Timing: The Art of Selling a Winner

The comic book investing community is fairly small, locally. It often is only a few dozen speculators all trying to grab some books and slab as fast as they can; "turn and burn baby!" In order to make as much money as possible, and in the shortest time frame possible, they have to be quick. "In and out" like a duck mating (Remo Williams). This is something that most collectors are not good at. They don't want to sell their books. Investors are a little quicker on the draw but often don't follow the speculative trends as closely. Though this group is small locally; the potential population of comic book collectors, investors, and the dreaded speculators are of staggering size and are spread across the globe from Australia to Norway. It all comes down to the timing. 

This obsession (comic book collecting) provides sales and sustenance for both online and LCS small business owners worldwide. Our market isn't as vast as the stock market, but it also is not as volatile. There seems to be a trend of upward prices on anything from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, or Modern Ages. Collectibles are a mixed bag in my opinion. But Investors all have one problem in common; when to sell this darned book? Just like felling a deer in the wild, you can't rush it. Your timing has got to be right, you gotta be calm, steady-Eddy. But how do you make the final decision? Further, when do you pull the trigger and bag your latest profit margin?

Selling Comics: Timing

In my humble opinion, there are about five different times when you should pull the trigger and change the raw pulp into the green. Think of these five below as a crude early warning system for profits:

• Initial Catalyst- An initial catalyst is created for a comic book (say the drop of a new movie centered on a Marvel superhero). This usually happens in the first two weeks of the hype hitting. After a week or two, that is a fantastic time to get max value.
• 90 Days- Up to 90 days prior to the premiere you can sell for some profit: Make sure that you sell in this timeframe, you should be able to make about 60%-80% of potential profit.
• Down to the Wire- The night before the show: This is not the premium time but you can get a good deal of money prior to the hype running out.
• Post Premiere- Within one month of premiere: This will not be pretty and you will lose 30% to 50% of your profit margin, but you can move the book, or else add it to the collection.

You got loser- In poker, they say, "you got winner" whenever someone is lucky enough to crush the table with a big win and rack out. Well in this game when the comic speculator "got loser" you need to sell the sucker quick! Don't sit on it, don't cry about, don't blame others, move the book, and put the money into something else at once.

An Example

Fantastic Four #4

The first appearance of Sub-Marinier in the Silver Age was in FF #4 in 1962. He was created by the late, great Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. Take a look at the numbers below this Sub-guy is not cheap. This is pretty common knowledge but it still shocks to see this book increase so much.

OK, let's examine FF #4  (the first appearance of Sub-Mariner in the Silver Age) Normally this book is an investment. But let's pretend it has increased in value $1000. In the current grade probably a (3.0) it’s now valued at say $2000. In one month it has increased in value by $1000. Do you sell it now, or hold it?

Conclusion

My answer: Sell it! Like all waves of popularity, this one will die out too, eventually. What to do? You take your profits of $1000. Then you invest in the same book but at a lower grade. If the book is still running up, you make money. If it goes down in price, you have a copy and your original investment ta' boot. Yes, folks, a Sub-Mariner in the hand is worth two in the sea. Ahem!

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