Posted By:
Richard MassonWhat happened there is there was a tremendous acceleration in values in the 1990s as several new well-heeled buyers entered the market, chasing a limited supply of nice key comic books. There are fewer than 100 (sometimes far fewer) copies of the key books (Action #1, Detective #27,,,,) and higher prices needed to be paid to unlock supply from collections. Once these books had changed hands, and in the absence of any new big buyers, prices are at a plateau. They don't crash, because the new buyers don't need to sell (think:Copeland), but they don't rise dramatically anymore, either. Someday, new buyers will enter the market and we'll rachet up to a new plateau.
The supply of nice E cards and 19th century material is also very limited. Maybe not as rare as a key comic book, but there are a lot more buyers as well. As long as the owners of good material don't need to sell, prices will be fine.