Buying the dip is hard to do in this hot comic book market.  Personally, I recommend waiting until the market inevitably cools down once people begin spending their discretionary dollars on travel, vacations, etc. instead of on stay-at-home hobbies. For those of us who are looking to buy now, with some research, we can find some minor keys that have dipped, even in this market.

One great minor key is the first appearance of Cloak and Dagger in The Spectacular Spider-Man #64. As discussed in greater detail below, this issue has experienced steady declines during the past few years.

Cloak and Dagger: A Study in Contrasts

Cloak and Dagger presents a story about contrasts. Ty (Cloak) is a Black teenage male from Boston and Tandy (Dagger) is a white, privileged teenager from the Midwest. They cross paths as runaways and form a bond with one another after an evil chemist subjects them both to drug experimentation. The drugs provide both Ty and Tandy with superpowers and they decide to use their new abilities to fight illegal drug trade and help other runaway children. After appearing several times in the Spectacular Spider-Man series, the two received their own limited series as well as several on-going series.

SSM #64 Has Lost about a Third of Its Value Since 2018

SSM #64's value has decreased in value virtually across all grades during the past three years. The biggest drop in value has occurred to CGC 8.5 copies of this book; specifically, in this grade, this book has dropped by nearly 39% during this period of time. An 8.5 recently sold on eBay for $45.00 and a 9.4 for $115.00. Most of the declines for SSM #64 began two years prior to the pandemic. Specifically, from March 2018 to March 2020 a CGC 9.2 dropped a staggering 44% in value (across 51 sales). Since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago, like most comic books, the value of SSM #64 began to tick up again.

Although no one can know for certain, you can infer that investor demand for SSM #64 likely dropped after Disney canceled Freeform's Cloak and Dagger nearly two years ago. Collectors may have made a mistake, however, if they believed Disney canceled the show because it failed to live up to expectations. It's more likely that Disney canceled the show because Marvel merged its film and television divisions under Kevin Feige and wanted to provide him with a clean slate. If Feige chooses to resurrect Cloak and Dagger, expect the dip we've observed over the past few years to vanish.

Even if Cloak and Dagger don't return to the MCU, I still think SSM #64 presents good value. While your average person on the street may now know who Cloak and Dagger are, most comic book collectors do. Plus, this is a first appearance and shouldn't lose too much more value in a worst-case scenario.

What do you think? Does SSM #64 present a good opportunity to "buy the dip?" Please let us know in the comments below!

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