I am not a dealer, but I've been collecting comics for fun for over 50 years. 99% of comics published since 1970 are essentially worthless, and most all comics are worth less every year as we older collectors age. If you are interested in investing, go to a financial counselor and put money in stocks. Comics are for enjoyment, NOT investment (of course with rare exceptions in some cases). Generally, collecting comics is not investing for the future, it's a black hole of disposable income. My two cents.
Agree.. Seams like that last comment is a person who got burned really bad buying garbage books and couldn’t get a profit out of it. If you buy right your will do alright. Facts
Comics are a higher risk alternative investment. They should never be a core component of any financial investment strategy. Because most comics are not scarce (even though they might be popular), the likelihood of beating a return of a good stock index fund over a period of time is very low. Limit your comic book investment allocation to no more than 5-10% of your entire investment portfolio.
@@2hugebros241 No. I've done quite well in comics value appreciation. But I only buy what I want to read or collect, not for investment or resale. Since 90% of my collection is worthless, I am glad I bought to read or enjoy, not for investments. However, that 10% is worth a hundred times what the other stuff is combined. If I ever sell, I'll probably break even on the collection, which is not bad since profit was never my main goal.
I buy a ton of comics as an investment but I also in the business of buying and selling pop culture. My advice for anyone buying comics to invest, they should then be a dealer or sell some every year to know the work it takes to sell them etc. A lot of folks buy them for the fun of collecting and reading but never with the thought of selling. And lots of folks sell in bulk cheaply because it is a lot of work. So if you do want to buy for future value and investing, you have to also put the work in now to sell them. That all being said, I have saved a fortune in value buying comics and other collectibles, many increasing many fold.
@@pop-comics definitely pop comics you hit the hammer on the nails head there it’s a heck of a lot easier to buy comics than it is to sell them I won a giveaway away once and it was a comic I didn’t collect but at the time it had value so I thought it should be easy to sell it. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be to sell it. in fact I had to end up selling it for way less than I thought it was worth. Easy to buy had to sell some comic books. Some are just more liquid than others and will sell easily others no so much and if your a collector you probably have bulk of the not so easy stuff to sell. That’s why I say most of us will probably be lucky if we break even when we sell off our collections in a time of need or we we are just done collecting all together and just want out of the hobby. Breaking even is the best case scenario for most of us I think
I take this approach and use comics as the portion of my investments set aside for growth. I also only buy graded keys that are in demand so that if I needed to liquidate, I could.
I get the point but it sounds like the beginning of rationalizing spending money. It's the sort of argument I might make to my wife but if you're not maxing out retirement savings first its just fooling yourself and maybe others.
I have taken this approach, in a half-hearted way, since I started collecting comics. Thankfully I also collected books and titles that I truly enjoy. Sometimes though, it's hard to justify spending several thousand dollars on a comic book. But then I think, well I'll probably be able to get my money back out of it and I will also have the pleasure of owning it for as long as I do. Ultimately my attitude towards my comic collecting has been, if I can break even I would be happy. And ya, it can be just like putting money in the bank. Thanks for the fun and insightful content my fellow Canadian comic collecting geek!😊
Great Vid Alan, I think one thing that people should realise too which is not really talked about much, that even for low cost books, if you buy runs in bulk with the odd key, they are generally good value if the key takes the average price of the other books in the run down. Then looking at base comic cover price values over the years, when cover prices on moderns go up, say from 1.99, to 2.99, 3.99, 4.99(almost becoming the norm soon, youch), all of those back-issues you bought cheaper start to become a really good option for buyers wanting to fill runs they are collecting, so in theory your investment gets a bump with cover price inflation. You then have that side of collecting being savvy in everything you buy, from cheap books to high value.
Very true. Although comics are not really a great investment unless you buy very carefully, it does mean you can still get a lot of your money back out at the end of pursuing a hobby, which is not true of very many other hobbies at all. This is a good way to think about it. Just make sure you are not in over your head, you have financial liquidity, have other investments, and you buy what you would be happy to be stuck if it doesn't increase in value, rather than total speculation.
