This is a fun subject to gripe about, that has been pertinent to me over the past year. There were a couple issues of Star Wars Tales (the Dark Horse anthology) I finally got around to searching for to complete my collection. It turns out both of these are key issues somehow, I think they both happen to be the first appearances of two separate characters who show up in other media, going for hundreds. Forget it. These jackholes aren't freakin' reading these comics, man. Not when the issues surrounding them can be had for under ten bucks.

I also discovered I was missing an issue of She-Hulk, but my timing sucked, because the prices for She-Hulk are rising, and this issue in particular seemed to be pricier than the rest. I did eventually get it from somebody who was charging a normal price, though. Just when I had written this issue off as one I'd have to wait years until the speculation ceases on it.

I've been waiting for years for a second printing of the Death Of Captain America omnibus, which has finally been announced for later this year. I take delight at seeing the the ebay price-gougers who suddenly cut their asking prices in half for this. No, I'm not buying from them now, not unless they're going to take an obvious loss by selling to me. I can wait until the fall to get my copy.

There are a dozen books Wandavision and people on the inter webs are trying to give traction to because of the show. Craziness! People paying $400-600 for a book that last year this time was only $10-20 or so. And with a character who I don’t think we see beyond this show!

(I won’t say which book or character so as not to spoil further)

This makes me wonder, did Riverdale cause older Archie books to suddenly increase? I dont just mean the really old 40s-50s ones, I mean the (previously) common as dirt ones from the 70s-2000s.

I suspect more the recent era stuff, like the alternate future Archie and some of the crossovers and stunts; but, probably not as much on the rank and file comics.  Probably two different markets:  Classic Archie collectors and the curious from the tv show.

Interested in seeing how WCA 42-50 jumps in price

Speculating has been a part of comic fandom for a long time. When I was in high school and first discovered an lcs circa '84-'85, it was pretty much standard for just about everyone who had X-Men on their pull list, to have 2 copies pulled, one to read and one to bag and board to sell later when it went up in value. I even knew a kid who ordered an entire case of Man of Steel #1 because he thought Byrne's Superman was going to be the next big thing.

But goes earlier than that too. I remember when reading an early issue of Warlord, someone on the letters pages was talking about going around and buying up all the copies of Warlord #3 (I think that was the issue he mentioned, if not it was one of those early issues), so he could flip them for more money in a few years.

Robert Beerbohm often posts his memories of starting as a comic seller and how he speculated on certain Marvel book in the 60s and early 70s by ordering hundreds of copies of each that he could sell at shows and through mail order at a profit over the span of a few years.

So let's not kid ourselves that speculation on comics started with the 90s speculator boom and bust or that comics or comic collecting were ruined by speculators and was some "pure" pursuit before that. Speculation has been part and parcel of comics since collecting comics was a thing. Sure it may be more prevalent today, and certainly seems more onerous, but it's as much a part of the comics landscape as Overstreet Guides, the Robert Bell mail order catalog, and other parts of the collecting hobby.

It sucks when books you are looking for get speculator bumps, and it may not make sense to some why some books jump in value because of some outside factor (movies or TV appearance, news story, etc.), but comic prices have always been determined by demand, and increases in demand, whether artificial or natural are going to cause fluctuations in prices, but prices are in flux for lots of different reasons and many of those other reasons don't make sense either, but they too are part and parcel of the market for comics.

-M

For me, time seems to engrain certain prices in my mind. For example, 10-15 years ago, when I was a teen collecting, Nova #1 could be had in great shape for under $10. My focus was not to Nova yet and so fast forward to recent years when I am trying to buy cosmic Marvel stuff and now it is a $30 book. But I could have had one for xxx amount! Now, it is even higher. I am not too worried as it is a book that I feel I will find one day...plenty out there. So I don't worry.

To me though, Wandavision has caused some pretty rampant spec. A couple key people on Youtube posed a theory one week and the next, people were paying $50-60 on Ebay for a book that was once $10-15 tops. They seem legitimate folks but they can clearly manipulate the market if they choose. Like any hobby, there are varying levels of fandom and I would argue that comics, within the last decade, has an influx of newer collectors. They come with base knowledge or low level knowledge and feed off what other perceived experts tell them. It's crazy and does suck because even though a certain character may never appear ever (or for years to come), that initial bump tends to never truly fall back. It becomes a book people know about and convince themselves to care because it is a first appearance, so thus it has to be worth $30-50 or more.