High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comic-...71845937.html#

Investors looking to make some money are likely to take the traditional route and bet on stocks and bonds. But what about that stash of old comic books lying around in the attic? They have the potential to be more lucrative than you may think.

Anders Nilsson from Gocompare.com told Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous in the video above that comic books can spell a big payday for investors.

“We found that a significant proportion of the highest value comics have been outperforming more traditional investments like the S&P 500 (^GSPC) or even gold (GCM16.CMX),” said Nilsson.

Gocompare.com collected information on comic books to determine those that have appreciated the most in price since 2008 compared to the S&P 500’s performance. The top performer was DC's Batman Adventures #12, first published in 1993. The original cost of the issue was $1.25, and in the last eight years, it has appreciated in price to $800, making a 26,567% return.

“We saw it really take off in terms of rising in value on news that a Suicide Squad spin-off might be in the cards. Then it really rocketed when the producer signed up in 2014, and it was confirmed. That particular comic features Harley Quinn, who we know is going to be one of the main characters in Suicide Squad,” said Nilsson. Suicide Squad will be released in August.

The second best performer was Marvel’s New Mutants, which appreciated 4,900% in value since 2008. The price of the comic when first published was $1.00. It now sells for $250. Similar to DC’s Batman Adventure #12, New Mutants saw its value surge on hype surrounding the movie Deadpool, which was released in February.

In terms of value, the comic taking the number one spot is Action Comics #1, the edition in which readers meet Superman and Lois Lane for the very first time. The price of the comic when first published in 1938 was $0.10. Now it’s worth a staggering $3 million.

But if you’re thinking about investing in comics, it’s important to note that there's a pretty small window for success. Therefore, it’s important for potential buyers to know what to look for.

“Look for rare first editions where characters are being introduced for the first time,” said Nilsson. “Try to look for characters that are going to be featured in films… A big thing to look out for is keeping its relevance by being on the big screen.“




wow...I wonder how many idiots are going to jump on this bandwagon. Sounds like a repeat of the 90's to me. There's also a video on the link above.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

Like you said, this is complete bullshit and a repeat of 90's mentality. Whoever wrote the article is a complete dumbass.

Yes, some comic books increase in value but it's a small amount of them. The majority decrease after the first month on the shelf. I get stupid people every single day that don't know shit about comics trying to find out which one is the one that is going to make them rich. I always tell them that is mostly luck and they should pick a book that they would enjoy reading and not one that they think is going to increase in value.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

An interesting study would be to see the total cover price of every comic for each year of the industry, and what those books are worth now in average condition. I bet you'd lose money on every year back a few decades at least.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

You'd lose a ton of money. But if you bought thousands of issues of the first appearances of deadpool, Harley, etc. and nothing else, you'd be rich!

Next up, how hot wheels collectors are making more money than doctors and lawyers.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

If you happen to have the money, items like Action #1 and Detective Comics #27 will always go up like most famous pieces of art. Pretty much everything else is far more hit or miss with much greater downside risk.

The article of course is just clickbait meant to entice comic book fans into visiting that site.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

I used to hear the same sort of talk from the guys who bet on horse racing. Yep, they picked the winner at 15 to 1! Since I sold the Racing Form, I didn't ask them about the outcomes of the other bets they placed on the same day.

If there were even the slightest possibility of predicting which character would become popular in the future, you could go out and invest in the first appearance of Wolverine. But without the possibility of prediction, you're betting on horses. Come onnnn, Dobbin!

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

These first appearances of Slapstick, Sleepwalker and NFL Superpro are going to be like gold?

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

It's not even as good as betting on horses, because at least one horse per race will win. That's much better odds than speculating on comic books, where there's no guarantee that ANY issue will go up in value at all, let alone to the kind of prices that would make it worth quitting your day job over.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

If someone had had the foresight to buy 1000 copies of Walking Dead #1, New Mutants #98, and Batman Adventures #12, they'd be sitting pretty right now.

Walking Dead really came out of nowhere. At the time Image was putting out a lot of creato-owned titles that really went nowhere, and there was every reason to think Walking Dead would be another one of those.

There should be quite a few copies of New Mutants 98 out there, since it part of the Liefeld, Lee, Portacio, and Silvestri era of the X-Men when the books were really hot.so it's kind of surprising to see it as hot as it is.

