Comics Collections
One of my preferred leisure activities is the collection of utilized as well as brand-new comic publications. Why do individuals accumulate comic publications?
Similar to a lot of young kids, comics interested me. Journeys to weird worlds, weird beings set on ruining planet even if they can, as well as the extremely heroes that should quit the criminals.
If you take all the components required to prepare a tale, shake as well as throw the suggestions around, brainstorm as well as include a little dramatization, after that you obtained an excellent tale.
I had comic publications expanding up yet never ever understood the prospective market for it.
On event I locate a comic publication that I especially keep in mind analysis as a kid as well as look at exactly how much it is worth today.
My present comic publication collection started in the mid-1980’s when comic publications were just seventy-five cents.
My comic publication collection consists of a wonderful offer of visuals stories. Sometimes I come throughout individuals that gather comic publications and also they attempt to clarify to me that they do not review them;
they maintain it for the possible worth. If I desire to review a specific comic publication, and also it is worth cash, I will certainly review it anyhow.
A terrific numerous individuals acquire covers for their comic publications. Boxes that are equivalent in dimension to the comic publication are an excellent suggestion given that they flex extremely conveniently.
Individuals accumulate comic publications for different factors and also it is great to understand exactly how to take treatment of them. I gather comic publications since I enjoy to review them and also figure out exactly how the hero will ultimately capture the criminal.
One of my favored leisure activities is the collection of utilized and also brand-new comic publications. My present comic publication collection began in the mid-1980’s when comic publications were just seventy-five cents.
My comic publication collection consists of an excellent offer of visuals books. Often I come throughout individuals that accumulate comic publications as well as they attempt to describe to me that they do not review them;
they keep it for the prospective worth. If I desire to check out a certain comic publication, as well as it is worth cash, I will certainly review it anyhow.
Comic Book Values – How To Maximize The Value Of Your Comics
Investments mean putting down your money now for greater returns in the future. With this logic in mind, comic book collections then become a long-term investment. Just ask the old-timers who are selling their collections for three or four digits a set.
Converting them to today’s standards, the average comic book values for a collection would cost a few hundred dollars.
The pay-off after a few decades could reach ten or even a hundred times their original value. This is definitely worth considering, especially if you’re an avid comic book fan.
However, how can you get the most bang for your buck? How can you earn the most that you can from your collection? How do you maximize the value of your comics? Here are a few ways for you to do just that:
Put a balance between niche and mainstream. Selection of titles to preserve for years to come plays a pretty big role in maximizing the value of your comics.
Comics that are too popular will have a large following that will be stockpiling their comics, causing comic book values to stay low since many people have copies readily available.
On the other hand, comics that are too niche or small-scale won’t have many buyers, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who wants to buy something that no one really wants.
So if you want to get the most return for your money, choose to store comics that are in between the two extremes: popular enough to warrant an audience, but niche enough that not many would hoard these comics.
Preserve the comics. A zip-lock bag may seem like its good enough to store your comics in the long run, but it sure as hell isn’t.
Comic book values depend greatly on the condition of the comic: a slight discoloration or crease on the paper will result in its value being cut by more than half of its original value.
As much as possible, try to find copies that are in air-tight containers and don’t open them, even when the end of the world comes knocking on your door.
Keep these sealed copies out of direct sunlight and in well-ventilated and controlled environments. Specially designed containers designed to preserve important documents are the best option in order to keep your copies in mint-perfect condition.
Monitor the prices. In a way, comic book values function a lot like the stock market: they go up and down with the passage of time.
To get the best deal for your collections, you will need to sell your comics at the peak of their demand, before people start to forget about the existence your collection altogether and lose interest in it.
Buying comic book price guides and checking up on the prices on the Internet will allow you to track the prices of your comics.
Try to ‘read’ the trends and if you’ve got a background in stock analysis, sell when the value is at its best. If you’re not an expert in stocks,
set realistic comic book values for your collection and wait until the market price hits the mark. Don’t make these values too high, though, or you may find yourself waiting for nothing.
Comic Book History, Fascinating!
The origins of the comic book are somewhat controversial and perhaps the jury is still out on comic book history. So lets go back to the cartoonish broadsheets of the Middle Ages, which were parchment products, created by anonymous woodcutters.
These could have been the very beginnings of the comic book.
As mass circulation of these broadsheets became possible, they soon developed a market, particularly at public executions, popular events for centuries (ugh), which drew thousands of happy spectators.
