Nightwing #4 of the New 52 is rare... Why???

[theDarkJAww13]

The reasons you've listed are the precise reasons it will never be worth much: it's a mainstream book so it has a large print run, the paper quality is of good stock and nearly everyone is a collector to one degree o another so the likelyhood h
of a great number of copies of this book or any other published by DC or Marvel in the last 20-25 years

surviving into the future is pretty great.

Well although i agree with that explanation, you're acting like you're 100% sure what the future brings. You 'nah'd' me out of your personal suspicions.

As I've said, i don't collect comics for possible increase invalue but nah, im gonna choose to be optimistic lol

[thwhtGuardian]

Well although i agree with that explanation, you're acting like you're 100% sure what the future brings. You 'nah'd' me out of your personal suspicions.

As I've said, i don't collect comics for possible increase invalue but nah, im gonna choose to be optimistic lol

It pretty much is a hundred percent lock, you'd be hard pressed to find a mainstream issue published in the last 25 years that has really grown in value and it's unlikely that such a trend is going to change anytime soon.

[batGRRRl4ever]

Technical value vs a collector who badly wants an issue at a comi-con are two different things. I myself sold a Marvel X-Factor issue that took place during the Inferno crossover saga that I was able to sell for three times anything else I had sold that day at the comi-con due to the collector wanting it so badly. So nothing respectfully, is truly a "hundred percent lock" when you have ardent collector's that you can haggle with, despite whatever a price index might say.

[batman_pwns]

Well although i agree with that explanation, you're acting like you're 100% sure what the future brings.

Anyone that has actually studied Economics and/or Finance pretty well can predict the future with a very high degree of accuracy. Its what financial advisers do for a living. While they aren't 100% accurate, a good financial adviser will be pretty close to it. A financial adviser that is right only half the time is like a doctor that kills half his patients.

And really you don't even need a degree in Economics or Finance to see how foolhardy it is to invest in modern comics. Golden and Silver Age comics are valuable because they truly are very very very scarce. Modern Marvel and DC comics will never come even remotely close to reaching that same scarcity.

Back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s comics were seen as being completely disposable like a newspaper. You read it and then tossed it aside. Kids would read their comics and then fold it in half and stick it in their backpocket and go play outside in the dirt. As a consequence >90% of these comics have been destroyed over the years. For example, Action Comics Vol 1 #1 from 1939 is worth a million dollars because there is estimated to be less than one hundred copies left in the entire world and only nine of those copies have been graded at 9.0 or better condition.

Today, everyone bags and boards and takes better care of their comics. As a consequence the vast majority of these comics will remain in good condition indefinitely, and they will never become scarce. Look at it this way. A Silver Age comic has maybe one thousand copies remaining. A #1 issue from the new 52 had about 200,000 copies printed. To reach the same scarcity of that Silver Age comic, quite literally 99.5% of these new 52 copies would have to be destroyed and that quite simply is never going to happen. With the sheer number of collectors out there today bagging and boarding everything, not even half these copies will be destroyed.

That isn't to say that every modern comic will be worthless though. The ones that will be worth something will be those that have a low supply and a demand significantly higher than that low supply. That pretty much excludes anything from Marvel or DC though since they print everything in massive numbers these days and everyone collects them. The valuable comics are most likely to be indie comics that have low supply and high demand. For example, the first few issues of the Mirage TMNT comics had a print run of only 3,000 copies. These issues are very valuable today, and they are the most likely candidates to keep increasing significantly in the future.

[thwhtGuardian]

Technical value vs a collector who badly wants an issue at a comi-con are two different things. I myself sold a Marvel X-Factor issue that took place during the Inferno crossover saga that I was able to sell for three times anything else I had sold that day at the comi-con due to the collector wanting it so badly. So nothing respectfully, is truly a "hundred percent lock" when you have ardent collector's that you can haggle with, despite whatever a price index might say.

What, like 20-40 bucks for an issue? That's not a significant value increase, and is not something you could consistently get for that issue.

[batGRRRl4ever]

Well although i agree with that explanation, you're acting like you're 100% sure what the future brings. You 'nah'd' me out of your personal suspicions.

As I've said, i don't collect comics for possible increase invalue but nah, im gonna choose to be optimistic lol

Exactly, if it's something you enjoy then yeah, be optimistic! People can quote the price indexes and stock market quotations all they want, but it seems to really be negating the human factor of collecting. Also yeah it is fun to keep track of it but to also find that collector who really wants the issue you happen to have to sell! And the FUN part of the haggling and the interacting with fellow fans and collectors is what it REALLY is about at a comi-con where people are selling their comics!

[theDarkJAww13]

Yeah there are flea markets/collectible stores in my area that have been here since before I was born. Was able to make easy money on some not even rare books there.

You can indeed explain economics all you want (though you don't need to to me as ive taken economics courses and understand it just fine lol) but the fact is that it really depends on your area and who wants what at a given time.


Just don't assume that because you're knowledgeable about the past you know for a fact the patterns these sorts of things are liable to take in the future. Not just money value but collector's value.