I've also heard good things about investing in Beanie Babies. The ultimate investment would be buying comics about Beanie Babies. Good Girl Beanie Baby covers and innuendo Beanie Baby covers would be worth a fortune!
I couldn’t agree more. Comics are one of the best things to collect. Think about it: pop culture, art, storytelling, history, nostalgia, liquid cash if need be.
I like to have something to show for my money... for me, it's not an expensive hobby and only tend to spend about £10 - £15 a week... on average I collect about 100 comic books a year (2 books a week) and 12 graded comics with a focus on quality and not quantity... also, the hobby helped me quit smoking (about 10 years ago) and improves my mental health 😊
I feel better now that I know I have been saving all these years. Also, in Europe we have social security so we get to keep our comics when we are ill 😁
Short-seller rigging rules the Stock Market so comic investing is way better currently, so long as we dont let CGC or some other authority price guide dictate prices like the market maker gods of stocks. Also dont sell your comics (or any property) as a short sell if you can help it, although in this economy its hard not to lose everything. Even when Gen-X dies out and our estates flood the market, if demand for these treasures is there it can actually increase the prices (unless demand does not count like the stock market short-seller rigging).
Of course your advice has a lot to do with the type of comics one buys. The vast majority of comics are worthless. Take a few of your prized books to a few LCS and ask what they will give you for them. If you are lucky and its a good book, maybe 1/4 the value. Others have said this already in comments, but I'm curious to hear what your actual experience has been in selling from your collection. Selling takes a long time and to speed that up by putting the book in front of a lot of eyes in an auction setting requires a lot of seller fees that will quickly reduce your profit. This is why many people just unload collections and hope to recover what they spent on the books. If you are buying for investment I would focus more on purchasing quality over quantity. It's a hell of lot easier to sell 1 desirable book then 25 middle of the road books.
Collecting to invest is not fun enough for me. I’m not really collecting to sell. I get enjoyment out of collecting but I suppose it’s nice to know that it’s still worth something on a rainy day.
Collectibles are a great way to diversify your portfolio, but you should try to limit them to no more than 5-10% of your portfolio. Stocks are my favorite because of the cash flow and the liquidity. If I want money now, I just have to press one button and I have it instantly. Real estate also works, but for other reasons. That being said, I will always buy comics because I love them, and sometimes I may splurge on expensive ones, but I will never sell my VOO or QQQ to buy comics.
Yes, but the bigger concern is regarding the desire for tangible assets. Lately there has been a push towards more digital consumption. However I believe there will always be an interest in comics
Are we all just buying comics because we think we can make money later when we sell our collections off or we buying them because we love the stories and characters or is it both for some. It’s a hobby that should be fun to do get out go to some comics shops find new comic shops in your area get in your vehicle and drive to a new comic shop you never been it’s part of the experience and excitement of comic collecting stop at that antique store on your way home from work you never stoped at but drove by a thousand times. Go to the comic convention in your local area have fun collecting comics . Comic book collecting is a an adventure it can be fun. But as soon as someone brings up it’s investing money into comics it’s a buzz kill if you want to look at comics as stocks and bonds then just play the stock market you will be better off doing that then collecting comics for Monetary gains I think. if I sell off my collection. I hope to be able to just break even at best. if I come out with a profit even better. But I am not looking at my comic collecting as a savings account because it’s disposable money I am using to buy my comics. It’s a hobby it should be fun. If I wasn’t into comic books as a hobby i would be using my disposable income on some other hobby I am interested in.
Be careful with this advice man. Remember the late 90’s to 2012, comics were nowhere as liquid as they are now. I had six childhood friends who gave me their collections for practically free, because comic book stores wanted to give them 25cents a book. With eBay and other ways to sell things shouldn’t ever be that bad again, but be careful about this advice. So many variables in this equation. Modern books, do they really have potential for future gain? I doubt it. I’m a life long collector, and I don’t regret a dime I have spent on this hobby. Being surrounded with my toys and comics makes me happy, always has.
