Category: Comic Collecting 101
The 1990’s were not exactly the greatest decade for comic books. After the creative strides that expanded the medium in the 1980s, the early 90s witnessed cynical attempts by the industry to resell and repackage earlier titles and then gimmick after marketing gimmick followed by a...
It’s hard to understand the hype surrounding the anthropomorphic martial arts practicing reptiles known as the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, and why they are still around, unless - that is - you actually go back and read the original comics. Only by appreciating the vitality and...
Giant Size-Defenders #3 has witnessed some serious spec heat over the last week. What’s going on here? In one word: Korvac. Remember when Annihilius was supposed to be the next Thanos? Well, in case you’ve forgotten, see my previous post (Annihilus Annihilated?). Is Korvac...
I have been sitting around the past few days thinking about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) now that End Game is over. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that a Time Heist was a stupid ending to the...
Selected issues from Wings Comics, the aviation anthology title from Fiction House, has been selling for very high prices lately. In this post I’ll take a look at the Wings comic and speculate about what’s driving collector appeal for these books. From around 1940 to...
We all know that graded comics sell for much higher prices than equivalent raw copies. In this post I want to answer the following question: Have the grading companies blown up the value of our books to dangerous levels or was the standardization of professional grading...
The comic market can be exciting and confusing all at once. As in any market, there is bound to be forces like supply and demand. If you understand these forces, you may be able to get a competitive edge on the market. Thankfully for speculators, the comic...
Between 1980 and 1985 several DC titles included a 16 page ‘bonus’ comic book, billed as an ‘Insert preview’. Many of these insert previews have gone on to be more valuable than the original comics that introduced them. A number of them also featured the first...
It’s hard to think of a comic book writer with a more devoted following than Kentucky native Robert Kirkman. If he had only developed and published the Walking Dead comics, his would be an important voice in the medium. However, this storyteller extraordinaire is also a...
Here we build on the idea of value investing through grade speculation from a previous article, Value Investing – Theory. Inefficiencies in market pricing exist, but how does it evolve over a given amount of time? Does fair market value indeed trend towards normalization? In...