One thing I cannot stand is having an incomplete collection of something. Its why when collecting anything whether movies, computer games or books, I will often buy things for the sake of completing the set rather than to use it.
This has been particularly evident in my recent comic book purchases where I have been trying to make up for being out of the scene for the last 3 years.
For example about 3 years ago, I decided to start a comic collection and bought the first 5 volumes of Ultimate Spiderman and Ultimate X-men hard covers amongst many other TPBs. To this date I still have yet to read probably 90% of my comics (mainly due to lack of time) but have still decided to continue buying them to ensure the collection is complete for when I find the time to eventually read them. However, when trying to buy comics to complete my collection, I have noticed that certain volumes of many titles I need have gone out of print and consequently are being sold by private individuals at inflated prices.
For example New X-men (Grant Morrison Ultimate version) volumes 2 and 3 which would normally be available on amazon uk for between 15-20 are now being advertised by individuals on various sites for around 150 each. Its a similar situation with the special edition Udon books i.e Street Fighter Eternal Challenge and the Art of Capcom.
Whilst I recognise certain titles will gradually become harder to get hold of as years go by what I want to know is whether people actually pay these 150+ prices and whether comics are in general a good financial hobby to be involved in.
Are the HC and Omnibus version of comic books even desirable to collectors? I personally only prefer them because of the larger art and the convenience of having available a longer part of the story per book. Will my complete Ultimate X-men harcovers and Ultimate spiderman hardcovers be worth 150 per volume in 20 yrs time? What about my lovely Absolute Hush edition?
Whilst I have not been buying my comics for investment purposes, nor do I care what they will be worth a few years down the line, I have been annoyed at the prices some are being advertised for and why publishers can not reprint to cater for the demand.
the short answer is no. Do not collect comics for investment purposes. Especially do not collect hardcovers for investment purposes. Hardcovers are reprints, unlike the book market where they are by definition first editions. Some hardcovers go out of print and their price on the secondary market increases. However, when the book is re-issued, or a better edition of the same material comes out, the price plummets. If you aren’t reading what you are buying, you should stop buying. Omnibuses go in and out of print. New X-Men will probably be re-issued at some point because the original omnibus has glued binding and very bad gutter loss. You would be paying a premium for it at this point anyway.
I owned MK Punisher vol. 5 and vol. 6 tpb’s. They were oop and highly sought after because the material in them was never collected in the MK Punisher HC’s. Once the MK Punisher Omnibus was announced however, their price began to drop precipitously until they were practically worthless. Similar has happened with the Bendis Daredevil HC’s. For a time, vol. 2 and vol. 3 was going for a lot of money, but the Omnibus wiped this out.
Absolute Planetary is another costly volume, but I see them re-issuing it when they solicit absolute vol. 2 (once that final issue finally comes out).
In my youth, I collected the original X-Men comicbooks and bought just about all the collectible comics I could obtain. God only knows how much money I spent on it all but at one point I owned at least 2,000 comics all bagged and boarded. Anyways, in 2007 my wife and I had a financial crisis on our hands and I sold what was left of my collection - all my X-Men comics (which was about 400 issues and all in really good condition). Estimated market value was between $2,500-$3,000.00.
Wanna know how much I could get for them? $400.00 on craigslist. No comic book shop would touch them because they could usually obtain the same comics from warehouse dealers for less than 1/4 of what they were worth.
Unless you have an original copy of Action Comics, the very first Superman or Batman, then you have squat.
And like Gorath said, reprints and TPB’s have pretty much been the remaining cause of the drastic drop in value in original comics.
comics make good short term investments imo but unless their super rare golden age they downgrade real easily in your older years.
i remember how i have secret wars where spidey first got the venom costume…when i was a kid it was rare and worth some money now its worth like 5 bucks.
who wants my x-men trading cards and power rangers lawl.
The other thing to consider is that speculators in the 90’s are widely thought to be part of the comics crash. Every damn month Marvel was comming out with 3 versions of the same damn comic in different foil covers… read them if you like them, collecting comics very rarely is financially lucrative.
I sold about 2000 comics for 100 bucks when I sold my collection…good riddance.
I’m adding my voice to the chorus of those decrying comics as investments. It’s just a letdown to expect to turn a significant profit by collecting hardcovers and such. At some point, if you’re gonna sell your stuff, just sell it for what you can get for it. It’s better to make a couple bucks than to just let your comics collect dust if you know you’re never gonna read them.
I suppose there’s a chance holding on to your Absolute Editions and Oversized HCs for 20 years will eventually pay off. There’s also a chance all of those things will be reissued in newer and superior formats. If you’re looking for a long-term investment like that, you might as well play the stock market.
“Collect experiences. Speculate on ideas.” - Early '90s Vertigo comics slogan (That pretty much sums up how I feel about comics.)
hmm… last i checked (over a decade ago) my 50 issues of continuity porn… Spiderman 2099 (backed and bagged) would go for $75 and up… I think I spotted the 1st 30 going for around $25 three years back. If the 1st issue (a foil) was worth the most… my 50 issues are worth less than $50.
