Iron Man is only a couple of months away, and a recent auction on E-bay caught my eye.
Keep track of what these books are going for. This one is raw (non-CGC or PGX) from a reputable seller.
Iron Man Movie Books – What Will They Sell For?
Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at
4:51 pm
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New Comic Book Picks and Values – Testing the Price Guides
Friday, February 29th, 2008 at
11:28 am
The number one topic I am asked to give my opinion about is comic book picks. This includes back issues and new issues. The problem I have with new comic book picks, and the reason I am very hesitant to give them, is selling the comic books for a decent price can be very difficult for collectors.
In a previous post I talked about “making money on the way in.” This can be done in several ways including buying at a discount, smart auction bidding, or a successful speculation on the future value of a book. But any purchase must have the selling process in mind. This includes the timing of the sale and the method of selling (E-bay, convention, store, website, etc.) If you are purely a reader you don’t need my picks, you buy what you like. Collectors who ask me for picks telegraph their intentions, they want to sell in the future and make a profit.
If you are a convention dealer or own a store you have an easy way to sell your new comic books at the “going rate.” But if you are a collector this can be a little more difficult. In order to prove this point I did some research on “hot” comics in the current issue of Wizard and Comics Buyer’s Guide. I actually picked these books completely at random. Here is what I found.
First pick: Thor #1
CBG (Apr 2008) says this book is selling for $7 versus a cover price of $2.99. It was difficult to find any price on E-bay for these books since almost all the completed auctions didn’t receive bids. I’m talking $0.99 auctions with $3.50 shipping folks! I did see a couple auctions with both covers (two books) sell for $5.50 plus $3.50 shipping. CGC 9.8 Coipel covers are going for $15.00 plus shipping. $15.00 doesn’t make back the money, time, trouble or grading risk of submitting!
Next Pick
X-men Messiah Complex one-shot Silvestri cover. Wizard March 2008 Value – $5.00
The results from E-bay? One bidder did buy this for $5.00 plus shipping, but another bought it for $2.25 plus $4.00 shipping. Maybe okay for the buyer, but not okay for the seller at $2.25. You could have a copy in CGC 9.6 for under $20 shipped. There were several 99 cent auctions that did not sell.
How about another? Let’s try Halo: Uprising #1 (Wizard March 2008 Value $8)
I did see a copy sell for 99 cents plus $4 shipping on E-bay, but it was better for the sellers to go with a #1 and #2 bundle. The bundles were selling for around $7.77 + $3.95 shipping. I’ll call it a wash. With the proper packaging you could have made some money on these. Still, a lot of effort for a couple of bucks.
What is the Lesson Here?
- If you are going to dabble in new comic books and don’t sell at conventions or have a store, you must have a plan. It is difficult to find an outlet to sell your new comic picks for a profit. You better not pay retail! Order in bulk from someone like mailordercomics.com, they offer up to 75% off new comics. A 75% discount allows you to sell for cover and still make a profit.
- A lot of the price guides, especially for new comics, are hype machines. They’re great to get you to pay the “value” at stores and conventions, but good luck to the collector to ever get that money out of them. Also, within a few months good luck to stores to even get that price (other than maybe once every six months).
- Don’t buy into the hype and you must have a sales plan! Plan your escape before you even enter the game.
- If you are a reader only, E-bay can be a great place for deals!
Until Next Time,
Buy and Sell Smart!!!
Will Comic Book Values Crash?
Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at
10:40 pm
There is a discussion that pops up every so often on many comic book collecting forums. That question is will comic book values crash?
There is no arguing that comic book sales are nowhere near their peak in the 1940’s, or even the 1980’s and 1990’s. In the 40’s – 70’s most people read comics, they didn’t collect – at least not for investment. They were entertainment. Those readers now have a lot of disposable income and we have seen comic book values from those decades explode. Most of those books were thrown away so we have low supply + high demand = high prices. But will this continue?
The 1980’s and early 1990’s were driven by extreme speculation and subsequently crashed. Anything marketed as “collectible” usually isn’t and will lose value as soon as the crowd moves on to the next thing.
Comic book sales are trending up, but lets face it, who knows what the future will bring. The average comic book reader is somewhere in their twenties. If the high prices of back issue gold, silver and bronze issues are driven by nostalgia there is little hope for today’s comics to be worth much. I can speak from experience, the things I am nostalgic about from my twenties have nothing to do with comic books.
Let’s address the main question, will the high prices we see in Gold, Silver and Bronze age comics continue? There is no way we can know, but if I were to hedge my bets, I think some will do well, but others will have a hard time. Why? My opinion is based on what I see with my own kids.
Two of my kids are old enough to read comic books but they want nothing to do with them. They are not interested. But, and this is a major point, they love the characters! They like the comic book movies I let them see and they beg to see the movies that are off limits. They would probably watch comic book heroes on television as much as I would let them.
So here is the point, the medium may change, but the core characters live on! Comic book movies have obviously had great success in exposing the masses to these characters. Television cartoons do the same to a younger audience. We are just starting to see online comics. Who knows what the future will bring? If these characters survive, and I think they will, then there will be people who want to collect their earliest appearances.
In the future I think certain books will still be valuable and others, well, not so much. In the February 14th edition of the subscriber newsletter I discuss what books I think will hold up, and the ones that won’t.