I think comic books solely as an investment is bad. They just are not a good investment IMO. As entertainment that holds its value or appreciates, it is great. From a financial standpoint though it has to have that dual purpose I think. Otherwise, if you are just investing in comic books for money, you are not very good with money IMO. Which I think is more or less what you're saying with the added fun of you get to not even think of it as an investment along the way. 🎉 Just enjoy what you love and have a small bit of comfort that if the day comes and you need to you can potentially get a nice return.
No one is talking about that there are so few new collectors and all us old collectors will die in 20-30 years. The market will be flooded with comics.
I will talk about it. They have been saying that the last 10 years, and the opposite happened: we saw a flood of new young collectors come to the market because of the comic book hype generated by the MCU. A revitalized, agenda-free MCU hopefully will bring more good movies and thus more new young collectors to the hobby. Deadpool/Wolverine showed us the MCU is not dead, it has a pulse. I'm expecting more garbage with Agatha, Thunderbolts and Captain Falcon, but i expect a lot of excitement with the FF movie, the Avengers Secret Wars movies, and then the MCU X-Men. And i expect good things to come out of DC/Warner Brothers starting next year, not the mostly garbage they put out after Dark Knight Rises.
"I haven't been able to save for the future well." Well, ya think? Of course you can't, you've been buying comics on a weekly basis. It's an addiction.
The biggest payoff I got was back in 2014 when I bought some big ticket comics as a “store of value”. Didn’t care to make money on them, just figured they would not lose value and I could liquidate easily. Those shot up and increased in value considerably. The last few years though seems all of my buys have gone down, so not so much of a great store of value, when a year later I lose half my money. Just need all these non comic people out of the hobby so things can normalize once again.
It's all about ebbs and flows. Just like you said in 2014 you were able to get some big ticket items pay off now 10 years later the market has changed due to multifactorial issues in 5-10 years. From now it could be way back up again. It's all about when you buy and sell and think long term
If you’ve got money you’re looking to invest, you can do better than comic books… Hell, with interest rates where they are, there’s some high interest bank accounts that’ll see more return on investment than comics will. You can look at how comics tend to retain value as a way of feeling better about spending, I guess. It’s easier to recoup the money you put in if you had tothan it is in say, model railways. But again, that’s only for the bigger ticket stuff.
Believe it or not, my wife actually agrees with you on this topic. I have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last 8 years for my future. Alone with that I have bought and sold comics and have been able to use the money to buy cars and vacations. My wife sees how savvy I am at that and encourages me to keep going. I personally would rather have a huge savings account and a ton of investments. She would like to see me diversify into collectibles as well. So I have 90% of my future in investments and savings, which is what I would recommend.
Don't you have to put some caveates on your discussion. Are you giving investment advice? I'd caution you. I know if you are not a lawyer, you can't provide legal advice. That aside, I look at my comic collecting as one of several of my investment legs. Pension, social security, property, 401K, comic books, and other collectibles.
I am not a dealer, but I've been collecting comics for fun for over 50 years. 99% of comics published since 1970 are essentially worthless, and most all comics are worth less every year as we older collectors age. If you are interested in investing, go to a financial counselor and put money in stocks. Comics are for enjoyment, NOT investment (of course with rare exceptions in some cases). Generally, collecting comics is not investing for the future, it's a black hole of disposable income. My two cents.
The point is the money used is disposable income. If the comics have any value, you will build equity through collecting.
Agree.. Seams like that last comment is a person who got burned really bad buying garbage books and couldn’t get a profit out of it. If you buy right your will do alright. Facts
Comics are a higher risk alternative investment. They should never be a core component of any financial investment strategy. Because most comics are not scarce (even though they might be popular), the likelihood of beating a return of a good stock index fund over a period of time is very low. Limit your comic book investment allocation to no more than 5-10% of your entire investment portfolio.
