Excellent video and it is worth mentioning that Ryan is Heavily invested in Golden Age books. Notice that he selected the #1 Golden Age book as a sample but there was no Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (1st print) as that would have completely skewed the Copper Age census and the 'message' he was sending. I also think that as someone who is 38 and has zero attachement to Golden Age books, as well as all of my collector friends, the demand is much more worrisome than the supply. We grew up watching/reading X-Men/Spider-Man/Swamp Thing and a large portion of Golden Age books have little to no demand (The Clock, Skyrocket Steele, Amazing Man...) and they will continue fading into obscurity. Unless...someone like Ryan comes along and spotlights these 'undervalued' books that he happened to be buying up and is now willing to part with for 3x the price he paid. Clever, but my outlook on those books given their pricepoint and the fact that people younger than myself are more interested in buying a home, vehicle, college, and not so interested in spending $20,000 on a book that they have zero attachment to.
For collectors, maybe their interest in KEY Golden Age books is not the same as silver age or bronze age books. But more and more buyers are not true collectors but instead are ‘investors.’ They have been and will continue to enter the comic market because they have money to burn. Key Golden Age books are a target for these buyers, particularly Batman, WWIi covers, pre-code horror covers, and popular cover artists (L.B.Cole). You also don’t need a lot of demand because many of these Golden Age books have total census counts less than 100 (many are less than 50). Even if census counts doubled or tripled, demand for highly sought after key Golden Age books will still be sufficient for a long time.
One other factor that plays at least a minor role in demand for Golden Age comics is, many of the rare and well-known books (as well as less-popular books) that were published by now-defunct companies have fallen into public domain. Today, thousands of issues can be seen, read and even downloaded free of charge on several websites. So for people who have a strong interest in reading comics, there's less incentive to consider buying original copies of Golden Age stuff that's available online. SPOILER ALERT... Yesterday, I skimmed over an online copy of Suspense issue 3, and there was nothing in the stories that even remotely resembled hooded N*zi weirdos about to sacrifice a young woman to Yog-Sothoth.
I stopped watching his videos months ago because he's basically an investor/dealer who passes himself off as a collector. Plus, he's really touchy if you take issue with his boosterism.
Your video title (to get people to click) was so overstated based on the tiny ‘problem’ you highlighted. When you exaggerate to lure in your viewer by also referencing another UA-camr’s video, that is flat out bogus. By the way even if certain Golden Age books doubled or tripled in their census over the next 5 years, the total census for those books would still be incredibly low relative to most silver or bronze age books. Automatic Comics was right on point by emphasizing that the census risk (and thus potential value risk) is much lower for Golden Age which I agree with 100%.
Thats youtube unfortunately. If the title was Automatics Comics is right well noone watches. The title stating the BIG PROBLEM with person X incites potential interest whether good or bad thats youtube basics
@@MarcSpectorComics Yeah well that backfires buddy . This video did catch me in but I will never watch this channel again . Just rambling and using other people's videos . Really pathetic waste of my time .
Great critical thinking! Census numbers are often referred to as gospel and we forget to consider several factors when it comes to scarcity. Kudos to Automatic comics for keeping on top of all these recent increases as well!
I love your videos. One of the few people talking about the ups and downs of grading and how it affects the market. As an older collector who’s been in and out of the hobby over the years, does the census drive the market or does the supply drive the market. The census theoretically tells us how many have been graded, however how many of those are on the market for sale to the public? To piggy back on that question also. Even if supply is high, say ASM 300, can the popularity of the comic keep the price high regardless of the flooded supply? Would love to know your thoughts.
Census or scarcity may influence demand for a book (for me I prefer scarcer key books with low or potentially low census counts) but there may not be direct correlation to sales supply. In today’s market, popularity or speculation is a greater driver of supply. Greater or increasing supply will have a downward impact on prices/values as sellers competitively try to price their books to sell (and beat their competitors). For certain books like Asm 129 or 300, Incredible Hulk #181, or Ultimate Fallout 4, the supply far outweighs the demand. They are very popular so always selling but oversupply is pushing prices lower. At some point, pricing will hit a floor but who knows what that is. Thus, in my opinion, values will never soar again on these books. Scarcity plus demand drives comic value. You have to have both. Scarcity or lower census counts are not enough. I suggest you watch Reserved Investments UA-cam channel. He gives direct and honest collectibles finance advice. He teaches quite a few buying and selling principles. He also acknowledges that investing in comics is a higher risk adventure.
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Excellent video and it is worth mentioning that Ryan is Heavily invested in Golden Age books. Notice that he selected the #1 Golden Age book as a sample but there was no Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (1st print) as that would have completely skewed the Copper Age census and the 'message' he was sending. I also think that as someone who is 38 and has zero attachement to Golden Age books, as well as all of my collector friends, the demand is much more worrisome than the supply. We grew up watching/reading X-Men/Spider-Man/Swamp Thing and a large portion of Golden Age books have little to no demand (The Clock, Skyrocket Steele, Amazing Man...) and they will continue fading into obscurity. Unless...someone like Ryan comes along and spotlights these 'undervalued' books that he happened to be buying up and is now willing to part with for 3x the price he paid. Clever, but my outlook on those books given their pricepoint and the fact that people younger than myself are more interested in buying a home, vehicle, college, and not so interested in spending $20,000 on a book that they have zero attachment to.
