Silver Age Market History

[whetteon]

I have a question about market activity after the SA for SA books (if that makes any sense). I'm trying to piece together how the SA market came to be and all the ups and downs of prices over the years.

 

As near as I can figure it, sometime around the late 1960's, mainstream America started noticing that fanboys were paying $15-$20 for early 1961-1965 Marvel books. So many "investor" types started to horde every recent newsstand book produced by the company in the hopes that they would cash in on this growing trend.

 

Then sometime in the early 1970's, general hording and enthusiasms died down a little? Or did it continue strong even though the mainstream comic buying market switched their interest to horror and sword & sorcery type characters and themes? I would tend to think there'd be a down turn in prices for early to mid 1960 books about this time. Or was there?

 

Then things get real fuzzy but sometime in the early 80's prices for SA caught on fire (for unknown reasons to me) and prices took off. This trend lasted until the Independent comic book competed for collector dollar and the SA sort of slowed down until the early 1990's where again prices took off due to huge amounts of "investor" types again entering the arena.

 

I know for sure that late 90's and very early 00's you could buy SA books pretty cheaply and I personally *spoon* and moan on some of the deals I passed up because I was waiting on better condition books are slightly cheaper prices...

 

But safe to say today's SA market is alive, well and pretty healthy. Please fill in the holes.

[ComicBookGuy]

If you want to get a really good picture of the market from the beginning, check out 1960s fanzines like RBCC. You'll see pages and pages of comics for sale and their prices. There was a time when it was a shock to see FF 1 for a dollar! Rogofsky tended to sell for top dollar to give you an idea of what's going for the most. Soon after we have the price guides and Comic Buyer's Guide as well as ads in the comic books. It's a pretty clear picture with data every step of the way. Remember also there were price guides before Overstreet that not too many people know about. I think the late 1980s or early 1990s when those monthly Overstreet updates came out signaled the beginning of lots of sales data.

 

For the record, I remember the BIG jump on SA books occurring around the time of the Batman movie and continuing furiously into the early 1990s then dying again until eBay and CGC.

[tth2]

Then sometime in the early 1970's, general hording and enthusiasms died down a little? Or did it continue strong even though the mainstream comic buying market switched their interest to horror and sword & sorcery type characters and themes? I would tend to think there'd be a down turn in prices for early to mid 1960 books about this time. Or was there?

 

Then things get real fuzzy but sometime in the early 80's prices for SA caught on fire (for unknown reasons to me) and prices took off. This trend lasted until the Independent comic book competed for collector dollar and the SA sort of slowed down until the early 1990's where again prices took off due to huge amounts of "investor" types again entering the arena.

 

I know for sure that late 90's and very early 00's you could buy SA books pretty cheaply and I personally *spoon* and moan on some of the deals I passed up because I was waiting on better condition books are slightly cheaper prices...

 

But safe to say today's SA market is alive, well and pretty healthy. Please fill in the holes.

My personal recollection is that SA prices steadily increased during the 70s (admittedly off a very low base) and then stagnated or fell in the mid-80s as the B&W craze took over (although I do remember Avengers #4 skyrocketing during this period). After the B&W crash, SA prices exploded until the early 1990s, when a lot of money was pouring into Valiants and other speculator books of the time. After that segment melted down, SA prices again moved up strongly until the late 90s, when they stagnated or fell. Then a combination of CGC and the internet really got things going again with unprecedented price appreciation since 2000.

[whetteon]

If you want to get a really good picture of the market from the beginning, check out 1960s fanzines like RBCC. You'll see pages and pages of comics for sale and their prices. There was a time when it was a shock to see FF 1 for a dollar! Rogofsky tended to sell for top dollar to give you an idea of what's going for the most. Soon after we have the price guides and Comic Buyer's Guide as well as ads in the comic books. It's a pretty clear picture with data every step of the way. Remember also there were price guides before Overstreet that not too many people know about. I think the late 1980s or early 1990s when those monthly Overstreet updates came out signaled the beginning of lots of sales data.

 

For the record, I remember the BIG jump on SA books occurring around the time of the Batman movie and continuing furiously into the early 1990s then dying again until eBay and CGC.

 

 

Why didn't I think of this?

 

I'd still love to hear personal experiences from collectors who lived through the times. Both replies so far are invaluable. Looks like I have a couple of years of investigating ahead of me to paint a clear picture.

