Superman, Wonderwoman, The Incredible Hulk and all their friends are not kid stuff anymore! Collecting comic books is one of the most active sub-cultures going today! Since the origin of Superman in 1938 where on the cover in his Adventures of Marco Polo, he picked up a car and people fled the streets, Superman, and all the other colorful characters to follow, have impressed and entertained in comic format for seventy years!
In the early 1960’s, most people were still reading and unmindfully saving comics instead of collecting them. But, it wasn’t long before the trend changed and collecting them became a ‘mad’ hobby like no other. ComicCons (comic conventions) started popping up all over the country with thousands of attendees, collector magazines and books began appearing everywhere and finally full scale media coverage stepped up it’s role. If you had joined that world in the 1960’s – you could now cash in for a trip around the world, a brand new Rolls Royce or whatever else might suit your fancy. The hobbyists then and the ones today will go to whatever price is necessary to obtain that certain book for their collection. So, the lowly 20cent ‘funny book’ that entertained in the past – now holds status and controls wealth in today’s culture.
Knowing what a comic book is worth can be difficult sometimes. The condition, price guides and current sales can all play a role in it’s value. On the latter point, I’ve found it’s kind of like getting a ‘comp’ price in the real estate market. Even though you may have a wonderful home – if no homes have sold in your area for the past few months – you don’t really have a market value number. The same with comic books! You may own a fine comic book, but if there has not been one sold recently in the marketplace, you may have to wait for a later time to know and get it’s true worth. Aaron Albert offers some basic guidelines in his online article, Find Comic Book Values.
So, today, I opened up the carefully wrapped stash of comic books that were in our ‘home-place’ inventory. The first one I picked out was The Avengers by Marvel Comic Group, 1973, #110. It’s condition was quite good without any tears, rips or marks and even though the pages were not crisp white anymore – they were all there. I typed in the title in the search engine and began my journey into the world of comic books…Marvel, Action Comics and DC. All offered robust buying and selling. After exploring several sites, I found the price on this particular comic book to be exceptional. But my favorite result was an auction that just sold a copy in 9.6 ‘CGC Condition’ for $295.00! Other sites listed other popular comic books in the thousands of $$! So, I’m thinking…Kamandi, X-Men, Spider Man, Captain Marvel – you have my attention! Shazam!
See THE Avengers, 1973, #110 by Marvel Comic Group for more than half the price of the latest auction!
