Navigating Comic Book Trend: 5 Tips for Staying in the Know
These days, the comic book market seems to be crazier and more robust than it ever has been before. I think it’s a combination of more readily available information, the speed at which people can find and buy books, and cell phones!
We’ve seen some crazy things happen in the market with really high prices for brand new books, so we wanted to highlight some valuable tools that can help you, as Regie would say, not catch a brick.
The market dictates prices, and this is just capitalism at its finest. I’m a big fan of the free market. By all means, if you want that brand new book in a slab, and it makes you happy, go for it! Collect what you want to collect. But if you feel like maybe you’ve been misled or make decisions with your collecting that you regret, we hope that these tips will help:
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Get Connected
Download the apps! The three most important apps are YouTube, Key Collector, and Instagram. Key Collector is a tool that must be used correctly. It’s a fantastic source of information; there’s many, many people working many, many hours to find relevant information for you and deliver it right to your phone for like $1.99 (not a sponsor - yet - hit me up, Key Collector).
If you don’t have Key Collector, you’d be at a significant disadvantage because you’d have to go collect all that information yourself, and you’d be too late.
Now just like any tool, it can be used poorly. I don’t recommend running out and buying every single issue that comes across on a notification. It would be best if you still did your research — your due diligence. But countless other app features can be super helpful, and you can still find sleepers on there that aren’t going off the charts, like the issues being brought up via notifications.
In my opinion, Instagram is just the best place to connect with the comic community. They make messaging easy, and it’s just a more positive place. YouTube is also an amazing place to connect and learn within the comic community. For whatever reason, I’ve found Facebook to be a hostile community. Not to say that there aren’t beneficial groups and whatnot there, but I choose not to use the app because I’ve had overwhelmingly negative interactions.
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Pay Attention to Movie News
We all know that movie news directly impacts the comic book industry!
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Learn How to Tame Your FOMO
FOMO is the fear of missing out, and man, do I get it bad. Every single time I get a notification on my phone, hear some movie news or see someone post a grail on I.G., I get a slight twinge of FOMO. I’ve had to train myself to slow down, think it through, do some research, look at FMV, etc., to not just jump on every purchase.
One helpful thing is to play the tape through. Think okay, if I make this purchase, what’s my end game? Flip it or P.C.? If it’s flip it, how much will the price have to go up for that to make sense? How long and how much money will I have tied up in it? Are there other things I’d rather have tied up in that would be less time for more profit? If for the P.C. I ask — does it bring me joy? Is there potential for gains?
FOMO will serve you well sometimes, but it will do you dirty other times. I’ve bought some books that became complete flops because of FOMO. If I’d just done some research or thought it through, or been more patient, I would have had a better outcome.
An example of FOMO doing me wrong is Venom 26 — I went out and bought a bunch of copies and had them slabbed because there was so much frenzy about the book and so many variants. They were all so cool that I just got caught up in it. But, if I’d have waited for the story to unfold a little more or paid attention to clues like the virus’s suit being all taped together, I may have decided to wait to see if it was just a fad.
An example of FOMO serving me well is picking up the Clayton Crain Spider-man 1 Gold Facsimile variants when they were released for 79. I wanted that for the P.C., and they’ve held steady around $120 since they were released. I think there could be a whole separate video about exclusive covers and how you can tell if they will sell well, hold their value, or flop.
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Watch YouTubers
The YouTube community is great for staying up to date within the comic book community. It’s a great way to go in-depth on specific topics and see what other people have to say about the happenings of the industry and catch all the comic book new releases.
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Read Comics.
After all, that’s how we all got into the hobby in the first place! Reading comics and being familiar with the stories and the artists gives you a significant leg up in making decisions. I have to admit that I wish I had more time to invest in reading for this reason. Don’t forget to spend time getting lost in a story that you enjoy; it goes a long way for self-care in these crazy times.
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Love your vids; I’ve been collecting and selling for over a decade and I really get good info from you guys!
New to your website, love it so far!
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