How to Make Money Collecting Comics

Comics were once treated as low brow or low quality literature suited mainly for children. Despite this they became popular with children who eventually grew up and have the characters and stories ingrained in their minds. These same children who have become adults passed their comics knowledge to new children and other adults until the comics literature grew and grew.

The entertainment industry earns a lot of revenue from their child audiences through media and merchandise and saw the lucrative profits that can be made marketing comics related media and merchandise. For example the US government used the Superman comic character to sell US World War 2 Bonds because many people including adults believe Superman symbolises the “American Hero”.

The Comics Industry and the Movie Industry feeds off each other with a popular comic character or story being made famous by one and being made more famous by the other. For example there were mostly one off movies being made about superheroes but in the 2000s we have now full blown superhero movie franchises about Marvel Comics characters.

All the sales of the movies, merchandise and comics did well. With comics values greatly affected by them being made into movies it is wise to stay updated with upcoming movie studio projects and buy these comics before they appreciate in value and become popular. One can make instant profit while the comics movie is still popular and sell comics and comic merchandise before the movie becomes unpopular.

This could be a good short-term investing idea but for long-term comics investment what comics should you buy as an investment? Should you collect the superhero characters now made popular by movies like Superman, Batman and the superheroes of the Marvel superhero franchise? Take note that even before these superhero characters became popular in movies they were already popular as comics.

They have long standing readers who buy “many” of the comics put out by the publishers. The word “many” means the different variations and versions of the comic characters and stories produced by publishers in an effort to maximise their earnings from their popular comics characters and stories. In the 1970s comic publishers nearly went bankrupt when they produced more comics than their readers can buy.

So if popular superhero comics characters are not sound investments which one are? The best way to know is to know the demand. There are comics issues that specifically became collectible for various reasons. There are comics fandom online resources that discusses which comics issues have become special to them.

Maybe the comic issue is about the first appearance of a new character in the comics, the death of an old character like for example how the Death of Superman comic series and merchandise sold out and made huge sales for DC Comics Company. There were people in lines buying the comics which sold out that many buyers turned to profiteers who sold them with huge margins.

But with the huge numbers of comics issues being produced how do you know which issue to buy? You could find many online resources. You can Google “comics price guide” and a list of websites of companies that resell comics would easily show up. You then would have an idea of the prices of some comics both old and new.

You could also try e-commerce websites like eBay which also list comics sellers. The important thing is to treat comics as an investment that is why many experts advise to buy them at the lowest price possible and then sell them at a higher price. Do not buy based on trends as trends die down and so is the value of a trendy comic.

I hardly buy comics from proper comic shops but instead buy from second hand comics and book shops at the lowest price. Even if I like the comics I only buy at the lowest price range. My comics collection is not much but I have seen the value of my comics increase at the minimum of 4 times for almost all of my comics using this strategy. These were comics from 10 years ago.

With children today much more exposed to comic characters thru movies and merchandise and with the increasing move to digitise comics chances are that more and more printed comics will go out of circulation and be collected especially the old ones.

I have been to numerous 2nd hand book and comic shops and these businesses buy these books and comics cheaply and in bulk and then could more than double their price. Imagine if they buy a comic for a 50 cents and then resell them for $2 dollars to a buyer who appreciates the comic for their own reasons. That is about 4 times the profit. Consider this when you are thinking of investing in comics.

Conclusion

Collecting comics is difficult. There are hundreds of millions of comics being sold every year and the chances of one achieving a collectible status is very remote. Add to this that comics are made out of paper which is very hard to preserve and easily damaged. Take note that comics are graded according to their relative resemblance to their original printing condition.

There are investors who buy comics wholesale on the cheap in the hopes that a few of them would turn out to be valuable. The rest is resold to other collectors who like these invaluable comics because they personally like them or they still have hopes that these comics will increase in value.