In and around 1990 right after the time when the Tim Burton Batman movie came out, I became interested in Comic Books. I was told that not only were comics an enjoyable read, which a lot of them are, but that they were also a good investment. I was led to believe that someday I could sell my collection and make tons of money. So I was not only a reader, i was a collector. If a new title was coming out and they offered four different "collector" covers, I bought all four. Yep, four copies of the same comic. When the X-men came out with a new title around '92 they were issued in plastic bags with a four different collector cards. So I had to buy all four, plus one that I could open and actually read. All on the promise that these things would skyrocket in value after some years of careful storage. Bags and boards @ 15 cents a piece, to keep your comics in near mint condition.
Here's what I've recently come to realize: The period I was buying comics was the height of the comic book collecting craze. The publishers were very aware of this and were printing millions of copies of these comic books. We all know what happens when a market is flooded, don't we? Thats right, the value goes down. And believe me, the comics I bought 16 years ago have not appreciated one cent in the seller's market. Oh sure, I have a few titles that might fetch me a few dollars over the cover price, but what am I going to do with the other 1000 comics I have? No one wants the damn things and more than likely, no one ever will.
As my tastes have matured I came to realize that, as with everything, 99% of comics are crap, and boy did I buy a lot of crap.
Know anyone who wants a bunch of worthless comics cheap?
8 comments:
hey buddies. i'm bored at work and i finally found this blog with a little clever searching. but yo comics suck... and remember when superman died, i got tons of those and they ain't worth a dime. i do have a spawn #1 that used to be worth something oh, and my magic cards are like priceless, at least to me. anyhow, i'm out. DK
DAVE! Woohoo!
hi Dave!!
Hi Dave. Sheila makes a good point Pete. They would take them.
They way I see it, you have three options: 1-give them away to some damn sick kids and kiss away any chance of ever getting any money from these things 2-consider them a "long term" investment and keep them until you are 60 (or until Lauri forces you to get rid of them) and then cash in on your $200 or 3-stop being such a damn nerd!! I mean comic books?!/ For Christ's sake Pete!
I appreciate all your suggestions, however, I'm not nearly altruistic enough to gove my comics away to children who will probably use them to wipe thier asses with. Once I'm finished with the inventory, I'm gonna shop them around on craig's list.
Is there a commonly used comic book price guide? As a kid I collected baseball cards and we went by Beckett's Guide, which was published monthly. My dad bought two boxes of unopened wax packs of Upper Deck Looney Toons cards when I was younger hoping that they would have some value. I'm betting they aren't worth as much as the foil they are packed in.
The Overstreet price guide is the one generally used for comic books. It costs $37. The best thing is just to shop around and see what they are going for on the market.
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