Does anyone collect comic books?

[Bagwell-1994]

I collected as a kid in the 80's and early 90's. I vaguely remember the comic market took a nose dive at some point in the mid 90's and a lot of the values decreased.

Did the market for them ever rebound at all? I used to read Wizard magazine to gauge the value of comics. Is there a new best resource for gauging their value?

Feel free to share any images of your collections, I'd love to see them!

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[Jim65]

Never collected comics but I do have every issue of Savage Sword of Conan in a box somewhere.

[Yastrzemski Sports]

Not very familiar with the comic market but from what I understand it’s a lot like cards. First appearances can be worth a lot. The older, the better and condition is incredibly important. Commons from the 80s and 90s are worthless.

Overall, due to the success of the movies, I think the comic market is excellent for the right comics.

[HRBAKER]

I am a collector, BATMAN only. Have collected for several years on and off. I not too knowledgeable about price guides, I usually just use closed auctions as a barometer.

Here are a couple of my favorite books:

[Bagwell-1994]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

I am a collector, BATMAN only. Have collected for several years on and off. I not too knowledgeable about price guides, I usually just use closed auctions as a barometer.



Here are a couple of my favorite books:

Wow!!! Those are awesome!!

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[stlcardsfan]

Yes, I collect. Did as a kid (along with baseball cards) and got back into it about 5 years ago. The market is strong and I even consider it more robust than cards. At least more participants. I spend my online time here and at the CGC comics (the PSA/SGC of comics) message board. https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/for...omics-general/ There has been a huge run up in the value of comics the last 10 years.

[OlderTheBetter]

Originally Posted by stlcardsfan

Yes, I collect. Did as a kid (along with baseball cards) and got back into it about 5 years ago. The market is strong and I even consider it more robust than cards. At least more participants. I spend my online time here and at the CGC comics (the PSA/SGC of comics) message board. https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/for...omics-general/ There has been a huge run up in the value of comics the last 10 years.

Agree 100%. Comics are the hottest mass-market collectible at present. Much more robust than cards and future is brighter than the card market as they're getting the younger people and cards are mostly not.

[tschock]

Originally Posted by OlderTheBetter

Agree 100%. Comics are the hottest mass-market collectible at present. Much more robust than cards and future is brighter than the card market as they're getting the younger people and cards are mostly not.

This is due in part to comics being a cross-over medium. The 'next big thing' in comics could be something that is decades old. All it takes is a blockbuster movie/show of some 'older' comic character to give that comic a bump. X-Men, Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, et al.

It is similar to cards though in that first appearances or origins of characters (think stars/RCs) go for much more than issues of that same era. Also many collectors don't collect runs of titles (think sets) but collect specific issues of characters or cover objects (yes, there are people who collect comics where the covers contain lighthouses, umbrellas, dinosaurs, etc regardless of the comic itself). While this has always been the case to some extent, I think it is much more so now than in the past. In both cases, cards and comics, it probably is related to the massive amounts of material to choose from and having a limited budget to spend it on.

[Bagwell-1994]

Thank you everyone for your insights! This makes me really happy to hear for the comic collectors out there and makes me (cautiously) excited to go through my 2 shoe boxes and see if any of them are worth sending in for grading!

[Bagwell-1994]

Originally Posted by Yastrzemski Sports

Not very familiar with the comic market but from what I understand it’s a lot like cards. First appearances can be worth a lot. The older, the better and condition is incredibly important. Commons from the 80s and 90s are worthless.

Overall, due to the success of the movies, I think the comic market is excellent for the right comics.

It seems you were 100% right! All of my comics are barely worth the paper they're printed on! I'll share a few images anyway, in the event they might provide a brief moment of nostalgia for anyone who was a kid in the 80's/90's and may have bought these from the local gas station as I did.

[bradmar48]

I collected as a kid back in the 50's. I still have a nice run of Superboy from about 1955 until 1960.

[CobbSpikedMe]

I too collected in the 90s. I had about five long boxes full of books that I sold a few years ago to give my kids a little nicer Christmas than I was able to afford otherwise that year. I got a very fair offer from a great dealer in PA for the lot of them along with some old toys I had. I sometimes have seller's remorse from some of the books I sold, but it was worth it for me to see my kids on Christmas that year. There are still some books worth money from that period, but not many I don't think. I love seeing books from that era too so thanks for posting some pics of the books you have. Were you into the Valiant titles when they came out or Image?

