So, Let me get this straight. From now on, when we list something on Ebay the title would go something like this. Daredevil #1 CGC 9.8 , Swag 26, Marvel, 1964. I Love it! All kidding aside, it is an excellent system. Im sure it could be refined as exceptions are found. Would be interesting if it could be made popular. I like the whole idea! Kudos!
Big props for the work that went into this. While it would be best to apply a secondary scale, there is room for a formula that begins "If x= (21 or + ), then..." in order to determine how condition impacts investmentworthiness across different individual comics. Because while Blue Chip and Gold Star comics are basically solid investments in any condition, a 3.0 of comic that scores a 20 may not be as good an investment as a.9.8 of comic that scores a 17. The other option would be to alter the scoring system to account for 10 possible scores of the Supply category, as some books (especially price variants) may have three or less copies in the highest grade available which would make a 9.6 of an exceptionally rare Canadian Bronze Age comic or a 8.5 of an Atomic age War, Romance, or Horror comic exponentially more valuable than a higher grade, more common in higher grades Superhero comic. Maybe as important as how many copies there are in high grades on the census would be how many are actually available for sale at any given time, which allows for a shifting score by any given date or another extra-point variable for real world scarcity -especially since slabs get cracked and resubmitted without census numbers changing. And many collectibles have been lost in the California fires of the last five years -also without being removed from the census population numbers.
Lmaooooo bro the Darkhawk killed me!!! Low key I want a copy just because you like it so much!! Awesome video man! I'm new to this.. I'm 30 years old and mad that i didn't get into it earlier! The art work. The history.. simply amazing stuff.. and it looks amazing in the game/man cave room!
It's so precious to see your love for darkhawk I still can't tell if you're being sarcastic I love that you've pick something and held onto it I'm guessing you have a hundred of these sitting in a box somewhere
Yeah. I agree Kang is a top 30. No villain will ever top Thanos, plus not that excited about upcoming Avengers movies without Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.
I grew up buying and reading comics as a kid. Now as a working adult I work in the private bank wealth management industry, I am familiarized with the various investment options our clientele has. Comic books and collectibles fall under alternative investments. Due to liquidity constraints compared to other asset classes, they hold a higher degree of risks and can be very hard to value in real-time. If I am not mistaken it seems to me that the next buyer of the same comic book and grade kind of determines the new value which has a high degree of uncertainty since we don't know the circumstances as to why the seller agreed to a lower price or the buyer agreed to pay a higher price and it may not be the same reason for every case. I also learned collectibles can be expensive to preserve/hold as inventory and sell since platforms take a cut. The best thing to do with collectibles is only buy something you actually like and subjectively value.
Great system! Would be cold to see an add on scale to it regarding ungraded/graded, condition/grade, which grading company it was graded, price paid (how good of a deal you got it), and external factors/potential (movies, games, shows, toys, etc…)
Had to go against the scale! Picked up a copy of Darkhawk 1 in a 9.6 tonight 😂 for 54.59 👍😝 Then well I couldn't stop there and added a Marvel Age 97 9.4 🤪 Love these videos!
These are so clever and fun. You make 50 minutes go by fast it's so interesting. Your cover recreations are awesome lol. We know census numbers but are there counts or estimates for how many of the key comics like AF 15 Action 1 etc were actually produced back in the day?
Really appreciate that you discuss and bring up the odd and different facets of comics history. I'd love to have a conversation with you about the industry and my perspective on investing in a hobby and get your thoughts. What happens when readers/collectors get priced out of their hobby by investors? And at that point how sustainable is it?
here are some books i want to get this year rated with the swag scale: Action comics 252 : 4,3,3,2,4 = 16 some risk Action comics 40 : 5,5,5,2,5 = 22 blue chip Spawn 1 1:250 Black/white edition : 1,3,5,2,4 = 15 speculative spawn 1 error variant : 1,5,5,2,5 = 18 low risk Fantastic four 3 : 4,3,5,3,4 = 19 Certified key Edge of spider-verse 2 9.8 : 1,3,3,3,3 = 13 highly speculative Giant size X-men 1 : 2,1,5,5,4 = 17 low risk i think for moderns you should only count 9.8s in the supply category if thats what u want to get. thats why i gave eosv 2, 3 points. very nice system and thought exersice! kinda fits with how i view these books thanks for all the content! always great infos and nice entertainement^^ Hail Darkhawk 1
At first I thought this was going to be another Beautiful Mind/Glenn Beck video. But I have to admit this is a pretty smart take on investing that looks like it took a lot of effort to create. So I'm guessing all my NFL Superpro aren't going to fund my retirement.
