Buy! Buy! Buy! But what about sell? Only half of speculative investing is buying; but more importantly, you need to close positions. If value growth slows down, is flat, or even negative, your money needs to move on to greener pastures. Selling is the harder end of the plan. An informed decision takes into account both sides of the coin; Your hard earned money deserves more.
This necessity to sell cannot be more apparent than in the key books of the Aquaman (2018) movie antagonists. Here we follow up on the plethora of speculation that occurred leading up to the release of the movie.
The first book on deck is the main antagonist Ocean Master, also known as Ornn Marius the half-brother of Aquaman. His first appearance was in Aquaman #28, where he endangers the world’s oceans.
Below is the sales data for the book at the higher grades of CGC 9.2 and 9.0:
Although the volume of sales is low, we see that the market value of the book on the higher end grades is on a decline. To further validate this trend, we look at the market data for the book in the middle grades, specifically 7.0 and 6.5 which represent a cross section of the 44.5% and 55.5% of the top CGC census:
Here we observe a similar decline. That makes it 2 for 2 with negative growth. Two incidences might be a coincidence, so to further support the observed trend we look further down the book’s grades.
And here we have it. Across all grade of Aquaman #29, the book is losing value. Interestingly, the higher end is declining at a rate over four times that of the mid and lower grades.
AQUAMAN #35 (1967)
The second antagonist of Aquaman was Black Manta. His 1st appearance is in Aquaman #335, where he attacks Aquaman’s home of Atlantis.
With a low volume of graded books and sales, the higher end is defined here as CGC 8.0 and 8.5, which represent 14.2% and 19.7%. Below is the sales data for those grades:
Aquaman #35 is in decline; however, it is declining slower compared with the higher end of Aquaman #29. Unsurprisingly, this negative trend is also apparent in the mid and lower grades.
Blow on the left, is the sales data for the mid grade of CGC 6.0 and 5.5, which represent 49.2% and 59.1%, respectively. On the right is the lower grades of CGC 5.0 and 4.5, which are 70.5% and 79.5 of the top census, respectively.
There is no good news for this book. It is declining across the high, middle, and low grades.
Aquaman #17 (2013)
With value of the 1st appearances of the main antagonists performing poorly, it is perhaps rightly so that their henchman is also in line. The 1st appearance of Murk in Aquman #17 (Volume 7) has been flat. The book barely has any sales, and you can purchase a near mint on eBay for as low as three bucks. Definitely a complete miss on speculation.
Aquaman #19 (2013)
Equally as bad of an investment as Murk is the key 1st appearance of King Nereus, played by the iconic Dolph Lundgren. His 1st appearance was in Aquaman #19 (Volume 7). The selling price is even lower; a near mint is less than two dollars.
THE BOTTOM LINE
- Aquaman #29: Sell
- Aquaman #35: Sell
- Aquaman #17 (Vol 7): Strong Sell
- Aquaman #19 (Vol 7): Strong Sell
For all the pomp and circumstance the key Aquaman villain books got, the negative side cannot be ignored. The 1st appearances for Ocean Master and Black Manta are in an undeniable decline in market value. If you speculated on these books; unfortunately, the value is highly unlikely to increase. The current best course of action is to sell.
“I'm the bulwark upon which it breaks.” – Arthur Curry
