Your Comics Aren't Worth That Much (ft. Vintage Phoenix Comic Books) | [Indi]android Ep. 9 

I'd never sell my comics they are mine and I still read them. The stories are part of my life man.

I worked in a comic book shop for 5 years during the early to mid 90's boom. I'd get kids coming up to the counter with a couple comics and ask " Mister, which one of these is gonna be worth the most someday ?".... and I'd say " Kid, buy the one you like the best, then if someday it's worth something after you grow up then that will be a bonus". Buy them to enjoy or you're seriously missing the point

So comic shops buying stuff is just like going to a GameStop to sell a game. Lol

Collect the ones you want....have another retirement plan

Stopped collecting in the mid 90's when the gimmick multiple covers and re-do comic line starting back at #1. Good thing i began collecting in the early 70's

You'd be nuts to sell your comics to a store. They don't want to give you anything. I sold my entire collection to a private collector 5 years ago for $12k. It was a deal for the other guy, but it paid my share for my daughter's first year of college, so they had to go.

Plot twist, Squirrel Girl never took off lol

Been collecting since 1974. I was 8 years old. Have every Spider-Man including AM#15 I brought for $1000 back in 1984. #1-#441 and the Annual #1 as well. Can I sell them? Yes. Will I? No. Why? Cause they're my youth and it's a beautiful thing to have. Maybe my son will have them a sell them after I'm dead. But for now they're my little Safe Haven of childhood memories at my fingertips ...

I have tried explaining this to numerous people who don't collect comics and NOBODY ever believes me. Because of shows like Storage Wars and Pawn Stars, everybody thinks everything old is worth a mint.

Sold all my comics in 2001 at Jim Hanley's Universe back when they were right next to the Empire State Building. Paid for my move to Atlanta and furnished my entire apt quite nicely

You can make a pretty penny on ebay. Never sell to a shop or a seller, only to other collectors. A book is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it..

If you collected to make money...that was your first problem.... Edit: I’d hate to be a comic shop owner these days....

I collect because I love comics and I love history and damnit I’m proud of my collection. Money isn’t everything in life. I just bought a king pin first appearance for 450$ after negotiating 65$ off his asking price. And I’ll never sell it. Collect because you love it, not to make money. Invest in gold and silver and collect comics.

I knew a guy long ago who ran a comics store. I asked him about the "values" given in places like Wizard comics lists. He said that it's like anything else. It's worth only as much as someone will give you for it.

I was in a comic store last week giving this exact advise to an older gentleman. Great video.

I wouldn't sell from my collection at a comic shop.. I'd rather sell on eBay or any online store

When I collected comics I got super lucky and collected X-MEN. I have almost every issue printed. I didn't collect for the value I collected because I liked them.

They are nostalgic and fun to collect.

When I was in high school I started collecting comics in the 90s for about 6 years. It got to a point where I was spending too much money on them. I would go to a comic book store and drop 100 to 150 every payday, and that was when the minimum wage was like $2.75 per hour. I kinda knew back then that they might not be worth anything in the future so I would read them at least once. I still have those comics. I pull them out every once in a while and read one. They might not be worth much, but to me the memories they bring back are priceless.

Mine are priceless...childhood memories 😁

I started collecting in the late 1950's, and quit around 1970. Amazingly I still have 95% of them. From golden age "Human Torch" (Atlas) to many, many EC comics (fifties 10 centers), and sixties Marvels. I always loved the artwork from Russ Manning, Steve Ditko, Jack KIrby, etc. I have no idea what they're worth.

He said that sales are back to normal. They’re at all time lows. The comic industry has been on the decline for years and the creators have no one to blame but themselves. They made a decision to alienate longtime fans in favor of new fans who don’t exist.

Mid 1990s comics where and still are awesome. Who wouldn’t like a hologram cover comic or foil cover of your favorite characters. Priceless

Market may not be great for those only in it for money.... But it's great for those of us who simply love comics!

Dont sell your comics to shops sell them on ebay and dont sell em all at once either, if you go to a shop you will be lucky to get $2 a issue.

comics definitely have appreciation. just like benjamin graham said you have to do your research and pick carefully. almost all of the hip hop marvel variants are worth hundreds now

Great video. This message needs to be heard more these days!

