Bronze Age Comics To Invest In 2020 (FTL Approach)
In my article on how to invest in low grade mega keys, I mention about market ebbs and flows.
What might be correctly valued years ago can become undervalued if the overall market moves up even further
If you want to make money off blue chip keys (rather than speculative issues), then you need to watch out for when such flows happen.
I used this approach in my article on examining the value of Tomb of Dracula #10. I have reproduced the same table below for your convenience. These prices are from 2016.
| Issue | CCG Copies (9.0 and above) | Prices (For 9.0) | Prices (For 9.2) |
| Marvel Spotlight #5 (1972) | 382 | USD 800 | USD 1100 |
| Hero for Hire #1 (1972) | 316 | USD 950 | USD 1300 |
| Tomb of Dracula #10 (1973) | 486 | USD 450 | USD 570 |
| Marvel Premiere #15 (1974) | 793 | USD 450 | USD 550 |
| Werewolf by Night #32 (1975) | 463 | USD 1100 | USD 1400 |
From the table, it was clear then that the top horror books like Marvel Spotlight #5 and Werewolf by Night #32 have already moved the market forward. Tomb of Dracula #10, unfortunately has not keep up and hence created an opportunity to invest. This was what I did and we all know how much TOD #10 is worth now.
I am going to repeat this exercise in 2020 again to show the power of using this approach and to identify a few more undervalued blue chip supernatural books from Marvel.
For the ease of naming, I am calling this the FTL (Follow The Leader) approach
This time, TOD #10 is part of the benchmark books we will be using to tell us where the market is right now.
| Issue | CCG Copies (8.0) | Prices (8.0) | CCG Copies (8.5) | Prices (8.5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel Spotlight #5 (1972) | 360 | USD 1300 | 326 | USD 2200 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #101 (1971) | 324 | USD 800 | 321 | USD 1000 |
| Tomb of Dracula #10 (1973) | 281 | USD 1000 | 323 | USD 1300 |
| Werewolf by Night #32 (1975) | 325 | USD 1300 | 388 | USD 1700 |
This benchmark portfolio is telling us the following:
- Market prices for very fine condition books can cross $1k easily. In fact, in 8.5, you can even go to $1,300 and more
- The number of very fine grades on the CGC census for these books is surprising uniform. Most have around 300 copies each. This means you do not need extreme scarcity for these books to beat the $1k price point.
Using the above, we can then compare against other bronze age books that have not reach these prices levels. Some of them can become the next TOD #10.
These 8.0 comics can get you $1k
Before looking at the data, let me share a story with you.
When I presented the TOD #10 article a few years, most disagreed with what I said.
“Blade will never be the next Moon Knight”
“His book is more common than MS #5 so they can’t be compared”
And many more
The bottom line is they do not believed that a book like TOD#10 can reach what Marvel Spotlight #5 or Werewolf by Night #32 have achieved. This is because a lot of their personal biases came into play.
However, the market doesn’t care about your personal beliefs about a character. It moves to where it can support, which is usually below the top runners when news happen.
Bear this mind when you are making investment decisions. Do not let your personal preference about a character blind you to what the market is saying.
| Issue | CCG Copies (8.0) | Prices (8.0) | CCG Copies (8.5) | Prices (8.5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel Spotlight #5 (1972) | 360 | USD 1300 | 326 | USD 2200 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #101 (1971) | 324 | USD 800 | 321 | USD 1000 |
| Tomb of Dracula #10 (1973) | 281 | USD 1000 | 323 | USD 1300 |
| Werewolf by Night #32 (1975) | 325 | USD 1300 | 388 | USD 1700 |
| Candidates | ||||
| Marvel Spotlight #2 (1972) | 130 | USD400 | 150 | USD500 |
| Savage Tales #1 (1971) | 51 | USD400 | 47 | USD450 |
| Non Supernatural | ||||
| Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (1972) | 346 | USD350 | 298 | USD500 |
The two books I want to focus on are the horror or supernatural comics from Marvel. I put a non supernatural book for some fun analysis later on.
Both Savage Tales #1 and Marvel Spotlight #2 fit into the supernatural world of the MCU very well. Both will likely to receive some media hype eventually.
At current prices, there is quite some room to profit if the news really happen. At the optimistic side, we are looking at potential 3X returns. Even conservatively, there is a 2X returns potential.
These 2 books are also in the Overstreet Top 50 bronze age books. This means they are unlikely to go down too much if things do not pan out.
With a good upside and limited downside, I would consider these 2 books solid investment for the Bronze Age for 2020. Do consider these 2 comics if you want to buy more blue chip and less speculative characters like Shanna the She Devil or Lilith.
One other thing to note is how small their CGC numbers are, especially Savage Tales #1. These 2 books are well known for being hard to find in solid grades and the census is reflecting that.
I am sure the numbers will increase if these books heat up. However, it is uncertain if they will ever be as high as those 4 benchmark books.
Hence, even if these characters are less popular than the likes of Ghost Rider, Moon Knight etc, the smaller supply will help to buffer that difference and keep the prices high.
What other non supernatural Marvel bronze age?
The 2 books I picked are riding on the supernatural wave that MCU will be unleashing. As such, relative to the top books in the same genre, they can be said to be undervalued.
How about Marvel bronze age first issues that are not supernatural in nature? An example I picked is Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1.
As the table shows, its current pricing is almost identical to Marvel Spotlight #2 and Savage Tales #1. It is as if the TV show did nothing to permanently increase its value, in contrast to books Marvel Preview #4 which had a permanent increase.
So the key question is whether we can use the supernatural top runners to predict where Hero for Hire #1 can be if the character returns to the MCU
That is something I hope that readers can comment on.
Conclusion
Undervalued comics do not always mean comics you never heard of.
It can be books you already know but viewing them with new data or perspective can change the way you think about them.
Hopefully this article has inspired you to do so.
