Are we ever going to profit from our comics?
snake-eyes
i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
say 20 years?
--
"i have the power of grayskull!"
csta...@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Enrique Conty
snake-eyes <csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
Yes. As a rule, collectibles are a bad investment option.
--
E n r i q u e C o n t y
"Do you ever watch movies with real people in them?"
co...@mcs.com
Dick Sidbury
|>
|> i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
|> all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
|> say 20 years?
|>
Of course it's not. If you give them away in 20 years, just imagine how much
the enjoyment that reading them has produced and you'll see a healthy profit.
Of course, if you're an investor, that's good too. Your purchases allow me to
buy old books in five years at a fraction of what they would have cost new.
--
dick sidbury SUN : sid...@cs.uofs.edu
computing sciences dept. VAX : sid...@jaguar.uofs.edu
university of scranton phone : (717)-941-6109
scranton, pa 18510-4664 fax : (717)-941-4250
David Anthony Schmidt
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
>
Depends. Are they post 1980? If so the answer is yes, it's a pipe-dream.
It may be a pipe dream to hope you can sell them at cover.
Now if you have a complete run of Captain America 1-78, it's NOT a pipe dream.
das
Derek Santos
: i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
: all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
: say 20 years?
As opposed to having invested that money in CDs or bonds for 20 years??
Yes.
Cya,
Derek
James Nicoll
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
I note that comics I bought five years ago (Early V4 LSH) have
pages where the colours have faded seriously. What makes you think your
comics will survive two decades to be sold?
James Nicoll
--
"I'm glad I saw the galaxy, but I want to die in Brooklyn."
dgl...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
> all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
> say 20 years?
>
Anything you bought at the height of its popularity will be worth nearly
nothing. That Superman #75 will be worth the same as the million others. That
Spawn #6, ditto. Hell, most "popular" image books by "hot" artists are hanging
out in quarter bins as we speak, beggin for a reader. But some of the stuff you
may have bought that you liked but didn't think much of may be worth something
someday. I had that happen to me with BAtman. I have the fifty issues of that
and Det. Comics up to Year One. They were worth about a dime more than cover
until the movie came out, then boom.
But generally speaking, you'll get more out of your comics than out of a trip
to McDonalds (in the long run), but don't have expectations of more than a
dollar or so an issue on the average.
doug
Steve Maser
>
>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
While I also have a fairly large collection, I've also realized that it
would be foolish to think I could ever sell it all, so...
I'm wondering. Has anybody ever tried to *give* their books away and take
a charitable tax deduction for their value? I'm thinking that many years
hence I'd give a good number of my comics away to children's hospitals and
the like...
Steve Maser | Thinking is man's only basic virtue,
Senior Computer Systems Specialist| from which all the others proceed.
at ma...@engin.umich.edu | -- Ayn Rand
David Whiteley
: In article <3c2ng2$k...@netnews.upenn.edu>, csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (snake-eyes) writes:
: |>
: |> i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
: |> all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
: |> say 20 years?
: |>
: Of course it's not. If you give them away in 20 years, just imagine how much
: the enjoyment that reading them has produced and you'll see a healthy profit.
Good to see somebody knows the true worth of comics....
: Of course, if you're an investor, that's good too. Your purchases allow me to
: buy old books in five years at a fraction of what they would have cost new.
I'll drink to that.
It still boggles my mind that people buy comics as an investment,
thinking they'll get rich on them. If I buy a comic and get a few good
hours of enjoyment out of it (that's from multiple readings over the
years), then the comic has paid for itself tenfold. I recently unloaded
a pile of x-books from 1986 onwards -- not for a pile of cash but a
backload of early Fantastic Fours. To me, that's more of a return
investment than any amount of money.
You want to invest your money? Buy stocks and bonds, not comics.
Dave Whiteley
n.s.r.
Johanna Draper
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
Yes.
Enjoy the comics, just don't consider them an investment.
Johanna
Lance Visser
+>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
+>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
+>say 20 years?
Buy in-demand sliver/golden age books that are undervalued and
you will make money in the long run.
You can make money off hot books, but nearly all the money your
going to make is within six months of a books release. Hot books dont
stay hot. Sell everything hot as quickly as possible.
-Rex, Robert S.
James Nicoll <jam...@coulomb.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>In article <3c2ng2$k...@netnews.upenn.edu>,
>snake-eyes <csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>
>>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>>say 20 years?