THANK YOU for this! 👍

I started buying/collecting comics in the mid 70's as a child. I remember the comic craze of the early 90's post Tim Burton's Batman at the time not only were they making tons of copies to go out to the so called "collectors" but also the price of comics jumped up astronomically. I agree you should get comics to enjoy them, not as a investment. I have never met a coin collector who wasn't passionate about coins their history etc!

I’m still waiting for my Wizard renewal.

Remember the hockey card boom in the 90s? same thing...I have a big box that I spent so much money on...so many paper routes, so many lawns cut...just to get that card/box..... aaaaaaand now they are worth nothing lol....and I still have them...ugh

I have a couple boxes of comics from the 70's-80's and its exciting to me looking at them from time to time. I've never looked at there value and dont really care to be honest. I still enjoy them.

I tried to sell my comics collection some years ago during the height of the superhero movie craze. I didn't have key issues in mint condition or anything spectacular. Still, I had taken good care of everything I had read, and they all were in better than average shape with bright colors and very few defects, most ranging from F+ to NM- depending on age. I had six long boxes of about 1500 titles, fully alphabetized and in order, ranging from the late 60s to the mid-80s, mostly Marvel with a variety of some others. Of that collection, 156 were Amazing Spider-Man ranging through time from #67 up to #300 with Peter and Mary Jane's wedding, all of which were properly bagged. A conservative estimate based on the most current Overstreet criteria put just those ASM issues alone at about $1800 retail. I had a business degree and I knew that the comic shops had to make a good profit, and since I wasn't trying to sell them myself, I expected to get just a small fraction of retail. I was hoping for at least $2000 for the entire 1500 comics, which I knew would allow plenty of room for dealer mark-up and profit. Instead, the best offer I got from any dealer for my entire collection was a measly $60! Hell, they could have sold them all in their bargain bin for 50 cents each and still made over ten times the amount I was offered! When I inquired regarding their reasoning, the excuse I was given was that the inventory they already had wasn't selling. However, while grading the initial batch of my collection, I had double-checked the listed grades of the comics in the stores to make sure I was being fairly accurate, and in the process, I had noticed that what they did have on stock was marked right at full Overstreet retail. So I asked a few of the dealers, hey, if your stock isn't selling, then why haven't you discounted your prices accordingly to reflect supply and demand since making some profit is obviously better than making no profit at all? And why is Overstreet still listing these issues at these prices if as you say seemingly no one wants to buy them? Now if even one dealer had given me an actual explanation of the situation and then made me any sort of fair bargain-level offer, I would have accepted both the explanation and the offer. However, when no dealer could provide me with a reasonable answer for these simple questions, I decided the comics business had turned into a scam. So now those six boxes sit in a spare room in my house. One day when I am retired and have time, I will read through them myself and enjoy myself in the process, after which when I am gone, my estate can auction them off. I am quite sure that they will sell for more than $60.

Heck I've got comics from the 60s graded and everything will be dropping in price following the worldwide recession. So the title of this rings true for any collector.

Great video, thank you for this. I find one of the biggest reasons non-comic collectors think their books are worth more than they actually are is online price guides. There have been many times when someone has sent me a list of comics and asked for an estimate, and then are indignant that their 1000 comics that are supposedly worth $3 each based on those sites are not actually worth $3k as a collection.

Might be time to start getting my epic illustrated collection going.

I've only found one comic in the wild when released in the last 35 years worth anything, New Mutants 98.

Some years ago, I had a large collection of what I thought were fairly valuable comics. I talked to a dealer and found out they weren't worth much at all and I donated them to a charity. The price guide and reality aren't always the same thing.

This is where graded comics comes in to play!

“Your 90s comics and modern comics aren’t worth anything.” Well this aged like milk. 🤣😂

I sold all my comics in the early 2000s and now I'm in my late 30s it has cost me a pretty penny getting them all back plus more issues and complete runs, £4 a comic on average on Ebay 200 comics adds up in the long run .I mainly collect graphic novel books these days than buying every single issue

Finally, the perfect format and platform as an explanation of the comic book collecting genre. Kudos.

My gut instinct is that 80s and 90s glut will gradually be absorbed by the market. The key indicator that prices will probably gradually improve is census.gov/popclock which shows the world population continuing to increase for the time being, and the probability that, especially with popular comic book movies having a marked effect, the overall size of the panapictagraphia audience will likely increase. Supply and Demand thereafter.

Thanks for this, I have a large collection. I read everyone, and loved them, but I also saved them in bags, boards, and boxes. 40 years later, I want to sell. Now I know what to expect.

