Idk how you spend this much money on 💩 that will depreciate. Quick flips are the only way to go, nostalgia is great if it’s that personal to you. Hold to long and you gonna be at the finish line with all these other collectors looking to offload these “amazing” comics to support their retirement. It’s a generational thing. When Covid happened i couldn’t believe it, like I struck oil…people were all collecting 💩 mostly crypto but then comics, any comic that said key 🔑 People are holding their loses now. But also other people are cashing out cause life is opening up, share market is slowly recovering. All that crypto people bought, wow. Just give the money too a charity. During Covid I could sell a slab for 3 times what it’s worth today. The biggest problem was getting comics slabbed. Don’t be depressed cause if you have the wealth to buy all that 💩 well I don’t feel sad for you. Although, you gotta sell it! You only use it for RUclips. I’ll be watching AI RUclips in a few years and talking heads like you and the other culture vultures will be second place. Good luck and smile cause you spent 100,000 on 💩 you can tell that story to your kids. Or your friends 🤷🏼♀️ tell swagglehaus he loves to chat about dilemmas in comics. Make another video, next time show no comics or statues just cash 💰
Just like you could sell your shares portfolio at the peak and buy back with profit in the dip. But if it were that easy - everyone would do it and be millionaires.
When I saw the prices start to skyrocket during COVID, I could see what was happening and stayed away from big purchases. However, I think comparing 2018-2019 prices to current prices is a better judge of their growth or decline. You have a killer collection by the way.
My heart dropped when I saw this video. If you want me to take care of those comics until the prices goes back up, I certainly can make room in my house. I love comic books. I know the priceless joy they bring me. Your channel is my favorite. Seeing your collections just brings me joy while having coffee to start my day. Keep up the nice work, and I'm thankful when I get a notification that a new video is available.
You need to state the date and the price. If you bought anything between 2019 and 2022, you absolutely lost money. That was a sellers market. Unless you were flipping, nobody should’ve been buying comics in that market. Because you got fleeced!
You’re completely right on the value. You haven’t lost money until you sell. These are the biggest books in the hobby and gems to own. I love seeing these any day regardless of value.
Amazing video!👍👏 I just began my comic book collection and found Toon Haven. They have an incredible range of digital comics for every genre, including the hard to find ones. Lifetime updates too!😁
Much respect for making this video, I know it couldn't have been easy. Can't go wrong owning a AF15 or ASM1 signed by the Man! It will take time, but I do believe some of your keys will make a comeback (Hulk 181, FF48, Hulk 1, FF 1, to name a few). Best wishes to you!
Nice collection! Would have been nice to see your purchase prices as well to show that while down 25% over the last few years, you may still be up 4X from cost.
Good video and thank you for sharing your experiences. My advice: Invest in financial assets with good cash flows like an S & P 500 index fund. Then diversify into collectibles only if you understand the risks and can handle the volatility. Some of these books are never coming back (value wise) and judging by the comments on this video alone, very few of the starry-eyed speculators understand the opportunity costs of tying up your money in speculative items like this. If you want to invest in collectibles, you must first learn collectible finance and detach yourself from any nostalgia or emotion, as these are the antitheses of investment. No one ever gets emotionally attached to an S & P 500 index fund.
Any hobby or collecting is expensive. That's why it's important to be responsible with what you buy. But as long as the person enjoys it and has fun that's all that matters! When only live once, we have to enjoy it as much as we can!
A lot of hobbies cost money. Collecting can be a great hobby, since you can actually recoup some or all of your initial costs. You just have to play responsibly.
Did people really get that much free money? I got some for my business, but it was nothing compared to what I would have made during normal operation. I think people didn’t know what to do with themselves and picked a hobby.
@@DTsGEEKSHOW yea, I can certainly see the transition to remote work in 2020/21 being a major factor in many trying to figure out what other hobby to spend their time and money in. With five trillion dollars in stimulus money from the pandemic, that could have also been one of many factors.
@@DTsGEEKSHOW It was mostly due to boredom and to few other entertainment options. A lot of older ex-collectors, who already had plenty of money, just got back into the hobby during the pandemic.
Last comment I promise. At the height I did sell everything. I bought a model x, the all star comics 8 and my son his first car. I do miss those comics, but my wife and my son have new cars and I have Wonder Woman. I’d say that’s a win for all.
You were a braver man than me. I was smart enough not to buy anything, but was too afraid of the upward trend to let anything go. Couldn’t picture life without my babies! And you call yourself a hoarder! 😁
Lots of sellers are complaining that graded books not selling. Comic fans do not like having a piece of plastic. For the super valuable one, maybe just having it is enough, but comic fans want to read the books. Unlike sports cards that are two sided and you can see everything, comics do not lend themselves to plastic encasement. And I definitely think there was a bubble with the movies and now that the movies are not good or the hype died down, this also hurt value. You never want to buy anything top of the market. Finally, there is a question as to whether today's youth will really be into comics to continue paying the big money for them as adults. Sports cards have went up in value as recent market sales have proved that younger people like buying them still, even older ones. There is a history in those cards and "golden age of baseball/ football/basketball" thing that young people still like. With comics that remains to be seen.
