Comic Book Resources

Considering Fantastic Four started in 1961, I imagine a 1960 one would have been worth even more than that!

In 1980 I begged my Mom for weeks to get me the copy of FF #1 at the local shop that was only $110. I was ten at the time and had no clue what a single mother salary was all about.

There was no joy in telling her in 2000 that I could have bought a brand new car with that comic if only she’d shared my vision.

Oh, there must have been a little joy, surely?

I get depressed reading ads in old comics — “Action Comics #1, $50″.

I wonder if you could even buy a Hot Wheels car with the money you would get from one of the ten billion copies of X-Men #1?

My friends thought me quite mad for spending £30 on a pretty good copy of Daredevil #1 years ago. No idea what it’s worth now, but I suspect it’s a little more than £30…

I have friends and family that come up to me and say:
“Joe, I have a few comics that are probably worth something.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“I can’t remember the titles but I have a few number ones.”
“When did you get them?”
“Uhhh… 90s I think.”
“That’s okay I’ll pass”

“I wonder if you could even buy a Hot Wheels car with the money you would get from one of the ten billion copies of X-Men #1?”

You never know, when you consider the current state of the American auto industry.

Am I the only one wondering how that binder worked? I can’t imagine a way that you could read them, without removing them, that wouldn’t be MORE damaging to your comic than just reading it.

I would imagine the binder holds plastic sleeves, into which you insert the comic. I had something similar when I was a kid, in the brief period before my growing collection required boxes..

I was going through my comics and found a signed copy of X-Men #1 that I bought from some company. Sigh. The folly of youth…

It’s depressing to see comics I own in 25 cent bins.

I do have some older ones worth a bit more–but it’s more likely my collection would only be worth more due to volume.

But then I never bought them as an investment–I bought them to read.

I’ve sold & traded some of them, but never sold one for more than $10.

I started collecting in the early 70s, ordered from Mile High in the late 70s-early 80s, went to my first full blown convention in 83. By 1992 my collection numbered over 10,000. By the mid-90s I was getting disgusted with the comics industry and by 95 had pretty much quit collecting. Since that time my collection has just been packed in away in longboxes and mylar, waiting for the comic scene to return to something I remember. I have absolutely NO IDEA what they might be worth (30,000? 50,000? 39 cents?) and don’t really care. This sort of speculation is part and parcel of what ruined comics. I bought them because I enjoy reading them, and that is all.

A real old comic shop owner I know once told me that he took his Lee/Kirby Fantastic Fours apart page by page in his youth, stuffing long stretches of that run into three-ring binders. I don’t know whether this was a common practice at the time, but he certainly gave the sense that it seemed to him an obvious way to preserve the stories while minimizing clutter. We actually spun onto the topic from a discussion on the omnibus collections, him citing the binder with pride as the original comics omnibus.

While on the one hand, it horrifies me to think of how much money he perforated away in that binder, on the other, I must admit that I admire the way he stored his comics solely for reading pleasure without regard to value, especially since I can’t help but piss and moan every time I accidentally crimp the corner of my clearly worthless Supergirl 40 or Amazing Spider-Man 590 or whatever it may be.