Podcast: Cashing in on comic book collecting, with X-Men artist Phil Jimenez

Just wanted to know if the "death of superman" worth anything.

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with the economy as it is are there any buyers out there have oodles of comics in mint condition,and thousand of baseball,basketball,even nolan ryan signed ball w/ cert. would part to have money n hand any one interested

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Comic collecting is dead.......after the "glory days" in the 80's and 90's, comics were printed in such large numbers that their value hit rock bottom. Add to that the current economic disaster, and most comics are worth less than the cover prices paid for them. Even Silver Age and Bronze Age books have declined in their worth. If a person buys comics for the possible future value.....their wasting their time....at this point, they should be purchased to read and enjoy them...period.

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Watch your mother. I started in the late 1930's, loved the radio and comic books. Collected most of the Bat Man, Superman, BlackHawk, Disney, Marvel, Green Hornet etc. They had no wear and tear and had been taken care of and stored when I went off to college. I kind of forgot about them for a few years when I noticed an article like this asked my mom where she had put them? I have remembered the reply for the last 50 years.
She said, " I burned them all (probably 2,000) because I thought they were a bad influence on you. May she rest in peace because I don't.

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i've been collecting comics since i was a kid back in the 60's and have watched as the decades pass, my collection (which is sizable, with many silver age key issues) become worth less and less as the years go on (despite what the guides say , you never get what your collection is worth) . as dave above has said "comic collecting is dead" and even the companies like dc and marvel pretty much know this to be true, but they are going down fighting. i guess the final nail in the coffin will be when the companies stop printing and go completely online with their product. they're just not enough kids interested in this hobby to keep it going long term and the fault of that rests solely on the companies shoulders. bottom line these days, again like dave said "read them if you enjoy them", 'cause the stuff from the last few years is pretty much worthless.

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I also have the first X Men from the early 80's

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Condition is the key determiner of a comics value. High grade NM (CGC 9.4) and above books pre-1972 books will always be in demand and appreciate in value.

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Comics still have value you just have to know which ones. Anything 1979 and before that time will still be worth money. They did not print that many copies back then. It then comes down to grading. The higher the grade the better the price. The 80's hit and the big 2 (marvel and DC)were besieged by all these small independent companies. These small companies forced the big 2 to start mass producing books. There was an overload of books flooding the market. Now there are maybe a couple of hundred books in the 80's that are really worth anything when it comes 2 investing ( Miracleman 15, wolverine mini, Punisher mini, Amazing spiderman 298-300,etc...) So The people that are are crazy were all these speculators in the early 90's, who thought that they just discovered the next big thing. they were 5 years 2 late. At the same time a couple of hot creators broke from marvel and DC and formed Image comics. the 3 companies then started printing all these varient covers to feed this huge speculator market(5 covers for X-men 1,really). sorry went off on a rant. Buy comics to read. best stories you will ever find.

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Comics from the 1940s and 1950s, along with key books from the 1960s, still have a decent collector value. Go to the San Diego Comic Con or any of the big collector shows and you will see some pricey books. Its the over-produced junk from the 80s and 90s that has become worthless.

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i don't know where some of these so called collectors get their information.

if you look at the print runs of most comics back in the 70's they were twice as high as the print runs of even the best selling comics today.

as for price and value of comics it is what it is;.
a person will pay so much for a book they want and a person will sell a book for so much; if the two can come to a compromise then it's a sale.

i collect comics because i like the stories, the art and the characters, not because i think the book will fetch big money if i sell it.

if i wanted an investment i'd buy precious metals or invest in oil.

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I stopped collecting comic books, sports cards after 2001. Since then, I've collected authentic sports jerseys. This because I heard a Lou Gehrig Yankee jersey went for $850,000. Now I collect the current players. I also buy from Hong Kong on jersey101 dot com. The jerseys are only $40. If you buy the Mitchell and Ness brand in the mall, it goes for $300. So I'm paying wholesale price. I try to get it in the players' authentic size. I then try to get them to autograph it. Then the thing to do is frame it. Get the ones with the super bowl patches on the jersey. I have about 40 jerseys already. My biggest collection is of the New York Yankees. I also have Marino, Elway, Montana, the Manning brothers, Roethlisberger, LeBron James, D-Wade, Shaq jerseys. You should check it out. Some of the jerseys go out of print as I regret I didn't buy a Babe Ruth 1927 jersey years earlier. That baby is now in the $800 range.

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One thing I have noticed in the over 30 years that I have been collecting comics is that when a non traditional company buys a comic company it usually marks the death of the purchased company. The "flavor" of the company changes and it declines. Good luck Marvel.

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