Don't buy collectibles as an investment. Sure, don't pay more than market value for something,, but only pay what it is worth to you. If it went to zero, you won't care. There are very few people who have direct nostalgia for things over 80 years old. So, holding on to those over 60-year-old collectibles may be a big mistake. Buy things because you personally enjoy them.
I have never lost money on books, Buy good unguarded books at reasonable prices and hold for 15 to 20 years, been working since the 80's, all this grading BS pisses me off. I have never owed a graded book, not a one! 35 years in the hobby.
Collectibles over time are better than stocks. I’ve made 400k with collectibles the past 8 years. the past 5 years I lost 45k in stocks but made 35 back this year.
All markets go through boom and bust cycles. The values will rise again as inflation continues. We see this with stocks, real estate, crypto etc. Im buying highly graded comics now as the values have dropped and I have a 5-10 year outlook for returns.
I wonder if all the multiverse crap made people no longer care about first appearances. Though I do note the constant kindle sales and tpb's for the price of single issues that I stopped buying as I just got blade evil against evil tpb for $9. I know company crossovers like amalgam are physical only, and sometimes the physical books can cost less than digital too, like asterix and obelix.
Collecting comic books is like collecting coins or sports cards. Collecting is a HOBBY. The purpose of a hobby is to enjoy the activity and it makes you happy. No one ever gets rich in collecting unless you have one of those very rare item that everyone must have or you buy it at retail price and hid it away for decades. There are better ways to invest your money than in collectibles.
Thanks for sharing! I have been collecting for about 30 years and I have never looked to the hobby for financial gain and I am not looking forward to a day where I do. The collected as a young boy to escape a bad childhood. I collect now to nurture that same neglected boy. ❤
In my opinion the issue nowadays is there really isn't a dedicated price guide that everyone uses. Back in the day there was Overstreet and even Wizard. But now everyone goes by what sold and how much it sold for on ebay or mercari or whatever other platforms. I refuse to go by that just because those auction sites are dictated by desperate sellers and cheap buyers. When you have 40 people trying to sell the same comic at the same time, of course they're gonna try and keep undercutting each other's prices which will ultimately affect the value of the comic. In order to find the value of my collection I might find some price guides online and maybe average out the final value since they're usually not gonna be the same on every website. In the end I think your collection is ultimately worth what you value it at depending on what method you use to get to that point.
Best Advise: Buy the comics you love for low prices and don't follow the hype. If you are investing for profit, go on Go-collect and look at the CGC Census before you buy a book. For example, Giant-Size X-Men #1 has 13,666 copies out there. That sound like a small amount right? Wrong. Now look at Tales of Suspense #39, there are only 2,819, so it's a rare book. As long as you bought it before the hype, it would have been a great investment. For example that book was selling for $70 to $100 on eBay in the early 2000s. Granted it's impossible to predict the future, no one could have know Iron-man would be such a popular character and now it would be a bad investment to get a Tales of Suspense #39, because it's outside most people budgets. However, there are plenty modern key's you can get now for 100 dollars or less, and who knows where they may go in the future?
Another thing that happened is that so many comics came out of hiding and showed the supply was much higher than previously thought. Storages, basements, and attics were searched by everyone! One good thing about that, is that now for older comics, there is a better grasp on what is really out there.
I have hundreds of ungraded comics from the 70s-early 90s. I have no clue their value but I’m about to sort them to find out. Nice video, tough losses though.
Cool video, but a bit misleading... If you go a little further back when you and most collectors have purchased, you will see the books actually went up. Prior to the pandemic spike of 2021. In 2020 GS X-Man 9.2 sold for around $ 3,000 and now sells at around $ 4,500 which is a 50% increase.
Great video!!! I'm jealous of your collection. In addition to these values I'd also be curious if the years you bought then and the values then. If you had these books since the early 90's then the drop in peak value would still suck but you'd also still be ahead tons in value compared to those previous values.
Thanks! I'd have to dig through my records to find out all the prices I paid. But they were well before the boom in 2021. So I should be in the green for all these books.
Stock market is a lead indicator. Collectors items are a lag indicator. Stock market is back up. Expect collectors items start to rebound in the next 12/18 months
The thing is, until you sell them, there is no loss realized. Hold them long enough and you won’t lose anything. The problem of course is, if you would have put that same money into and index fund in 2021, what would that be worth now? So it is definitely an opportunity loss.🤷🏻♂️
Great video and educational. I many of the comics were bought during the comic boom. I would imagine the more books get added to the cgc sensus the value also drops
Man what an incredible collection! I just got into comic collecting recently and have never seen some of the ones you have here. Really cool, thanks for sharing!
It is not just comic books. I collected vintage toys and it is the same story. Due to the economy people are saving their money and not spending. Most non essential items are taking a hit. It is a buyers market right now, so buy your collectables now why the prices are down.
Plastic coffins are crowding the market. It was big when it started, but now the Overstreet is aligning with CGC and values are coming down. Most of these issues won't be affordable to collectors who don't have a large piggy bank. So, your market with these will only be with rich buyers or someone who solely wants one key appearance since they wouldn't be able to buy a collection. It's priced out new collectors and low income buyers.
Like you said... you haven't lost money... you can actually buy stuff again! When the pandemic was going on....I couldn't add anything to my PC because prices were ridiculous.
