Rarity is part of the mix like variant covers with fewer printings. One that I remember was the 30th anniversary Spider-man holograph covers. Different one/color for each title - Silver, Green, Blue, Red. I think I sold the whole set back in my comic book cleanup frenzy. I would price out whether the individual comics would sell better versus a set.
Oh yeah- rarity is huge. I glossed over a few other key indicators of value too, like who the publisher is, whether the character eventually went on to star in a Marvel franchise, etc.
On the Spidey tip, have we already gone over McFarlane's Spiderman 1? I think there were perhaps a dozen variants; this was THE case study for this concept.
I remember being frustrated that I couldn’t find all the variants when Spider-Man #1 came out. ASM 300 with the webslinger cover was the apex of my comic selling career. Sold it for over $1000! Dr Evil baby
That really is a great sale! I think my most successful sales were some really old silver age ten-centers. There were lots of Archies, a few Dick Tracys, and some Disney, mainly. I got them for $1 each and sold them off a handful at a time on eBay. I was very determined to make my own way in the world, and this was a big part of not working for someone else that one particular year.
Oh goodness the gimmicks. A harder question is where aren't they?
Hey man! I'm not here to answer the hard questions.
Substack's "Bestseller" badges can be considered gimmicks of sorts.
sorry, was there a comment here? I don't see you unless you have a badge.
side note: I must really suck at this! no badge. let's quit.
No comment badge for you!
Dude, we're like the kings of comments.
I’ve been intrigued by the history of why and how comic books were banned from 1930s-1950s. https://cbldf.org/resources/history-of-comics-censorship/history-of-comics-censorship-part-1/
Reminds me of the Satanic Panic from the 80s:
https://goatfury.substack.com/p/available
Rarity is part of the mix like variant covers with fewer printings. One that I remember was the 30th anniversary Spider-man holograph covers. Different one/color for each title - Silver, Green, Blue, Red. I think I sold the whole set back in my comic book cleanup frenzy. I would price out whether the individual comics would sell better versus a set.
Oh yeah- rarity is huge. I glossed over a few other key indicators of value too, like who the publisher is, whether the character eventually went on to star in a Marvel franchise, etc.
On the Spidey tip, have we already gone over McFarlane's Spiderman 1? I think there were perhaps a dozen variants; this was THE case study for this concept.
I remember being frustrated that I couldn’t find all the variants when Spider-Man #1 came out. ASM 300 with the webslinger cover was the apex of my comic selling career. Sold it for over $1000! Dr Evil baby
That really is a great sale! I think my most successful sales were some really old silver age ten-centers. There were lots of Archies, a few Dick Tracys, and some Disney, mainly. I got them for $1 each and sold them off a handful at a time on eBay. I was very determined to make my own way in the world, and this was a big part of not working for someone else that one particular year.
Arbitrage! You were ahead of your time
Ha! Yes, but arbitrage might be the actual oldest financial concept.