>
> I note that comics I bought five years ago (Early V4 LSH) have
>pages where the colours have faded seriously. What makes you think your
>comics will survive two decades to be sold?
>
are not falling apart. So having comics survive 20 years is a good bet.
Bob Rex
Jens Skinnerup
>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
My humble opinion is: "No bloody way!". No way are comics that
are sold in the millions today ever going to be worth anything. This
is due to the fact that for any comic to be worth a lot, it has to be:
a) Historically Significant
b) Rare
Comics such as Detective Comics #29 (I think), which
introduced Batman are Historically Significant. They are also often
Rare, as a lot of them have been lost over the years. Comics nowadays
may be Historically Significant (though this is happening less and
less), but what with thousands of myler-bagged comics around that will
stay in pristine condition for decades, they will never be
rare. (Unless someone buys most of them and has them shredded ;-)
You could also read one of John Byrne's AFATH in "Next Men"
#?, where he argues much more convincinly than I.
-Jens
snake-eyes
comics with you?
i mean i can appreciate the altruistic element in giving them to someone
who will appreciate them...and trading them for more comics is a great
idea, but i always planned on selling them in the far future and having
this great return. this was a rationalization as i went to the store
each week and started spending progressively more money.
however don't try and label me as some multi-issue-gold-special-super
issue-speculator...i have yet to sell anything after collecting for seven
years, reading every issue and enjoying every minute of it.
Carl Haynes
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
>
quality/story-lines/beleivability/consistancy etc, these things seem to have
little bearing on collectability (I think that's a word anyway).
Take the first apearance of the clone of Spiderman (ASM #'s 148-150) which IMHO
is one of the most dire stories ever to see print, but have you seen what those
issues sell for these days ?.
I started collecting comics when I was about 10 years old and now (19 years
later) I haven't got the heart to sell them. Some of my collection is worth
a lot of money according to the various price guides but I think the bottom
line is that they're only worth as much as someone else is willing to pay.
--
Carl Haynes : c...@abacus.demon.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Absurdity, n.:
A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Lazlo Nibble
> after being labeled a speculator, i ask you: do you plan on taking your
> comics with you?
No, but if/when I ever get rid of them, I certainly don't expect to "turn a
profit" on them. Keep in mind that unless a collection is increasing in
value by at least 8-10% per year, the collector is far better off investing
in small stocks or a good mutual fund than "investing" in comics -- and I
*guarantee* that virtually nobody reading this posting has a comics
collection that, taken as a whole, is increasing in value by 8-10% a year.
--
::: Lazlo (la...@rt66.com)
::: Use the Internet Music Wantlists to find rare records and CDs.
::: Email want...@rt66.com with HELP on a line by itself in the message.
Jens Skinnerup
I collect them to read them. I don't plan to sell them and I
definitely don't plan to throw them away. I don't need to rationalize
my spending money on comics any more than I have to do so with books,
CDs etc. Why do you?
+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| Jens Skinnerup | "The future is closed for repairs" - X #9 |
| Email: xs...@daimi.aau.dk | "I don't have nightmares, I give them" - Batman |
+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
--
+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| Jens Skinnerup | "The future is closed for repairs" - X #9 |
| Email: xs...@daimi.aau.dk | "I don't have nightmares, I give them" - Batman |
+--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
Todd VerBeek, GWM
>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
Probably. Look at it in terms of supply and demand. Comics from the
30's-60's are valuable because they are in short supply. That's the case
because they were not made to last, and most readers didn't treat them to
last.
But with just about every kid who walks into a comic shop these days buying
bags, boards, and boxes as well as books, the comics being produced today
will probably outlast us all... and in quantity. There will certainly be
some books whose prices go up (and stay up), but that will be because of
unusual demand for a book with an ordinary or small print run that later
becomes "special" for some arbitrary reason.
Say, for example(*), the Saint's character Wrax becomes a hot property
that makes the TMNT look unpopular by comparison. His appearance in an
early issue of Dirtbag (dubbed "the new Cerebus" by the fans) could be
worth big bucks... but a complete run of Dirtbag #1-300 would still end
up being worth less than we all paid for it. ("$885.00 for THIS?!")
(*) The above is entirely off the cuff, and is not intended to be a
prediction of any likely future. <grin>
Cheers, Todd
"Yin and Yang. Chaos and Order. Smooth and Crunchy."
