From: mss2@quads.uchicago.edu (Michael S. Schiffer)
Subject: Re: San Diego Con Horror Story
Reply-To: mss2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 22:09:18 GMT

In article <stantbat.714346319@vincent1.iastate.edu> stantbat@iastate.edu (John S Sinnott) writes:
>>The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
>>at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
>>Brigade though. I only stuffed up slightly by buying 
>>Youngblood #1. I think in a couple of years there will be a 
>>whole new generation of fanboys just aching for some copies
>>of Youngblood #1. Hold onto it!

>Yea, Youngblood #1 will be worth a fortune, like all of those other 'hot'
>books from yesteryear.  I bought a Shazam #1 for $0.35 and now it's worth
>a whole $2.50!  And it took less than 20 years to get that high.  Or 

Well, personally I'm uninterested in comic book speculation, as
there's little chance that I could bring myself to sell even my
least-liked books-- and besides, it's a choice between getting paid
some fraction of market value by a dealer or taking the time and
trouble to market them oneself at cons or on the net, neither of which
interests me.  I buy my comics to read them.  However, I will point
out that going from $.35 to $2.50 in twenty years is a 10%/year return
on your investment.  Not incredible (particularly with the interest
rates of the early eighties), but not awful either.  Given that most
investments require larger minimums to participate (try buying a
T-bill, a share of stock, or a municipal bond for $.35-- or even the
$1 to $7 or so that a comic costs today), your Shazam #1 was probably
the most profitable investment of $.35 you could have made (assuming
that you can actually realize $2.50 for it, which gets back to the
points made above about selling comics).  Certainly it beats putting
it in the bank-- at 5% interest (probably about average over the last
twenty years) you'd have $.92 at the end of it; adjusting for
inflation since 1972, I'm fairly certain you'd have lost money,
whereas I'd guess (not having a Consumer Price index table handy) that
$2.50 in 1992 dollars is still worth more than $.35 in 1972 dollars.

>remember Howard the Duck #1??  I still have one I paid $20 for at the peak 
>of it's popularity.  Now it's worth $10!  

Um... buying something with a variable price at the peak of its
popularity is something one can expect to be a poor investment
decision (though it might be a perfectly reasonable decision if the
primary reason for buying it was to read the book rather than to make
a profit).

And remember when it was rumored
>that part of the print run for Miricle Man #1 was damaged?  Boy it's a
>really hot book, guiding at cover price.  Save you Youngbloods.  Someday 
>they might make good kindling.

Having said all that, I'll grant that Youngblood seems very unlikely
to become valuable, precisely because it's apparently being hoarded by
collectors.  Basically, if all those Youngblood #1's are disposed of
in the immemorial fashion of so many baseball card and comic
collections of the past (i.e. by Mom) then remaining copies of
Youngblood #1 may be valuable.  If they're kept and put back into the
resale market (which seems more likely, given the greater interest in
comics collecting in general these days) then they can probably be
expected to be in the $.50 cent bins (adjusted for inflation :-) ) of
2010.

Mike

-- 
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS	"Workers of the world, forgive me.
mss2@midway.uchicago.edu	 You had more to lose than I thought."
mike.schiffer@um.cc.umich.edu	 -- Karl Marx (1990) as imagined by
mss2@usite-next.uchicago.edu     Jim Koncz (konc@midway.uchicago.edu)