Year’s End

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2025 brings everyone health and happiness, and huge stacks of great old comics.

We saw the majority of the market continue its value slide, as we’ve said many times, it is a correction from the pandemic era price explosions, a much needed correction. I do get the sense that we are bottoming out in many of the older eras and genres. I think the most vulnerable era is still the Copper Age, I see prices sliding a bit more in that era but I am optimistic for the Silver and Golden Age books, even early Bronze Age looks like its shoring up its values. Lets see what 2025 brings, I’ll go out on a limb and say that we’ll have more collectors and investors jumping back into the market, hurry back guys!

I’m now diving into the “heading to eBay auction” piles that will go live in 2025. I thought I had a real winner digging out this Inner City Romance Comic #1 from 1972, I asked the consignor for a little more info on the book, his reply back was something like “yay, I’m glad you found that thing, I forgot I had it, can you put it aside for me and I’ll pick it up next time I’m in”, sigh, I have to stop asking too many questions. Great book though, and yes, it does deserve the “Adults Only” warning at the bottom right.

Just before Christmas we got a visit from out favorite storyboard artis ever, Ron Hobbs dropped in to say hi and to show off a great piece of art he’d just picked up. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Mr. Hobbs has that eye, he operates in that finely tuned frequency that draws him to the elegance and the beauty in art. I’m envious of this page but I’m even more envious of his eye. Anyone know who the artist is?

Speaking of not knowing the artist, I was going through some late 1950’s Maclean’s Magazines where I found a series of Lamb’s Rum ads all done by the same artist, look at this work! I bet even Mr. Hobbs is impressed.

The last of our 2024 weekly eBay auctions ended last night (don’t worry, they’ll continue right through 2025) and there were some great results. There were a few books I was watching with interest, one of them was this Amazing Spider-Man #298 CGC 9.8 with a Todd McFarlane signature. The market keeps moving towards scarcity and though a key issue like ASM #398 is common, it is not so common at a CGC 9.8 and even less common with a Todd Macfarlane signature in that grade. A copy like this sold last January for $700 and made it as high as $824 in september only to settle back in at $742 last night on our auction. I’m taking this as a good sign, as I mentioned above, 2024 was not a kind year for most comic book values and seeing a key issue from the Late Copper/Early Modern Age finish higher than it started is a good sign.