by: Dave Gieber
A comic book price guide is a great tool for determining what your comic books are estimated to be worth in the market today. The going worth of individual comic books can range all over the board. Some issues have been known to carry a value of six figures, while other issues aren't even worth the price you paid for them. A comic book price guide can go a long way in helping you determine this kind of information.
Action Comics #1 (the introduction of Superman) in mint condition has been quoted at being worth $650,000. A pretty tidy piece of change. Then Weird Science, issue #13, in near mint condition can command a respectable price tag of $5,750. There are also multitudes of back issues purchased at a newsstand price of around 5 bucks, that are now worth even less than that.
The ability to determine the actual value of individual collections is not an easy task or one to be taken lightly. Comic book pricing is a highly perceived value and will vary quite greatly, depending on which opinion and which comic book price guide you choose to follow. By all means, if there is a reputable comic book dealer in your local area that you are comfortable dealing with, get his or her opinion. But in all my research so far, it seems that "The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide" is the bible of most active comic book collectors.
I have my copy in electronic format, reachable from my desktop. It is very handy. If you truly want to understand what your magazines are worth, the first thing you need to do is to determine the physical condition of each comic book. Is it raggedy ass poor with pages missing and in need of a paper clip to hold it together? Or has it never been opened since being purchased and appears to be in mint condition? Even brand new comic books may not make the grade of mint or perfect condition.
The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide gives a very detailed description of all the grades and sub-grades used in the 0.5 to 10.0 scale. This grading system is generally accepted by all comic book aficionados. If you follow Overstreet's physical condition explanations and grading scale, you will get a pretty good feel for the conditions of your own collection.
The next step in your comic book pricing exercise is to then go through the myriad of pages in the comic book price guide to find your particular issues. Along with your now determined physical and grade conditions, you can find your issue's current assumed value.
The comic book price guide also has tips on collecting, preserving and storing your comic books. And it defines the various ages (Golden Age, Silver Age, etc.) that comic book history has moved through.
I guess if I had to mention a drawback to this guide, it would be the fact that there is soo much information to go through, it could take you quit a while to devour the whole book. Once you get well acquainted and comfortable with the comic book price guide though, you could consider yourself an expert in your own right and help your friends out with their collecting and comic book pricing questions.
I do believe this guide to be an invaluable and inexpensive resource to have and I don't think you will be disappointed with it. Heritage Comics seems to be the top dog for delivering an electronic version of a comic book price guide. You can visit Heritage at http://www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com/CBPG to learn more about the guide.
While you are there, you may want to surf around Heritage's site. There are some very interesting subjects there. They also have on of the biggest on line comic book auctions on the Net. If you have never seen Heritage Comics' site before and you really enjoy it, just remember where you heard about it at (ha, ha).
Of course if you would rather have a hard copy of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, I am sure your local comic book store would have a copy and I hope this little review has helped you with your pricing questions.
If you are serious at all about the monetary worth of your comic book collection, then a comic book price guide is a valuable tool to have. There are several available and even a few for free. But if you want some of the most relevant and up to date data, then the "Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide" has developed a superior reputation over the past 30 years.