How to Determine the Value of Your Comic Book Collection

Comic book values have always been important to many collectors. There have been times when the comic book industry boomed over speculation of the product's future value. This speculation has led to peaks and valleys in the sales of comic books The industry is still recovering from the inflated sales numbers this type of speculation delivered for a while, but those sales eventually disappeared. Many comic book collectors sit on boxes of comic books that have not increased in value but have actually decreased due to high print runs and overstock.

So, where can the comic book collector turn to find the true value of the books he owns and possibly wishes to sell? Are there still investment opportunities for new collectors when it comes to comic book product?

Rarity always comes into play when collecting anything. The harder it is to find something, the more worth it will have. Older comic books - anything published before 1980, are the collectible comics that are currently increasing in value. This does not mean every book published in that time period has increased in value, but time has paired down the availability of many of these books and made the prices go up. Also, enough time has passed where the cultural significance of key issues can be observed and that comic value has increased.

To find these key issues or to look up the value of the comic books you may currently own, there are a few valuable resources.

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. This has always been the most popular comic book price guide. It can be found at most book stores. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide contains the estimated value of just about every comic book that has ever been published. It is updated annually. The price guide gives the collector a good idea of the current worth of a certain comic book. These prices depend a great deal on your book's grading. Condition grading is extremely important to comic book collectors and the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide gives definitions for every grading condition so the collector can grade his book appropriately.

Ebay. After looking up the estimated value and grading the comic book, the actual going rate of the book can be found on eBay. Some times what the price guide estimates and what the book is actually selling for is vastly different. Sometimes it is lower, sometimes higher. Ebay and other auction sites can also give you an idea for demand of the book you wish to sell. These real-time estimations can give you a new sense of your book's value.

Your Local Comic Shop. Another way of determining the current market value of your comic books is to check in with your local comic book shop owner. Most of the time, however, these prices will be lower than eBay because the shop owner is looking for direct resale where the auction buyers are bidding against collectors. If your comic book shop has back issue inventory, a perusal through the stock can give you an idea on the prices asked by retailers for older books you own.

These three resources will give the comic book collector a good estimation on their books' value. For the back issue collector, it can also point you toward books that may possibly be good investment opportunities or key issues that you wish to have in your collection.