Investing in Comics: Lessons in history

Is Comics worth investing in? Well, if you think about the value of Action Comics (1938) #1 or even Amazing Fantasy #1 (1962) the answer seems to be a very big yes! But honestly, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of Comics printed each month. Can most of them be worth something down the line?

When we completed our courses in Economics, we learnt – commerce is ruled by the forces of Demand and Supply. If there is Demand, prices are determined by its Supply. If there is no demand, no matter how scarce, it does not gather value.

Anyone who wants to 'invest' in Comics should read/learn about the Comics 'Boom and Bust' in the 90's. Just like the boom and bust of our recent Stock Market, Comics also witnessed similar phenomenon is the 90's following the great success of Batman (1989) movie. This was, perhaps after the Christopher Reeve Superman movie, the first mega hit from the Comics culture. Geeks like me were over the moon. We, who bought calculated amount of Comics before went bananas and bought everything we could find from the local Comic Shops. A craze was created and in a matter of months, hoards of new collectors were born. The supply market was not ready for this growth – and a tremendous rate of appreciation happened in a matter of months. Low supply Comics like Valiant (I think at least issues like Solar #1, 10 and Magnus #1, 12 were all selling for more than $100 at a point) were spiraling in 'hotness'. The funny thing was, titles which were printed in millions – like Rob Liefeld's Image titles and even Spawn early issues were skyrocketing. A craze was born from the belief that any Comics bought today will be worth a lot of money in the future. This of course did not happen. Today, many of those 90's 'hot' Comics can be found at JCC for 50taka or less.

The lesson the 90's should teach us that anything that looks too good to be true – usually isn't.

Does that mean everything from the 90's was hyped and bad? Nope. Comics that are of good quality will retain its value. If you find good stuff, keep it. Chances are, if it's good, there will be people appreciating it. Here are some Comics that came out around the same Boom and Bust period – and you can check out eBay to see if they are valuable even today: (1) Wolverine #1 (1988), (2) Amazing Spider-man #300 (25th Anniversary issue – massive print run), (3) New Mutants #98 (first Deadpool) and (4) Sandman #8 (first Death). Even last years Comics such as Batman #1 and Detective Comics #1 have appreciated highly. But the thing to remember is, for every issue that becomes a Classic, there are thousands if not tens of thousands that will not become Classic.

So, if you want to 'invest' in comics, make sure you have done your homework. My advice is; buy and store Comics that you love, and those you love to show off. If it's valuable to you, in all likelihood it is truly valuable. But don't expect the values to hold for all comics. Some will hold their value, most will not.