I only invest in sealed boxes of sports cards and collectible cards. Every day some of those boxes get opened meaning there are less of those sealed boxes in the world. My collection has increased over 200 percent in just 2 years. I'm happy with that. Later.
It's the fake comic fans that magically popped up in 2012 (when The Avengers released, hmmmm 🤔) Guess they just got bored after awhile 🤷♀️ This is a great thing for true comic collectors though, who actually want the comic itself rather than the investment. I might finally be able to pick up some key issues I've been wanting for awhile now, lol
There are 2 huge comic collecting fallacies: 1. Movie adaptations don't automatically increase value of the comic - if the movie sucks, that can actually DECREASE the value 2. If you are investing, collecting what's "hot" is actually bad, due to supply and demand - it doesn't matter how much interest there is in a comic, if EVERYONE has 5 copies of it in their basement, it will NEVER increase in value
The problem is that speculation about movies cause them to increase temporarily. When the movie hits, that’s when you know if you made a mistake or not. Collecting “hot” books doesn’t correlate to the supply of a book necessarily. Rare books can be “hot” as well. But collecting “hot” books usually means there’s already been a run up on the price. So if you’re buying something that is already hot, chances are you missed out on a lot of the appreciation. Same goes for stocks. The trick is to buy things before everyone else thinks they’re hot.
Every market fluctuates it goes in and out of rotation, I think trading cards and retro video games took over the market in past few years. So this may be temporary I am sure value will go up with time.
I am impressed that there are any comics not down by 20% from pandemic levels. Not sure what is the appeal of slabbed comics. Isn't the enjoyment of comics in reading them to enjoy the story and the artwork?
I will just say that I never lost money on comics but I never got super rich either. just moderate profit. in fact the only books I have left are Raw books spiderman 3 which would get a 3.0 and spiderman 14 which would get a 4.0 and the bonus is I bought them in 1993 for 400 dollars each so I can sit on them for as long as I like and would still make a profit
I do not understand collecting as an investment and worrying about money. That ruins everything about collecting. I am a music fan and collect CDs and LPs. I only buy stuff that I will listen to and pay the price I am willing to pay. After that I do not care about its value, because I enjoy it and can listen to them again and again. I have found over the years some great deals on LPs that are "valuable", but I have learned to live without the ones that people are asking crazy prices for. Maybe when I am near death, I will sell them off and not care about the value. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on collectables could be used for much better investments to get better returns. Example, I purchased a rental property in 2018 with a downpayment of $17,000. It came with a renter so over the last 6 years I have paid almost 0 as the renter pays the mortgage and the house has doubled in value at this time. After 20/30 years I will either live in it and have a payment at a fraction of what others pay in rent or sell it and pocket a few hundred thousand dollars. Be smarter with your money, unless you are just super rich paying these prices are not a good investment.
Comic books are definitely bad investments and inevitably go the way of coin collecting. The comic companies focus more on movies and other "side agendas" not aligned with their core audience while not really taking much care of the actual comics. Now, there are too many larger forces at work that can tank your whole collection with a couple of bad decisions, especially if you collect comics of a certain character. If you want an excellent investment, sealed Pokemon trading card game product is the way to go, particularly booster boxes. Pokemon will be around for decades. Short, mid, long, it's all good. I am on disability the last couple years and the last six months I decided to go through my old super hero comics from the 90s along with other manga comics. As I went through, I kept thinking, man if I had unloaded all these books in the late 90s in exchange for Magic cards of that time, which I did do a little bit (trading my Sandman run and my Hellblazer run for Magic), I would have a million dollars in card value now.
What makes this even more painful is inflation. The actual hit is an additional %22ish. Like art, buy because you like something, not for speculation or investing.
Eh, the 2021 prices on everything collectable was insane. Magic the Gathering cards went insane for example. Anvil of Bogardan was selling for $80-90. Now it's selling for $20ish.
Big problem is all of these Marvel books are hardly scarce and are still apart from AF15 20 to 30% over valued. So many people are unfortunately going to suffer huge losses and by 2026 the market will be in free fall..... Pick nice 1950's comics around the 5.0 grade with Batman and Detective being so undervalued. Tec 225 to 299 are outstanding value still.......JM
Comic book companies should do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make their back catalog affordable and accessible to younger generations of readers. If not, COMIC BOOK READING WILL DIE with this generation. Marvel and DC should offer all back issues digitally FOR AS CHEAPLY AS POSSIBLE or they risk extinction of the medium itself. Gen Z writ large IS NOT GOING TO PAY THOUSANDS of dollars just to read old stories.
It would be interesting to know what the value of these comics were in 2019. I think the 2020 and 2021 years increased in value due to the pandemic. The isolation gave a lot of people time to hobby around and dip into a "collectible" market. I would not be surprised to see if these 2024 prices reflected pre-pandemic prices.
I see where you are going. But collectibles can certainly be an investment. All that is required for something to be an investment is the hope that the value increases in the future. It doesn't necessarily make it a good investment. But it is an investment nonetheless. No reason why hobbies can't be investments, just as investing can be a hobby. Should everyone put all their savings into comic books? No. You probably shouldn't put all your money in stocks either. Diversification is important to minimize risk. No reason why a well rounded investment portfolio can't contain some collectibles.
