I remember way back when during the early days of comic book collecting. The walls of the comic shops would be filled with books from prior decades. The cost on these books was stratospheric and I would sit there enthralled that comic books could fetch such high prices. (Well, no one bought them so they never actually fetched anything) The comic books themselves would be loaded with ads for back issue sellers that would ask high prices as well.

These days, I ask myself if there really is a market for collectible back issues.

Of course, there is as all one has to do is look at the sheer massive volume of books sold on Ebay to arrive at the answer. However, it is not the same thing. The reason for this is the fact that the rarity of acquiring a classic comic book is gone. In the “good old days,” it was certainly not easy to find back issues. Today, they can be acquired anywhere as going online will reveal a venue to purchase pretty much any book you want. Yes, this is a good thing but it knocks down the value of the price as the rarity of back issues has been reduced.

Then, there is also the presence of trade paperback reprints bringing down the prices. Since any sold out book can be purchased as part of a collected edition, the rarity of the stories are, once again, no so rare.