Batman Adventures is an odd one. It's based on the animated series so it isn't part of the DCU continuity, and the animated spin-off books didn't sell particularly well in the direct market, so it's probably scarce. On paper probably shouldn't be as notable as it is, even with its low print run.

But the problem with trying to speculate on these things is that you never know which books out of the thousands released per year will hit big. It's like betting on single numbers in roulette. The payoff is huge, but the odds of a hit are so low you either have take a huge chance or cover so many bases you throw away any profits you'll make.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

New Mutants in the days of Liefeld were like going up in price as they were coming out... I don't think they really elevated the print run until X Force and those polybags and trading cards. Same with Lee and Portacion and Mcfarlane and their relaunched titles. Anyone who bought up multiple copies of 98 also most likely bought up tons of copies of all kinds of useless stuff back then.

If someone made a chart of how much comics cost brand new and how much they depreciate in general, well it wouldn't be pretty.

What's weird is that the popularity of characters s based on writers and creative direction, because Deadpool was a poor copy of Spider man when he first came out. I always wondered if someone like Johns (or Bendis when he was doing everything for Marvel) could ever buy up a bunch of first appearances before he returned a character to prominence. Or if someone at DC bought up a bunch of Watchman number one.

The Harley one is still baffling to me, and it's only partially because I had that issue and we basically never put it in a polybag. It's not in main continuity, the origin of the character is in another media, and she was introduced into main continuity in a different issue anyway. It's almost like Wizard or someone decided to promote the issue and it stuck.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

I guess there's elements that make him similar to Spider-Man, but isn't it pretty much universally acknowledged (even by Liefeld and Nicieza themselves) that he's actually a copy of Deathstroke the Terminator, right down to his secret identity?

http://images-cdn.moviepilot.com/ima...peg-252873.jpg

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

Liefeld has denied it, and Niceza seems kind of so-so in his response:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...-revealed-562/

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

I've always thought Deadpool was Deathstroke crossed with an exaggerated version of Spidey's personality.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

My brother gave it to me because he didn't give a shit about it 20 years ago. It just sat in a box unbagged until about a year ago until I put it in a mylar. I'm surprised it's in the condition it is in now.

http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd2ygtx3m.jpg

scan:

http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/a...pswbl3uatv.jpg

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

This is such a fluke and mostly happens years later under the right conditions after many years. Twenty three years? Over a decade etc...? Sure I wish I had about a hundred copies of Walking Dead 1 around. However I may have sold them when they hit the $200-300 range unless it went up quickly from there, or when they hit $1,000. Of course if half a million people had thought the same thing you have the nineties again.

I still have Batman Adventures 13 I randomly bought, SO close to issue 12 (which I almost got the month before) and I would have still had it around and likely just found out how much it was worth. That would be a cool note.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

From what I remember, the book was mostly considered lighter kiddie fare and never sold well compared to other Bat titles. That kept its print run down.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

Not only was it considered a kids book, but the first year or two of the series coincided with Knightfall. Talk about getting overshadowed.

On a different note, I've recently been trying to find a decent piece of original art from that series. Who new they were literally giving the stuff away back in 1993!

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

That Batgirl costume is not kiddie fare -other-

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

I got a page of art from the Lost Years mini a few years back with Batman, Robin Batgirl and Two Face for like $25.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

Nice. There's definitely a lot of art out there from the various animated spinoff comics, some of it pretty cheap too, but I've got my heart set on a really nice Parobeck panel page or splash from that original run before characters were redesigned in the late 90's. There's a sweet double page spread from the Gotham Adventures series of Mr. Freeze swatting Batman on ebay right now (quite a bit more than $25) that I would have bought in a second if it had been in the B:TAS style, but it's not. Probably for the best though. I've spent too much money on art in the last few months.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

After all this talk, I spent 99 cents on a digital copy of Batman Adventures #12.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

I bought a copy of Batman Adventures 12 maybe 6 years ago for about $8. It's crazy to see what it's going for now.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

Marvel Comics #1 just sold for $1.26 Million on a Heritage auction. It is CGC graded 9.4

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...204454005.html

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

I imagine the winner is hoping a Namor movie eventually gets made. That is his first appearance.

Re: High-value comic books are outperforming traditional investments
 

How much more would it go up even if Namor became like an Iron man level breakout star (which is doubtful) though? It's already the first appearance of superheroes in general and Marvel #1.