"Comics probably worthless" article

[Crossbonez74]

Is there really a market of young collectors coming into the comic shops? There is a lot of interest in comic characters but are new readers joining the ranks? Without new readers/ collectors to keep hobby going it will eventally fade away. The bottom will fall out with the exception of key issues within the gold/silver age.

[risingstar]

To get younger readers into the stores, or more inclined to read digital comics, several things need to change. First and foremost, as kids today are far more of the instant gratification type than we ever were, these convoluted multi parters have to go. Bring back self contained issues or two parters. Also, enough with the super gritty stories. It doesn't draw in younger readers. They want adventure not adult angst. Make them much cheaper to buy too, i.e., $1-$2. Lastly, enough with the retcons. Kids need to feel confident that if they missed an issue or two that their favorite character hasn't been radically changed into something barely recognizable, or killed.

[Teague]

Definitely a guy who thinks he knows something about comics, but doesn't. Clearly buying new comics is at best a huge risk--they may never gain in value. Older comics? Less risk, but still risky.

But to suggest that those old comics in your basement are worthless? Pretty short-sighted. If it said "those 90s comics," then he'd have a point.

[moon_knight1971]

Originally Posted by Vince-Vell

Glad i sold off all of the ones in my collection that fetched good money. Now i only have 4 long boxes left of comics that are worthless but i love them and their stories. So while they are worthless on the market they are valuable to me to read over and over again.

This is all that's important!

[Y3E]

I'm not sure how many comics I have now, 20,000 or more and I know most of them are worthless and when it comes time to get rid of them, I am not going to waste my time and try to sell them. I will dump or donate them but I will keep my golden and silver age books and long running series like X-men (vol 1 #90 and up) and Avengers (vol 1. #40 and up).

Whoever thought these would be a good investments and use to buy a house need a reality check.

[ReplicantSavior]

Originally Posted by Teague

Definitely a guy who thinks he knows something about comics, but doesn't. Clearly buying new comics is at best a huge risk--they may never gain in value. Older comics? Less risk, but still risky.

Originally Posted by Y3E

Whoever thought these would be a good investments and use to buy a house need a reality check.

This is the thing. What crazy person actually came out and said comics = investments? No one says that about statues, books, designer clothes, etc. But somehow people get the idea from Wizard and other places that just because Price Guides are published and older comics are rare in high quality that comics = good investment. It's silly to me.

[built2shred]

I was reading somewhere that anything newer then 1975 is pretty much worthless... Only a few key issues of the silver and golden age are worth anything and it's only because there extreamly rare.

Obviously people thought that comics might be worth something in the future otherwise why would people keep thousands of comics around in boxes? Do people really go back and re-read all those thousands of comics over and over again?

If I was a 14 year old I would prefer the New 52 comics over any comic from the 50's or 60's... the artwork is way superior and the stories are more modern, yes I know I'm going to piss off old timers with that comment but it is the truth.

What you thought was cool long ago is not so cool to the newer generations.

Would I want the 1st issue of Action Comics? Hell yeah but not to read it, but to show it off on my living room wall. It has a cool factor of being the 1st comic to ever have Superman in it, the story itself was meh...

[tedmic]

I think golden and silver age still do well. I like both Marvel and DC but are there ANY DC comics from the 1970's or later that are worth as much as a NM condition Hulk #181 or Giant sized X-Men?

[ReplicantSavior]

Originally Posted by built2shred

I was reading somewhere that anything newer then 1975 is pretty much worthless... Only a few key issues of the silver and golden age are worth anything and it's only because there extreamly rare.

Obviously people thought that comics might be worth something in the future otherwise why would people keep thousands of comics around in boxes? Do people really go back and re-read all those thousands of comics over and over again?

If I was a 14 year old I would prefer the New 52 comics over any comic from the 50's or 60's... the artwork is way superior and the stories are more modern, yes I know I'm going to piss off old timers with that comment but it is the truth.

What you thought was cool long ago is not so cool to the newer generations.

Would I want the 1st issue of Action Comics? Hell yeah but not to read it, but to show it off on my living room wall. It has a cool factor of being the 1st comic to ever have Superman in it, the story itself was meh...

You shouldn't use the term worthless. Tons of modern early issues from Image comics like Walking Dead are expensive. Fatale, Revival, Morning Glories, and others. Worthless is a bad term as used in that article to get readers. It's basically saying you threw your money away. Which isn't the case.

People keep comics in bags, boards, and boxes because that's the proper way to store them. You can store them in other ways but they won't be NM. And if, just if some turn out to be expensive and wanted. You will wish you kept them properly. That's why those old comics have crazy values. They were new back then and barely anyone kept them correctly. And I do read some of my old comics. As I only like single issues for some and only get the HC/TPB for whole series that I like.

In many ways, you can look at modern comics like exotic cars. The new ones might be faster and more luxurious. But they won't hold their value like the older ones. A collector will probably still be interested in the older car/comic because that's the origin/where the design started.

[JP Sarri]

Originally Posted by ReplicantSavior

You shouldn't use the term worthless. Tons of modern early issues from Image comics like Walking Dead are expensive. Fatale, Revival, Morning Glories, and others. Worthless is a bad term as used in that article to get readers. It's basically saying you threw your money away. Which isn't the case.

People keep comics in bags, boards, and boxes because that's the proper way to store them. You can store them in other ways but they won't be NM. And if, just if some turn out to be expensive and wanted. You will wish you kept them properly. That's why those old comics have crazy values. They were new back then and barely anyone kept them correctly. And I do read some of my old comics. As I only like single issues for some and only get the HC/TPB for whole series that I like.

In many ways, you can look at modern comics like exotic cars. The new ones might be faster and more luxurious. But they won't hold their value like the older ones. A collector will probably still be interested in the older car/comic because that's the origin/where the design started.