The Top 20 Silver Age comic book series sold over the last year represent an 83 million dollar market.  The top four book series represent 50% of the SA market in value. This is based on a rolling value over time. This is a scary number until you realize how hard it is to obtain these books profitably even for a savvy speculator.

For instance, the recording-breaking number for Amazing Fantasy #15 in high-grade last year.

With 83 million dollars in value, the biggest title of the bunch is no surprise; Amazing Spider-Man pulls down 17% of the entire Silver Age Top 20 market value.

The runner-up? "It's Clobberin' time, folks!" Yep, the FF dominates the 2nd spot at 13%, and so on.

How can speculators and investors use this chart to better enable their purchases or sales of comic books?

Further, what can we deduce as speculators from this data? Can this SA Top 20 list prove a useful tool?

Top 20 Silver Age Titles (Ongoing) SA Rank Current Percent of SA Mkt
Amazing Spider-Man '63 1 17.25%
Fantastic Four '61 2 13.47%
Amazing Fantasy '62 3 12.48%
X-Men '63 4 11.99%
Avengers '63 5 6.31%
Daredevil '64 6 4.46%
Journey Into Mystery '52 7 3.76%
Tales of Suspense '59 8 3.46%
Incredible Hulk '62 9 3.37%
Silver Surfer '68 10 2.08%
Stange Tales '51 11 1.76%
Tales to Astonish '59 14 1.39%
Showcase '56 13 1.39%
Batman '40 12 1.39%
Captain America '68 16 1.01%
Thor '66 17 0.98%
Detective Comics '37 15 0.93%
Brave and the Bold '55 18 0.90%
Iron Man '68 19 0.89%
Amazing Spider-Man Annuals 20 0.68%
Rolling Mkt Top 20 Titles SA $83,415,335 Million

The Secret of the Annuals

One interesting side note is that the Amazing Spider-Man Annuals are on this list. They are the very last book title at the 20th but still something to watch out for. I don't know about you, but I haven't really gotten into annuals that much. That said,  I do know their value has risen over the last five years. Especially as a standard series becomes harder and harder to find, or is simply priced out of reach. 

The Amazing Spider-Man Annuals represent about half a million dollars in value.  What I find shocking about this is; is that they're even in there at all! I mean, we're talking the Top 20 Silver Age books, and annuals are creeping in?

*Note to self: Take a closer look at annuals going forward. Perhaps these annuals are a potential profit center overlooked.

80% of the market is...

Another shocking tidbit is that the top 11 books are all Marvel Comics. Now, I know that DC Comics has started to take off, slowly. But nowhere near the value of Marvel Comics, nor at the same frenzied pace. That said, it's shocking to see the overweight value in Marvel books.

Furthermore, of the top 20 comics, 16 are Marvel comic books. This means that only four are DC Comics. If you translate this into a percentage base; then 80% of the books are Marvel Comics. Ultimately, this means 80% of this market is probably focused on Marvel. Think about that from a sales perspective. If 100 people walk past your booth at Comic-Con; only 20 of them are looking for DC Comics. Yikes!

Silver Age Fiasco?

My take on this Silver Age fiasco is that Marvel has gotten a tad bit ahead of itself.  Bubble territory?  I don't think so. But it would not surprise me to see prices declining slightly over the next 2-3 years. 

If you are an investor and buying for the 3-5 year range, this should not impact you too much. However, speculators should be feeling the pulse of this market and not be too overweight in the big four titles if you can help it. 

Conclusion

To be a profitable speculator you need to have one foot in the present, and one foot in the future. Marvel Comics dominate the Silver Age marketplace today. Their comics are still going strong and there seems to be no let-up.

Even their TV shows are pretty decent, so should we throw in the towel and hop on the Marvel mania ride? Not at this point, you want to slowly reduce your Marvel comic inventory to a survivable level and start speculating on the future. 

Yes, I am talking about DC Comics and all those really bad Adventure Comics (just kidding) you pass on your way to the Amazing Spidey bins. 

I think DC Comics will get its time in the sun. However, buying now while it is out of favor is what a smart collector and savvy speculator would do. 

Check out more blogs by Norman!

*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not constitute investment advice on behalf of GoCollect.