MILWAUKEE- Driven, in part, by the proliferation of superhero movies, but also by pandemic induced boredom, the comic book industry is flourishing.
The three most valuable comics, all selling for one million dollars or more, have been sold within the last half decade. The crown jewel of the trade being Action Comics number one, which tells the origin story of Superman, and sold last week for $3.25 million.
“Superman’s a popular character, it’s one of those characters that permeates the culture of the world,” Steve Dobrzynski says. “You can go anywhere in the world and show the Superman symbol and 99% of people will know what it is.”
Dobrzynski has been collecting comics since the 1980s and has owned Collector’s Edge Comics in Milwaukee since the year 2000.
When it comes to figuring out if the comic books or graphic novels that have been collecting dust in your garage or basement are worth something, 3 things really matter. The name on the front, the condition of the book, and the number in the sequence.
“The ones from the 70s and 60s and 50s are usually worth the most,” Dobrzynski says, “they made a lot of them at the time but a lot of them were destroyed in fires and floods or natural disasters so it’s getting rarer and rarer to have those original issues.”
Even if you don’t own a prestige name, like Superman or Batman or Spiderman, there may be some hidden dollars in your collection. Dobrzynski says books that are no longer in print, but show up in Marvel or DC movies, even if they’re considered second-rate characters, could rise in value.
“WandaVision is the perfect example,” he says. “Some of the comics where vision turned completely white. That was an issue that was forever three dollars but because it showed up in WandaVision, demand for the book increased now they’re selling for a couple hundred dollars.”