The federal government recently announced that it will provide up to $20,000 in student loan cancellation to Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 in student loan cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples). No high-income individual or high-income household – in the top 5% of incomes – will benefit. People whose payments are cut or eliminated should have more money to spend elsewhere – including for buying comics. Will student loan forgiveness create a seller's market?

Staying at Home During the Pandemic and Stimulus Checks Fueled the Comic Boom of 2021.

As we all know, the pandemic and federal stimulus sparked the largest one-year jump in comic book values in history. While we can't attribute the boom entirely to stimulus checks, it would surprise no one if comic book investors used that extra cash to buy key issues they couldn't afford in the past.

As we also know, once stimulus funding ran out and inflation, including gas prices, rose dramatically in 2022, the values for many of those books came crashing down during 2022.

Low Prices and Loan Forgiveness Could Fuel Another Comic Boom in Early 2023.

I speculate that we may see another rise in comic book values for two reasons.

First, the values of many books have come back down to earth. If we follow the adage to sell high and buy low, many investors may see a buying opportunity today. Youtubers Swagglehaus and Automatic Comics have recently posted videos that some of these key issues may have over-corrected, potentially creating a buying opportunity for several key issues.

Swagglehaus, for example, recently purchased Moon Knight's first appearance in Werewolf by Night #32 on Instagram for just over $1k. GoCollect estimates that FMV of this book to be around $1600.

Second, millions of Americans, and thousands of comic book investors, just had millions of dollars of student loan debt wiped off their ledgers. Just as investors spent their stimulus checks on comic books, it's likely they may do so again since their discretionary budgets just received an unexpected boost. In addition, since the comic book market is currently in a bear market, these investors who are now flush with cash have financial incentives to "buy the dip."

The confluence of these two factors, relatively low values and larger discretionary budgets, could fuel another comic book boom. The match stick that could light that fire could be any major announcements by Disney on Disney+ Day on September 8th or at D23 on September 9th through the 11th.

Suppose, for example, that Kevin Feige announces a Wolverine movie during D23. That could boost the value of Hulk #181 considering that the value of a GCG 7.5 copy of that book has dropped by over 33% over the past year. And now investors have the money to purchase it.

Want more Market spec?

Do you think student loan forgiveness will create a seller's market? Please let us know in the comments section below!

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