Bear market? Says who? Maybe not if you're a fan of the Amazing Spider-Man.
The fact that the comic book market has been stuck in a long-running bear market has been well-documented by dealers, collectors and YouTubers alike. It's also supported by sales data; during the past two years, the Bronze Age Collectible Price Index (CPI) has lost 21% of its value and the Copper Age CPI has lost 23%. The Modern Age CPI is the biggest loser of them all, having lost a whopping 54% of its value since February 2022:
This downturn has had a major impact on most Silver Age key issues too. GoCollect’s Silver Age CPI, which includes 50 important key issues from the Silver Age including Fantastic Four #5, Showcase #22, and Tales to Astonish #27, has lost 17% of its value during the past two years. While that isn’t technically a bear market (a bear market is defined as a period of time in which investments lose at least 20% of its value from their most recent high), it is pretty darn close:
(The Golden Age CPI is the only index that appears to be totally immune to the broader bear market; it is up nearly 32% during the past five years).
Still, there are pockets where the market has actually done exceptionally in terms of ROI during the same period of time. For example, even though the overall market has been in a slump, you wouldn’t know that by looking at Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man issues. Like most comics, those popped in value during the comic boom of 2020-21; however, unlike the rest of the market, these comics have held onto to their values, and many have actually seen significant price increases over the past two years.
Let’s take a closer look at the data contained within the ASM CPI. For purposes of this analysis, I'm not going to include Amazing Spider-Man #1 since that comic by itself accounts for roughly 25% of the entire ASM CPI. Also, that issue is a holy grail for many, unattainable for most, and will likely always go up in value no matter what is happening in the broader market. Excluding ASM #1 for the moment, the fourteen most heavily weighted issues in the index include the following Silver Age books:
I chose these fourteen issues because they make up approximately 50% of the entire ASM CPI. These issues contain a nice representation of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery including the first appearances of the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio and the Lizard.
Quickly scrolling through the screenshot above, you can see that every single one of these issues experienced a huge leap in value in August 2021 just a few months before the release of the blockbuster film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, in December 2021. Not only did this film showcase five members of the Sinister Six (Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, Electro and Sandman), but the movie dropped at the peak of the "comic boom" -- a time when collectors, flush with government cash during the pandemic, drove comic book values to the moon.
Like many comics, these ASM books reached all-time highs in late 2021. Unlike most books, however, these comics have held onto those values and, in most cases, continued to climb through 2023 and 2024. The bubble may have popped in 2022, but not for these comics. This data suggests to me that there are many "holders" of Silver Age ASM books; in other words, they have become a permanent part of personal collections. This, in turn, limits supply keeping prices high.
There are are a few exceptions; ASM #3, ASM #50, and ASM Annual #1 have shown some signs of weakness during the past two years. Still, these comics are in correction-territory only (a decline in the value of an investment of at least 10% from its most recent high) and are still much more valuable than they were back in early August 2021.
Many investors believe that values driven by movies aren't sustainable; that doesn't appear to be true in the case of the impact that Spider-Man: No Way Home had on Silver Age ASM books.
