I’ve noticed a trend these past 5-10 years, which i suppose has been a reality before that, too.
When the stock market is up, comic spec prices go up. By that I mean that when the stock market is getting ‘bubbly’ and even the values of subpar companies are rising, I notice that USM #1 kind of bubbles start happening. We are more likely to see bubbles in comic prices when we are also seeing stock prices sharply rising.
Currently, bitcoin is rallying after a few years of flat or negative price movement. And comic prices are up on eBay.
Is this a function of real goods gaining value as inflation reduces the value of money, so people gravitate to things like homes/properties and collectibles? Or is this just people having more money on their investment accounts, so they feel like they can spend more? Or maybe something else?
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, just curious if anyone else notices this trend, or has thoughts on what it means.
I am always cautious when people start talking about bubbles when dealing with comics. I always tell them do not think of spec or comic sales as a bubble but a bubble bath. One section of the market may be way up while others are way down (like books related to 80’s cartoons are tanking, star wars books are way down). As for a correlation between stocks and crypto and comic prices, I think its always people are looking for a way to diversify their holdings. I have a ton of comics but own stocks, bonds, silver and gold. The more money one has the more they look to diversify.
Lol yeah. What I was trying to show is that the comic market isn’t one bubble that will pop but multiple bubbles that pop or get bigger or newly form. But do not think of it as one big bubble
Good one, Rob. There is a connection, it is the same game just a different venue. Just like Sports cards. Much talk about the amount of cash sitting on the ‘sidelines’, in money market funds, CD, in assets that saw serious appreciation over the last few months, like meta, Amazon, mag 7, etc… - I believe we will absolutely see an increase in prices. Not saying that Skottie Young and Art Adams variants will suddenly go up in value, but there will be more hype and sustained momentum for marketing efforts on the front end.