@@2hugebros241 No. I've done quite well in comics value appreciation. But I only buy what I want to read or collect, not for investment or resale. Since 90% of my collection is worthless, I am glad I bought to read or enjoy, not for investments. However, that 10% is worth a hundred times what the other stuff is combined. If I ever sell, I'll probably break even on the collection, which is not bad since profit was never my main goal.
I buy a ton of comics as an investment but I also in the business of buying and selling pop culture. My advice for anyone buying comics to invest, they should then be a dealer or sell some every year to know the work it takes to sell them etc. A lot of folks buy them for the fun of collecting and reading but never with the thought of selling. And lots of folks sell in bulk cheaply because it is a lot of work. So if you do want to buy for future value and investing, you have to also put the work in now to sell them. That all being said, I have saved a fortune in value buying comics and other collectibles, many increasing many fold.
You are probably the most successful person I know at using your collection. Smart youtube methods and having a store.
@@pop-comics definitely pop comics you hit the hammer on the nails head there it’s a heck of a lot easier to buy comics than it is to sell them I won a giveaway away once and it was a comic I didn’t collect but at the time it had value so I thought it should be easy to sell it. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be to sell it. in fact I had to end up selling it for way less than I thought it was worth. Easy to buy had to sell some comic books. Some are just more liquid than others and will sell easily others no so much and if your a collector you probably have bulk of the not so easy stuff to sell. That’s why I say most of us will probably be lucky if we break even when we sell off our collections in a time of need or we we are just done collecting all together and just want out of the hobby. Breaking even is the best case scenario for most of us I think
Investing all my money into Comic books now, thanks for the financial advice!
lol not really point. But it is a way investing without really thinking of it as an investment.
Don't forget the investment in your mental health due to escapism.
It's much better to buy a nice comic than a nice ETF or muni bond.
Agree to a certain point but not easy to sell. Dealers only pay cents on the dollar. Selling online is not quick.
Yeah for real, just try going to any LCS they will all say they will pay bulk longbox pricee 25 cents per.
I take this approach and use comics as the portion of my investments set aside for growth. I also only buy graded keys that are in demand so that if I needed to liquidate, I could.
I get the point but it sounds like the beginning of rationalizing spending money. It's the sort of argument I might make to my wife but if you're not maxing out retirement savings first its just fooling yourself and maybe others.
I have taken this approach, in a half-hearted way, since I started collecting comics. Thankfully I also collected books and titles that I truly enjoy. Sometimes though, it's hard to justify spending several thousand dollars on a comic book. But then I think, well I'll probably be able to get my money back out of it and I will also have the pleasure of owning it for as long as I do. Ultimately my attitude towards my comic collecting has been, if I can break even I would be happy. And ya, it can be just like putting money in the bank. Thanks for the fun and insightful content my fellow Canadian comic collecting geek!😊
Great Vid Alan, I think one thing that people should realise too which is not really talked about much, that even for low cost books, if you buy runs in bulk with the odd key, they are generally good value if the key takes the average price of the other books in the run down. Then looking at base comic cover price values over the years, when cover prices on moderns go up, say from 1.99, to 2.99, 3.99, 4.99(almost becoming the norm soon, youch), all of those back-issues you bought cheaper start to become a really good option for buyers wanting to fill runs they are collecting, so in theory your investment gets a bump with cover price inflation. You then have that side of collecting being savvy in everything you buy, from cheap books to high value.
I'll tell my therapist it's saving, not hoarding! Thanks for the tip, Allan!
lol
Very true. Although comics are not really a great investment unless you buy very carefully, it does mean you can still get a lot of your money back out at the end of pursuing a hobby, which is not true of very many other hobbies at all. This is a good way to think about it. Just make sure you are not in over your head, you have financial liquidity, have other investments, and you buy what you would be happy to be stuck if it doesn't increase in value, rather than total speculation.
I've also heard good things about investing in Beanie Babies. The ultimate investment would be buying comics about Beanie Babies. Good Girl Beanie Baby covers and innuendo Beanie Baby covers would be worth a fortune!
