Secret Wars #8 held almost zero value for years. I would continuously run across it in the bargain bin at my local store. However, with the rise in popularity of Venom and MCU movies in general; this comic was caught like a fly in the web around Venom's origin. The comic Secret Wars #8 was the first Spider-Man in the black symbiote costume. The script was by Jim Shooter and pencils by the dominant artistic style of Mike Zeck.

Mike Zeck always create larger than life characters; kind of like another artist we know Tom Hardy. He is one of those actors, who can bring to the screen larger than life villains like Bane. Hardy will portray Venom in the next movie, and probably knock it out of the park. The catalyst is in place for a new film version of Venom and is set to premiere later this year.

Secret Wars #8 already has quite a following as a key of the Venom background story and beginning. As an investment, it has averaged about a 35% return over the last seven years somewhere between (9.0 to 9.4) near mint. This comic shows stable, and consistent gains from most of its grades except a grade very good to fine minus which has shown a 41% decline same period. If your Spidey-sense is tingling from a scary drop in price? In that case, try to purchase in the near mint or above and stay away from the low-grade trap.

The most positive element regarding Secret Wars #8 is the large number of sales records available for review on GoCollect. This data gives us consistent facts and show a positive return on this comic over time with an increase in price. Yeah, a lot of copies were printed, but sales hint this is perhaps a generational key. The origin of Venom will always be desired by the Millenials which seem to be fascinated with by anti-heroes.

Speculation in the 1990's

In the 1970's, comic books changed from reading material for children to valuable collectibles and entertainment for adults. I can remember one of my friends urging me to buy two copies of every comic book I purchased; one as a readable copy and the other never touched as collectible. The comic book Nova #1 was my first official purchase of a comic as a collectible item. He was one of the campy heroes from the 1970’s with script by Marv Wolfman and pencils by the team of Buscema and Buckler. The concept of speculation in comics was not ubiquitous at this point.

By the 1980s, more and more people started to purchase comics as a business or as a collectible investment. Many were seeing the comic book collector as a potential cash cow, and opened comic book shops everywhere; this is pre-internet. It became clear that adults were reading more and more comics and they were no longer on the rack at Woolworth anymore.

Comic speculation really heated up in 1991 when Marvel had cornered the market on most books published, into the millions. For instance, X-Men #1 volume two would become the "best-selling comic book in the history of publishing at that point more than 8 million copies were sold to direct market retailers (Source Comichron)." Yes, dear readers 8 million copies. For some context that first issue of the X-men #1 Volume two is currently being sold in near mint condition for $7.89 on eBay.

The number of printings is significant when deciding to turn a key into a long-term investment. Not to mention the scary concept of someone flooding the market with 1000's of copies possibly held in storage someday which would inevitably drive the price down on this favorite X-men comic.