[aardvark88]

My theory of the SA back issue explosion is linked to the SUPPLY side of the equation:

 

release of the Mile High 2 horde via mail order and its dispersal at the San Diego comic-con around summer of 1985 and again summer of 1986. Chuck would back up his 18 wheeler full of SA Marvel and BA Marvel long boxes and just take over a separate side room in Diego just for his back issues. We are talking about a long box each of the same SA Marvel issue # !

 

1987 CVM mag and Overstreet Update were busy reporting ASM and other SA Marvel and DC price leaps of 10-15% compounding every month.

 

1989 release of Batman movie ALL over the media, soundtrack on the radio, Prince doing the bat-usi on Much Music, t-shirts, bat posters, GA, SA or BA Joker covers, bat-bubble gum cards, Batman cereal with bat-bank, ad nauseum kept the entire comic book market alive.

 

Wizard did not even come onboard til summer, 1991 to hype Valiant, Image independent comics every month.

[Bronty]

My theory of the SA back issue explosion is linked to the SUPPLY side of the equation:

 

 

. I think it was just SA collectors getting older and having more money to spend on their childhood treasures. The books took off at the 25 year mark, nothing new there.

[aardvark88]

bronty,

I would agree the 25 yr olds had more discretionary income by 1986 but comics like Capt Amer 100, Subby 1, Iron Man 1, ironman and sub-mariner 1 used to actually be scarce in BC, Canada anyways. Mile High 2's dumped long boxes of FULL runs upon the worldwide mail order market place and USA comicon circuit.

[tth2]

bronty,

I would agree the 25 yr olds had more discretionary income by 1986 but comics like Capt Amer 100, Subby 1, Iron Man 1, ironman and sub-mariner 1 used to actually be scarce in BC, Canada anyways.

Seriously? You probably could've picked up all the copies you wanted from just the Canada mail order dealers like Seeley and Crestohl (although no guarantee they wouldn't be touched up), let alone all the US guys.

 

I had decent copies of all of them back in the late 1970s, including the Hulk 102, that I bought from mail order dealers. I never had the Iron Man 1, though, because I always thought it was too expensive. 30 years later, my opinion of that book hasn't changed!

[shadroch]

Between Seely,Cresthol and Marcs Comic Room,I thought Canada had the SA Marvel mail-order industry sewn up. I recall going to a Creation show circa 1974,with the new Marcs catalog and no one would match his prices,even as the show was winding down on Sunday.Empire Comics finally matched his price on an early JIM for me.Forget the price but I know I got change from the $5 bill I handed him.

[Dr_Neff]

For the record, I remember the BIG jump on SA books occurring around the time of the Batman movie and continuing furiously into the early 1990s then dying again until eBay and CGC.

 

 

 

The secondary market really started in the viet nam era 1965-1972 and especially the 1968 year

[tth2]

Between Seely,Cresthol and Marcs Comic Room,I thought Canada had the SA Marvel mail-order industry sewn up.

Nah, there were plenty of US mail order dealers too. Robert Bell, of course, and Rogofsky, Comic Sales Group, Discount Comics and Richard Alf, to name a few off the top of my head.

[brasseye]

bronty,

I would agree the 25 yr olds had more discretionary income by 1986 but comics like Capt Amer 100, Subby 1, Iron Man 1, ironman and sub-mariner 1 used to actually be scarce in BC, Canada anyways. Mile High 2's dumped long boxes of FULL runs upon the worldwide mail order market place and USA comicon circuit.

 

I do recall throughout the 90's, that SD show was always the big falcrum for price expansion in SA (and all other ages going at the time). A couple of local dealer's would make the show, and everything would be driven from their return from SD.

[Moondog]

In 1965 I was a high school freshman in Joliet, Illinois. I was an avid collector and the school newspaper did a story on me (strange freshman has weird hobby). Many of my friends and classmates saw the story and many of them had early 60's Marvels and DC's that they wanted to trade/sell to me. Incredibly no one had any Golden Age - you would figure somebody had an older brother or uncle with some EC's at least...

 

That summer I had started selling mail order and made about $300 during vacation - big dough back then!

 

Anyway, I discovered that right over the bridge from my school was a second-hand bookstore that bought and sold old magazines, paperbacks and comic books. They would pay 2 1/2 cents for used comics and would sell them for a nickel. Needless to say I went there every day after school! There were tons of 1964-65 Marvels, but very few earlier issues.