Many of these spectators would invest in an artist’s rendering of a hanging or burning, and thus making a very lucky day for the broadsheet seller.
The broadsheet evolved into higher-level content as humor was introduced. Eventually, all types of broadsheets emerged, which were eventually bound in collections, the prototype of the modern magazine and thus the comic book.
Magazines formatted like the popular Punch, an elegant British creation, became the primary focus of documentary accounts of news and events, fiction and humor.
One can see in Punch, the sophisticated evolution of a comic book style, particularly in respect of the evolution of comics in Great Britain.
Still and all, from an historical standpoint, the comic strip, and later the comic book, stood in the alley, waiting to be born. And then some say Great Britain’s Ally Sloper’s “Half Alley” was the first comic book. This was a black and white tabloid that had panels of cartoons mixed with a sliver of news; circa 1884.
Now while all this was going on in Great Britain, this inching towards the comic book, the United States had its own brand of evolution. Instead of magazines, US newspapers took the lead in creating the comic book industry.
Newspapers, with their first steps, took their single image gags and evolved them into multi-paneled comic strips. It was during this period that William Randolph Hearst scored a knockout with the Yellow Kid, which was actually printed in yellow ink.
So where did the actual comic book begin? Some say it was with reprints of Carl Schultz’ Foxy Grandpa, from 1901 to 1905. Although others say it was Great Britain’s Ally Sloper’s Half Alley. In 1902, Hearst published the Katzenjammer Kids and Happy Hooligan in books with cardboard covers.
For a time, the Yellow Kid himself was a top contender. But it depends how rigid you are in your description of a comic book. These examples, for sure, were predecessors to the modern comic book, which exploded in the 1930’s.
The Whitman Publishing Company, in 1934, became one of the pre-launchers for the modern comic book. They published forty issues of Famous Comics, which was a black and white hardcover reprint.
The first regularly published comic book in the more recognizable modern format though, was Famous Funnies. It featured such memorable characters as Joe Palooka, Buck Rogers and Mutt and Jeff.
Superheroes as we know them today took a strong foothold in the 1930’s. In 1938, Max C. Gaines, who was one of the comic industry giants, brought “Superman” to Dell Comics publisher, Harry Donenfield.
Donenfield scored the comic coup of the century when he published a story written by two teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster- and so “Superman of Metropolis”
(the title of their short story they wrote in their own fanzine) was born. Superman was to set a standard for comic book heroes that persist to this day.
How Did the Comic Book Get Its Start?
The origins of the comic book are somewhat controversial and perhaps the jury is still out. So lets go back to the cartoonish broadsheets of the Middle Ages, which were parchment products, created by anonymous woodcutters.
As mass circulation of these broadsheets became possible, they soon developed a market, particularly at public executions, popular events for centuries (ugh), which drew thousands of happy spectators.
Many of these spectators would invest in an artist’s rendering of a hanging or burning, and thus making a very lucky day for the broadsheet seller.
The broadsheet evolved into higher-level content as humor was introduced. Eventually, all types of broadsheets emerged, which were eventually bound in collections, the prototype of the modern magazine.
Magazines formatted like the popular Punch, an elegant British creation, became the primary focus of documentary accounts of news and events, fiction and humor.
One can see in Punch, the sophisticated evolution of a comic style, particularly in respect of the evolution of comics in Great Britain.
Still and all, from an historical standpoint, the comic strip stood in the alley, waiting to be born. And then some say Great Britain’s Ally Sloper’s “Half Alley” was the first comic book. This was a black and white tabloid that had panels of cartoons mixed with a sliver of news; circa 1884.
Now while all this was going on in Great Britain, this inching towards the comic book, the United States had its own brand of evolution.
Instead of magazines, US newspapers took the lead in creating the comic book industry. Newspapers, with their first steps, took their single image gags and evolved them into multi-paneled comic strips.
It was during this period that William Randolph Hearst scored a knockout with the Yellow Kid, which was actually printed in yellow ink.
So where did the actual comic book begin? Some say it was with reprints of Carl Schultz’ Foxy Grandpa, from 1901 to 1905. Although others say it was Great Britain’s Ally Sloper’s Half Alley.
In 1902, Hearst published the Katzenjammer Kids and Happy Hooligan in books with cardboard covers. For a time, the Yellow Kid himself was a top contender.