Johann E. Beda
>In article <3c2ng2$k...@netnews.upenn.edu> csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (snake-eyes) writes:
>>
>>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>>say 20 years?
>
>
inheritance. I'm never going to be able to resell my 10K plus comic colection
and return more profit than if I had wisely invested the $10K plus into
a good mutual fund. However few people of my age have items of this value
at all. Since I'll never resell it because I wouldn't get enough profit to
justify my efforts, it will be left to whoever gets it when I kick to claim
the substantial profit reflecting their aquisition price of $0.00.
--
johann
j-b...@uiuc.edu
<a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/j-beda/">WWW home page</a>
snake-eyes
well, it got to the point where i was spending $15 a week...i would think
to myself that this money could be going to savings, or at least a better
cause, than my personal entertainment.
it never crosses your mind when
those "only $.35 a day will keep this child clothed, fed and educated..."
commercials came on that most of us spend way more than that on our
personal enjoyment?
i continued collecting by having two jobs...and spending my tips from
bussing on comics
this post is coming of as a holier-than-thou sermon.... this is not my
intent. your money is your money.
i just liked to fool myself that in the long run my comics would "pay for
themselves"...i guess this thread has shown me that i got just what i
paid for: evanescent pleasure by enjoying good comics.
Mark Bernstein
: I'm wondering. Has anybody ever tried to *give* their books away and take
: a charitable tax deduction for their value? I'm thinking that many years
: hence I'd give a good number of my comics away to children's hospitals and
: the like...
Yes, I've done that. My mother has worked for the last few years on a yearly
charity book sale. I've donated several boxes of comics that I no longer
wanted, and that the stores didn't want. Each time, I'd get a receipt showing
what I'd donated, worked out estimated value with the current Overstreet, and
listed it as a charitable deduction.
Granted, I've never been audited, but I think if you keep good records, and
have an accepted source to back up your figures, the IRS shouldn't give you
any trouble over it.
--
Mark Bernstein
ma...@cimage.com
Christopher L. Tumber
>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>say 20 years?
of these people can and do make money. They are:
The Reader: Buys a comic. Reads it. What happens to the comic after that
is incedental (may keep it, may throw it away, may incinerate
it).
The Collector: Buys a comic. May read it. Takes comic to his grave.
The Dealer: Buys a comic. Sells it the next day for 100% markup.
The Speculator: Buys a comic. Sells it in six months for 500% markup.
The Investor: Buys a comic. Sells it in five years for 1000% markup.
(Most people don't fall into just one category.)
In general, if a reader or collector makes money on comics, it's a
serious fluke (ie: Someone's had their childhood comics stored in the
attic for fourty years. Whomp! They're worth big bucks!). That is, if
you're going to make money on comics, it's usually no accident.
The reason is very simple. If you buy a comic for $1 and try to sell it
back to a dealer the next day, the most he's probably going to offer you is
$.30 IF he needs it. In order to get just your dollar out of it, it has
to rise in value to around $3. Most comics published today do not tripple
in value. Ever. Some do, but, if you're buying 20 comics a month.
Chances are 1/2 will drop in value (no matter what guides say, as guide
never say "unsellable"), 1/4 will hold their value and maybe 1/4 will
actually go up. So, it's difficult just to break even as you have to
sell 3/4 of everything in your collection for a serious loss.
On the other hand, as a dealer, speculator or investor, you CAN make
money if you know what you're doing and it is very different from
collecting or reading. A reader and collector have totally different
criteria for purchassing books. A reader buys a book because it
entertains. A collector because he wants it. A dealer, speculator and
investor buy a comic because it will make him money.
Obviously the moneymaking strategies are very different. A dealer wants
a book he can sell tomorrow for more than he bought it for. For this
reason a dealer often deals in bulk and wholesale. Either with new
issues or buying and selling collections.
A speculator wants a comic that will rise sharply. Whether a hot new
comic that he can buy at cover price and sell in a couple months when
the price peaks, or an older, undervalued comic or series that he senses
will soon break out (ie: Amazing Spiderman 149). Speculating is easily
the riskiest way to make money in comics but it can also realise the
greates rewards as you can quickly reinvest profits and see geometric
growth... You can also be wiped by a big crash.