The thing is, it is a very expensive hobby, Especially if you are a "grown-up" and more especially, if you have a family. Statues are so cool but yet so expensive, one of the reasons why I created my channel, Hope to achieve decent statue sculpting skills someday, but again, as with any hobby, it is very hard to find time for sculpting :D everything has trade-offs I guess
This is why buy for the love of the hobby and not the money. I enjoy searching and digging for value key comic books but I collect and haven’t sold any of my comic books yet. My favorite is the $1 bin digging.
If it's all about making money, and treating comics as commodities, then you're better off just investing real money in real investment vehicles. You can lose just as much there, but the potential gains are probably much higher.
Just thought about collecting comics, but I would never pay hundreds of dollars for one -- let alone thousands of dollars. The first thing you need to consider before you buy into something, is to settle on what your departure strategy is going to be in order to get out of your position.
If you didn't pay $33000 for the book, it's not a lose. Example I pay $1k for book, the book reaches a FMV of $3k one year and then drops to $1500 the next year, I am still up $500, with zero actual loses. Very misleading and negative way to present your information. Absolutely amazing collection.
I would say they are a bad investment. Times of printed media is gone. 50 years ago people collected stamps, 30 years ago nobody was interested in them anymore. Same thing with comic books. But if you buy those as a financial investment only you probably aren't the smartest investor in the first place, sorry for the honesty. People aren't growing up with comics anymore, why should they buy them overpriced when they can get a digital edition for free?!
Coincidentally, and only for pure enjoyment I starting collecting again about a year and a half ago. I only bought l books based on completionism, and fun. None of it was speculation.
I've been writing this all the time. There's only a limited amount of people on the internet that's going to buy... comic books. It's like a Pyramid of people. The ones who will buy the highest are desperate ones who have $. Then the price slowly goes down from there. Until the "last" person buys it for a bargain because the person who wants to sell it is desperate to get rid of it. Then after that, all the same books are priced low cause basically everyone's got a copy. I see the same thing in sports cards. But in cards, someone opens too many packs, have too many singles, then unloads it in the 2nd-dary market which kills the price of the card
You don't purchase comics as a investment graded or not Its a collection for a hobby you enjoy and intend on keeping. Almost all comics become absolutely worthless in value. Extremely rare to ever see any comic actually go up in values. You would be better investing into a new Tesla cyber truck.
Help me get over my comic book depression by LIKING this video and leaving a COMMENT! 😁
The best collection 😮😮😮
Idk how you spend this much money on 💩 that will depreciate. Quick flips are the only way to go, nostalgia is great if it’s that personal to you. Hold to long and you gonna be at the finish line with all these other collectors looking to offload these “amazing” comics to support their retirement. It’s a generational thing. When Covid happened i couldn’t believe it, like I struck oil…people were all collecting 💩 mostly crypto but then comics, any comic that said key 🔑
People are holding their loses now. But also other people are cashing out cause life is opening up, share market is slowly recovering.
All that crypto people bought, wow. Just give the money too a charity. During Covid I could sell a slab for 3 times what it’s worth today. The biggest problem was getting comics slabbed.
Don’t be depressed cause if you have the wealth to buy all that 💩 well I don’t feel sad for you. Although, you gotta sell it! You only use it for RUclips. I’ll be watching AI RUclips in a few years and talking heads like you and the other culture vultures will be second place.
Good luck and smile cause you spent 100,000 on 💩 you can tell that story to your kids. Or your friends 🤷🏼♀️ tell swagglehaus he loves to chat about dilemmas in comics.
Make another video, next time show no comics or statues just cash 💰
@@bachtuworkwhen you get to retirement, you won't have time to sell comics so you just throw them in the trash.
Give it another few years, make another video, see how much they’ve gone up lol
@@KayP33 only if you can find someone to buy it.
It's no fun trying to sell comics.
And there may not be publishing comics in a couple of years.
Comics are really not a good investment. I've read comics for decades. Sure I have a few books worth a little, but I buy them to read and enjoy.
I couldn't have said it better myself. When you you buy low, you get the enjoyment of owning !
You lost over $100,000 on slabs, not comics. Keep them raw and only grade if the you can make a profit. Don't buy any slabs.
Bro could have sold his whole collection and bought it back in higher grades with profit 😭
Life is full of what ifs and nobody can tell the future. Can’t beat yourself up over things in the past.
Just like you could sell your shares portfolio at the peak and buy back with profit in the dip. But if it were that easy - everyone would do it and be millionaires.
Hi DT! You still have an unbelievably nice collection. I was happy to hear that you bought much of your collection before 2021 :-).
Yes, didn’t buy much in recent years. Most of my collection was bought in the 90s.
When I saw the prices start to skyrocket during COVID, I could see what was happening and stayed away from big purchases. However, I think comparing 2018-2019 prices to current prices is a better judge of their growth or decline. You have a killer collection by the way.
Yep. ITA. Still an interesting video, though.
yup, this was clickbait with a worse case scenario at it's core
My heart dropped when I saw this video. If you want me to take care of those comics until the prices goes back up, I certainly can make room in my house. I love comic books. I know the priceless joy they bring me. Your channel is my favorite. Seeing your collections just brings me joy while having coffee to start my day. Keep up the nice work, and I'm thankful when I get a notification that a new video is available.