The best thing you can do is to collect the comics for love, I see all these videos on how much a comic is worth or how much they paid for it. Honestly, the video is right except for a couple of keys made in the modern age like WALKING DEAD#1 your comic collection is probably worth NOTHING! I have been collecting for 40yrs, and I own about 5000+ books...I told my wife when I am dead and buried you and my daughter don't expect to turn into millionaires off those books. Unless you have boxes full of pristine GOLDEN AGE books and early MARVEL (1963 thru 1966 and keys) you will not get rich off your books. The comic industry suckered everyone in the 90's thinking they were gonna get rich off of the DEATH OF SUPERMAN...what a joke. Mass producing books and making variant covers. 9 times out of 10 people your better off investing in a 401k

I've been collecting since the late 1970s up until the early 2010s. That's still good going. But I still buy the odd Bronze Age (1970s) Marvel comics just to plug some issues I'd missed out on.

I read and collect comics because they are us. Comics tell the story of people and they make me happy.

If it was printed in the 80s or 90s, you're looking at 10 cents a book if you're lucky.

That store guy is awesome. Finally someone tells it like it is. I've been telling the same to my comics collecting friend countless times over the years - but he never listened. He bought the comics, read them exactly once (always wearing white velvet gloves!), then bagged them and stored them away, never to be touched again. And - unbelievable as this may sound - he was still one of the more reasonable collectors. Then there are these morons who buy every single comic twice - and one of those only to be directly put away, so it stays in absolute mint condition. And all that only because they imagine their collection to be worth millions in some distant future,...completely ignoring the fact, that hundred thousands of collectors are doing the exact same thing right now.

great video. just read comics. enjoy

Comics have sentimental value. Your favorite character,story and art/favorite artist. I don't care what there worth, I enjoy favorite artist like Sam Kieth,Todd McFarland,Jim Lee.

I once picked up a first printing of Superman 75 for a dollar.

Collect what you really love, for me, I collect popular and unpopular comic books. P.S. Those unpopular comic books sold fewer Issues might end up being a sought after Issue in the future or not. I still enjoy those things.

Honestly comics are quite the spectacle to me, amazing art brought to life with action, panels and story writing. They are one of the coolest things ever right next to video games, movies and music. Like many others say, I don’t give a crap about how much the market deems them worth, I have them because of the art. They are a blast to read and it sucks that some of the older titles are harder to find and are real expensive now. I can’t believe how much of an overlooked and underappreciated medium it has always been and it only seems to be getting more and more forgotten as time goes on. I also hate the newer look of most comics and am much more enthralled by the old school look of hand drawn and inked art as it just looks so much more natural and from the soul unlike the synthetic and artificial looking crap I see everywhere now, how do more people not agree. I guess it is easier and maybe cheaper to make comics digitally now but it just takes the soul out of them most of the time and i’d much rather the original look of an artist’s unreplicable handywork.

I'm just starting off with reading/collecting comic books for the first time and I'm just doing it for cheap fun to be honest. Right now I'm looking at getting a few CGC graded books to collect but then also using digital copies on Comixology to read them and enjoy the actual stories. I think there's a right balance of enjoying the medium and also enjoying the act of collecting. You can always buy a few #1 issues of newer series for like $2 to $5 each and put them in a sleeve and backboard and wait 20+ years and see if anything happens while also buying a second copy for reading purposes or again using digital copies to preserve your "collector's" copies.

Worth is such a relative thing. I always collected the comics I liked regardless of worth. When I got out of comic book collecting, I trimmed my collection to the absolute best of what I had. I have no idea of what they're worth, don't really care. I like having them and that's what counts. I don't plan on ever selling them.

I grew up in the 90s, so I knew I wasn’t getting anything valuable-Gold and Silver Age-for cheap but if you collect, you tend to stumble onto lots of lucky finds.

Also, be diligent when buying old ones. When I was a kid, my friend was about to buy an old Silver Surfer, literally taking his money out, and decided to look at the book. Found a massive stain on the back. A few years ago I was going to buy an older Superman, only about $20, and after looking in it, I found an ad had been cut out. So I passed.

I collect comics of the stories I like and characters. I don't have the intention of selling them but to enjoy their beauty for years.

I was hoping my collection would be me an island and boat someday.