An investor wants a comic that will see growth in the long term. This
can be a tried and true performer (Amazing Fantasy 15) or undervalued
books that will probably see strong performance soon (a lot of 70's DC
and Marvel). In general I wouldn't advise investing in new comics. While
there are some books which are doubtless good investments, mostly small
press books or overlooked mainstream books which later have a large
impact on the hobby (Bone, possibly The Tick...) most modern comics are
printed in such large quantities and saved and preserved to such a large
extent that they will never truly be rare unless the demand grows
incredibly (ie: As soon as every teen-age comic reader in America
doesn't want to hang onto 10 copies of Spawn 1 anymore, there are going
to be A LOT of them out there... And they're not exactly tough to find
now.)
So, yes, it is possible to sell your collection in 20 years for a big
profit. I certainly intend to. However, 99% of people collecting today
won't.
zombie
>why do i sometimes feel the need to rationalize buying comics?
>
>well, it got to the point where i was spending $15 a week...i would think
>to myself that this money could be going to savings, or at least a better
>cause, than my personal entertainment.
What better cause than entertainment? Better enjoy yourself while
alive. It's hard to do when pushing up daisys.
zombie
--
##### I hate it when I can't gird my loins with funny animals. -Calvin #####
# Even the flies dropped like...What do flies drop like? -Porno For Pyros #
###### I've got to pull myself together! What can I do? My natural #######
## studliness has overwhelmed Susie's fragile grip on reality! -- Calvin ###
### zom...@netcom.com ### E.VEIT on GEnie ### zom...@redeye.ebay.sun.com ###
dgl...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
> In article <3c2ng2$k...@netnews.upenn.edu> csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (snake-eyes) writes:
>>
>>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit in
>>say 20 years?
>
>
> While I also have a fairly large collection, I've also realized that it
> would be foolish to think I could ever sell it all, so...
>
> I'm wondering. Has anybody ever tried to *give* their books away and take
> a charitable tax deduction for their value? I'm thinking that many years
> hence I'd give a good number of my comics away to children's hospitals and
> the like...
Yeah, scare the hell out of the kiddies with "modern, not for kids anymore"
comics. :)
Actually that's a good idea. But how bout tax deductions in the present? I'm by
no means a tax expert. I don't even do my own taxes. (not that I suck at math,
I'm quite good at that, just not with dollars, not abstract enough)
But on Leno tonight there was some kid (12 yrs old)/ prodigy talking about
investments and such. So the question:
If comics can be seen as an investment (along the same lines as other
collectables, which they are), does one receive tax deductions for these?
I am fully aware that comics are a bad investment (financially - unless you
were one of the fortunate people to get Sandman when it came out, among other
series), but the IRS doesn't know that. "I'm just collecting for future
investment potential, not that I read the stories or anything." :) Actually,
you could claim the initial expense as an investment, then have the collection
appraised later and claim it as a loss.
any ideas?
Seth Finkelstein
>If comics can be seen as an investment (along the same lines as other
>collectables, which they are), does one receive tax deductions for these?
The problem is that the rules are very different for "business"
than for "hobby". You can't claim everything you buy as an investment,
even though every durable item could conceivably have some "collectible"
value (all my furniture, it could one day have some value as antiques,
so it's an investment ...). On the other hand, being that a lot of
people don't read the comics they buy (that would make them less than
NM), it might be argued they hardly qualify as entertainment ...
I'm not a tax accountant, but I have a feeling this stuff is
more on the "creative" side of deductions. Getting it through is going
to more a matter of what you can establish vis-a-vis the qualifying
tests the IRS applies, and the judgement of the auditor.
Someone's probably tried it. I've seen odder stuff in the news
reports about Tax Court cases.
--
Seth Finkelstein se...@mit.edu
Disclaimer : I am not the Lorax. I speak only for myself.
(and certainly not for Project Athena, MIT, or anyone else).
Abhiji...@transarc.com
se...@athena.mit.edu (Seth Finkelstein) writes:
> I'm not a tax accountant, but I have a feeling this stuff is
> more on the "creative" side of deductions. Getting it through is going
> to more a matter of what you can establish vis-a-vis the qualifying
> tests the IRS applies, and the judgement of the auditor.
I believe you have run a profit 3 out of 5 years for it to be
deductible as a business expense. Business expenses are deductible,
hobbies are not.
[ This matter generally comes up with more expensive hobbies like
raising racehorses and the like. ]
If you do some writing for money for comic zines and the like, then you
should be able to claim your comics expenses (or some part of them) as
business and research expenses.
