Dave's Fanboy Sermon

Investing in old comic books has been around for almost as long as comic fandom. As long as there are fans who want to find and aquire out of print comics, there will be people who are going to fill that need- for a price. It is capitalism. It is the American way. Of course, nothing is more American than getting carried away and going overboard. Comic speculation began in the early 70's when a number of fans realized that they could buy extra copies of a book and sell it later for a profit. The first two books to be have been speculated on? Shazam #1 and The Shadow #1. Did it work? No. Supply and demand is the key motivator in the price that can be realized on any book. When speculators stockpile large quantities of a book, the supply usually exeeds any demand.

Comics speculation grew steadily until the early 90's. Sports card investors decended on our hobby as theirs went bust. Superman's death was on the news. People were lining up to buy massive quantities of comics, certain that each and every one of them would skyrocket in value, making them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Then, somewhere along the line, somebody realized that there actually had to be someone who wanted to buy their comic for it to be worth anything. Oops! Suddenly hoards of worried investors were bringing mountains of comics to shops, willing to sell them for "what I paid for them". Nope. Sorry. Thanks for playing! As a parting gift, how about a couple of boxes of Valiant #1s? The comic industry has spent the better part of a decade rebuilding itself from the rubble left over when the speculation boom ended. Slowly, people realized that if they couldn't sell their comics, they might as well read them.

For years, comic grading was somewhat of an art. Although there were guidelines established in the Overstreet Price Guide (and companion volume Grading Guide), no one could completely agree on exactly how comics should be graded. This is not as crucial when you are buying a book from a dealer in person. You hold the book in your hands and decide for yourself if the condition warrants the price that is asked. Unfortunately, buying books in person from a dealer is becoming a thing of the past, now that E-Bay and Amazon.com have exploded in popularity. Suddenly, people are buying things over the internet with nothing but trust to assure them that the book they are getting is as described. Last year, the Comics Guaranty Corporation (CGC) emerged. The idea is actually fairly simple. You send the comic to them, they grade it using professional standards, seal the book in a plastic container and give it a numerical grade (0.5-10.0). A grade from an impartial third party assures that everyone is playing on the same field. So far, so good. Right?

Once given a grade, it is only considered valid as long as the book is still sealed in its plastic container, or "slabbed" as the terminology now goes. If you should take the book out for some reason (like...I don't know, maybe to read it!), the grade is null and void and it would have to be re-graded and re-slabbed again for the CGC to be valid. They can't be faulted for this. If the package is opened, what's to stop an dishonest dealer from substituting a lesser condition book in the package? Besides, why would you want to read your books anyway? They're just part of your "comics portfolio". Hold on, though. It gets better.

Spider-Man #1K (that's the silver version in a bag) had an astronomical print run when it was released only a decade ago. There are more copies of the book floating around than there are comic fans, much less Spider-Man fans. Every comic shop in the country has so many in its' boxes that you can usually find a copy for less than its current guide price of $15.00. Most of these copies are unread, as they were simply stored off the racks when they went unsold. So someone puts a copy for auction on e-bay that is CGC graded with a 10.0 (which pretty much means perfect) and the book sells for- are you sitting down?- $310.00! Then a Spawn #1 sells for $450.00 (guide- $14.00). I'm going to resist the urge to be melodramatic here and simply say:

HAVE WE LOST OUR FREAK'N MINDS?

People are entitled to do what they want with their money, no matter how foolish. I'm afraid, however, that we simply cannot learn from our mistakes. In the very same issue of Wizard Magazine, speculators are damned for having "left a wasteland that comics still struggle to over come" (#112, page 93- thanks Robert!) and then runs an article praising CCG for revolutionizing the back issue market. Do we not see a problem here? Don't get me wrong here. When the Spider-Man #1 sold, I thought, "Hey, I've got a case of those in my back room. I should get those slabbed and make my own fortune. But there can't be that many stupid people out there." Then Spawn #1 goes for $450.00. No one ever went broke overestimating the American public.

I guess that it is just too hard to resist the lure of easy money. I'm going to let you in on a secret that is guarded closely by comic dealers everywhere. Comic books have no inherent worth. None at all. If you don't believe me, just go to a bank and try to use them as collateral. What we are dealing with here is perceived Value. As long as people believe that something is worth a certain amount, then it is. It's like those TV commercials that offer six ginsu knives for $12.99- a $49.99 value. Says who? If they are selling them for $12.99, what makes them worth $49.99? There will always be hucksters who will convince unsuspecting people that they are geting a bargain while they take them to the cleaners.

My problem is not with the CGC service. They are simply filling a market need, and making a healthy profit doing it. I'm just disturbed terribly that there is a market need for books that are sealed away where they can't be read, so that they can be sold for several multiples of their commonly accepted price. When Wizard Magazine makes a statement like "only take plastic. CGC-graded books are the way of the future," I have to wonder if we've learned anything at all. So what happens when that person who bought Spider-Man #1 for $310.00 tries to sell it? If he brings it to me, I'd most likely offer him $8.00 or $9.00 at the most. Maybe he'll be so frustrated that he'll rip the container open and read the book.

Illustration by Gerald Kelley