Yeah. The ones actually worth something are pretty rare and have to be in good shapes. I sold 15 long boxes from my old collect. Kept some of my favorites (4 boxes worth total). I got roughly half of what I needed for my now wife’s wedding ring, mostly because I had a lot of full runs, where individually their not worth much but together you make an extra 10-30% because full runs are hard to find. But that took me nearly 20 years of collecting to happen. Your never going to get more than what you actually purchased them for. So read what you want and enjoy the ride. Also read Fables. Not Enough people talk about that series.

I collected comics in the 50s and 60s. All the comics you could buy were on one rack. They didn't have all the titles printed today. Still kept buying old ones until now. I collected mostly Disney and other funny animal comics not the expensive super heroes. While discussing old comics with my students one day I mentioned that and said I guess I couldn't imagine people flying through the air or lifting buildings. A girl replied "Butt you could imagine rabbits talking and ducks driving cars." Touche!

Dude....you're so right. I recently went into a comic book store and saw the comics I keep in lock and chain only worth $5.😢😢

They are worth everything to me. My comics, are mine, & are being passed down to my kids

It's actually the first appearance of rocket raccoon

All I have are the Spider-Man wedding dual covers and the McFarlane in plastic cover Local shop here in Saskatchewan did find a very early Fantastic Four comic amongst a guys attic box collection. The shop has since closed but that was the best day the shop ever had. Also had an early xmen that introduced The Blob but that one was in shreds

In the mid-1990s, a comic book store owner told me that he was only interested in buying comic books that were published before 1980. Sadly, the same is true today. Furthermore, there are only a handful of comic books made after 1990 that you can sell for $100+ today. People are now selling their comic books from the 1990s on EBay for “whatever they can get for them.” These days, on the rare occasions that I go into a comic book store, I do so to buy a gift for a child. The employees of these places seem “desperate” for customers to buy more items than they intend to, and with many books selling at over $4 an issue, sales are often slow. Sadly, I’ve seen many comic book stores go out-of-business over the years. I believe that the main thing that’s keeping the surviving ones afloat, are the huge comic book conventions like Comic Con and Dragon Con, and the popularity of comic book-themed movies and TV shows.

To many covers. This makes the book itself more of a reprint then a rarity.

I own a TMNT #1 1st print 9.0 and tomb of Dracula #10 around 9.2... im set... the rest is for reading

Heyyyyy I went to this store the one time I was in Bloomington. Sick!

I'd advise going to comic book conventions and flea markets and antique fairs if you're interested in building a collection. It is sometimes amazing how often I scored a valuable comic for just a few bucks over the years. Last year, I got Marvel Spotlight #5 (1st appearance of Ghost Rider) at the Gold Rush flea market in Oronoco Minnesota for $1 in the dollar bin. Sent it in for grading and it came back as an 8.0 and is worth about $450 to $550 (people generally pay more for graded books). That's just one recent example. Conventions are good too because most dealers are willing to negotiate (especially when you are buying larger quantities of books). I've gotten some real good books that way too.

I collect a lot of 50's to 80's horror comics and magazines. The vast majority aren't worth ten bucks an issue.

There's money to be made. There's plenty in the $50 - $200 range. You just got to know what to look for.

Baseball cards never recovered from the speculation boom of 1988. You can STILL buy an 1988 set for less than it cost at the time of release 34 years ago.

If you're in it for the money, collect 1st appearances of characters only. Series runs are/were for your reading enjoyment only. That being said the card and comic collecting industry was destroyed in 1990. So collect 1st appearances before that time. Yes they are costly right now, but the more popular characters will go up in value.

Good advice...in more ways than one. When I was a kid in the 80s, I collected the comics I loved. Because the comics I loved were ones that others also loved, those were the ones that increased in price. All of those stupid comics from the 90s...did anyone love them? I don't think so...not the majority anyway. Idiot collectors were just happy to buy a bunch of issue #1s.

Comics are still worth quite a bit of Money, I just got a 2 copies of Batman 89 which is a $4.00 book released last week, currently selling for $50. Not too mention I got one standard release and one of the misprints. The misprints are selling for $300-$400.00. So those key issues, and misprints still exists. And, some of the books from the 90s also sell for a decent amount of money, like my 9.8 Amazing Spider-man #361.