I'm not a tax accountant, anyone's whos interested should look at the
Tax Code.
Abhijit
Bruce Berger
In article <1994Dec9.0...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, dglass writes:
> If comics can be seen as an investment (along the same lines as other
> collectables, which they are), does one receive tax deductions for these?
In general, you do not get a tax deduction simply for intially
*making* an investment. The exception that comes to mind is that
the first $2000 you invest in an IRA each year is tax-deductible
if you make a comparatively low salary. This goes down as your
salary goes up. Also, I'd imagine that buying comics could be
considered a 'business expense' and be deducted in some situations,
but this seems like a pretty gray area.
If you're actually buying comics as an investment, I presume the
same capital gains tax laws apply to comics as to any other
investment. If you buy $100 of comics today and sell them for
$300 in 5 years, you are supposed to pay a tax on your capital
gain - that is, the $200 that you made. Currently, the capital
gains tax rate is the same as your income tax rate. With
more Republicans in office, this may change - lowering the
capital gains tax rate to encourage investment is an idea
espoused by many Republicans.
If you were to sell the comics you bought for $100 for only $50
later on, you made no capital gain, so you pay no taxes. (Neither
do you get a refund, of course). Now, here's the trick - if you
combine the first bunch of comics with the second, you paid
$200 and got back $350, so you only pay tax on $150. This is
legal, or at least it is if you do it correctly. Mutual funds,
for example, do it regularly.
Anyways, back to work.
Bruce Berger
A picture is worth a thousand words but takes up more bandwidth.
Kevin Maroney
<Abhiji...@transarc.com> wrote:
>I believe you have run a profit 3 out of 5 years for it to be
>deductible as a business expense. Business expenses are deductible,
>hobbies are not.
>Tax Code.
Actually, the "hobbies must make a profit 3 out of 5 years" is a rule of
thumb and is not in the tax code. (One of the wonderful things about US
taxes is that the rules are defined by law, by case law, and by IRS
internal memoranda...) The "3 out of 5" rule is a shorthand way of
indicating that, in case of an invesigation/audit, making a profit in 3
out of every five years is a strong inidcation that the hobby is actually
a business and thus an allowable deduction. Other pieces of evidence
include the types of records you keep, including expenditures and so forth.
Basically, the upshot is: if it's really a hobby, it's probably not
deductable. If it's a sideline business, it probably is.
--
Kevin J. Maroney|k...@panix.com|Proud to be a Maroney|Proud to be a Yonker
At night, the ice weasels come.
mart...@vnet.ibm.com
>
>While I also have a fairly large collection, I've also realized that it
>would be foolish to think I could ever sell it all, so...
>
>I'm wondering. Has anybody ever tried to *give* their books away and take
>a charitable tax deduction for their value? I'm thinking that many years
>hence I'd give a good number of my comics away to children's hospitals and
>the like...
>
Well, actually, I've decided to do that this year. I've never been a
collector for profit, and I have found that my comic collection is
just taking up too much room in my house (just ask my wife - someday she
wants to turn that room into a nursery).
The past couple years, my work area has been doing things for local
charities. Last year we bought gifts and played Santa for an orphanage.
It was a real eye opener. The kids asked for simple things which we
take for granted. There were several requests for comic books, so this
weekend I'll be going through my boxes and sorting and selecting.
About the only ones that will be safe will be my Legion collection.
I don't know if I'll give it all this year or spread it out, but the
opportunity is here, and I'd rather it do some good than make some
dealer some money at my expense.
As far as tax deductions, I probably won't itemize it, or If I do,
it will fall under general charitable donations (like Goodwill donations).
Won't be much of an impact (next to my mortgage interest :->).
John Martinek
(My first post - not necessary the opinions of IBM)
john f. sasso
David Whiteley <dwhi...@plato.ucs.mun.ca> wrote:
>> In article <3c2ng2$k...@netnews.upenn.edu>, csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (snake-eyes) writes:
>>>
>>> i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is it
>>> all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit
>>> in say 20 years?
>>>
>
>thinking they'll get rich on them.
> You want to invest your money? Buy stocks and bonds, not comics.
>Dave Whiteley
>n.s.r.
(much trimming later...)
Why are people so negative about making money from comics? The trick
is just to find the right ones. No one is going to make a buck off
of any *hot* comic in the short term.
