By Tim Bildhauser, International Comic Specialist, Overstreet Advisor, and Associate Editor of Foreign Comic Collector Magazine, November 2020
“This year we saw unprecedented sales, some of which were record highs and others that are so consistent that they firmly established the fact that mainstream collectors have accepted and embraced CPVs as an unquestionably legitimate part of the hobby.”
We’ve reached the time of year when we start to reflect on the events of the last 12 months. What can you really say about 2020 that’s positive? Not a hell of a lot unless you’re talking about the comic book market and sales of CPVs are no exception. This year we saw unprecedented sales, some of which were record highs and others that are so consistent that they firmly established the fact that mainstream collectors have accepted and embraced CPVs as an unquestionably legitimate part of the hobby.
Some other sales that were certainly of note:
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Detective Comics #524 – 9.6 $337 |
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Detective Comics #576 – 9.8 $745 |
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Power Pack #1 – 9.6 $245 |
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Web of Spider-Man #1 – 9.8 $202 |
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Balder the Brave #1 – 9.8 $175 |
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Balder the Brave #2 – 9.8 $175 |
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Alpha Flight #1 – 9.8 (four copies) – $390, $380, $301.36 & $427.01 |
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X-Factor #6 – 9.8 $599.99 |
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Swamp Thing #37 (two copies) – 9.6 $616.25 & 9.0 $418.92 |
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Batman #423 – 9.4 $349.44 |
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Thor #337 – 9.8 (two copies) $999.95 & $810 |
It’s becoming apparent that it’s not just key issues that collectors are going after as well. I was able to document 200+ sales of ungraded, non-key CVPs that sold for $50-$150. Some of these are known to be relatively scarce but not all of them.
Not all CPV sales this year were record breakers though. Oddly enough, I probably saw more ungraded CPVs listed for sale that weren’t notated as such than I can recall ever seeing before, most commonly with the .75 cover price books. This of course resulted in a number of low sales but I believe it may have collectors looking more closely now so that they might have a chance to pick up some of these at bargain prices.
Collectors setting a price threshold may sound like a potentially negative thing but you also have to consider that the more people there are hunting for CPVs the more people become educated about them which in turn will continue to drive the market.
I’m very curious to see what 2021 brings. If conventions are able to resume I think we’ll see a strong surge in the comic book market as a whole. The amount of growth that has happened in a year without conventions will have collectors buzzing with excitement.
Tim Bildhauser
Rare Comics 