Posted in: Recent Updates, Speculator Corner | Tagged: captain america, marvel, speculator

Speculator Corner: Captain America #600

Making money from comics speculation is simple. Buy low, sell high.Find something that is absolutely positively going to have more demand than supply, stock up and then sell when the price is right. Easy.

Yeah right. The thing is, if everyone agrees that one title is going to be in demand in advance then the publisher simply prints enough to fill that demand. Which is exactly what happened with all those chromium diecut covers, and big title relaunches through the nineties. Which are all worth pennies and cents these days.

There are two ways to succeed these days. First, stock up on something than no one expects to succeed, and does. Which is incredibly hard and very risky indeed. Basically it's like only betting on 100-1 horses.

The second way to actually make money is take advantage of bubbles. Get in early, and get out early. Take advantage of something that has been sold at the general public as an Important Comic outside of the usual comics media. Then when they can't find copies, because retailers didn't realise they'd need to many, slap them on eBay, before the second print ships.

So… do Captain America #600 and Reborn #1 qualify? Possibly. Let's see why.

Captain America #600 is tied to the release of some major Marvel news – possibly the return of Steve Rogers from the dead, possibly tied into the casting of the movie. Retailers have been encouraged to order the comic based on this potential unknown news story, but given special incentives to order more. Some shops will have taken advantage and have stacks, some won't. Some shops will have copies on Monday June 15th when the story breaks, some won't until Wednesday.

Basically, depending on the news, if you can get into your shop on Monday, pick up copies at cover price or less and slap them on eBay immediately for a short period sale, you could make some coin. Either way, buy them and sell them fast. Like the Obama Spider-Man before it, demand will fall and prices will dip.

As for Reborn? Well, a different situation here. The final cut off date for retailers ordering this title will be Tuesday June 16th. They will have an idea of the specialness, the story, the point behind the series. And will order accordingly. You might get a slight increase in demand after publication, but it's hardly a cert.

Be warned: many a comic shop are built out of recycled pulped "hot" comics. It's a dangerous game out there. But it's one I'll probably be playing.

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