Batman: The Dark Knight Trailer and Comic Picks
The Batman: The Dark Knight Trailer is out today and you can see it here.
It seems like a good time to look in on some of the comic book picks for the movie. Batman is difficult because most of the comics associated with the movie are so expensive. Is Detective 27 going to increase in price because of a film? Maybe, maybe not. The book has shown amazing gains on its own. The movies help keep the character alive in the marketplace, but to see such an expensive book make a pop in price is questionable.
In my research the lower priced books seem to do much better because they are more accessible to the rank and file collector and fan.
With that in mind, I’m looking at a combination of books.
Batman 1 – Still expensive, but does make its way into more hands than the grail – Detective 27. They do seem to come out of the woodwork near movie release time.
Detective 66 – First Joker, and somewhat more affordable than Batman 1. Still tough to find, as of this posting there are none for sale on E-bay. You’ll have to do a Google search.
Batman 234 – First two-face. The word is he is in the movie, so sales and interest may be increasing over the next few months. Keep an eye on it.
Below are th books currently on E-bay as well as some other fun Batman stuff. Take a look!
Finding Comic Book Values Part 3 – The Guide
Once you have the comic book title, issue number and grade you are ready to find the price or value. But where should you look? Most people start with the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. It’s a good place to start, but there are a few major issues with it.
Let’s start with the positive aspects of “the guide”.
The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is amazingly complete, and it should be since it is the longest running guide in the industry. It is a storehouse of information and truly a must have resource. There may be some issues with the actual price data, but for character, author, artist, first appearance, and more items than I can list, it is the place to go. They don’t call it the “bible” of the comic book hobby for nothing.
Unfortunately, for comic book values, there are some issues. For the most part, it will get you in the ballpark of the value, but for several reasons it can seriously lag the market. Because of this lag, I recommend a few other resources to supplement the guide. Since it is a print guide, the time it takes to publish combined with the dynamic nature of the market can put it behind the pricing trends. Add to this the fact that a lot of the data is dealer driven, and you can see a conflict of interest.
Also, a lot of books are overpriced in the guide versus what that are actually selling for every day on E-bay and other sites. You rarely see a book go down in price in the guide, but I can honestly say I see comics retreat all the time in the marketplace.
The Overstreet Guide is great for finding comics that stand out from the crowd and common issues with less value. Because of the information it contains, you can quickly assess which of your books have a chance at making some decent money versus those that are destined for the quarter or dollar box.
I recommend you use the guide as a starting point in your value research. Find out what books you have that are key issues or may be valuable, get a ballpark idea of value from the guide, and then check the real time values in a couple of resources I will mention in the next comic book value post.
A Quick RSS Primer – Subscribing to the Blog
I want to talk about RSS (Really Simple Syndication) as a way to subscribe to the blog. Many of you may be familiar with RSS, but read on because there is going to be an important update to the Members Only Section of the website in the next couple of days, and those of you who are members will really enjoy the capability that I’m adding.
You can read the blog by visiting the site directly on a regular basis, or you can “subscribe” to the feed by clicking on the large orange symbol in the upper right hand corner. The symbol will take you to the feed (I run through Feedburner) and then you will know when the blog is updated.
Don’t know what a feedreader is? No problem. It is basically a way for you to keep track of one or many blogs in one place. I use Bloglines, primarily because it is easy to use and works very well with my cellphone. I can keep track of all of the blogs I read in one convenient place and access them on the road. Most browsers come with some sort of feedreader, including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox. You can also add feeds to your Google or Yahoo homepage. Just go to one of the customization options for your homepage and click on the “add rss” , “add a feed” or similar option.
I still recommend that you visit the full blog page when I update, because some items such as polls cannot be read on the feed. But you will still get the bulk of the content and have fresh updates.
Now, for members of the website, I will be releasing a great tool next week that you can use with a feedreader. I have been testing it for over a month, and I have really found it to be a big help. Details will be released Wednesday in the December newsletter (along with a couple special surprises for a special day!).
Anyway, if you want to have easy access in one place to the blog updates, think about subscribing to the feed. Use you own browser reader or you can add the feed to your Google, Yahoo, or other account. Just click on the “RSS” feed button on the upper right of the blog.
