Collecting Comics: Picking Up My Childhood Hobby

 

Me and My Prized Possession - Amazing Spider-man #361, 1st Appearance of Carnage

Like many kids growing up in Canada, collecting baseball cards and comics was a big part of my childhood.  Particularly, when I was in grade 7 and 8, I spent much of my spare time reading, drawing, buying, and trading comics.  I was so passionate about comics that my mom enrolled me in art lessons on Saturday afternoons.

It all started in 1990 when Impel came out with a set of trading cards with Marvel characters.  It was all the rage at that time. Any kid who was in grade school at that time must have either collected them or at least seen their friends bring them to school to trade.  I was no different.  Soon, I was sucked into the world of Marvel and I guess have never left since then.

Soon after that, I started collecting comics and began with the most popular titles like Amazing Spider-man and the Uncanny X-men.  Not going far from the beaten path, Spider-man and Wolverine were my favourite characters.  I certainly enjoyed reading the comics, but I was even more interested in the investment aspect of the hobby.  I guess I've always been an investor, even when I was a kid!

Learning the Trade

As with most things, there was a learning curve that I had to climb. Initially, I was buying all sorts of comics.  Whenever there was a #1 issue of a new series, I would buy it just because I thought it would increase in value.  Eventually, I figured that the most valuable comics often had the first appearance of a character (much like the rookie card of a sports player).

At the top of this post, you can see a picture of the Amazing Spider-man #361.  That issue was the first appearance of the character, Carnage.  The latest Venom movie introduced this character to the big screens.  Back in those days, there was no internet to read up on the latest comics news.  So, I would buy the monthly Wizard magazine that talked about the hottest upcoming comics.  I remember that whenever there were hot issues coming out, I would ride my bike to the local convenience at Bamburgh Circle and pick up several copies of the comic.  With the first appearance of Carnage, I picked up 3 copies from the convenience store.  Of the 3 copies, one of them was graded at a 9.8, which is essentially a perfect score (there are 9.9 and 10.0 scores out there, but they are exceedingly rare).  The 9.8 was worth as much as $1900 last year, but now, like stock prices, comic values have come down and is currently worth around $1200.  I believe I bought them for $1.75 each; so, not a bad return on investment!

In 1992, a few star artists and writers started their own comic company, Image Comics (The Walking Dead and Kick-Ass are notable series from Image).  I immediately bought a bunch of #1 issues that were published that year, including 7 copies of Todd McFarlane's Spawn #1.  Other than Spawn, none of the comic series that came out that year made it too far.  Although Spawn continues to be a popular comic, they printed so many copies of the #1 issue that a copy with a 9.8 grade sells for $200 only.

Although my collection may sound like a pretty good collection to someone unfamiliar with comics, it is figuratively and literally child's play.  To put things into perspective, a 9.6 graded copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 (first appearance of Spider-man) sold for a cool $3.6 million.  Ok, so that was the most expensive comic ever sold, but a low grade Amazing Fantasy 15 could easily go for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spider-man #1 by Todd McFarlane - One of My Favourite Comic Covers

My Most Valuable Collection

Passing the Torch

For many years, my comic collection sat inside a couple of boxes in my parents' basement.  In fact, I had not really looked at it since I was in grade 8.  You can probably guess how it happened: I hit puberty and girls became a lot more interesting than Spider-man!  So, the comics sat there until my parents renovated their basement and needed to clear it out.  Those boxes then got transferred to my own basement, where they sat for another several years or so, until...COVID!

Since we were stuck at home for so long, I pulled out the comics to look at them and even posted a few pics on Facebook.  My childhood buddy, Julian, who is an even bigger comic book collector than I am quickly noted how much some of the issues were worth.  I did some quick searching on eBay and that was the start of how my passion got re-ignited.

For much of my adulthood, my love for comics had never been truly extinguished.  I had watched all of the X-men films that were made in the 90s and early 2000s, and of course, all of the Tobey Maguire Spider-man films.  With a bit (a lot actually...) of my influence, Athan has grown to love all things Marvel.  Below are some pics of us dressing up as Spider-man and Wolverine!  I'm so grateful that I'm able to share my love of comics with him and also everyone else in the family.  A week hardly goes by without a couple of MCU movies playing on the TV throughout the week!

Spider-man Themed Birthday Party for Athan with Me as Spider-man

Athan and I Dressing Up as Different Versions of Wolverine

Our First Comic Show

Gift for My Boy's 11th Birthday - A Marvel Encyclopedia

Deeper Lesson

Not sure if this is a bit of a stretch, but I think collecting comics (or any other collectibles for that matter) may have a deeper lesson, that which is related to economics/finance.  Comics are simply assets to which people attribute value.  Are they not as tangible or intangible as a stock certificate (not that any of us has ever held a physical stock certificate)?  The value of a comic often follows simple rules of supply and demand.  So, hopefully, the lessons that my kids can learn from comics would help them navigate the world as they grow up.  I certainly would like to think that collecting comics have helped me become a better investor!