Still wouldn’t sell my 50 Spidey 2099 issues for $100, but then I don’t think anyone would offer that much unless Spidey 4 came out with a time traveling webcrawler that was 1/2 irish, 1/2 mexican, and all arachnid…
I remember those days Image comics REALLY whored out that multiple variant cover crap and sadly I bought into the hype. Now I’m the proud owner of dozens of worthless and shiny trash.
It looks like marvel is again doing the multi cover crap these days. what a waste of trees. :arazz:
What guide are you getting these prices from? Sure, they may be worth $75.00 by Wizard’s standard or the CBPG but any dealer will give you next to nothing for it because they have to resell it for a profit.
The only way you will get what your comics are stated their worth is if you open your own comic book shop and hope someones going to spend $75.00 on Spiderman 2099. Personally, I wouldn’t pay more than $10.00 for the whole series.
Yeah, I have a shit-ton of single issues here in boxes. You’d have to hit up a con and hustle if you want to even get a good price for your stuff.
I’ve switched over to the TRADES BABY!!!11!!11? motto for most books. I haven’t bought anything since July, but I’m just waiting for trades on most of what I read. Trades are affecting the secondary market because they’re just pumping them out quickly.
And of course, comic book companies had to go this route because of the manga folks hating on comics for being sold on a monthly basis while they can get some Naruto volume for 8 bucks and had more content. Makes sense. Seems to be working for DC and Marvel.
I’m one of the few that never really looked at it as an investment. I just wanted something to read every month.
i have countless first editions, first appearances, limited editions, variants, you name it, most of them have depreciated in value over the past few years believe it or not… sad really.
I think most of you guys are missing the point of Ukbondraider’s post.
He’s not saying “Are they gonna be worth something if/when I want to sell them?” He’s saying: “Is it worth my money to buy the expensive OOP ones simply because I’m a completist who hardly ever reads them.”
Well, logically, no, it’s not worth it. But really you are the only one who can answer that question. I think material things DO have a value, because they allow us to express ourselves and add a bit of personality.
Believe me I am a lot like you. I have over 100 Fighting Game related action figures and statues, over 70 Fighting Games on 16 different systems, hundreds of comics, hundreds of movies on all different formats, and over 5,000 vinyl records. The sheer MASS of all my stuff is incredible, but recently I had to move out of my apartment cause I couldn’t afford rent, and I wound up staying with a friend of mine and thankfully he had room for all my stuff, but most of the options I had would’ve required me to get rid of most of it. As it stands now, I still have all those things, which I’m obsessed with collecting, but they’re all completely useless to me right now because they have to remain packed because there ain’t room for them anywhere. Believe me, I never bought any of this stuff with the intention of selling it later, I did it simply to collect it (which sounds like what you do with comics.) I was truly faced with the dilemma: “Is all my stuff worth anything?” Granted, I’ve spent my whole life up to this point, and most of my money, on all this stuff, and I think I would literally cry if I ever had to get rid of it, and thank GOD I didn’t have to, but…right now, it’s a tough question for me to answer. You might wanna ask yourself the same question, I think you’re the only one who can really answer it.
I think it was a wizard (over a decade ago) and that’s kinda my point. I saw (most of) it for considerably less and if I were to sell mine to a dealer it would need to be even less than that so they make a profit. Since i’m somewhat attached to the set now, its also worth much more to me than I could plausibly sell it for. not saying the series was great just that i’m a fan of it.
hey SMB I still have Amaz#375 from when i was a monthly subscriber. I’ve seen it posted for more but think stores wont buy it for half that price.
i said all that to really say this to the OP, don’t collect an entire series of comic as an investment for resale value. Reprints are worthless and originals just drop when there are reprints made. Foils covers are “iffy” as are #1s imho. as Daklog said most valued ones will also deprcieate.
As DS stated, Trades are complete and aren’t bad for stories either. TPB FTW
my advice… Buy an Obama coin:sweat: you might thank me in 30 years.:wonder:
I sympathize wholeheartedly with the OP. And it’s for this reason that I’m NOT a fan of TPBs. I’d much rather have each individual issue (even though it’s more costly) than the TPB. I enjoy the tangible experience of opening each separate book (carefully of course, and even with a measure of reverence) and reading through it. I like having the individual covers, the books bagged and boarded.
One day I’ll be able to share my collection (and the stories) with my kids (and eventually grandchildren), and everything will be in pristine order to do so.
But as far as having any effective resale value? Nah…and I’ve never had any delusions to the contrary. That fact doesn’t keep me from maintaining everything in mint/near mint condition, or wanting to have a complete collection.
I would say no, mainly because the majority of mainstream comics are really, really bad. Collecting every issue of a long-running series is kind of like collecting all of the movies in the Halloween franchise: sometimes, it’s better to be selective.
LOL Spiderman 2099 is the ONLY comic book I happen to own. It’s not in mint. Sometimes I still toss it around my room like the old days (not kidding). :tup: