Category Collecting and Investing Tips

Keep checking in for weekly comic book collecting and investing tips from Overstreet Advisor and Shuster Award winner Walter Durajlija.

The Developing CGC 9.9 Market

I’ll get back to my regular Undervalued Spotlight posts next week. This weekend I spent a lot of time thinking about and discussing a relatively new and exciting segment of the market so I thought I’d put some thoughts down…

Thoughts on “Slabbing: The Results Are In”

Eric Kaylor in response to Charlie Kim’s Slabbing: The Results Are In. Eric started this as a comment on the site but it became so much more. Very nice summary of the CGC grading experience, Charlie. Anyone interested in collecting…

Walter Durajlija
September 23, 2014
24 Comments

The 44th edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide came out several weeks back and I’d like to take this a bit tardy opportunity to chime in with some thoughts. For comic book collectors the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is the one resource that is needed above all others. It remains the “Bible” of collecting. I’ve done a few comic cons this year and I’m happy to report that I see the Guide carried around by lots of collectors, those that don’t carry one often ask me if they could look at a guide while considering a purchase.

Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #43

The 43rd edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has just hit the stands and I couldn’t be more excited. No comic book collector that calls him or herself a comic book collector should be without a guide. It’s essential…

Walter Durajlija
December 27, 2012
17 Comments

A small meeting took place on Grey Cup Sunday 2012. This meeting was held in an poorly lit supply room at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel during a 1 day comic book convention. The participants of this meeting were Jim Finlay,…

New Comic Book Price Guide

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide 42nd Edition by Robert M. Overstreet has just hit the stands. The guide is simply the best tool we have in the hobby! I always get excited when the new guide comes out. The…

Where Have All The Buyers Gone?

O.K, let’s all sing together (sung to “Where have all the Flowers Gone?”): “Where have all the buyers gone, long tiiiiime passing, where have all the buyers gone, from long time ago???” O.K, I admit it, I collect those cheesy…

Walter Durajlija
September 9, 2010

In my Auction Highlights #43 I looked at the recent $21,250.00 ComicLink sale of a CGC 9.6 Amazing Spider-Man #11. This comic book has an Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide value of $2,400 in the 9.2 grade. ComicLink noted that the CGC 9.6 grade is rare for this comic book...

Collecting and Investing Tip #43: What are the early Marvel keys?

What kind of features should we demand of a principle Marvel key? This group of comics is one of the most important investing blocks in the hobby. People are buying up high grade Marvel keys as a group and you can’t really have one without any of the others and call yourself a true high end collector...

Collecting and Investing Tips #42

Black covers. Comic book collectors and investors have always coveted classic black covers when found in very high grade. It’s very hard to preserve and old comic with a black cover, any little fleck, color break or crease just seems to be amplified...

Walter Durajlija
June 10, 2010

This week I wanted to feature a collecting focus that is beyond cool. It’s nice to have that Amazing Spider-Man run and that Batman run but thousands of those runs are being put together (with perhaps thousands more already completed). What will really impress the guests at your dinner party is the run of Feature Books you are trying to

Walter Durajlija
June 2, 2010

This week’s collecting tip will touch on the wonderful world of promotional comic books. The topic is a big one and this article will just serve to spark your interest in promotional comics. I encourage you to research more on this great collecting focus.

Walter Durajlija
May 27, 2010

Consider Superhero Annuals. The super hero annuals as we know them began in 1960 with Superman Annual #1 (fittingly since Superman also launched the whole superhero genre back in 1938). Though annuals started out as vehicles to reprint past issues...

Walter Durajlija
May 18, 2010

Double Covers. Basically a comic book with a double cover is the result of a factory binding defect. Somehow two (and sometimes 3 or more) covers get scooped up by the rollers and get bent and stapled to the rest of the book...

Walter Durajlija
May 12, 2010

Remember that oh so true quote from that great fictional San Francisco Police Detective, Harry Callahan? Comic book fans are never short of opinions...

Walter Durajlija
May 5, 2010

Probably should have posted this one last week (the week before Free Comic Book Day). That’s OK though, we get it done now and it can serve as the rallying cry for all FCBDs to come...

Walter Durajlija
April 28, 2010

Over the years I’ve purchased many large comic book collections. I still remember the first big collection I bought back in around 1986. There were over 7000 comics in this collection dating from the early 1940 through to the mid 1970s. This was the collection that set...

Walter Durajlija
April 21, 2010

I remember back in the early 80s when the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide had those big 10 issue groupings for most of the major Golden, Silver and Bronze age comic book titles. Amazing Spider-Man issues #131-140 were all worth the same...

Walter Durajlija
April 14, 2010

Jim Steranko’s first Marvel Comics work was Strange Tales #151. The high end Overstreet Price Guide value for this book is $135 versus $85 for the book just before and the book just after...

Walter Durajlija
April 7, 2010

Comic book conventions are dangerous places for impulse buyers. You can end up heading home with a 50 cent comic or you could end up heading home with a 4 foot R2D2 replica, a gorgeous 42” x 38” framed painting of Phoenix, 3 short boxes full of CGC graded comics, 2 Samurai swords, a Viking sword and a 50 cent comic...

Walter Durajlija on CoversOctober 21, 2021
Schomburg! We can loop him in with ArtGerm and Hughes, I still say a cover can still be used to…
LIVE FROG on Say it ain’t so JoeOctober 21, 2021
Awww, I don't know if we should be allowing girls into a serious comic book convention Dave ! How the…
Timothy Crack on CoversOctober 21, 2021
In the sixties, DC and Marvel would produce a cover then have a writer concoct a story about it. Jack…
Klaus on CoversOctober 21, 2021
In Schomburg's case, was it possible that he was commissioned to do up a bunch of war-related covers featuring Timely…
Chris Meli on CoversOctober 20, 2021
Ditto on Scott's first sentences. I am now back to collecting that Adams covers that disappointed me when I first…