“We’re seeing so many people looking for complete runs,” he says. Collectors tend to fall into two categories, says Ryan Higgins of Comics Conspiracy in Sunnyvale, California. The next thing to know is what you’re looking for. In this case, “older” doesn’t necessarily equate to “better” or “more valuable.” ” Vengeance #1 is currently selling for over $200, while Thor #337 is going for, on average, about a third of that. “The first appearance of America Chavez is a lot harder to get than the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill. “I don’t know if it was millions, but it was definitely in the several hundreds of thousands,” Poulakas says. Contrast that with something like West Coast Avengers #45, the first appearance of “white Vision” (later seen in Wandavision). These days, the best-selling books will sell approximately 150,000 copies in a good month. “When I’m ordering books, my goal is to sell through.” “The production numbers right now are so low,” says Gus Poulakas, owner of Silver Age Comics in Astoria, NY. Up through the 1990s, print runs were routinely ten times the size they are today. The first thing to understand is how the comics industry has changed since superheroes became so dominant. But if you’re going to jump in now, there are a few things you should know before you start. That’s one of the reasons why comic back issues are some of the hottest collectibles on the market. The biggest difference now, from when comics specialty shops first started, is how dominant superhero stories are in our culture: all it takes is a leaked audition video that might involve a particular hero or villain in an upcoming movie or TV series for that character’s early appearances to skyrocket in value. Ever since comics started being a specialty item and not something kids grabbed for a dime off of a newsstand, people have been pricing potential resale value into their comics purchases. There has always been some money in comics collecting. The other is to take that love for comics, have a look at the media landscape, and make a little money on the side. The first is to be a comics reader: someone who likes the stories and buys the books to read and enjoy them, and just happens to accumulate them over time. There are two tracks to being a comic collector. This article is part of our Collector’s Digest series powered by:
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