A number of years back my local shop got in 3 copies of a black and
white funny animal book from a brand new company. There were
only a couple of thousand printed. There was no hype, and few
people gave it a second look. I thought it looked cool,
and picked up a copy. My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue 1,
first printing, sold for a nice 2000% profit just a couple of years
later.
The moral of the story is start perusing those bizarre comics from
independant publishers. Don't buy comics that are supposed to be
hot because some fan-zine told you so. There's some great stuff
out there that isn't published by the big guys. And some of it
will get real popular, real fast, when you least suspect it.
I'm still kicking myself for not picking up that B&W "flip book"
with that Grendel character in it. :-)
john
walton matthew david
: Why are people so negative about making money from comics? The trick
: is just to find the right ones. No one is going to make a buck off
: of any *hot* comic in the short term.
: A number of years back my local shop got in 3 copies of a black and
: white funny animal book from a brand new company. There were
: only a couple of thousand printed. There was no hype, and few
: people gave it a second look. I thought it looked cool,
: and picked up a copy. My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue 1,
: first printing, sold for a nice 2000% profit just a couple of years
: later.
: The moral of the story is start perusing those bizarre comics from
: independant publishers.
Yeah, the guys who worked at my comics shop actually laughed at me when
I bought Evil Ernie #1 from Eternity back when it first came out. Who's
laughing now?
I've got them Pentium-90 blues,
Matt
Lazlo Nibble
> Why are people so negative about making money from comics?
Because examples of the sort you bring up (buying TMNT #1, first printing,
for cover price) are extremely rare. Your getting that book was nothing
but luck -- by your own admission, you bought it because it "looked cool",
not because you thought you'd sell it for 2000% profit a couple of years
down the line. Someone who's buying new comics as an investment will get
that lucky on maybe one out of every few thousand titles they buy, which
doesn't come close to paying for the other few thousand that *don't* go
through the ceiling.
Jeffrey A. Brueggeman
Yeah, buy every independant comic that ever comes out, and you'll get rich. Tell that to every store owner in the world with a back room full of Valiant and Image. You are living in a fantasy world if you think that you can make money buying new comics (and at retail no less).
walton matthew david
: >: The moral of the story is start perusing those bizarre comics from
: >: independant publishers.
: > Yeah, the guys who worked at my comics shop actually laughed at me when
: >I bought Evil Ernie #1 from Eternity back when it first came out. Who's
: >laughing now?
: Yeah, buy every independant comic that ever comes out, and you'll get
:rich. Tell that to every store owner in the world with a back room full
:of Valiant and Image. You are living in a fantasy world if you think
:that you can make money buying new comics (and at retail no less).
I never said buy every independant. I just pointed out a time when an
unexpected windfall came my way in the form of an obscure black and white
that no one every thought would amount to anything. It's called *irony*.
I didn't buy it in the anticipation of its potential value (by all
appearances, it had none) unlike those store owners with the glut of
Image and Valiant (and I assume you're talking about late Valiant, at
least post-Unity). At first, Valiant was another one of those (pardon the
phrase) "dark horse" companies. No one expected anything extraordinary
from them, but we all know what happened. I'm just saying that sometimes
valuable comics come from th most unexpected places, and the people
living in the fantasy world are those who think that the books that
people like Wizard mark as "Hot Picks" are going to be the next X-Men #1.
I've got them Pentium-90 Blues,
Matt
Nelson Fernandez
writes:
>
>csta...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (snake-eyes) writes:
>>i enjoy reading comics but i don't plan on keeping them forever. is
it
>>all a pipedream to think that we can sell our collections for a profit
in
>>say 20 years?
>
>Probably. Look at it in terms of supply and demand. Comics from the
>30's-60's are valuable because they are in short supply. That's the
case
>because they were not made to last, and most readers didn't treat them
to
>last.
>
>But with just about every kid who walks into a comic shop these days
buying
>bags, boards, and boxes as well as books, the comics being produced
today
>will probably outlast us all... and in quantity. There will certainly
be
>some books whose prices go up (and stay up), but that will be because
of
>unusual demand for a book with an ordinary or small print run that
later
>becomes "special" for some arbitrary reason.
Gotta agree, the only time any comic I own goes up in value is when I
least expected it. The second you see "#1 Collector's Edition", you
know about a million of these are already printed and stored in mylar
forever!
philippe vanhecke
Well, i think you've all sumed up. And by the way killed forever the hiden
dreams and secret hopes of any comics collector.