Well said!
For collectors, maybe their interest in KEY Golden Age books is not the same as silver age or bronze age books. But more and more buyers are not true collectors but instead are ‘investors.’ They have been and will continue to enter the comic market because they have money to burn. Key Golden Age books are a target for these buyers, particularly Batman, WWIi covers, pre-code horror covers, and popular cover artists (L.B.Cole). You also don’t need a lot of demand because many of these Golden Age books have total census counts less than 100 (many are less than 50). Even if census counts doubled or tripled, demand for highly sought after key Golden Age books will still be sufficient for a long time.
One other factor that plays at least a minor role in demand for Golden Age comics is, many of the rare and well-known books (as well as less-popular books) that were published by now-defunct companies have fallen into public domain. Today, thousands of issues can be seen, read and even downloaded free of charge on several websites. So for people who have a strong interest in reading comics, there's less incentive to consider buying original copies of Golden Age stuff that's available online.
SPOILER ALERT...
Yesterday, I skimmed over an online copy of Suspense issue 3, and there was nothing in the stories that even remotely resembled hooded N*zi weirdos about to sacrifice a young woman to Yog-Sothoth.
@@reprintranchFor the reason you state, I think that there are more true investors buying Golden Age comics than true collectors.
I stopped watching his videos months ago because he's basically an investor/dealer who passes himself off as a collector. Plus, he's really touchy if you take issue with his boosterism.
Your video title (to get people to click) was so overstated based on the tiny ‘problem’ you highlighted. When you exaggerate to lure in your viewer by also referencing another UA-camr’s video, that is flat out bogus. By the way even if certain Golden Age books doubled or tripled in their census over the next 5 years, the total census for those books would still be incredibly low relative to most silver or bronze age books. Automatic Comics was right on point by emphasizing that the census risk (and thus potential value risk) is much lower for Golden Age which I agree with 100%.
Thats youtube unfortunately. If the title was Automatics Comics is right well noone watches. The title stating the BIG PROBLEM with person X incites potential interest whether good or bad thats youtube basics
Agreed fully.
Marc gets it
@@MarcSpectorComics Yeah well that backfires buddy . This video did catch me in but I will never watch this channel again . Just rambling and using other people's videos . Really pathetic waste of my time .
@@collectiblesdad And you get nothing . What a low life .
The big problem with comics is simple..... Grading. You could have made a 30 second clip.
Great critical thinking! Census numbers are often referred to as gospel and we forget to consider several factors when it comes to scarcity. Kudos to Automatic comics for keeping on top of all these recent increases as well!
Absolutely!
I enjoy Ryan’s videos as he’s very informative and finding out about books I never knew about.
I love your videos. One of the few people talking about the ups and downs of grading and how it affects the market. As an older collector who’s been in and out of the hobby over the years, does the census drive the market or does the supply drive the market. The census theoretically tells us how many have been graded, however how many of those are on the market for sale to the public? To piggy back on that question also. Even if supply is high, say ASM 300, can the popularity of the comic keep the price high regardless of the flooded supply? Would love to know your thoughts.
Census or scarcity may influence demand for a book (for me I prefer scarcer key books with low or potentially low census counts) but there may not be direct correlation to sales supply. In today’s market, popularity or speculation is a greater driver of supply. Greater or increasing supply will have a downward impact on prices/values as sellers competitively try to price their books to sell (and beat their competitors). For certain books like Asm 129 or 300, Incredible Hulk #181, or Ultimate Fallout 4, the supply far outweighs the demand. They are very popular so always selling but oversupply is pushing prices lower. At some point, pricing will hit a floor but who knows what that is. Thus, in my opinion, values will never soar again on these books. Scarcity plus demand drives comic value. You have to have both. Scarcity or lower census counts are not enough. I suggest you watch Reserved Investments UA-cam channel. He gives direct and honest collectibles finance advice. He teaches quite a few buying and selling principles. He also acknowledges that investing in comics is a higher risk adventure.
I came over from Sportscard Dad. I'm sure I am not the only one. How about a "Comics for SportsCards Collectors" video?
So nobody knows there are raw books out there? 😂
Trying to buy a giant size dr. Doom but one dealer wanted $125.00 Canadian for that book.
You have the best shirt collection of my entire subscription youtube library. Even the sweaters
Appreciate it!
So, no one has the guts to talk about pressing. Got it.
Ryan is the only person doing research in this space and obviously devotes a lot of time to it, i respect that
Anyone trying to dissect and understand the extreme nuance of supply/demand in collectibles, I respect as well
Automatic comics has data and numbers which makes his opinion valuable.
I like his data videos as well
Most golden age comics were read and recycled for the war effort. I doubt we'll be seeing many more copies of Action 1 or Detective 27 popping up.
Agreed, but we'll see. Only time will tell
Ryan is awesome he is a major contributor of comic information to the comic collecting community.
Shots fired! Maybe stick to sports cards...