Hype sells comics, and the top-five best-selling comics of 2018 all benefited from massive amounts of promotions from DC and Marvel. The problem is that none of them are holding their values.
According to Comichron, based on data from Diamond Comic Distributors, the best-selling comics of the year were: Action Comics #1000, Batman #50, Amazing Spider-Man #800, Fantastic Four #1, and Amazing Spider-Man #1. Not even if you gouged your eyes out and stuffed your ears with wax would you have been able to miss the copious amounts of advertisements for these five issues.
To go along with the hype, DC and Marvel published huge amounts of these issues. Between all five titles, there were almost 240 variant covers on the market. That sheer volume brings down the values, and it is reflected in their 90-day averages. Here's what's eye-opening: not even 20 of those 200-plus variants have increased in fair market value during the past three months.
In the end, these issues are good examples of buying what you love rather than buying what you can flip. I bought the Gabriele Dell'Otto Action Comics #1000 and ASM #800 variants, and I don't regret either purchase because I'm a fan of Dell'Otto. I'll cover this topic more extensively in a Collecting 101 piece, but for now I'll say that over-hyped issues don't tend to hold their values long term.
This was a landmark issue, certainly. It's the 80th anniversary of the first costumed superhero, and the first comic to reach 1,000 issues. DC marked the occasion with about 40 different covers, but only seven of those in a graded 9.8 appear to be holding their values in the past 90 days. That leaves more than 30 variant covers that have lost on average in these previous three months.
This one still stings. After months of build up, Batman #50 promised fans the Batman/Catwoman wedding that was decades in the making. DC put out a nauseating amount of variant covers from all the top artists. In the end, this issue ended up being just another comic as the wedding didn't happen.
Including every sketch, virgin, and trade cover, there are over 60 variants listed for this one issue, and four have gained value in the past 90 days. Virtually every other edition of Batman #50 has lost money, and it will continue to lose money as we charge forward into 2019.
Go Down Swinging will go down as the hottest story of 2018 because of the enthusiasm for the Red Goblin. However, I won't call this the best story of the year, which it was far from. Overall, this was a very mediocre Spider-Man tale although it did produce some exciting artwork.
By my best count, there were over 50 variant covers for ASM #800. Out of all those, 45 have fallen in their 90-day averages, and six have actually gained value in that time.
I fully support Marvel bringing back the Fantastic Four, but did we really need more than 40 variant covers? Sure, some were impressive, but this was excessive, albeit less than Batman #50 and ASM #800.
Although FF #1 has only been on the shelves for a few months, we're already seeing a large number of price drops. Of all the close to 16 graded 9.8s that have been sold in December, not one has increased in value, and eight have fallen in their averages.
The latest ASM #1 is the fourth different volume of Amazing Spider-Man since 2012. Marvel's incessant restarts with their titles, especially for their iconic characters, is the bane of collectors everywhere, which contributes to the falling values for the nearly 50 variants on the market.
Like the other four titles on today's list, ASM #1's variants simply aren't holding up. Unless I missed some, I counted up 46 different editions that have been graded and sold in a 9.8 on eBay since September with two having gained on average in the past 90 days.
