Comic books (a hobby or an investment) 0

[Georgie123]

Thank you all for your comments. The only reason I bring it up is because coin collecting is an item which has never been thrown away. Comic have been thrown away which leads to their scarcity. When comics are selling for $10000!!  They are no longer a hobby and there are many now in that category. Somebody brought up the stock market   How happy are you today or this month 

[lou_fine]

5 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

There is that "I" word again.   Listen, if you are at a Heritage Auction and shelling out for a Action #1 or 'Tec #27, go ahead and call it an "Investment".   Some books certainly have the weight behind them to be viewed  as such.      

If you have 25 copies of the first appearance of Spider-Gwen, or the new Ms. Marvel, and are calling it an "investment", I would say stick to calling it a hobby. 

Well, I would say that your definition of "hobby" is clearly different from my definition then.

I would say that if you have 25 copies of any recently published book, I would tend to call it a speculative gamble as opposed to either an investment or a hobby.  If you have only one copy of a particular book, then I would lean more to calling it a hobby then.  

[Bird]

Some people day trade penny stocks and some stick to established stocks for the long term. Not much different with comics. 

[lou_fine]

6 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

Buy and hold for forty years or so. Then it might be an investment. 

Oh wow, I just can't wait!!!  

So, are you saying that I only have to wait about another 10 years and I'll be rolling in the dough with my copies of books like Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, the Malibu Ultraverses line of books like Ultraforce, Prime, etc, the Marvel U.K. line of books like Death's Head, Battletide, Killpower, or the Dark Horse Comics Greatest World line of books like Barb Wire, Motothead, Ghost, etc, etc, etc...... ????            

 

 

 

 

m

[Mercury Man]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

a speculative gamble

Which many people like to think of as an 'investment', as misguided as it is. 

[Karl Liebl]

Buying is a LOT easier than selling.  You are not going to be selling a 1000 buck book to a pimply faced 14 year old...  only old farts can afford it!

[lou_fine]

2 hours ago, Karl Liebl said:

Buying is a LOT easier than selling.  You are not going to be selling a 1000 buck book to a pimply faced 14 year old...  only old farts can afford it!

And yet as I have said many times here before.........in today's comic book marketplace, it is certainly a whole ton easier to sell one $10,000 comic book as opposed to trying to sell one thousand $10 comic books.  

[marvelmaniac]

20 hours ago, shadroch said:

You mean this isn't the cranky old man section?

Dag Nab It!!!    

This is why I am not supposed to go out alone, I went and wondered off and got myself lost again.      

Hello...Does anybody know I am missing???   

[Black Bat]

20 hours ago, evilskip said:

It's a mental illness for some of us.

I'm pushing 60 and need to get rid of about half of my collection, which is worthless. So next year I'm going to get aggressive and what I can't trade will be donated.

Ha ha- “next year”... how many years have I said that!

[newshane]

Hobby. 

If I make a little profit here and there, that's just the cherry on top. I enjoy things better with this attitude. I've tried comics as a money-making instrument, but that was more stressful than simply learning to love the comics for their intrinsic value. I started collecting out of love for the medium, and my experiments with turning profit seemed to pollute that love. I guess the key is to strike a balance. Find books that you love and buy them if they are decent investments. Be wary of losing focus. Learn to control your impulses. 

Generally speaking, I've discovered that, in the long run, it's probably best to avoid the speculation side of the hobby. 

[newshane]

If you do get into speculation, I suggest adhering to the following mantra:

Stay patient. Remain aware and vigilant. 

[divad]

 

Comic books (a hobby or an investment)???

Definitely . . . . A hobvestment.

 

[divad]

On 11/19/2018 at 3:09 PM, evilskip said:

It's a mental illness for some all of us.

[divad]

On 11/19/2018 at 3:09 PM, evilskip said:

I'm pushing 60 and need to get rid of about half of my collection, which is worthless. 

I'll give you $5 (shipped).

[lou_fine]

On 11/19/2018 at 3:09 PM, evilskip said:

I'm pushing 60 and need to get rid of about half of my collection, which is worthless

Well, let's hope that the "worthy" half is worth more than enough to offset the cost of the other half that is "worthless".    

[evilskip]

11 hours ago, divad said:

I'll give you $5 (shipped).

You've been hanging out at ebay too long.

[marc5477]

On 11/19/2018 at 4:04 PM, Georgie123 said:

Thank you all for your comments. The only reason I bring it up is because coin collecting is an item which has never been thrown away. Comic have been thrown away which leads to their scarcity. When comics are selling for $10000!!  They are no longer a hobby and there are many now in that category. Somebody brought up the stock market   How happy are you today or this month 

What makes you think that comics are thrown away? Definitely not new stuff. Perhaps if you go back in time 60 years or so, but collecting comics and sports cards got popular back in the 60s and 70s so not much was thrown away. Even stuff before that is not all that rare even if it was thrown away.

Beware of thinking that something is "investment grade" just because its currently selling for $10k. Just because something is expensive now does not mean its worth anything later. We are not talking about real estate here. The hype cycle has already happened before in the 90s in comics and in all the other collectable sectors many times over. Generally speaking, the only collectables that survive the popularity spikes are rare and dated books from silver age and older. Newer stuff is really a waste of time because its driven by hype which eventually winds down. The perfect example of this is TMNT 1 which is basically only expensive because when people look at a price guide it says a high price, not due to any real merit. There are literally tens of thousands of books which are rarer yet are in the 4 for $1 bins and many are better written and drawn. But back to the point, avoid the hype machine. There is currently too much hype over movie appearances and secondary characters and its being used by hucksters to pump and dump collectables. All this has happened before. Dont fall for it.

I reiterate, the only books worth investment money are silver age and older and even silver age is not rare enough in many cases unless you have a major key book like XMen 1 (which is not particularly rare). Everything after the silver age is really just hobby quality no matter what the price is. You may think that $10k for a new book is hot stuff but I promise you its temporary and/or requires a sucker to move (a la TNMT or Walking Dead). Better to use that money as a down payment for a home which is a real investment. If you have tons of money, then you really should be looking at golden age and older because that is what rich people collect.

Just collect what you like unless and dont get into investing unless you are rich enough to go after the old stuff.

[RedKryptoniteSuperman]

Hey, 

Collecting Comics should be first and foremost a hobby that brings you enjoyment.  You are going to buy a lot of books that may gain a dollar in value if anything before you come across that big ticket item.  If you are looking for profit I would suggest that you actually invest in stocks via inter-net trading, it's actually quite easy and can be done through any bank.  It's nice to have big value items in the collection but it can't be your main motivation for collecting.  When you take into consideration storage cost, opportunity cost, inflation (2.5% per year) very few of your books are going to generate a return equal or greater than other options with your money.  So again, collect because it makes you happy not for some hope that it will pay off in the back end. 

Cheers,

-RKSM   

[Skylath]

Hobby for me. Some books actually shot up in value unexpectedly which makes me all the happier.

[Cranium79]

Def a hobby for me, I love the story, artwork and the nostalgia it brings me of my childhood. But it can be an investment in long term for some ppl. If financial hardship comes, they will come to the rescue in some ways.