But it depends how rigid you are in your description of a comic book. These examples, for sure, were predecessors to the modern comic book, which exploded in the 1930’s.
The Whitman Publishing Company, in 1934, became one of the pre-launchers for the modern comic book. They published forty issues of Famous Comics, which was a black and white hardcover reprint.
The first regularly published comic in the more recognizable modern format though, was Famous Funnies. It featured such memorable characters as Joe Palooka, Buck Rogers and Mutt and Jeff.
Superheroes as we know them today took a strong foothold in the 1930’s. In 1938, Max C. Gaines, who was one of the comic industry giants, brought “Superman” to Dell Comics publisher, Harry Donenfield.
Donenfield scored the comic coup of the century when he published a story written by two teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster- and so “Superman of Metropolis”
(the title of their short story they wrote in their own fanzine) was born. Superman was to set a standard for comic book heroes that persist to this day.
Comic Book Collectors; Nerdy Geeks or Shrewd Investors?
When one says, yeah, I collect comic books, what is the general public response? Oh no, a slightly off the wall geek. Here is someone who has lost touch with reality.
Or someone that is in his or her own little world. I think not. Yes, comic book collectors may sometimes march to the beat of a different drummer, but who says we all have to be cut from the same mold. Comic books are big business.
Back in the days of my youth (what, several millennia ago?), I loved reading comic books. And so did a lot of my friends.
Whenever we had an extra dime or sometimes a quarter, we could run up to the local small town grocery and spend some very happy times at the comic book rack.
We would even go out and find small odds jobs for pocket change, which was enough then to purchase 2 or 3 good flights of adventure and fantasy.
I can even remember crawling under our house to retrieve a cat that had the misfortune of dying there. My Dad couldn’t stomach the smell and enticed my friend and I to accomplish the chore for ample pocket change.
We braved the spiders and other crawly creatures to retrieve and bury the unfortunate cat. Not long after that, we were the proud owners of yet, several more intriguing comic books.
Even the local bully (who was really a pretty good guy) would purchase our worn out or unwanted magazines for far more than they were worth, so we could purchase new ones.
I didn’t know much about collecting then. I just liked saving what I enjoyed. I had a large cardboard box that I kept under my bed, filled with all my little treasures.
I didn’t realize that I had the beginnings of what could have been something very lucrative. In later years when I headed off to college, I dragged my large cardboard box with me.
At one point in time, I left most of my belongings in the charge of what I thought were trusted friends. When I returned from my forest firefighting adventures, my box full of magazines were no where to be found.
And needless to say, were my trusted friends either. Others had seen the value in what I had and wanted it for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. That limited collection of comic books and other magazines would have been worth a small fortune today.
Are there big bucks in the comic book genre? Just look at what Hollywood has been up to for the last few decades. As far as I can tell, the really big blockbusters started back in 1978 with the release of Superman, The Movie.
And since then there has been comic book hero after comic book hero to hit the silver screen. And they all make tons of money. The Hollywood moguls may or may not be “into” the genre, but the can smell large profits.
And these kinds of profits aren’t harvested from a small out of touch with reality niche. It take large numbers of individuals forking out 5 to 10 dollars a pop, to accumulate the astronomical profits that Hollywood is seeing these days.
Individuals who may or may not want to admit their avid interest in comic book characters. I will stand up and say, I enjoy watching these movies and have even started my own collection of comic book character DVDs.
Who knows, maybe some day my DVDs will become as valuable as comic books. Probably not.
Although, not every individual’s collection has magazines worth thousands of dollars, there are a sizable amount of collections that can be worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
These are not people that have lost touch with reality. A while back, the actor, Nicholas Cage, put his comic book collection of about 400 magazines up for auction. Word was that he might have realized a value into seven figures. That ain’t chicken feed.
It is not uncommon for single additions to be worth several hundred to several thousand dollars. Some comic books can enter the realm of several hundred thousand dollars for one magazine.
Now the owners have to be some pretty rich economically savvy geeks. Are these the types of small niche individuals who have lost touch with reality or don’t want to confess they like comic books?
So the next time you hear someone profess, yeah I collect comic books, you may want to look inside yourself and say, how do I release my hidden passion and start collecting myself?
comic book,comic books,comic book record,most valuable comic books,graphic novels and comics collections,dc comics silver age collections,comic book collection room,comic books collection,comic book collecting
