What is your most valuable Silver Age Comic book worth?
About three weeks ago, I performed a survey on the CGC boards. I wanted to find out more about what Silver Age collectors owned in terms of their most valuable comics.
When asked "What is the value of your most valuable Silver Age comic book?" There was a wide range of responses as shown here.
Notice that there is a strong mode or peak in the distribution at $801 to $1500. The "buckets" on either side of this mode are also well populated such that 45% of all respondents had a "best book" worth $401 to $3000.
It is important to note that the population is clearly bi model. That is, there is a separate and distinct 15% of the population of respondents who answered that their best book was worth more than $25,000. Indeed, adding in the two other top buckets, 20% of respondents have a book worth over $8000.
In the same survey, I asked collectors "What is the average value of your next 9 most valuable SA comic books?" Just like with the "Most valuable" distribution, there is a strong mode around the median. This time, the median is about $700 or about half of the value of the "most valuable" book. There is a pack of 45% of respondents whose next 9 books have an average value of $200 to $2000.
By now, you may be asking "What does this have to do with comic book price indexing?" Okay, we all know that comic book collecting spans comic books that you can by for less than a dollar to books worth six figures. An index that would attempt to track price appreciation for all books in this range would be meaningless. Just because a Fine- AF #15 has appreciated 50% over the last five years, does not mean that your X-Factor #20 that you bought for $1 has appreciated 50% over the last five years.
The goal of creating a Silver Age Comic Price Index is to track comic book price changes in the range of book values that are relevant to what I will call "serious collectors". What I'm calling a serious collector is a person who collects comic books that are expensive enough to matter. Also, while most collectors have long boxes full of comics worth only a few dollars, the index attempts to track the prices of the books that matter. These are your prized books. The ones either in the display case, on the wall or in a safe. You spent serious money on these books and if these move up or down in value by 30%, that change is going to be pretty significant to you.
When asked "What is the value of your most valuable Silver Age comic book?" There was a wide range of responses as shown here.
Notice that there is a strong mode or peak in the distribution at $801 to $1500. The "buckets" on either side of this mode are also well populated such that 45% of all respondents had a "best book" worth $401 to $3000.
It is important to note that the population is clearly bi model. That is, there is a separate and distinct 15% of the population of respondents who answered that their best book was worth more than $25,000. Indeed, adding in the two other top buckets, 20% of respondents have a book worth over $8000.
In the same survey, I asked collectors "What is the average value of your next 9 most valuable SA comic books?" Just like with the "Most valuable" distribution, there is a strong mode around the median. This time, the median is about $700 or about half of the value of the "most valuable" book. There is a pack of 45% of respondents whose next 9 books have an average value of $200 to $2000.
By now, you may be asking "What does this have to do with comic book price indexing?" Okay, we all know that comic book collecting spans comic books that you can by for less than a dollar to books worth six figures. An index that would attempt to track price appreciation for all books in this range would be meaningless. Just because a Fine- AF #15 has appreciated 50% over the last five years, does not mean that your X-Factor #20 that you bought for $1 has appreciated 50% over the last five years.
The goal of creating a Silver Age Comic Price Index is to track comic book price changes in the range of book values that are relevant to what I will call "serious collectors". What I'm calling a serious collector is a person who collects comic books that are expensive enough to matter. Also, while most collectors have long boxes full of comics worth only a few dollars, the index attempts to track the prices of the books that matter. These are your prized books. The ones either in the display case, on the wall or in a safe. You spent serious money on these books and if these move up or down in value by 30%, that change is going to be pretty significant to you.
posted by CycleGirl at
1:31 PM
1 Comments:
Great work.
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