Will Classic Comic Book Prices Go Down After The Superhero Movie Craze Starts To Level Off?

[TRON JA307020]

I have been collecting comic books for years and have collected for reading and fun but also have picked up some key comics and first appearances. Unfortunately the movies have skewed prices somewhat and collecting has become a much more expensive hobby. Books that were once low in price because of either the large number of issues printed or maybe the character was a second string character have found new life because of the movies. The question is will these prices go down after the superhero movie craze starts to lose some steam. My thinking is that they will. I usually buy my key issues that may have characters that are going to make their debut in a movie much earlier or well after the hype. For instance The Incredible Hulk #271(First appearance of Rocket Racoon) sky rocketed in price once the movie was announced and after the movie came out. Some VF-FN issues were going for a few hundred. The prices have now leveled off and you can get them for much cheaper. The mint to Near mint issues are going for quite a bit more still. I think the issues price also went down quickly because there are a lot of copies out there. I still love collecting but its a much more complicated hobby now because of the movies and of course the larger number of people now starting to collect.

 

[The Lensman]

To be honest, I'm surprised they went up. Basically, trade paperbacks annihilated the back issue market for anyone outside of hard core collectors. When I was a teen, if I wanted to read an older issue of a comic, I had to look for that actual issue and if it was a popular issue, then decide if I wanted to pay that higher price. I remember collecting the X-Men during the Byrne years and having to do without reading the issues that came out a few years prior because they were about 20.00 or more for mint, and not much cheaper for not mint.

But the trade paperback made it possible to pick up back issues at a much more reasonable price for people who just wanted to read the story and didn't care about owning the actual issue. The current trend in digital just adds to that as today's youth aren't as interested in owning a book, cd, or comic book so much as they're concerned with the information in those respective media. So they'll read e-books, digital comics and download their music.

So basically the back issue market ain't what it used to be and I've got a nice little stack of comics that I thought would be worth some money by now, that aren't going for more than about 5.00 bucks on average....20.00 if I'm lucky.

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

Price of comic books is going to go down in any case.

I think that the generation born in the 80's/early 90's is the last one that still "collects" actual comic books. And now prices are going up because this generation is starting to have money and few collectors left want to finish up their collections.

Of course there will always be some classics, special items that cost much, just like in any vintage business, but in general most old comic books are becoming just paper garbage.

Digital is, in some way sadly, the way of the future.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I've read about more than one shop recently trying to get out of the back issue market altogether, selling off inventory cheaply since they're sitting on items taking up space that's eventually not going to be worth the space they're taking up.

 

[Tosk]

Three of the four comic stores near me already don't bother much in the way of back issues.

 

[JD]

To be honest, I'm surprised they went up. Basically, trade paperbacks annihilated the back issue market for anyone outside of hard core collectors. When I was a teen, if I wanted to read an older issue of a comic, I had to look for that actual issue and if it was a popular issue, then decide if I wanted to pay that higher price. I remember collecting the X-Men during the Byrne years and having to do without reading the issues that came out a few years prior because they were about 20.00 or more for mint, and not much cheaper for not mint.

Comixology offers digital comics of earlier issues going all the way back to Action Comics #1 for only US$0.99 and they even has Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman, for free . So people that only want to read them can get them easily and cheaply.

 

[Captain Craig]

As one of those readers mentioned above who grew up in the 80's and college years in the 90's reading comics, single issues were THE thing. TPB collections were mainly for a select set of stories.
In the last 10years I've now relegated my monthly buying and if it's an A-tier character I don't even bother with it cause the publisher is always going to produce: Spidey, X-Men, JLA, Batman etc--those titles don't need my monthly dollar.

However, with the publishing cycle of late: start, stop renumber on books that sell modestly well I'm starting to think my monthly dollar means less cause Marvel is just going to cancel and renumber due to some event anyway.

I'll only have an interest in single issue comics for exactly the reason stated in the OP. It's a characters debut . That's about where I am now with Marvel & DC.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I only ever buy TPB's anymore, except for those rare projects that I REALLY want to support. And half of those, I sell inside of a year. It's more a question of shelf space. Everything is consolidation. About the only single issues still in my collection are the old Elseworlds Annuals, and What If? Volume 2.* That's only because they've never been collected.

*Big fan of alternate history. I have far more comics set in alternate worlds than in any of the mainstream timelines: AoA, Exiles, etc.

 

[TRON JA307020]

I'm

Price of comic books is going to go down in any case.

I think that the generation born in the 80's/early 90's is the last one that still "collects" actual comic books. And now prices are going up because this generation is starting to have money and few collectors left want to finish up their collections.

Of course there will always be some classics, special items that cost much, just like in any vintage business, but in general most old comic books are becoming just paper garbage.

Digital is, in some way sadly, the way of the future.

I'm thinking of really old comics like from the silver and bronze age. I do understand that many 80s and almost all of 90s comics are worthless but the sliver and bronze there is still value at present. I wonder if that value will go down as the younger generations supplant the older. For example Daredevil #16 vol 1 in nm condition can fetch a few hundred dollars and if the artist (John ROmita Sr.) signs it the price increases. This comic was the first time Romita Sr. drew Spidey and since he is one of the most popular artists that worked on Spidey his comics tend to be worth a lot. The problem is younger fans are becoming less likely to know who he is so the price of that particular Daredevil issue may go down. The movies have brought some value back into comics but really only for first comic book appearances for characters that are in a movie for the first time such as Rocket Racer. At this point I am not sure if the movies are helping the collectability or hurting it in the long run.