Wonderful analysis Allan. I agree!
I couldn’t agree more. Comics are one of the best things to collect. Think about it: pop culture, art, storytelling, history, nostalgia, liquid cash if need be.
I like to have something to show for my money... for me, it's not an expensive hobby and only tend to spend about £10 - £15 a week... on average I collect about 100 comic books a year (2 books a week) and 12 graded comics with a focus on quality and not quantity... also, the hobby helped me quit smoking (about 10 years ago) and improves my mental health 😊
You should send all your books to heritage and get an Action 1.
LOL I love my variety.
I feel better now that I know I have been saving all these years. Also, in Europe we have social security so we get to keep our comics when we are ill 😁
Depends which country in Europe you are in. I live in Denmark and an self employed. I didn't het any help when I got sick.
Self employment. Self sufficience.
Short-seller rigging rules the Stock Market so comic investing is way better currently, so long as we dont let CGC or some other authority price guide dictate prices like the market maker gods of stocks. Also dont sell your comics (or any property) as a short sell if you can help it, although in this economy its hard not to lose everything. Even when Gen-X dies out and our estates flood the market, if demand for these treasures is there it can actually increase the prices (unless demand does not count like the stock market short-seller rigging).
Comic books = the bearer bonds in Heat. Portable wealth.
Of course your advice has a lot to do with the type of comics one buys. The vast majority of comics are worthless. Take a few of your prized books to a few LCS and ask what they will give you for them. If you are lucky and its a good book, maybe 1/4 the value.
Others have said this already in comments, but I'm curious to hear what your actual experience has been in selling from your collection. Selling takes a long time and to speed that up by putting the book in front of a lot of eyes in an auction setting requires a lot of seller fees that will quickly reduce your profit. This is why many people just unload collections and hope to recover what they spent on the books. If you are buying for investment I would focus more on purchasing quality over quantity. It's a hell of lot easier to sell 1 desirable book then 25 middle of the road books.
Many new comics are just plain cringe. Wonder if they will ever be sought after because of their low print runs.
Its a fun way to save!
Collecting to invest is not fun enough for me. I’m not really collecting to sell. I get enjoyment out of collecting but I suppose it’s nice to know that it’s still worth something on a rainy day.
that's kind of my point
Collectibles are a great way to diversify your portfolio, but you should try to limit them to no more than 5-10% of your portfolio. Stocks are my favorite because of the cash flow and the liquidity. If I want money now, I just have to press one button and I have it instantly. Real estate also works, but for other reasons. That being said, I will always buy comics because I love them, and sometimes I may splurge on expensive ones, but I will never sell my VOO or QQQ to buy comics.
Are you not concerned that comic book collectors are aging out causing the values to fall?
Yes, but the bigger concern is regarding the desire for tangible assets. Lately there has been a push towards more digital consumption. However I believe there will always be an interest in comics
Are we all just buying comics because we think we can make money later when we sell our collections off or we buying them because we love the stories and characters or is it both for some. It’s a hobby that should be fun to do get out go to some comics shops find new comic shops in your area get in your vehicle and drive to a new comic shop you never been it’s part of the experience and excitement of comic collecting stop at that antique store on your way home from work you never stoped at but drove by a thousand times. Go to the comic convention in your local area have fun collecting comics . Comic book collecting is a an adventure it can be fun. But as soon as someone brings up it’s investing money into comics it’s a buzz kill if you want to look at comics as stocks and bonds then just play the stock market you will be better off doing that then collecting comics for
Monetary gains I think. if I sell off my collection. I hope to be able to just break even at best. if I come out with a profit even better. But I am not looking at my comic collecting as a savings account because it’s disposable money I am using to buy my comics. It’s a hobby it should be fun. If I wasn’t into comic books as a hobby i would be using my disposable income on some other hobby I am interested in.
Please explain how to purchase vixens. I want it badly!!