The comics from the very first ones from the very late 30's, 40's, 50's were just majority thrown out by mom and many were donated to the paper drives during WWII. Kid's didn't keep them in plastics. They'd just stack them so the spines curled or they rolled them up to keep in their back pocket and newsprint deteriorates if not kept in a good place (no musty basements, or get wet or left near the window, etc). Even the 60's books alot were thrown out but then the teens, college kids were starting to keep them and collect them and the first comic conventions started then. Same for the 70's, lot's of comic magazines at that time too. I started late '70's. Mostly in the 80's and more books/titles seemed to be coming out. Some good indy books at that time with very low print runs. The 90's had tons of new books, variants, etc. More indy companies coming out but it got too saturated. All over NYC guys selling comics on the street, especially near Wall Street. Everyone thinking any new number 1 would be the next Action Comics #1. So people bought up TONS of books. There were stores that popped up and then the bubble burst. I forget also that Perlman guy bought Marvel(?) and ruined them if I remember right. That contributed to this too.

This video overlooks the main reason peoples comics aren't worth that much. Condition! People who are willing to drop top dollar on comics want them in top condition. The fact that so few people still collect comics these days compared to back in the day (late 80s) means they can afford to be picky since there is so much to choose from. Buyers want mint books.... people who have no clue what their collection is worth probably haven't taken care of it.

"They're automatically valuable. They're automatically collectible. Simply because their comics." ... He is so right that this is wrong. Also exemplifed by Ty beanie babies, and toys that people buy and keep in boxes. It's insane. But you trick yourself into thinking its valuable despite the fact that there are hundreds on the shelf of hundreds and hundreds of stores.

Heck I can't even buy today's comics --too expensive now. Also the book compilations are not cheap either.

I honestly don't care how much my collection of comic books are worth I am just happy to be able to own them

Great film.

Recently bought Spawn no1 9.6 CGC signed by Todd.. that thing is never gonna pay off lol

Am key issues collector

I think that's a great idea raining comic books

I’m 56 now I’ve got all of my late 70s early 80s stuff from when I was a kid. My life’s almost over. I just can’t stand the idea of selling away comics I kept for all of these years, just knowing I’m getting far less than half of what they’re worth for the ones that are worth something and that moSt of them have no value at all. Id almost rather be buried with them, I love them so much!

People talk shit about the 90s speculator boom, but when you talk about comics worth less than the paper they're printed on, you're talking about today's comics which are pure trash in every respect.

Most comic shops survive by running game rooms these days, but im still just a comic reader myself. When im done id rather just give my old comics to a new young reader.

I'm sure you hear this all the time but I loved your work on Game of Thrones

Sold most of my collection, still have all my Amazing Spiderman. A bunch of good keys. Been collecting for over 45yrs.

Comics will be worth something when they stop printing them

No current comicbooks will be worth anything

I’d be er expect them to be worth anything. I loved what I loved. That’s what’s so great. All those fantastic memories.

In '71 or '72 I heard about a comic book event in San Diego where we had moved in '69 and took my box of well read and loved comics to the basement of the El Cortez hotel. Inside the large room were tables in a large rectangle, behind them were geeks displaying their collections, all untouched and individually wrapped. I knew immediately my tattered comics weren't worth much; too bad, since I had some early Spiderman, the first ten or so Silver Surfer, an equal amount of the first Creeper, along with Hulk, Ff4 and various others. This was, of course, the second or third San Diego Comic Con, which was a pretty small gathering. As for these geeks...I can honestly say I out-geeked and out-nerded them all, because in getting to the Comic Con, being 12 or 13, I had to have my mommy take me.

If you collected golden or silver age in the 50s and 60s. You made a pretty good investment.

So you’re saying my “Death of Superman” comic from the 90’s isn’t worth much?!....Surely, you can’t be serious!

I just wish I knew where to start reading....I found a bunch of comics I had from when I was a kid in throughout my teens. But I want to know what happened before and then what happens after. But there are so many timelines and so many versions and so many universes it’s all confusing! Is there such a thing as compilation books per character? Like for example “Wolverine volume 1” where it would start his story from the beginning and continue his story through the volumes?

What you can do to make these older comics more valuable is to get them graded and slabbed by a reputable company. Your $2 comic, plus the cost to get it graded and slabbed will get you at least double the cost amount...as long as condition is decent. Doesn't even need to be a key issue, just slabbing an old 80's or 90's comic will on average get you $45-60.

Well, now that Disney has been caught censoring reprints of old Marvel comics, that might change.