You need to state the date and the price. If you bought anything between 2019 and 2022, you absolutely lost money. That was a sellers market. Unless you were flipping, nobody should’ve been buying comics in that market. Because you got fleeced!
I think it will take 10 years to gradually reach those 2021 prices again. Just hold til then and even longer!
Easy to say in hindsight, Nostradamus!
@@Doc_Dooomof course dependant on people not aging out of the hobby and kids actually still interested in American comics...
I brought 10 various cgc 9.8 signed stan lee comics in 2020 for ~$300 ea. Value has gone up for all of them.
He doesn't "need" to do shit he doesn't want to do, how about you make your own channel and then you can control it.
That's a heck of a beautiful collection. As long as you can pay your billls, the only reason to sell is to get grade bumps!
You’re completely right on the value. You haven’t lost money until you sell. These are the biggest books in the hobby and gems to own. I love seeing these any day regardless of value.
People always forget that when they own mutual funds......Always sell on a high...if at all possible.
FACTS. Having them in my collection is reward enough
Blinds are not blind because they have never used their eyes, then?
This is fallacy. You lose money when you buy or invest. You don't make it back until you sell.
@@gomey70 but you have the asset….
Amazing video!👍👏 I just began my comic book collection and found Toon Haven. They have an incredible range of digital comics for every genre, including the hard to find ones. Lifetime updates too!😁
Much respect for making this video, I know it couldn't have been easy. Can't go wrong owning a AF15 or ASM1 signed by the Man! It will take time, but I do believe some of your keys will make a comeback (Hulk 181, FF48, Hulk 1, FF 1, to name a few). Best wishes to you!
Nice collection! Would have been nice to see your purchase prices as well to show that while down 25% over the last few years, you may still be up 4X from cost.
I was thinking the same thing.
Good video and thank you for sharing your experiences.
My advice: Invest in financial assets with good cash flows like an S & P 500 index fund. Then diversify into collectibles only if you understand the risks and can handle the volatility. Some of these books are never coming back (value wise) and judging by the comments on this video alone, very few of the starry-eyed speculators understand the opportunity costs of tying up your money in speculative items like this. If you want to invest in collectibles, you must first learn collectible finance and detach yourself from any nostalgia or emotion, as these are the antitheses of investment. No one ever gets emotionally attached to an S & P 500 index fund.
I liked and suscribed ...youre a good guy ...dont sweat it the big comics will rebound
Any hobby or collecting is expensive. That's why it's important to be responsible with what you buy. But as long as the person enjoys it and has fun that's all that matters!
When only live once, we have to enjoy it as much as we can!
One of my favorite hobbies was alcoholism. There were no gains. Comics have been very good to me.
A lot of hobbies cost money. Collecting can be a great hobby, since you can actually recoup some or all of your initial costs. You just have to play responsibly.
@@Geoffreydarcy-pv4mq proud of you brotha
Those COVID stimulus checks certainly had a lot of people blowing money on comics and collectibles in 2021 😂
Did people really get that much free money? I got some for my business, but it was nothing compared to what I would have made during normal operation. I think people didn’t know what to do with themselves and picked a hobby.
@@DTsGEEKSHOW yea, I can certainly see the transition to remote work in 2020/21 being a major factor in many trying to figure out what other hobby to spend their time and money in. With five trillion dollars in stimulus money from the pandemic, that could have also been one of many factors.
@@DTsGEEKSHOWit was more so the unemployment boost rather then the stimulus checks, I was making 1k a week on unemployment. Saved my life lol
@@DTsGEEKSHOW It was mostly due to boredom and to few other entertainment options. A lot of older ex-collectors, who already had plenty of money, just got back into the hobby during the pandemic.
Thank you for sharing, keep doing what you do!!!
Last comment I promise. At the height I did sell everything. I bought a model x, the all star comics 8 and my son his first car. I do miss those comics, but my wife and my son have new cars and I have Wonder Woman. I’d say that’s a win for all.
You were a braver man than me. I was smart enough not to buy anything, but was too afraid of the upward trend to let anything go. Couldn’t picture life without my babies! And you call yourself a hoarder! 😁
@@DTsGEEKSHOW I know. I’m Alex the sold all his big books….
Lots of sellers are complaining that graded books not selling. Comic fans do not like having a piece of plastic. For the super valuable one, maybe just having it is enough, but comic fans want to read the books. Unlike sports cards that are two sided and you can see everything, comics do not lend themselves to plastic encasement.
And I definitely think there was a bubble with the movies and now that the movies are not good or the hype died down, this also hurt value. You never want to buy anything top of the market. Finally, there is a question as to whether today's youth will really be into comics to continue paying the big money for them as adults. Sports cards have went up in value as recent market sales have proved that younger people like buying them still, even older ones. There is a history in those cards and "golden age of baseball/ football/basketball" thing that young people still like. With comics that remains to be seen.
That AF15 is beyond amazing!
Thank you for giving this info. It helps! Amazing collection!
