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Originally Posted by fazzyfaz
Being a "serious" collector since 1984 and a reader since the late 70's, I am interested in the thoughts and comments here among the members. Do you see the eventual print run shrinkage due to digital or just less interest as a positive to investing...as opposed to the way over produced lines of the late 80's-90's that occurred? If you have sold off your collections, did you retain any (other than sentimental books we all have)? Do you see a true future for books holding their "value"? Any thoughts on who are buying books (demographics) and what happens as the older collectors decide to stop and sell off? Lastly, where do you personally see the collector interest in 20 years? I am not looking to start any battles, I just value the opinions here. My collection goes back the the late 1950's with numerous complete runs of DC/Marvel from the 60's to present. I have always been a high grade collector (vf/nm or better) knowing that would be easiest to move if I had to. I have a few boxes slabbed and believe in cgc purely because of ebay issues with ungraded books.
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In regards to comics and investing, I would tell someone to stick with silver age, golden age, and some bronze age comics and stay away from the modern market. First appearances and high grade CGC signature copies are also a smart buy. In my opinion, modern comics are going to crash, especially the variant market. So many variants are being produced that its completely changed how people view rare comics. Basically rarity itself is now commonplace. Just look at the ridiculousness that is Star Wars #1. What are we up to now, like 120 variants for a single comic issue? Its absurd. Even in regards to hand drawn covers, which are basically limited to just a single copy, there will eventually be so many of them on the market that people won't be able to keep up. Completionist collecting, at least in regards to modern comics, has basically been taken out back and put down.
The best investments are the comics that are rare due to the passing of time, not because they were initially created in small numbers. If your a comic collector and you want you collection to be an investment, stay away from modern comics and variants. As for where the market will be in 20 years, I have absolutely no friggen clue. I do expect a crash with the modern market, but where is goes from there is anyone's guess. Everyone bags and boards their comics these days, so a very large percentage of the books produced will still be here 20, 30, 40, even 50 years down the line. And there in lies one of the main problems with the modern collectibles market, the normal mechanics that play out over time that make a collectible rare and valuable no longer come into play and rarity is really the key factor in regards to a collectible becoming valuable.
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Do you see the eventual print run shrinkage due to digital or just less interest as a positive to investing
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I don't. Less interest equals less demand. Even if the comics wind up being produced in fewer numbers, you will have less people collecting them so it cancels out any positive effect that lower print runs might have had.
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If you have sold off your collections, did you retain any (other than sentimental books we all have)?
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I actually lost my collection in a fire in 2008, but I was insured so I didn't lose any money over it. I was planning on replacing most of the comics I lost, but I ultimately decided against it, at least in regards to the modern comics I lost. I have replaced a good deal of the Gold/Silver/Bronze age comics that I lost, along with many of the first appearance issues, but I decided to let most of the modern comics I lost go. I did replace all of my Michael Turner comics as I am a huge Michael Turner fan, but instead of buying regular issues, I focused on autographed copies. I figured that would be a much better long term prospect than just regular issues. I do still read comics, I just buy hard cover TPB's instead of actually collecting individual issues.
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My collection goes back the the late 1950's with numerous complete runs of DC/Marvel from the 60's to present. I have always been a high grade collector (vf/nm or better) knowing that would be easiest to move if I had to.
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It sounds like you will do ok in the long run, at least in regards to your older stuff. Older high grade comics are going to continue to go up in value, at least for the foreseeable future. As for CGC, the only modern CGC's that I think will be worth a damn in the long run are the signature series. If your buying those at a reasonable price, you should be ok with those as well.