But the fact is that most of comics readership is under 18 and doesn't have in
mind that kind of consideration.
Sad but true.
--
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Doug Shaw
In article <3capg2$a...@alfrothul.uchicago.edu>, joh...@alfrothul.uchicago.edu (john f. sasso) writes:
|> In article <3c4h2c$4...@coranto.ucs.mun.ca>,
|> David Whiteley <dwhi...@plato.ucs.mun.ca> wrote:
|> > You want to invest your money? Buy stocks and bonds, not comics.
|> >Dave Whiteley
|> >n.s.r.
|>
|> (much trimming later...)
|>
|> Why are people so negative about making money from comics? The trick
|> is just to find the right ones. No one is going to make a buck off
|> of any *hot* comic in the short term.
|>
|> A number of years back my local shop got in 3 copies of a black and
|> white funny animal book from a brand new company. There were
|> only a couple of thousand printed. There was no hype, and few
|> people gave it a second look. I thought it looked cool,
|> and picked up a copy. My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue 1,
|> first printing, sold for a nice 2000% profit just a couple of years
|> later.
|>
Yeah, you made a 2000% profit on that ONE TRANSACTION. Nice job. How
much cash did you make? Enough for a nice dinner for you and your
friends, probably.
My mom bought a lottery ticket for $1 and won $250. That's a 250% profit!
But no intelligent person would call lottery tickets an "investment."
If you can buy $1000 worth of comics retail, and sell them in 2 years for
$2000 wholesale, I take off my hat to you. But my suspicion is that
for every 2000% profit you've made, you've had 100 losses. That is
why I am so negative about making money from comics.
--
Doug Shaw
Dick Sidbury
|> I'm wondering. Has anybody ever tried to *give* their books away and take
|> a charitable tax deduction for their value? I'm thinking that many years
|> hence I'd give a good number of my comics away to children's hospitals and
|> the like...
|
I've done this in the past, but you have to take the lesser of the amount you paid
for the books and their current value when deducting. For example, if you
paid 2.00 for a book in nm condition and it is now in F condition you could take
which ever is less it's current F condition value or 2.00. To do otherwise
would put you in a losing position with respect to an audit.
NOTE: This is how my tax man explained it to me. Seek professional advice before
trying this.
--
dick sidbury SUN : sid...@cs.uofs.edu
computing sciences dept. VAX : sid...@jaguar.uofs.edu
university of scranton phone : (717)-941-6109
scranton, pa 18510-4664 fax : (717)-941-4250
Johann E. Beda
>In article <3c4i7e$f...@zip.eecs.umich.edu>, ma...@engin.umich.edu (Steve Maser) writes:
>
>|> I'm wondering. Has anybody ever tried to *give* their books away and take
>|> a charitable tax deduction for their value? I'm thinking that many years
>|> hence I'd give a good number of my comics away to children's hospitals and
>|> the like...
>|
>
>I've done this in the past, but you have to take the lesser of the amount you paid
>for the books and their current value when deducting. For example, if you
>paid 2.00 for a book in nm condition and it is now in F condition you could take
>which ever is less it's current F condition value or 2.00. To do otherwise
>would put you in a losing position with respect to an audit.
>NOTE: This is how my tax man explained it to me. Seek professional advice before
>trying this.
>
are deducted at 'fair market value' (I guess Bill Clinton lived in an area
with tremendous demand for used underwear). For most cases, the situation
above would end up with the FMV of the F comic would be less than $2.00, but
in the extreme case (purchasing Action #1 new in NM, then donating it 50 years
later in F) it would be foolish for the IRS to insist that the lowest price
be the one used for tax purposes, for the work around solution is fairly
simple, the private person sells the item then donates the sales price getting
a tax deduction of the FMV or the item. I wonder if celebrity auctions
give tax receipts for the sale price of the items?
The Napoleon of Crime
"You're in luck -- your record is lousy, but St. Peter has wanted a complete
run of JOURNEY for decades."
"An Austrian circus dwarf died recently when he
bounced sideways from a trampoline and was
swallowed by a hippopotamus. Seven thousand
people watched as little Franz Dasch popped into
the mouth of Hilda the Hippo and the animal's gag
reflex forced it to swallow. The crowd applauded
wildly before other circus people realized what
has happened."
-- Las Vegas Sun
---
Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: mori...@tc.fluke.COM
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