[Piratedogcardshows]

I collected Amazing Spiderman as a child in the #250-400 range. The earlier issues were out of reach to me back then. For the last two years I have been slowly putting together a 1-50 ASM run and its been a lot of fun. Great reads too. The language has changed quite a bit since that era

[Bagwell-1994]

Originally Posted by CobbSpikedMe

I too collected in the 90s. I had about five long boxes full of books that I sold a few years ago to give my kids a little nicer Christmas than I was able to afford otherwise that year. I got a very fair offer from a great dealer in PA for the lot of them along with some old toys I had. I sometimes have seller's remorse from some of the books I sold, but it was worth it for me to see my kids on Christmas that year. There are still some books worth money from that period, but not many I don't think. I love seeing books from that era too so thanks for posting some pics of the books you have. Were you into the Valiant titles when they came out or Image?

I don't recall Valiant. I do remember Image and Dark Horse being like the new wave dark edgy comics of the era. I have a few Maxx comics (Image) but never was able to purchase any beyond that as a kid. Are there any Valiant/Image comics you'd recommend or you enjoyed collecting?

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[CobbSpikedMe]

Originally Posted by Bagwell-1994

I don't recall Valiant. I do remember Image and Dark Horse being like the new wave dark edgy comics of the era. I have a few Maxx comics (Image) but never was able to purchase any beyond that as a kid. Are there any Valiant/Image comics you'd recommend or you enjoyed collecting?

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I liked most of the Valiant titles to be honest. They were all good reads although a different kind of superhero. Not a lot like Marvel really. I liked a lot of the artwork too. Barry Windsor Smith did a lot of work for them. They had a huge crossover mini-series called Unity. I would suggest getting all those books to read that story at the minimum. As for Image, I liked Spawn the best. I think that was their flagship title too. I could be wrong there though.

I was wrong about Spawn being the flagship, I think it was actually Youngblood by Rob Liefeld.

[stlcardsfan]

Originally Posted by Jason

I collected Amazing Spiderman as a child in the #250-400 range. The earlier issues were out of reach to me back then. For the last two years I have been slowly putting together a 1-50 ASM run and its been a lot of fun. Great reads too. The language has changed quite a bit since that era

ASM was always my favorite title. I have a 100-252 run (that's when my subscription ran out!). What a great (and challenging) run 1-50 would be. Good luck!

[Huysmans]

I sold my Golden and Silver Age collection years back, and I've always regretted it.

What's depressing is the fact that despite superhero movies being hugely popular now, literally none of these new modern fans collect old books.
There's no reverence for the history of where all these movies spawned from...

[samosa4u]

I collect Pre-Code horror. Here is my recent pick-up:

[bmattioli]

I have gotten back into collecting comics last year after I found one sitting in the trash at one of my Flea markets. Comics were my first collectible way back when as I had my first paper route and in the middle of the route had this old shack that sold back issues of comics that I can still remember.. I'm now heavy into reliving my childhood collection.. Also, I also can find vintage comics easier at the Fleas than vintage cards. I'm all about the hunt..

[Tearhill]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

I am a collector, BATMAN only. Have collected for several years on and off. I not too knowledgeable about price guides, I usually just use closed auctions as a barometer.

Here are a couple of my favorite books:

Those are some really cool Batman books. I have a few hundred batman books as well.

[Tearhill]

Originally Posted by Bagwell-1994

I collected as a kid in the 80's and early 90's. I vaguely remember the comic market took a nose dive at some point in the mid 90's and a lot of the values decreased.

Did the market for them ever rebound at all? I used to read Wizard magazine to gauge the value of comics. Is there a new best resource for gauging their value?

Feel free to share any images of your collections, I'd love to see them!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I've been involved in collecting comics for about 30 years. The market dumped in the mid-90s. My opinion is that this was Marvel's fault. 2 reasons - Icahn and another massive money boy got in a takeover fight, or collusion, and decided the best strategy was to kill Marvel's stock value - it plummeted to basically junk status and all the stockholder's and talent ran for the hills during this 3-5 year period. Also, Marvel began spinning off every character in X-Men as well as putting out variant covers for every issue. So your $20 per month habit suddenly vortexed up to $100-$200 just to hold serve. Lots of folks like me just gave up and stopped buying new stuff.

Overstreet is THE guide for valuing books. However, there isn't a single book they value at less than $2.50-3.00 in NM condition and most of those aren't worth 10 cents.

I was taught comic collecting by an old boy who owned a comic shop in LA and was the first private dealer to hold artist events/signings in his store. Briefly the cut-off for old school books is 1975. Prior to that distributors would give credit for unsold stock if you tore off the top 1/3 of the book and sent it back. After 1975 the distributors said forget it. You bought it you keep it. So there is a shorter supply prior to 1975. Condition is everything as well as the title and characters appearance. That being said, about 4 months ago I sold an Amazing Spider-man 361, a mid-1990s book for $150. Stuff gets hot and first appearances, upcoming movies, etc effect the market. Just sold a 5 piece Suicide Squad collection for $20 - 1 book was the key and others were throw ins. It's a bit of a challenge to learn the market but fun.

Hope this helps.

T.