Did you know? (Why comics from the 80's and 90's are never "rare" or "hard to find")

Action Comics #1 (June 1938) sold for $870,000.00 at auction (VG+ Condition) in 2003!

In June of 1938 National Comics (which would become DC Comics) printed a total of 100,000 copies of this now classic comic. Currently there are believed to be 100 copies or less to exist, and of those that remain, it is also believed that there are fewer then 10 to be in any condition better then Good.

Now, let's say you and everyone else goes back in time, and hits the newsstands on that faithful day and brings forward in time a copy or 10 of this comic... How much to do you think it would be worth?

Once eBay fills up with 700,000 copies of a genuine 1938 copy of Action Comics #1 (ignoring the fact that only 100,000 were printed), this book would be worth less then cover price.

Why is that?

In the 1930's - early 1960's people did not save comics, they read them, gave them to friends, threw them away. In the '60's when the the first of the comic book stores opened selling back issues, people started to save them more often then not. By the late '70's direct marketing took hold, and dealers were "stuck" with every comic on their shelves, so not many people threw comics away.

In the mid to late '80's, the publishers started catering to the "collector" rather then the reader of comics. This all came to a head with the speculator marketing ("Death of Superman" era of comics)... To keep this from going on forever, I hope you get the idea. No one throws anything away anymore. Everyone saves everything hoping for that big "pay day" for their "stuff".

But to make it simple... Collectibles are collectible if they are truly "rare". The more "rare" something is, the more value it has. In a world with several thousand copies of a comic still "floating around" how can it be "valuable"? In truth, they are not. Most dealers will "over-charge" for books based on how "hot" it is. However, there are many more dealers, like us, that would rather sell 10 copies of a comic today to a customer at cover price, and have them return every month for another in the series, then sell those same 10 copies for $50 each and never see the customer again. - How's that for a FAQ-Answer? :)