everyone’s change and filled up those blue coin books. Was fun to find one I needed. But I ended up getting bored seeing a book full of coins that all looked the same with just a different number or mint mark on it. I really loved comics more. Everyone was totally different and I found I could collect sets of them. I guess stamps just didn’t have the same appeal for some reason. 

[ThothAmon]

Heavy ease on poor Paste Pot’s first appearance in Strange Tales 110. My purchase of a 4.5 in the summer of 2022 was ill advised as prices are about 1/2 now. Grandpa said you can’t make up for a loss with volume. 

 

[Kortoga]

Still climbing. Post #49 of 50!

[jimjum12]

On 2/25/2024 at 9:51 AM, Kortoga said:

Still climbing. Post #49 of 50!

Be careful ... there's a time warp here. Next thing you know, you'll be at 40K and walking with a cane  GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[NewWorldOrder]

On 2/22/2024 at 11:06 AM, comicginger1789 said:

True as well. I think the main point is that the ones who are spending 3K on a single comic (or even monthly or yearly) are probably the older group, in that 45-60+ range because they have that level of income to do so. Obviously there is an even smaller percentage buying the extremely high priced stuff you see at the auction houses (maybe a few of them frequent here). 

Yes I am still under that 45 number (barely though)!

Honestly from all the years helping out at shows I still think the average 30-something has a great deal of income to buy a lot of big ticket books. Of course the older crowd does have more though I agree.

I mainly stereotype the 20 somethings as still trying to gain the experience in life to make the big bucks to truly buy what they want.

[Microchip]

On 2/24/2024 at 1:25 AM, mephistopheles said:

https://blog.gocollect.com/the-impact-of-changing-demographics-comic-book-investing/

 

It's great to see this topic being discussed, and covered, but I do feel the writer of the article really missed the big points around subjects he pulled up.

The easiest of them is UF4.   The has been a seismic phenomenon in the hobby in recent years, and one largely driven by younger collectors vs older 'traditional' collectors.  

CGC census numbers are ballooning with new modern submissions in extraordinary numbers, and this has been happening for over a decade now.

There's no shortage of very strong factors pointing towards a large contingent of new collectors.   The covid years were part of a significant recruitment drive as sports card prices drove collectors to look outside of that hobby.   And comics have had the softest landing post  the covid hyper price period.

 

[Robot Man]

I hope this guy cashed in in 2021...

[DC#]

 

 

[WolverineX]

On 2/22/2024 at 11:05 AM, buttock said:

One thing you have to consider about the age of collectors is that it takes a certain income level to be able to buy vintage books with discretionary income.  Most people don't reach that income/stability until their mid-30s.  So not seeing a bunch of teenagers running around buying $3000 comics isn't surprising.  

Honestly, Gen z and a lot of millennials can't even afford homes anymore...