Great video, always enjoy your ideas of sharing comic interest. this is working scale. your humor with presentation of videos always keeps me watching thank you......
This is absolutely brilliant! Thanks for putting in the work to making this a legit resource to help figure out a book's "weight". I really think I could watch books get "scaled" all day long!
Absolutely LOVED your Action Comics, Detective, Hulk, etc. They are in great condition, you should really get them slabbed. ;) Keep up the great work man!
I love it. Great analysis. I'm going to use this scale from now on. Great set-up and punchline. Love your content. Keep it up. Swagscale, plus the silver and bronze index FTW. Ain't no stopping us now!
Excellent video and interesting scale, pretty accurate except for the Darkhawk, which we all know is investable. Because I am the one guy that collects Black Widow, I looked up the Marvel hero ranking on Ranker, and was shocked to see she was ranked 11th. Did not expect that.
I love the Swag scale and it should become the industry standard. That being said, Darkhawk not being rated a blue chip exhibits a glaring flaw in the system. You need a modifier of 20 for 90s kid nostalgia l.
Your rating scale does help drive home the point of collecting copper- modern books by showing the risk factors of large population books! More common keys never perform as well as scarcer grails due to the competition to own them! Only when dispensible income increases, more common material gets speculated on. You have illustrated in an entertaining way just how to invest with the lowest risk!! KUDOS!!
Hey Swag, Love the scale as I do most of your vids. Just wondering if there should be a way to work the condition of the book into the Swag Scale? Some books are worthless in low grade while quite valuable in high grade. Shouldn't that fact play a role as I make my purchasing decisions? Thanks for all you do and Darkhawk certainly is NOT a top 20 superhero...sometimes the truth hurts.
I had a similar scoring system in my mind. The only thing I would point out is there should be another +1 modifier applied to the ascetics category where coolness can have that iconic status. AF 15, Chamber of Chills 19, Pop Kill 3, Detective Comics 880 would be examples. These are books highly sought after purely for the great covers so should get an extra point for that reason.
Great system! One suggestion: adding a category 6 - is the comic a variant or later pressing? If its not, no change in points. If it is, minus three points. This to perserve that 1st pressings are typically more valuable. Since later pressings have smaller print runs, category two would get an artifical boost. This would counter that.
Hi Swagglehaus, great video. Though 1000% reliability of your scale is a little sus 😂, your category five is on point and overall includes some great metrics. Glad to see you have Darkhawk a mention 👍🏽. For demand, I agree it is variable and always to be monitored in real-time with consideration to a comics desirability over the longer span of time. Thanks!
If I may make a suggestion? How about a vid explaining what investing really means? Is there a finite definition? Every comic channel hap hazard throws the word "investing" around but no one ever really defines it. I don't sell comics so am I an investor? When I try purchasing them below retail and I inadvertently investing?
Very interesting! But now you know I have to ask, since it looks easlily solved for: what is the list of all the Gold star books? Looks like it can't be more than like 30 or so of them. Would love to see th vid on that ;) - Great content BTW!
I have to make the point that for Groot, you applied the 'MCU effect' to the popularity of the character but not the demand... should be applied to both no? That said, I need to print out a pocket sized swag scale for when I go hunting lol
Interesting concept; thanks so much for taking the time to share. Quick question: when you're talking about top hero/villain, do you mean a top 10 DC or Marvel hero/villain or top 10 "overall" hero/villain?
Was this video useful? I give it a 1 on the Chris scale. Was it entertaining? I give it a 5 + 1. Therefore was it worth investing my time? Yes Actually, I think you are onto something here.
I don't think a book like X-Men 1 would necessarily qualify as "top 20 character", but I do think they are an essential team in comics, and it needs not only top 20 but the bonus point for probably the most popular team in comics.
Magneto has been voted #1 villain by several outlets but I could certainly see him in the top 10 pretty easy given his history and switch between hero and villain. Professor X, Jean Grey, Cyclops, are all pretty high up there on the hero side given their history and impact. Granted I am an X-Men guy but they are pretty high impact along with Wolverine, Storm, etc.
Swag i was trying to work out something very similar to this but using the value end of things.. with some additions. You would add the FMV x CGC slabs. = Total (company) Value Have you toyed with something similar to this? Also what about modifiers for multi intro or amazing story arcs(maybe like Killing joke, Death of the Family) Not the best examples sorry top of my head.
