Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The comic market

I have toyed with the idea of selling off a lot of my comics. I have quite a bit of silver age stuff, and a lot of bronze age comics. Recently, though, I have been checking out ebay, and...

No one is buying. I see some nice comics on ebay, and they have no bids. I have read some articles online which also seem to indicate that the prices of back issues, by and large, are falling. I thought comics - like most collectibles - would only increase in value, or at least hold their value. This doesn't seem to be the case.

My theory is - and I'm sure it isn't new - since very few kids read comics, the audience is dying off and the demand for old comics is decreasing. Any other thoughts?

Beyond the Golden Age and early Silver Age, a lot of comics had a high enough print run and were reasonably collectible (i.e weren't immediately disposable) that there is enough (or more) supply to meet demand for them. As you move up through the bronze age, your glut of still-existing issues from any given print run gets higher still. Unless you're dealing in something that's really rare, like say Eclipse Miracleman issues, or Men in Black, your chances of fetching a high price are slim. It really is a buyer's market.

I like collecting stuff from the 1960s and earlier... sometime during the 1970s, the paper quality went way down. I do have my Legion complete, though. I am reluctant to bid on big ticket ebay items because you can't see the comic.

Comic collecting is still done - but you raise an interesting point. If new collectors don't keep entering the field, it will die. Since interest (reader-hip) in comics keeps going down, I suppose interest may eventually die out.

The thing is, I have been looking (window-shopping) at comics I looked at 5 years ago - and the prices are lower now. The comics that have bids on them are going for absurdly low prices. It certainly seems to be a good time to buy, and a rotten time to sell. I guess I'll just keep my old comics. They aren't eating anything.

Digital+TPBs. If you just want to read the damn things, most stuff has been collected in the past decade, and virtually* everything is available digitally at modern "cover price" or even - for Marvel and a couple of others - as part of a Netflix-style subscription. To boot, books are easier to store and read, and digital requires at most marginal physical storage.

Why pay $10 an issue if you don't have to?

[*The exceptions mostly being stuff that's rights-snafued, like ROM.]

Good point, Reboot. I hadn't considered the digital stuff. Hmm....what are you guys using? I know Marvel does something like the Netflix model. Any other paths to follow?

I'm not gonna say I'm necessarily getting all the value I can for my old comics, but I've been utilizing my CBS for well over a year to consign a buttload of my comics. It's been pretty successful, so far. Sure, I have to give the owner 30% of the take on my sales, but I don't have to worry about eBay listings and shipping and all that crap. If I sold it to a dealer outright, I'd be lucky to get 50% of their value, if that, so it works in my favor.

So if there's a local CBS near you, Lance, see if they do consignment.

Ok, I have been looking into this, and am seriously considering going the Marvel Unlimited route. 10 bucks a month sounds cheap. Does anyone have any advice? What's the best way to read it? Does it look ok on an iPhone?

Does DC have a similar service? I didn't see anything along that line.

Thanks!

I guess I'm a bit of a purist. I like the books to read. Quality of the book doesn't really matter to me as long as the issue is complete.

I've thought about selling my old stuff, but it's mostly bronze age with silver added from later collecting over the years, meaning, they were rough shape less costly issues, so wouldn't bring a lot.

I plan to leave them to Sam one day. He'll either read them, or maybe get a nice vacation or something out of them.

Right there with you, Rickshaw. I never aspired to collect comics - I just wanted to have a ton of them to read. I also didn't care about the condition as long as I could read it.

To that end, I actually did take the plunge yesterday and I signed up for Marvel Unlimited. 70 bucks for a year. (Cheaper than the 10 bucks per month.)

Here are the cons as far as I see.

I am reading them on my iPhone, although I am certain a tablet would be better. You can either view a page at a time, or a panel at a time. The panel lets you read it better, but...some of the panels are off-center and the panel gets chopped off the screen a little. So, I usually read it page-at-a-time, but I keep having to zoom in and moving around the page. Mildly annoying, but not a big deal.

Also, there are some gaps in the issues. Many issues of Daredevil are missing.

Still, I am pretty happy. There are thousands of old comics I can read now. X-Men and FF and Avengers and Defenders from day 1. Plus, Tales to Astonish and Journey into Mystery and all kinds of old stuff I have never read before.

I haven't bought a (paper) comic in 4 years, and now cannot imagine ever buying another one.