Making Money Collecting Comic Books

Comic book collecting is a labor of love for those fans of a particular character, series, or story line. For investors, however, it is a business and different principles apply. Comic book investors base their buying on future profits while collectors base their buying on the desire to own the comic rather than its actual worth. This means, if the Comic book investor finds the right book, he can make a nice profit from it.

Learn about the Business

As with any start-up business, becoming a comic book investor takes some research and planning to be successful. Investors must understand the industry that they are entering and have a business plan that will guide them into moneymaking strategy. Writing a business plan is a simple process. Business planning software can help create a business plan that makes sense. Once, investors go through the business planning process they will have an excellent idea of the industry and business they will want to have.

Sometimes it is difficult for someone starting a business to understand all the things they need to know in order to become successful. The Small Business Administration is a great place to get free help. The SBA is a department of the Federal Government designed to help small business become successful. They offer all sorts of free advice and have mentors who can help guide people during the creation of a business. In addition, once done with the program, they help guide people on getting government loans and grants. Once done with the process a comic book investor will be an expert in their business and have the capital they need to start getting inventory.

A great place to begin research into the comic book business is through a book called "The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide" by Robert Overstreet. Overstreet is considered as an expert in the comic book industry. In fact, he created the first comic book price guide in the 1970's.

Overstreet's book is more than just a price guide it is an educational tool for collectors. Readers will get that year's market review and industry forecast. He provides tips on how to maintain a comic collection and establishes the current market value for the most sought after comics. Over all, for a new comic book collector or investor this book is an ideal way of learning about the financial side of comic book collecting.

Determining Value

Successful investors are realistic about their pricing. They understand that timing is everything. Age, rarity, and subject matter help to determine the value of a comic book, but dealers know they can make more on a book if they time its sale. For example, a signed Watchman edition would be worth more now that it has been made into a movie. The same goes for Star Wars, Star Trek, and X-men comics. Every time a movie comes out for any of these series, it becomes a biding war for the rarest comics. Investors time their sales to coincide with these events.

Collectors are interested in comic book content; to the comic book investor the content is not important. Collectors like collect all of the comic books in a storyline series, while investors collect these series to sell at a higher price.

Comic book content is not the only factor in the price of a comic book. Condition plays an essential role in comic book pricing. Collectors need to take care of their comics. Creases, fading, tears, or stains all take value away from the book. Comic books need to be kept in an "as new" condition in order to attain their greatest values. Even a very rare comic book that is in poor condition will lose its value to certain collectors.

To find the true values of comic books use some online comic brokerage firms, such as ComicsPriceGuide.com not only help broker comic book sales but they also price comics for collectors. This is a nice feature since investors will get an idea of what the market will bear in terms of price.

Where to Get Comic Books

The best place to get comics is from garage sales, relatives, and estate sales. Often times, people discard these books as junk and sell them at prices so cheap that an investor can make a profit even if the book does not have much collector value.

EBay is another place to get inexpensive comic books. Many of the vendors keep prices low because of the fees EBay charges or because they are not real comic book investors but collectors looking to get rid of their collections.

Selling Comic Books for Profit

Comic book investors can do this in a number of ways. For a quick search, EBay is a good place to start. For the more experienced collector magazines, such as Wizard, and pricing guides, such as The Overstreet Price Guide are used. Comic book price guides very accurate in their pricing because they are generally issued in monthly, quarterly, or yearly publications. They do this because new details effect in the resale value of comic books.

Once you get an idea of the price and are ready to sell, you have a variety of options available. For a quick sell, EBay is a good place. For the more experienced collectors, industry magazines such as Wizard are a good place to sell inventory, conventions such as Wizard World comic show or Comic-Con are excellent places for profit. Online auction and classified sites dedicated to comic books are an excellent source for buyers. Site such as Comic Connect and ComicsPriceGuide.com are regularly searched by collectors searching for new additions to add their collections. Comic books sellers find online an easy and no fuss way of selling their inventories.

Comic book sellers can sell their inventories online, through a comic book dealer, advertise it in an industry magazine or comic can be sold on consignment through a dealer, such as Pedigree Comics. Consignment sell often takes rare comic books on consignment and have the industry marketing experience to get top dollar.

The market for comic books offers a number of opportunities for creating a moneymaking business. The benefits of owning a company and brining in extra income it limited only by the time an investor wishes to invest and of course the final price comes down to the person buying it. This can make comic book selling a very lucrative business.

References:

ComicsPriceGuide.com

Wizard World Comic Show

Book: The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 39th Edition (Paperback), Robert M. Overstreet, 2009

Comic Connect

United States Small Business Administration