Yo , 1st appearance Spider-Man signed by Stan "the Man" Lee , mind blown 🤯
Wow! I’m very impressed with that Golden Age Cap 1
Don't buy collectibles as an investment. Sure, don't pay more than market value for something,, but only pay what it is worth to you. If it went to zero, you won't care. There are very few people who have direct nostalgia for things over 80 years old. So, holding on to those over 60-year-old collectibles may be a big mistake. Buy things because you personally enjoy them.
I have never lost money on books, Buy good unguarded books at reasonable prices and hold for 15 to 20 years, been working since the 80's, all this grading BS pisses me off. I have never owed a graded book, not a one! 35 years in the hobby.
Always a treat to see that Captain America Comics #1. Whooo! Baby that is nice.
I hate the values went down but that is one more beautiful collection you have with some great quality conditions.
Collectibles over time are better than stocks. I’ve made 400k with collectibles the past 8 years. the past 5 years I lost 45k in stocks but made 35 back this year.
All markets go through boom and bust cycles. The values will rise again as inflation continues. We see this with stocks, real estate, crypto etc. Im buying highly graded comics now as the values have dropped and I have a 5-10 year outlook for returns.
I will never sell any of my books I buy what I love to read and art that I cherish. If you do that you will never feel any loss.👍
CGC grading has overinflated the price of comic books in general.
I wonder if all the multiverse crap made people no longer care about first appearances.
Though I do note the constant kindle sales and tpb's for the price of single issues that I stopped buying as I just got blade evil against evil tpb for $9.
I know company crossovers like amalgam are physical only, and sometimes the physical books can cost less than digital too, like asterix and obelix.
You had really good reasons at the end
Collecting/Investing can be complex. It’s important to do your homework, budget and diversify!
I agree
Just off the first comic, you bought it when the hype around spider man no way home was at an all time high
Collecting comic books is like collecting coins or sports cards. Collecting is a HOBBY. The purpose of a hobby is to enjoy the activity and it makes you happy. No one ever gets rich in collecting unless you have one of those very rare item that everyone must have or you buy it at retail price and hid it away for decades. There are better ways to invest your money than in collectibles.
Thanks for sharing!
I have been collecting for about 30 years and I have never looked to the hobby for financial gain and I am not looking forward to a day where I do.
The collected as a young boy to escape a bad childhood. I collect now to nurture that same neglected boy. ❤
In my opinion the issue nowadays is there really isn't a dedicated price guide that everyone uses. Back in the day there was Overstreet and even Wizard. But now everyone goes by what sold and how much it sold for on ebay or mercari or whatever other platforms. I refuse to go by that just because those auction sites are dictated by desperate sellers and cheap buyers. When you have 40 people trying to sell the same comic at the same time, of course they're gonna try and keep undercutting each other's prices which will ultimately affect the value of the comic. In order to find the value of my collection I might find some price guides online and maybe average out the final value since they're usually not gonna be the same on every website. In the end I think your collection is ultimately worth what you value it at depending on what method you use to get to that point.
Best Advise: Buy the comics you love for low prices and don't follow the hype. If you are investing for profit, go on Go-collect and look at the CGC Census before you buy a book. For example, Giant-Size X-Men #1 has 13,666 copies out there. That sound like a small amount right? Wrong. Now look at Tales of Suspense #39, there are only 2,819, so it's a rare book. As long as you bought it before the hype, it would have been a great investment. For example that book was selling for $70 to $100 on eBay in the early 2000s. Granted it's impossible to predict the future, no one could have know Iron-man would be such a popular character and now it would be a bad investment to get a Tales of Suspense #39, because it's outside most people budgets. However, there are plenty modern key's you can get now for 100 dollars or less, and who knows where they may go in the future?
Great video as always, keep up the great work
Good video and I expect the prices to be even lower a year from now.
We shall see. Only time will tell.
Another thing that happened is that so many comics came out of hiding and showed the supply was much higher than previously thought. Storages, basements, and attics were searched by everyone! One good thing about that, is that now for older comics, there is a better grasp on what is really out there.
These prices are simply insane, obscene even, no matter how you justify it...
Please keep posting your are the coolest dad and collector! Collection is a 10/10
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Good video 👍🏻 great collection
Great informative video. Thank you
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing
The only people who see the money from the rise in value are the stores that give you half price for the comic when you try to sell it
I have hundreds of ungraded comics from the 70s-early 90s. I have no clue their value but I’m about to sort them to find out. Nice video, tough losses though.
Cool video, but a bit misleading... If you go a little further back when you and most collectors have purchased, you will see the books actually went up. Prior to the pandemic spike of 2021. In 2020 GS X-Man 9.2 sold for around $ 3,000 and now sells at around $ 4,500 which is a 50% increase.
Great video!!! I'm jealous of your collection. In addition to these values I'd also be curious if the years you bought then and the values then. If you had these books since the early 90's then the drop in peak value would still suck but you'd also still be ahead tons in value compared to those previous values.
Thanks! I'd have to dig through my records to find out all the prices I paid. But they were well before the boom in 2021. So I should be in the green for all these books.
Your honesty is worth a million at least. Anyway, thank you for the education.
My loss is but a pittance to yours,thanks for sharing and making me feel better. 😢
Any time!