 

George the owner would get furious with me for messing up his piles everyday. I did my best to keep them straight, but they didn't have comic boxes back then... Finally, frustrated, one day he asked me if I wanted to buy them all - and he had some stuff I hadn't seen in the back. My mom and dad thought I was nuts, but I could buy 3,000 comics for $25! I couldn't pass it up. I remember getting Spidey 10-20 out of that hoard, but nothing else memorable.

 

All my collector friends and I started buying doubles and triples of books we loved. This started around Spider-Man 30 and FF 44. Books before these numbers were tough for me and my friends to find in Joliet, but very common afterward.

 

In 1968 we finally had a chance to buy multiples of Marvel number 1's and we all loaded up on Subby, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Cap, Hulk, SHIELD, the Spidey magazines and IM & SM. Then 2 years later we speculated on Conan 1's and Savage Tales. Fast forward to 1975 and the Howard the Duck craze hit.

 

I'm sure this scenario is pretty commonplace across the country. 1968 was a pivotal year for Marvel collectors. We all lamented not buying (or being too young to buy) FF 1's, Spidey 1's and JIM 83, etc. We weren't going to let the chance to buy new first issues slip away from us.

 

--Gary

[HouseofComics.Com]

Great post Gary.

[namisgr]

Enjoyable thread.

 

I believe that Stan Lee had something to do with the rise of the collector. Stan and crew made Marvel comics hip, funny, and appealing to teenagers and college kids - this was a far cry from the appeal of DC and Archie books primarily to second-through-fourth graders in the late fifties and early sixties. The Bullpen, the MMMS, college lecture tours, and PopArt Productions in '64 and '65 all contributed. My theory is that in the mid-sixties many of these now-older readers became the first wave of serious back issue silver age collectors.

[tth2]

Great post, Gary! Your experience totally matches up with what we can all see today, which is that pre-1965 is tough, and there was an explosion with the #1s that came out in 1968.

[Fan4Fan]

Anybody seen this site?

[ft88]

I think we also look at the comics with rear view vision. What is hot right now, especially in the Bronze era is almost specifically the books that weren't hoarded when they came out or for 10 years after. The Horror/War/Western and even Romance books probably sell just as well in high grade as any of the superhero books. Like Moondog mentioned, there were a number of collectors/dealers who loaded up on the #1 issues so those are pretty common and surprsing how well they hold in value even today.

 

The real glut is in the mid to late 70's of #1 issues where folks bought and stored multiple of the number 1's like Howard the Duck, Peter Parker, Star Wars, and on and on. The 1970-1973 era seems to be the Conan era more than anything else. The other thing that skews the numbers are warehouse finds that don't really reflect collector interest at the time but flood the market. I'm specifically thinking of the Warren magazines.

 

My two cents.

 

Ed

[tth2]

I think we also look at the comics with rear view vision. What is hot right now, especially in the Bronze era is almost specifically the books that weren't hoarded when they came out or for 10 years after. The Horror/War/Western and even Romance books probably sell just as well in high grade as any of the superhero books. Like Moondog mentioned, there were a number of collectors/dealers who loaded up on the #1 issues so those are pretty common and surprsing how well they hold in value even today.

 

The real glut is in the mid to late 70's of #1 issues where folks bought and stored multiple of the number 1's like Howard the Duck, Peter Parker, Star Wars, and on and on. The 1970-1973 era seems to be the Conan era more than anything else. The other thing that skews the numbers are warehouse finds that don't really reflect collector interest at the time but flood the market. I'm specifically thinking of the Warren magazines.

 

My two cents.

 

Ed

Ed, totally agree with what you've said. Why else is DC 100 Page Spectacular #5 (a romance comic) one of the five most valuable BA books in the Guide?

[the blob]

"What is hot right now, especially in the Bronze era is almost specifically the books that weren't hoarded when they came out or for 10 years after."

 

Well, the usual big bronze keys like GS X-Men 1, 94, Hulk 181, ASM 122/129, etc. etc. were hoarded to the same estent I assume as other Marvels mainstream titles of the day. There were a number of dealers who ordered hundreds if not thousands of extra copies of each of the mainstream Marvels to have back issue stock. Of course, that's 30+ years ago. If you ordered 500 extra then and sold 15 of each a year you've just about sold them out and presumably a lot more than that got sold in years where various crazes hit. Seriously, when Hulk 181 became a $30 book 25 years ago how many dealers do you think were trying to unload that one at all costs before it dropped? Hah hah. And ASM 129 wasn't even broken out in guide until the Punisher mini. It was sitting in dollar boxes... WHY DIDN'T I BUY ANY!!! (Because I was out of comics after 1984/5....)