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Yeah, I've suspected this for a long time. I'm 40 years old now, and my cousins and I used to collect comics when we were in elementary school all the way to h
by mililani 13y ago
Yeah, I've suspected this for a long time. I'm 40 years old now, and my cousins and I used to collect comics when we were in elementary school all the way to high school. We sometimes would buy collector's items off the top walls in comic book stores (comic fans know what this is about) that were higher priced and more valuable. But, mostly, we would find a comic series we really like, follow it, and then when we knew a good story or "episode" was coming out, we would buy several of those comics. Some that I can remember from memory are:
1) Super Spiderman vs Hulk penned by Mcfarlane
2) Punisher vs Wolvering series
3) Xmen mutant massacre cross over series
These comics of my youth are still tucked away at my parent's house with acid free backing and plastic for the past 20+ years. Anyways, sometimes I will go into comic book stores to peruse, and I'm often happy to discover that many of the comics my cousins and I thought would make the big time wall are now there. However, the big shock is, the prices they command are far below what we thought they would be. Some are $5-10. A few maybe $15. I mean, for the price we paid, I think it was $1.25 or 1.50, that may sound pretty decent. But, that's only half the story. Most comic book shops will only pay 50% of the market value of any collectables. So, that $10 comic will only probably net $5. After 20 years, it's not really worth it.
But, there is one happy outcome of all this. My love of finding good stories that I think one day will become worth something has led me to stocks and investing. I think my comic book collector mentality translated well to stock picking and investing. I love finding a good business story and investing in it. That's how I found Netflix, Google, and Tesla. These companies made me FAR more money than any comic book has or probably ever will.
- mistermann 13y agoAny "unknown" stocks out there you like now?
- notdrunkatall 13y agoMXWL.
- mililani 13y agoNot nearly as much as before. I think for the most part, most equities are fairly valued and even over priced. Although, I still do like some BAC warrants. Some of the insurers and reinsurers look undervalued (most are trading at 75% of book value), but the insurance markets have been in a soft market (pricing power) for a while now, and there is no idea when markets will start to "harden". It will take a major catastrophe for that to happen. Some of the better managed ones, like Fairfax Financial, are fairly priced. So, to answer, no, not really. I'm actually mostly in cash now.
- vidarh 13y ago> when we knew a good story or "episode" was coming out, we would buy several of those comics. This has always been one of those things that seems ludicrous to me about the US comics market. In Europe, in many market it is common to assume 3-4 readers to each comic when selling advertising etc. Comics would get passed around the family, loaned to friends etc. While in the US, it's the opposite: The number of comics sold is usually assumed to be higher than the number of readers.