Stock market is a lead indicator. Collectors items are a lag indicator. Stock market is back up. Expect collectors items start to rebound in the next 12/18 months
I LOVE YOUR VIDSSS MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!!
Thanks for stopping by!
The thing is, until you sell them, there is no loss realized. Hold them long enough and you won’t lose anything. The problem of course is, if you would have put that same money into and index fund in 2021, what would that be worth now? So it is definitely an opportunity loss.🤷🏻♂️
Great video and educational. I many of the comics were bought during the comic boom. I would imagine the more books get added to the cgc sensus the value also drops
Man what an incredible collection! I just got into comic collecting recently and have never seen some of the ones you have here. Really cool, thanks for sharing!
I am not a marvel guy but man I can appreciate the key books here. my goodness
Would love if you did videos on original movie posters!
Hulk 1 has always been a rare book and the poor paper it was printed on plays a huge factor in value for higher grades
It is not just comic books. I collected vintage toys and it is the same story. Due to the economy people are saving their money and not spending. Most non essential items are taking a hit. It is a buyers market right now, so buy your collectables now why the prices are down.
Plastic coffins are crowding the market. It was big when it started, but now the Overstreet is aligning with CGC and values are coming down. Most of these issues won't be affordable to collectors who don't have a large piggy bank. So, your market with these will only be with rich buyers or someone who solely wants one key appearance since they wouldn't be able to buy a collection. It's priced out new collectors and low income buyers.
Excellent video. I just subscribed to your channel.
Like you said... you haven't lost money... you can actually buy stuff again! When the pandemic was going on....I couldn't add anything to my PC because prices were ridiculous.
I only invest in sealed boxes of sports cards and collectible cards. Every day some of those boxes get opened meaning there are less of those sealed boxes in the world. My collection has increased over 200 percent in just 2 years. I'm happy with that. Later.
It's the fake comic fans that magically popped up in 2012 (when The Avengers released, hmmmm 🤔) Guess they just got bored after awhile 🤷♀️
This is a great thing for true comic collectors though, who actually want the comic itself rather than the investment. I might finally be able to pick up some key issues I've been wanting for awhile now, lol
There are 2 huge comic collecting fallacies:
1. Movie adaptations don't automatically increase value of the comic - if the movie sucks, that can actually DECREASE the value
2. If you are investing, collecting what's "hot" is actually bad, due to supply and demand - it doesn't matter how much interest there is in a comic, if EVERYONE has 5 copies of it in their basement, it will NEVER increase in value
The problem is that speculation about movies cause them to increase temporarily. When the movie hits, that’s when you know if you made a mistake or not. Collecting “hot” books doesn’t correlate to the supply of a book necessarily. Rare books can be “hot” as well. But collecting “hot” books usually means there’s already been a run up on the price. So if you’re buying something that is already hot, chances are you missed out on a lot of the appreciation. Same goes for stocks. The trick is to buy things before everyone else thinks they’re hot.
When your videos are only about how much the price is rather than why those comics are cool. You will always lose money
Every market fluctuates it goes in and out of rotation, I think trading cards and retro video games took over the market in past few years. So this may be temporary I am sure value will go up with time.
I am impressed that there are any comics not down by 20% from pandemic levels.
Not sure what is the appeal of slabbed comics. Isn't the enjoyment of comics in reading them to enjoy the story and the artwork?
I will just say that I never lost money on comics but I never got super rich either. just moderate profit. in fact the only books I have left are Raw books spiderman 3 which would get a 3.0 and spiderman 14 which would get a 4.0 and the bonus is I bought them in 1993 for 400 dollars each so I can sit on them for as long as I like and would still make a profit
I do not understand collecting as an investment and worrying about money. That ruins everything about collecting. I am a music fan and collect CDs and LPs. I only buy stuff that I will listen to and pay the price I am willing to pay. After that I do not care about its value, because I enjoy it and can listen to them again and again. I have found over the years some great deals on LPs that are "valuable", but I have learned to live without the ones that people are asking crazy prices for. Maybe when I am near death, I will sell them off and not care about the value. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on collectables could be used for much better investments to get better returns. Example, I purchased a rental property in 2018 with a downpayment of $17,000. It came with a renter so over the last 6 years I have paid almost 0 as the renter pays the mortgage and the house has doubled in value at this time. After 20/30 years I will either live in it and have a payment at a fraction of what others pay in rent or sell it and pocket a few hundred thousand dollars. Be smarter with your money, unless you are just super rich paying these prices are not a good investment.
The artwork on the Incredible Hulk is awesome I think that's what contributed to the value of increase in price, ❤ awesome book
Comic books are definitely bad investments and inevitably go the way of coin collecting. The comic companies focus more on movies and other "side agendas" not aligned with their core audience while not really taking much care of the actual comics.
Now, there are too many larger forces at work that can tank your whole collection with a couple of bad decisions, especially if you collect comics of a certain character.
If you want an excellent investment, sealed Pokemon trading card game product is the way to go, particularly booster boxes. Pokemon will be around for decades. Short, mid, long, it's all good.
I am on disability the last couple years and the last six months I decided to go through my old super hero comics from the 90s along with other manga comics. As I went through, I kept thinking, man if I had unloaded all these books in the late 90s in exchange for Magic cards of that time, which I did do a little bit (trading my Sandman run and my Hellblazer run for Magic), I would have a million dollars in card value now.
