How to Determine Which Comics Will Grow in Value

Every properly kept comic book will maintain or grow in value over time. The trick is to pick the titles with the highest growth potential.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Comic Book Boxes
• Comic Board Backings
• Acid-free Comic Board Backings
• Wizard Magazines
• Overstreet Price Guides
• Advance Previews Comic Catalogs
• Back Comic Book Issues
• Clear Page Protectors

1. Read Wizard Magazine, which lists the top-100 selling comic books every month. The top sellers are indicators of which characters are hot at the moment and which creative teams are popular.

2. Buy first issues when possible.

3. Buy variant covers. Sometimes, to promote or hype sales, comic book publishers will publish a variety of covers for the same issue.

4. Know your creative teams. Good writers and artists are popular no matter what title they work on and bring value to the book.

5. Look for new and different material. Most non-superhero books don't do that well, but the interesting ones shine through and gain in value.

6. Get to know your retailer. The comic shop makes its livelihood predicting the market.

Tips & Warnings

• If the X-Men are selling well, then the other X-titles will be doing good business. That's an indication that these titles will bring in more as back issues over time.
• Value is tied to popularity. If you try to unload your Batman collection just before the next Batman movie comes out, you'll be able to cash in on the hype.
• The Preacher and The Invisibles are as non-mainstream and as odd titles as you'll ever run into on the newsstand, but they are quite popular and valuable. They share the same writer, Grant Morrison, and his intelligent, creative and skewed vision. His name guarantees an increase in back issue prices for those titles.

on 9/22/2006 As with sports rookie cards, unless you get an extremely limited variant comic, 99.9% of the time the first appearance of a character is going to bring the best potential value growth. To the extent that you can afford to, purchase the highest grade first appearance comics of your favorite characters as well as characters that are not so "mainstream". These are the best investments in the hobby that you can find is you are looking for future appreciation.

As we have seen in the comic industry in 2005-2006, writers have been bringing relatively obscure characters in to the limelight with titles such as Infinity Crisis and Civil War. The first appearances of these obscure characters have seen significant increases in value. This is a trend that you can expect to continue. Hollywood has also had a hand in the upward movement in book values in Overstreet and Wizard over the past decade.

Also, watch out for news of expected future movies involving comic book characters. If you can get in to the comic stores before the rest of the world knows about the comic book movie coming out you may be able to grab a great deal on the first appearance of Hellboy or Venom before the book surges past $50-100.

on 11/22/2005 Now is a great time to invest in comic books! New, and incredibly original writers are being appreciated for their skills more than ever. Brian Michael Bendis, Grant Morrison and others have cult-like followings and their early works are fetching good money on back issues. That being said, go for quality books that feature excellent stories along with good art, rather than flashy superheroes with gimmick covers. Perfect example - 'Fables' (published 2002) is highly sought after for its fantastic adult storylines from old fairytale characters. At $2.99 per issue, I recently sold issues #1-5 for $50 on eBay.

on 11/22/2005 I think it bears repeating; any collecting and speculating on the value of comics should be secondary to being a comic reader and aficionado in general.

If you only buy comics you read and enjoy, you won't be disappointed (whatever the value of the book is). The important thing to know is that collecting comics will not make you rich. The first issue of Gaiman's "The Sandman," is pretty valuable at about fifty to sixty dollars these days. That's really not terribly out of reach in price for most people, and far from the hundreds and thousands for most golden age books. Personally, I tend to shy away from Wizard's pricing, it's easy to over-inflate value in the short term (which Wizard really only covers). The wisest assumption is, barring rare cases, that a book will most likely stay around face value for a year from the time you bought it. Give it some time to get into the Overstreet guide before getting your hopes up.
Also, keep your eyes on flea market buys and discount bins. You might pick up some things that would be worth a surprising amount, for very little cost to you. Some shops don't speculate at all on back-issue value, they sell everything at a set price.

P.S., Grant Morrison wrote "The Invisibles," but Garth Ennis wrote "Preacher."

on 11/22/2005 Forget the new comics - too many people buy them and seal them away like precious gems. In the future, the market will be swamped and the books will have little to no value. Only buy books you like for story and art for reading. For monetary appreciation, buy an Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide every year. Buy old books that interest you that have already appreciated in value slightly. Buy the best grade/quality you can afford of each issue. Take your time and shop hard. Mainstream Super-Hero titles from yesterday that are still popular today will still be around tomorrow. Don't listen to comic book dealers; on average, they are seedy fellows who make money from children. Subscribe to Comics Buyer Guide weekly newspaper and learn about all those great old books and enjoy yourself. Learn how to store books properly and how to protect them economically.

on 11/22/2005 Whereas first issues used to be a sure bet for comic collectors, overpublishing has ensured that everyone and his sister has a copy of each new #1 comic. Instead of picking up every new comic that comes out, look for good writing and art in first issues.