What's the most you would pay for a new comic?

[Cronus]

Well, like Hulk's strength, there appears to be no limit. Damn comic book company's, they're onto me.

[CentralPower]

My original point was not so much about whether the new item was a standard #1 or a ultra rare variant, but simply a new comic with no way of knowing if you'll be sitting on a collectors item in ten years time or sometihng to line the cat tray with.

Buying comics as an investment is....not practical. The only way to do that with any real confidence is to literally buy one of everything (including variant covers), then sit on all of it for 25+ years. And, even after the winning comic becomes apparent, you still have to monetize for all of the junk you bought along the way.

A good example of this is "New Mutants" #98 (1st Deadpool).

I bought that off the rack in '92 ('91?), as part of my weekly comic-haul. I was 14, and considered myself a "collector". (A more accurate word was, and remains, "sucker".) A year or so later, when Image launched, copies of that comic were "wall books" at most comic shops. Oh, the pride I felt at having made a "wise investment" in my reading comics. (All of my comics went in to bags at the time.)

In '97, maybe '98, (after the market corrected) I decided that I needed space more than I needed piles of comics that I was unlikely to ever read again, and sold 2 or 3 long boxes worth to a guy at the local flea market...for maybe $50 (late 90s money).

"New Mutants" #98 was in one of those boxes. Most likely, it ended up in a quarter bin, subject to rough handling and water damage and general terdification. At first glance, I made a terrible mistake.

But, the actual loss is minimal.

I paid a buck for "New Mutants" #98 in 1991 or '92, roughly $4 in today's money. By '95, the idea of that comic carrying any value beyond the weight of its own paper and staples was laughable. There was no way to predict that "New Mutants" #98 would have been more likely to be valuable than any other comic of similar vintage. (If nothing else, all objective evidence would have led a sensible person to discount the idea of it gaining and holding any real value.)

Even discounting the cost in space and maintenance, selling "New Mutants" $98 for ~$300 dollars ($75 in 1992 money) would have to be counted against the other comics that I would have purchased and saved. The result would almost certainly be a loss.

It all depends on the content.
I'd pay stupid money for the right author/artist/content combo.

STUPID money.

Yup. And, the more the prices go up, the more I would hold our for a good creative team.

[Uncanny Mutie]

Agreed. Once comics went to $2.99, I started subscribing (with a 40% discount on a $3.99 floppy, I'm spending $2.40 a feeling I'm getting a little of a deal). I get most of my floppies by subscription or the discount bin now. Collected editions are usually discounted 40-50% from mail order, leaving a good margin.

Sounds like you use DCBS. I use the same service, and cut my comic spending pretty much in half. As a longtime collector, I love single issues and only occasionally buy trades. But even the regularly priced $125 omnibus I recently ordered from DCBS only cost me $60.

If I had to pay cover price for comics at the price they are these days, my comic buying would surely have ended by now. Thank God for DCBS!

[XPac]

If books went to 5 bucks, I'd buy a lot less books but still purchase the ones I REALLY wanted.

If it went over 5 bucks, it's hard to say. I don't think I'd ever completely stop reading comics as a hobby, but my purchasing habits would certainly have be be re-evaluated.

In the end though, if I REALLY want something I'll get it.

[MyriVerse]

It depends more on the amount I'm spending per week than per issue. I won't spend more than $40/week.