Be careful with this advice man. Remember the late 90’s to 2012, comics were nowhere as liquid as they are now. I had six childhood friends who gave me their collections for practically free, because comic book stores wanted to give them 25cents a book. With eBay and other ways to sell things shouldn’t ever be that bad again, but be careful about this advice. So many variables in this equation. Modern books, do they really have potential for future gain? I doubt it.
I’m a life long collector, and I don’t regret a dime I have spent on this hobby. Being surrounded with my toys and comics makes me happy, always has.
I think comic books solely as an investment is bad. They just are not a good investment IMO. As entertainment that holds its value or appreciates, it is great. From a financial standpoint though it has to have that dual purpose I think. Otherwise, if you are just investing in comic books for money, you are not very good with money IMO. Which I think is more or less what you're saying with the added fun of you get to not even think of it as an investment along the way. 🎉 Just enjoy what you love and have a small bit of comfort that if the day comes and you need to you can potentially get a nice return.
No one is talking about that there are so few new collectors and all us old collectors will die in 20-30 years. The market will be flooded with comics.
I will talk about it. They have been saying that the last 10 years, and the opposite happened: we saw a flood of new young collectors come to the market because of the comic book hype generated by the MCU. A revitalized, agenda-free MCU hopefully will bring more good movies and thus more new young collectors to the hobby. Deadpool/Wolverine showed us the MCU is not dead, it has a pulse. I'm expecting more garbage with Agatha, Thunderbolts and Captain Falcon, but i expect a lot of excitement with the FF movie, the Avengers Secret Wars movies, and then the MCU X-Men. And i expect good things to come out of DC/Warner Brothers starting next year, not the mostly garbage they put out after Dark Knight Rises.
@@zoso73😂dude says agenda free and then refuses to acknowledge Sam Wilson as Captain America 😂 the irony is palpable
"I haven't been able to save for the future well." Well, ya think? Of course you can't, you've been buying comics on a weekly basis. It's an addiction.
The biggest payoff I got was back in 2014 when I bought some big ticket comics as a “store of value”. Didn’t care to make money on them, just figured they would not lose value and I could liquidate easily. Those shot up and increased in value considerably. The last few years though seems all of my buys have gone down, so not so much of a great store of value, when a year later I lose half my money. Just need all these non comic people out of the hobby so things can normalize once again.
It's all about ebbs and flows. Just like you said in 2014 you were able to get some big ticket items pay off now 10 years later the market has changed due to multifactorial issues in 5-10 years. From now it could be way back up again. It's all about when you buy and sell and think long term
My comics paid for most of my child custody lawyer during my divorce. Starting over now.
Divorce only seems to benefit the lawyers.
@@ComicCollectorGeek 💯 but I'm just thankful I had invested in comics to get me through it.
If you’ve got money you’re looking to invest, you can do better than comic books…
Hell, with interest rates where they are, there’s some high interest bank accounts that’ll see more return on investment than comics will.
You can look at how comics tend to retain value as a way of feeling better about spending, I guess. It’s easier to recoup the money you put in if you had tothan it is in say, model railways. But again, that’s only for the bigger ticket stuff.
Believe it or not, my wife actually agrees with you on this topic. I have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last 8 years for my future. Alone with that I have bought and sold comics and have been able to use the money to buy cars and vacations. My wife sees how savvy I am at that and encourages me to keep going. I personally would rather have a huge savings account and a ton of investments. She would like to see me diversify into collectibles as well.
So I have 90% of my future in investments and savings, which is what I would recommend.
Now I just need to convince my wife.
@@ComicCollectorGeek you have a wonderful and very valuable collection. If you ever sell I’m sure she will be a believer.
Don't you have to put some caveates on your discussion. Are you giving investment advice? I'd caution you. I know if you are not a lawyer, you can't provide legal advice.
That aside, I look at my comic collecting as one of several of my investment legs. Pension, social security, property, 401K, comic books, and other collectibles.
I'm not giving investing advice. The point is you should invest normally but comics are a hobby that can provide extra money a for rainy day.
@@ComicCollectorGeek In that we agree.