Silver Age Comic Book Price Index 18-Month Performance

The values of key Silver Age comic books have steadily risen since the beginning of the decade. I've created the SCPI (Silver Age Comic Price Index) to give serious collectors a more accurate view of the state of the market.

This report covers the last 18 months of the SCPI. For a look at the comic books included in the SCPI, go here .

From January 2007 through July 2008, the SCPI has risen from 1410 to 1611. This represents a 14.2% increase over 18 months.

By design, the starting value of the SCPI in 2002 was exactly 1000. Therefore, the July 2008 value of 1611 represents a total increase of 61% in key Silver Age comic book values over the last six and a half years.

Returning again to the graph of the last 18 month period. The SCPI rose 12.6% from January through December 2007 and has only risen about 1.5% during the first half of 2008. While 2007 was a very strong year for the SCPI, 2008 is sluggish so far. This is may be due to the weak economy. It may also be due to a lack of movies for the "Big 3" Marvel titles in 2008.

The table below shows the net increase of each issue included in the SCPI over the 18-month period. Notice that the three top performers (Tales of Suspense and Invincible Iron Man) are all related to Iron Man! While I will refrain from assigning a cause-and-effect relationship, I will point out that in summer of 2008, we enjoyed the release of an Iron Man movie which greatly exceeded expectations. 'Nuff said.

click on table to enlarge














Other titles that are doing well include Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Avengers, and Strange Tales. All of these titles may be helped by current and future film projects. After the end of the Iron Man movie credits, there was a teaser about "the Avenger project" which touches on both the Avengers and Captain America. June 2008 saw a second Hulk film.

The SCPI is weighted by relative market share. Therefore, just as the "Big Three" Marvel titles of Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and X-Men together make up more than half of the Silver Age market share, they also make up more than half of the weight of the index. The performance of each of these titles over the last 18 months within the SCPI is shown in the table below.

Both the X-Men and Fantastic Four performed well enough in 2007 but are relatively unchanged so far in 2008. However, future movies Magneto, Wolverine and sequels to Fantastic Four may help to boost the popularity of these titles.

Key issues of the Amazing Spider-man continue to do well. Like Superman, Spidey doesn't seem need a great movie in the current year to keep interest alive among his dedicated collectors. Spidey is forever!

CycleGirl