Plus who says $40 isn't a considerable increase from a book originally sold for $2.99? If I got even $10 for it in the future id be happy given what I bought it for lol

[batman_pwns]

You can indeed explain economics all you want (though you don't need to to me as ive taken economics courses and understand it just fine lol) but the fact is that it really depends on your area and who wants what at a given time.

If you truly understood economics, you would understand that the bolded part is still economics... What you described as "who wants what at a given time" is just another way of saying demand. No matter how you look at it, a free market will always be ruled by supply and demand.

Just don't assume that because you're knowledgeable about the past you know for a fact the patterns these sorts of things are liable to take in the future. Not just money value but collector's value.

Are you serious or just trolling? You always look back at the past to predict the future. Have you ever heard the expression "if you don't learn from history, history is doomed to repeat itself." That's basically what that means.

Plus who says $40 isn't a considerable increase from a book originally sold for $2.99? If I got even $10 for it in the future id be happy given what I bought it for lol

The time value of money... One dollar today is not the same as one dollar in the future.

For example, fifty years ago you could buy enough groceries to last you an entire week with $10. Today $10 is like one or two meals.

So basically what that means is that a dollar today is worth less than it was in the past because today's dollar has less buying power.

So a comic that sold for $2.99 today that is worth $40 in the future is too ambiguous to determine if that was a good investment or not. If you could get $40 for it tomorrow, yes it would be a great deal. If fifty years have passed though, it wasn't such a good deal at all because the future value of that 2012 $2.99 would be much closer to $40 than the original $2.99 you paid for it. You would have earned much more by investing that $2.99 in a bond or stock or something that paid a higher interest rate.

Another way to look at it is this. X-Men Vol 2 #1 sold for $1 in 1991. Today it is still only worth one dollar, but in terms of real buying power it is actually worth LESS than the cover price because that $1 in 1991 had more buying power than the $1 in 2012. Therefore, X-Men Vol 2 #1 isn't worth the same now as it was in 1991... its actually worth less...

[The_Greatest_Username]

Yes, Higgins did give us a fascinating, solid version of Batgirl.

Yes, it was a great version of Batgirl which was complimented greatly by McCarthy's spectacular artwork.

[Badou]

Batgirl is going to appear in Nightwing during the upcoming crossover event. So Higgins will get another chance to write her soon.

[theDarkJAww13]

If you truly understood economics, you would understand that the bolded part is still economics... What you described as "who wants what at a given time" is just another way of saying demand. No matter how you look at it, a free market will always be ruled by supply and demand.

lol yeah man... that's why I said "the fact is." I was backing up the first half of a sentence with the second half. I didn't mean for the first two 'paragraphs' of my post to link together, I was just stating that I took economics classes. Not saying I was the best student, mind you, but I understand it. I can sort of see how my placement of parenthesis may have confused people.

Are you serious or just trolling? You always look back at the past to predict the future. Have you ever heard the expression "if you don't learn from history, history is doomed to repeat itself." That's basically what that means.

yeah, you're definitely the one to accuse anyone of trolling... Of course I've heard the expression but what do they say about those who live in the past? You need to look forward - you have absolutely NO idea what could happen to the comics business in the future. One scenerio (just an idea), If digital gets even more popular, it's possible people with no mind for 'collectibles' will simply toss their physical issues in replacement for digital books. (you don't need to spend any of your time typing up a counter-argument to this, I know it's a stretch but I'm just giving an example.)

You can use the past to predict whatever you'd like but you still have no way of knowing what's going to happen just because of what already has.

The time value of money... One dollar today is not the same as one dollar in the future.

For example, fifty years ago you could buy enough groceries to last you an entire week with $10. Today $10 is like one or two meals.

So basically what that means is that a dollar today is worth less than it was in the past because today's dollar has less buying power.

So a comic that sold for $2.99 today that is worth $40 in the future is too ambiguous to determine if that was a good investment or not. If you could get $40 for it tomorrow, yes it would be a great deal. If fifty years have passed though, it wasn't such a good deal at all because the future value of that 2012 $2.99 would be much closer to $40 than the original $2.99 you paid for it. You would have earned much more by investing that $2.99 in a bond or stock or something that paid a higher interest rate.

Another way to look at it is this. X-Men Vol 2 #1 sold for $1 in 1991. Today it is still only worth one dollar, but in terms of real buying power it is actually worth LESS than the cover price because that $1 in 1991 had more buying power than the $1 in 2012. Therefore, X-Men Vol 2 #1 isn't worth the same now as it was in 1991... its actually worth less...

lol and once again man, all this is not news to me, I fully understand how money works over time. I was just making an off-hand remark about my comic shop where I sold common books for cash - followed by an off-hand remark about (somewhat) understanding economics. thanks for the dissection though! I guess we both look stupid now. Me for wording my first statement weird and you for taking all the time to try to make me look like an idiot just because you yourself didn't understand what i was trying to say. lol's are what make the world go around I guess.

After this post though, you win the discussion lol. I'm not talking about economics on a comic book forum anymore and ive already spent too much of my time arguing with people on this one lol. From now on simply opinions lol.