With the constant upward trend in the value of Silver Age keys (Fantastic Four #1 is gaining in value seemingly by the week) it seems inevitable that many of the Silver Age keys will soon be priced out of the range of most collectors, even in low grade. When this happens it’s quite possible a rise in Bronze Age keys will follow. With the Bronze Age, many of the most valuable key comics were originally published and sold in my childhood. If, however, we turn to modern comics, and by modern I mean after the Copper Age (i.e. all comics published from 1992 to the present) will prices continue to increase, and will the demand for these comics gain or diminish in the future?

Looking only at mainstream North American comics, not manga, and taking only comics published from 1956-2018, I have to admit that I am personally hesitant to spend a lot of money on comics published after 1992. I do buy some modern books, but very few. For example, I will not spend $190.00 on Batgirl #23 (variant cover), or $160.00 for a 9.8 copy of The Amazing Spider-man #798 (Alex Ross Virgin Variant).

However, my tastes and preferences are irrelevant, if you love these books, you should feel free to pay however much you’re comfortable paying. I only want to consider the general investment potential of modern comics looking at the problem from a socio-economic perspective.

To begin, comics are a luxury item, nobody needs comics to live.

The most collectible comics from the past were actually produced to be disposable, so buying old comics today is a hobby that is driven almost completely by the demand of collectors. As collectibles, comics –like other collectibles- are bought by most people after they’ve purchased essentials (food, clothes, payment of rent, etc.). In order for comics to retain their value, therefore, the buyers who want them have to be economically well off and, more importantly, willing to spend their hard earned extra cash on these funny magazines with colorful stories. No buyers = no market. This is economics 101.

When it comes to Silver and Bronze Age comics, the value of the books from this period, like the Golden Age keys before them, is increasing because (although they were published in large numbers, often having larger print runs than the average title today), not many survived and those that did were not usually well preserved. Bags and boards didn’t even start to enter the picture, for most collectors, until the early 1980s (see here). When we add to this the fact that these earlier comics were printed on very cheap newsprint, easily bio-degradable and damage prone, paper; the supply drops even further. This leads to a limited and relatively small supply (at least for high grade copies). But this group of comics have several other points in their favor, a set of conditions that may not be present for their modern counterparts.

(1) More people read comics from 1956-1980 than today (if sales figures based on how many comics are shipped each month are any indication). These figures can be found here. Print runs on popular comics were much larger before the crash of the 1990s.

(2) People who read these comics at an impressionable age, have nostalgia for collecting them, and are in an economic position to do so now that they are adults with disposable income.

(3) These comics have the name recognition, thanks to years of great stories, television shows and later movies and pop culture exposure. Something iconic, like Superman or Batman, tends to be viewed as more ‘investment worthy’, even by people who didn’t grow up with them. I wasn’t alive when Amazing Fantasy #15 was published, but I still want to own a copy. Likewise, the rich Japanese businessman who buys Action Comics #1 for a million dollars, also does so because he wants to own a piece of history that is as rare as it is prestigious.

When it comes to modern comics, I don’t see any of the above factors holding for the vast majority of newer titles. Sales currently are dropping (there was a 6.5% drop in 2017 alone), and the large number of comic book shop closures in 2018 (see here) points to the possibility that the number of readers is even less than can be extrapolated from bulk number of comics shipped. The reason why all of the above is happening, would unfortunately require another entire article to spell out. All this seems to suggest that, in the future, prices will drop for most modern comics.

What do all of you out there in comic book collecting land think? Do you buy modern comics? If you buy them and don’t just immediately flip them, are you expecting many of them to hold their value in the future?