Hello everyone,

I have been collecting comics since 1979. I currently have about 250 short boxes of comics. I wanted to talk about one of the major changes I have seen in the last close to 40 years.

There now seems to be two sides to the collecting game as apposed to the one we have had for many years. When I got started people bought new comics that they liked. They bought one copy and put it aside in their collection. They also bought back issues to fill holes or because they were key issues. Then in the early 90’s things started to change. We had the death of Superman which caused quite a commotion. New comic book shops were popping up everywhere. People had to get a copy of the Death of Superman. They were buying 5, 10, 20 copies or more. They were hoping to make a fortune on the reselling of these books just a few years later. Speculation was now on the rise. X-Men #1 had a print run of 8.1 million. But shortly after these two events people realized that the economic principle of Supply and Demand was not on their side. The cost of these books did not rise high or fast. The Death of Superman and X-Men #1 get between $10 and $20 these days. Comic book shops closed just as fast as they had risen. The number of collectors also dropped to a little below their numbers when this all started. Comic book collecting was not as strong as it had been. The hobby just kind of settled back to a normal pace.

Then things changed again. It was about 2010 or 2011. The demand for a copy of The Walking Dead #1 from 2003 exploded. It had only had a print run of about 7,000. Now everyone wanted a copy. Around that time a near mint copy was going for about $200. That grew, and grew, and grew and now in 2018 a near mint copy can go for as much as $2,500 in raw condition. Now because of this phenomenon everyone now wants to find the next big comic like the Walking Dead.

So, we now have collectors who buy the new comics that they like. One at a time and put in their collection or buy older key issues. Then faction #2; these are the people who buy many copies of the same book and wait for them to skyrocket. Why do they do this? Because it is highly likely that the book will skyrocket. So many comics nowadays have been doing that. Some have not. “God Country #1”, “Seven to Eternity #1”, “Totally Awesome Hulk #22”, Thanos #13, and the fast approaching “Amazing Spider-Man #800”. Amazing Spider-Man #800 is reported to be having a print run of 300,000. This might not seem like much with a print run of 8.1 million for X-Men #1; but the normal print run for a hot title today is about 120,000. So Amazing Spider-Man #800 will be almost three times its normal print run. But people are clamoring to get it. So many people looking for the big buck that they themselves are causing the cost of hot books to rise quickly.

So comic collecting has made several changes since I started collecting. I have been doing this a long time and am still along for the ride.