As you may have already seen in my colleague's new blog on a Fantastic Four CPI, GoCollect has introduced a new product feature related to its Collectible Price Indexes: customized CPIs!
Imagining new CPIs
To me, GoCollect's existing CPIs based upon the Golden, Silver, Bronze, Copper and Modern Ages mimic some of the most commonly bought exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as DIA, VOO, and QQQ which track the most famous stock indexes in the world such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P500, and the NASDAQ. But, as many of you already know, ETFs can be assembled in an infinite number of ways based on specific industries (e.g., airline industries), by geographic areas (e.g., the Nikkei 225) or even in publicly-traded companies that seek to commercialize outer space (see, e.g., UFO).
Wolverine is one of the most bankable names in comics.
Similarly, GoCollect has enabled me to create my own CPI based upon my all-time favorite character: Wolverine. To me, Wolverine is like Nike, Apple or Disney -- he's one of the most recognizable comic "brands" or IPs in the world. His key issues are bankable like a proven blue chip stock like Coca Cola; there will always be demand for them.
Selecting Wolverine's key issues
As you can see in the Wolverine CPI, most of the issues that I selected are no-brainers in terms of key issues for Wolverine. I don't think anyone would argue Incredible Hulk #180-2, Giant-Size X-Men #1, Uncanny X-Men #133, Wolverine Limited Series #1, Wolverine #1, and Incredible Hulk #340 belong in the pantheon of greatest Wolverine key issues ever. Some of the others could be debatable, but I like X-Men #103 (Wolverine's real name is revealed to be Logan), Marvel Comics Presents #72, and X-Men #25 (Magneto rips the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton).
Were there any issues in my list that you wouldn't have included? Were there any others that you would've added?
Let's take a look at the data and see if his key issues are indeed compounders. Personally, I think it's most helpful to view the CPI over the past five years because, that way, you can see the value of a particular key issue across multiple grades prior to the advent of the so-called "comic boom" that began in late 2020. With the five year view, you can see what the values of these key issues were in a more "normal" environment prior to the pandemic and the consequences of the long-running bear market that began in 2022 and continues to this day.
Although the index has risen by 33% over the past five years, it's been on a roller coaster ride. The steepest rise in value occurred during a one-year period beginning in August 2020; a year later, the index had more than doubled in value. The index held onto those all-time values for roughly a year when the bubble popped in late 2022. The index has been steadily declining for over two years now and unfortunately, there's still no sign of hitting bottom if you look at the three and one month views:
Still, it's substantially higher than where it was back in late 2019 before the bubble. And, if you zoom out even further (10 year view), you can quickly see that investing in Wolverine's key issues provide a great ROI if you're willing to hold onto them long-term; the index is up over 300% during that time span.
My takeaway is that you just can't expect a quick flip here, but need to buy and hold long-term. Presuming you love the character, hanging onto his key issues shouldn't be a problem for you!