Wow, fantastic video. Thanks a lot!
Cool series! Keep them coming
What makes this even more painful is inflation. The actual hit is an additional %22ish. Like art, buy because you like something, not for speculation or investing.
Hey I’m really new to this but is there a recommended app to tracking and storing a comic collection?
Ugh this hurts my heart! I have bought a Hulk 181 9.4 during the hype, I am afraid to even look at the price...
Sorry to hear it. But hey, you've got a Hulk 181 9.4! Just enjoy it and don't look back.
Eh, the 2021 prices on everything collectable was insane. Magic the Gathering cards went insane for example. Anvil of Bogardan was selling for $80-90. Now it's selling for $20ish.
*The marketplace ignores semantics: An unrealized loss is still a loss. (A $50K collection isn't insured like a $250K one.)*
Super helpful, totally worth watching
Big problem is all of these Marvel books are hardly scarce and are still apart from AF15 20 to 30% over valued. So many people are unfortunately going to suffer huge losses and by 2026 the market will be in free fall.....
Pick nice 1950's comics around the 5.0 grade with Batman and Detective being so undervalued. Tec 225 to 299 are outstanding value still.......JM
Comic book companies should do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make their back catalog affordable and accessible to younger generations of readers.
If not, COMIC BOOK READING WILL DIE with this generation.
Marvel and DC should offer all back issues digitally FOR AS CHEAPLY AS POSSIBLE or they risk extinction of the medium itself.
Gen Z writ large IS NOT GOING TO PAY THOUSANDS of dollars just to read old stories.
Color strike on the ASM 15 are wet... beautiful copy.
That's why I don't get or buy grade books or card's or video games.
It's only value on what people willing to pay for it
It would be interesting to know what the value of these comics were in 2019. I think the 2020 and 2021 years increased in value due to the pandemic. The isolation gave a lot of people time to hobby around and dip into a "collectible" market. I would not be surprised to see if these 2024 prices reflected pre-pandemic prices.
Comics are NOT and never gave been an investment. It is a hobby. If you are not buying them to read or collect. You should not buy them.
I see where you are going. But collectibles can certainly be an investment. All that is required for something to be an investment is the hope that the value increases in the future. It doesn't necessarily make it a good investment. But it is an investment nonetheless. No reason why hobbies can't be investments, just as investing can be a hobby. Should everyone put all their savings into comic books? No. You probably shouldn't put all your money in stocks either. Diversification is important to minimize risk. No reason why a well rounded investment portfolio can't contain some collectibles.
The thing is, it is a very expensive hobby, Especially if you are a "grown-up" and more especially, if you have a family. Statues are so cool but yet so expensive, one of the reasons why I created my channel, Hope to achieve decent statue sculpting skills someday, but again, as with any hobby, it is very hard to find time for sculpting :D everything has trade-offs I guess
For sure! Life is full of trade-offs. I find the hardest things to overcome in many situations are the opportunity costs.
This is why buy for the love of the hobby and not the money. I enjoy searching and digging for value key comic books but I collect and haven’t sold any of my comic books yet. My favorite is the $1 bin digging.
If it's all about making money, and treating comics as commodities, then you're better off just investing real money in real investment vehicles. You can lose just as much there, but the potential gains are probably much higher.
Atleast, you had a lot of fun, and made so many people including me envying your collection.
Continue to enjoy them.
Thanks! These books are the stars of the show! 😁
Just thought about collecting comics, but I would never pay hundreds of dollars for one -- let alone thousands of dollars. The first thing you need to consider before you buy into something, is to settle on what your departure strategy is going to be in order to get out of your position.
Comics will bounce back after Deadpool & Wolverine and Secret wars
If you didn't pay $33000 for the book, it's not a lose. Example I pay $1k for book, the book reaches a FMV of $3k one year and then drops to $1500 the next year, I am still up $500, with zero actual loses. Very misleading and negative way to present your information. Absolutely amazing collection.
I would say they are a bad investment.
Times of printed media is gone.
50 years ago people collected stamps, 30 years ago nobody was interested in them anymore. Same thing with comic books.
But if you buy those as a financial investment only you probably aren't the smartest investor in the first place, sorry for the honesty.
People aren't growing up with comics anymore, why should they buy them overpriced when they can get a digital edition for free?!
Coincidentally, and only for pure enjoyment I starting collecting again about a year and a half ago. I only bought l books based on completionism, and fun. None of it was speculation.
I've been writing this all the time. There's only a limited amount of people on the internet that's going to buy... comic books. It's like a Pyramid of people. The ones who will buy the highest are desperate ones who have $. Then the price slowly goes down from there. Until the "last" person buys it for a bargain because the person who wants to sell it is desperate to get rid of it. Then after that, all the same books are priced low cause basically everyone's got a copy. I see the same thing in sports cards. But in cards, someone opens too many packs, have too many singles, then unloads it in the 2nd-dary market which kills the price of the card
You don't purchase comics as a investment graded or not
Its a collection for a hobby you enjoy and intend on keeping.
Almost all comics become absolutely worthless in value. Extremely rare to ever see any comic actually go up in values.
You would be better investing into a new Tesla cyber truck.