Is the market for vintage "Reading Copies" dying?

[samurainoir]

Given the volume of old material that is now available in collected book form as well as digital versions, have you noticed if the market for Fair to Good Silver Age comics is suddenly dropping?

Lately I've been able to pick up quite a lot of lower grade vintage comics for quite a reasonable price, often in the two or three buck bins.

[johnnystorm]

I think you have a couple factors going here.

One, the price of new stuff (& the amount of it you are expected to buy to keep up on storylines) is affecting back issue sales.

Two, the amount of material showing up in the market right now because of the economy is terrific. There's more supply than demand. And as the population gets older, I think you will see even more larger older collections hitting the market. I can't tell you how many Ebay auctions I look at that start off with the phrase " My father (uncle, grandfather, neighbor) passed away and I'm selling off his comic book collection." ...followed by my favorite part "I don't know anything about these I just want to get rid of them" (and then they post the photos that show only the key issues of X-men, Hulk 181, Spidey 129, etc).

And three, I agree that the collected editions are pushing down the demand for lower grade back issues of some titles - Marvel Silver Age in particular, maybe not so much on titles like Spider-Man or X-Men, but I think it's there on books like Iron Man, Cap, Daredevil, Thor. But I think DC stuff is still holding on a bit. I believe there is more older Marvel out there than older DC. Why? Because Marvel had an older readership early on, more high school & college age readers bought & collected Marvel and they held on to them and kept them relatively in good shape. DC on the other hand sold more to younger readers who treated them like, well, comic books. So I think you find more Marvel in better grades so non-key stuff doesn't book as high. Dc is found more often in lower grade.

I think the real beating is going to be in titles from Dell & Gold Key... especially the TV & movie books. 40 -50 years gone and how many Roy Rogers collectors will be out there? How many people wanting Beverly Hillbillies comics? Or Gene Autry?

And the DC fringe stuff still brings decent money in any condition...the DC war, mystery, western, the 50s oddball stuff, even the humor books. Of course, you don't see collected editions of that stuff...what DC does collect up is in the B/W Showcase books. And a lot of collectors prefer the original color books if they can find 'em.

[Bionic Joe]

Proably is since MARVEL and DC are reprinting everything plus the fact i don't see a lot of younger readers getting in to the hobby

[Riffster]

my local store has silver age books for 3 bucks from ahuge collection he bought. both Marvel and DC, it's better then most new stuff out

[60'schild]

my local store has silver age books for 3 bucks from ahuge collection he bought. both Marvel and DC, it's better then most new stuff out

Absolutely ! Truer words were never spoken!!

[david_b]

That's a REAL good question..!!

I've been poking around eBay hunting down FINE copies of pre-Galactus FF issues for the last few weeks (when I'm not looking at Megos), and are usually end up in bidding wars, which I'll do for a while, then focus on other auctions (assuming *someone* might be driving the price up..). I still love my FF #13 I got a few months ago.

Thanks for the idea ~ I'll see if I can fuel my collection that way.

[ctc]

>have you noticed if the market for Fair to Good Silver Age comics is suddenly dropping?

Actually; I kinda noticed the prices dropping a few years back. I think a lot of the speculators left the hobby back in the early 00's, which caused a price dip. And the folks who're left want top notch investments; so's they look for the highest quality books. Then factor in all the stuff mentioned here already....

....and you get one of the BEST things to happen to mainstream comics in a while. Holy Smokes! Affordable, accesible copies of old comics.... suitable for READING?!?!? Who'da thunk it? Between the cheap back issues and compilations I'VE even been reading the old Marvel/DC stuff, and I don't really care much for superheroes.

Don C.

[jds1911a1]

the color reprint edititons usually result in a glut of lower quality issues and incomplete runs of older comics hitting the market. I never bought comics as an investment so I am just fine with either a reprint ed or a somewhat worn older comic to fill in gaps