What is Happening to the Silver Age Key Comic Market 1 1

[Colin Nash]

I have been looking at market sales for 2020. Across the board it is clearly evident that Key Silver Age comic prices are going through the roof. You won't see this on any comic web sites that give you the so called 'Fair Market Value'. You have to do some research. 

An example is X-Men #4 in a cgc 7.0. In January 2020, this was selling for around $1400, in May it sold for around 1900. A $500 increase in 4 months !! There are numerous other Keys that are on the same path.

I have pondered on the reasons for this. Firstly, because its pushing comics I want to buy beyond my planned budget and secondly, because it makes the published FMV a fictitious number.

Could it be that the Covid- 19 lockdown has pushed more buyers onto to internet on a daily basis and, as consequence, people tend to spend more money on their comics to relieve the boredom ? 

With all the impacts of Covid -19 on jobs and income, it seems an anomaly that key comic sale prices are going up by significant margins.

Or, are we seeing another shift in the market. I can remember back in 2013 an X-men #4 cgc 7.0 was selling for $600 !! (Now approx. 320% higher).

If any of you experienced collectors friends out there can shed some light on this I would be truly grateful.

Colin

Edited July 5, 2020 by Colin Nash

[bpc3qh]

X-Men 4 might not be the best book to use as an example, because Scarlet Witch has an upcoming tv show, so that book has been hot for a while. That said, it does seem like there has been an uptick as people have been stuck at home, and as other parts of the economy have been...less than solid.

[Math Teacher]

As I may have mentioned, I check the prices on my CGC books every other month. It puts my mind at ease, knowing that have a relatively current value that I can share with my insurance company in case of a catastrophe. The two sources I use are GoCollect and GPAnalysis. Please, I didn't post so we can discuss the good points and bad points of both of these sites. If you don't want to use them, that's certainly your prerogative.

From the end of April to the end of June, my collection went up $13,356 according to GoCollect and $10,957 according to GPAnalysis. But that's due to the fact that I added several high price books: Giant-Size X-Men #1 CGC 7.5, Incredible Hulk #1 CGC 1.5, plus a few other books in the $100 - $200 range.

So, being a former math teacher, I wanted to judge the increase by comparing the comics I owned at the end of April to the same comics in June. According to GoCollect, these books had a 3.1% increase, while GPAnalyis showed a 2.5% increase. Remember, I removed books like GSXM #1 and IH #1 to make the comparison accurate.

I'm not buying these as investments; I'm buying these because I like to collect things. When I go to the great big comic book store in the sky, my remaining family will be able to sell my collection for a pretty penny.

I also believed we would see a significant decrease in prices to the COVID-19 pandemic. At least for me, that doesn't seem to be the case.