Missed part 1? Click here to get caught up.
Comic-Nomics 101 is a series of educational editorials (emphasis on editorials) that hopes to give you the tools you need to fight the battle of comic book investing. Just keep in mind that comics, and any collectible for that matter, is an area of highly speculative investing. Focus on comics for the enjoyment, and then for the comic book value. There are investment-level comics, High value books and “grail” comics, but you can plan on spending a lot to get them in the hopes of a high return later.
One good thing to remember is that if you are looking at some issue of a comic and thinking the following” “I should buy multiple copies of this because it is the birth/death/first appearance/wedding/whatever of a beloved or popular character and it will be worth a lot of money!” there are also about a million other people thinking the exact same thing. Just because something is shiny/super-sized/”limited edition”/variant does not guarantee that it will be more valuable than the regular edition of the same book. The hard part is knowing the future of that character and the future of the wrtier/artist/creative team. Is there a movie in the future? Will this character be the next big pop-culture sweetheart? I never would have thought that Deadpool would ever have gained the popularity that he has now, based on his original appearance in New Mutants #92… otherwise I never would have traded it away with a box of Daredevil and miscellaneous stuff when I wanted to get a box of Magic cards.
Things to look for to gauge value:
- First Appearances
- First Time Exhibiting Powers/Wearing Suit/Whatever
- Popularity of the Franchise or Character
- News About Movie/TV Plans
- Popularity of Creative Team
- Limited Quantities/Availability
Remember, there can always be a fluke out there that will spike up in value with no apparent reasoning behind it, simply because it is a new thing. A few examples of this, The Walking Dead, Manifest Destiny, 30 Days of Night. The popularity of the concept is sometimes just as important as anything else in the list above. Do the math and remember, the is no such thing as a “sure thing”.
Tune in for our next installment where I will talk about variant covers! Thanks for coming to class. Pencils down.
