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Mike shares his latest new adventure in collecting comic books and deep dives into three reasons to start collecting comic books and how to get started without spending a lot of money. He also talks about how advanced comic collectors speculate and consider a few factors before buying more rare and expensive comic books.
Mike Louie shares encouraging voicemail messages for his young twins (Jeremy and Maya) to discover someday. These thoughts, stories, and advice are intended to inspire and help young adults today or anyone who is open to learning about life lessons, career paths, relationships, and other aspects to growth and self-improvement.
Hi, JereMaya it's daddy today is July 30th, 2022. And for our 18th episode, I wanted to share my latest adventure when it comes to hobbies. Actually it's not entirely new because it's something I used to do when I was your age.
This is more like a revival of a childhood pastime with the financial twist to it. And that's comic book collecting. So for our time together, I'll be sharing three good reasons why I encourage people to collect comic books. And then a few tips on how to get started without breaking the bank. And for those who are looking to be more sophisticated in their comic book collections, I'll also be sharing when to buy more rare, expensive comic books.
And the reason I bring up comic books today is I just got back from San Diego comic-Con. I've been going to this annual convention since 2014. And it felt amazing to be back. The last one was in 2019 due to the pandemic.
So the last week was really special for me as Comic-Con is that one time of the year for me to escape my day-to-day routine and immerse myself in a place that is truly a Haven and a spectacle for nerds like myself. Your mom has been so generous to allow me to go off on this annual adventure for four to five days each year.
And in return, I come home rejuvenated. And I'm reminded to continue to be the best husband and father I can be. So she could say, "yes, Mike, you can go to Comicon again next year."
On a side note. I honestly, wasn't sure I'd be able to attend Comic-Con this year, since this is the year many of us are testing our boundaries of getting out more while also trying to prevent getting sick from COVID. And I've been super fortunate when it comes to the pandemic.
From the lockdown in 2020 last April, where the three of us joined uncle mark and your cousins, Tyler and Ethan. I didn't get COVID. Unfortunately, Jeremy, you did get it. And then Maya got it a day later. And then mommy got it. Oh, and while you two had minor sore throats and were able to watch movies and play video games all day. Um, your mom was not happy about that. And she had less of a good time being sick. And then earlier this month we went to the Alaska cruise for 10 days where much of our extended family got the virus. And now it's been six days since I've been back from Comic-Con. And praise God, I still don't have COVID. At least not yet.
And since I grew up on comic books with mighty heroes and villains, a little part of me believes that I have finally found my superpower of immunity. But maybe it's because of the vaccinations, the double masking, or maybe I already had COVID without knowing and am asymptomatic. Either way, I'm grateful to feel healthy and be able to enjoy life and talk about comic books.
So what better time to talk about comics when you come back from the biggest comic book convention in the world? So you might be asking what is so cool about comic books? Why would anyone collect comic books?
I believe there are at least three very good reasons. And the first one I discovered when I was around your age. It's the same reason why someone picks up a good book or watches a powerful movie. The first reason I collect comic books is pure entertainment, where you are introduced to exciting memorable characters and witnessing how they react to conflicts, problems, and drama that is thrusted upon their lives. With the comic book, medium. I fell in love with so many characters, stories and storytelling that I've kept in my head for life.
I remember the first time I fell in love with comic books was being introduced to the X men. For those who live under a rock, or maybe just not as geeky as me, the X-Men are people who had no control over their bodies and were born with a mutated gene that either made them look very different than a normal human and /or gave them superpowers.
While this can be considered a blessing, in their reality of our modern society. They were feared by most humans and sadly persecuted.
So there are powerful themes that many of us who are people of color or come from underprivileged backgrounds where you feel like the world is against you- these X-Men characters are pretty relatable and they make you think about civil rights and equality and how to be inclusive.
What makes this comic book compelling for me is seeing how they retain their humanity when so many enemies want them dead. So to see this team fight for survival and the survival of allies who can't protect themselves. This is what kept me as a long time collector.
And if you're curious about what particular X-Men story caught my eye. It's when the X-Men and mutants around the world were hunted down and captured by an anti mutant nation state known as Genosha. It was frightening and surreal to see a government's military targeting mutants and overpowering them with technology that would temporarily remove their super powers so that mutants were defenseless. And then they would enslave the mutants with forced labor.
This nine issue series is called the X-tinction Agenda that span for almost an entire year and crossed over to all the mutant comic book titles in the Marvel comics universe.
That includes the new mutants and X-Factor. I remember a key character from the New Mutants died because of Genosha and it was the first time I witnessed grief illustrated onto paper. And even when the main bad guy is defeated and I'm cheering for this victory, I will always remember that the X-Men family felt like they ultimately lost because their teammate who they recognize as family was gone.
And after reading that final issue of the X-tinction Agenda, I knew I was hooked and I want to read more about these characters. So I bought more issues from X-Men, X-Factor, and the New Mutants to learn about what events prior led to this tragic storyline. And then I bought later ongoing issues to find out what these characters did to move on with their lives.
The second reason to collect comic books is to be delighted and inspired how these characters are drawn, colored, and even how the artists lay out the visual panels to set the pacing and structure to the flow of the story. I quickly realized that comic books are a very powerful platform to admire functional and jaw dropping gorgeous art and not every comic book is the best story.
But even if written texts may not always be that good or interesting, it's very easy to appreciate and enjoy pages and pages of illustrations that make you want to turn the next page and buy the next issue, And as an amateur illustrator, I am inspired to draw and emulate the great artists I've come to love, which I'll be sure to link on our website, dearJereMaya.com, in the show notes of this episode.
Back to the X-tinction Agenda story, that's where I first discovered Jim Lee's art. And if you look up his works online, you'll see how detailed his characters are and how dynamic his style is in making characters pop from the comic book pages. I feel that Todd McFarlane does this too. He's another giant in the comic books industry who heavily influenced the Spider-Man franchise back when I was a kid. And it's fascinating to see how he portrays the web slinging hero in these unique and iconic agile positions. Todd also introduced me to my all time favorite character spawn. And his comics are absolutely beautiful.
I can deep dive into a future episode about spawn, but just wanting to share that even if the storyline isn't as great as other comic books, illustrations from highly talented pencilers, inkers, and colorists can make the comic book worthwhile to check out.
So when I was your age, the stories and the inspiration, that draw were the two main reasons I collected comic books. And I'm so glad I listened to your uncle mark early on to take good care of my comics. While we collected different comic books, we always sleeved each one with acid free plastic bags and added cardboard backings so they could get the physical support they need to maintain their good condition. I always thought the purpose of taking care of our comics was that so you can reread and enjoy them over and over as the years go by. And that's totally valid and it's a great way to appreciate your collections for the long run. But this sense of preserving comic books also sets you up for success for the third reason to collect comic books, which is investing. And to be totally honest, investing is the biggest reason that brought me back to the comic book collecting today.
You see, when I went off to college in 1998, my priorities in life changed. I wanted to meet new people and spend money living experiences. Like going on snowboarding trips or dancing the night away at clubs and raves, as opposed to spending money on material goods, like comic books. So I stopped buying and reading comic books. I have abstained from comic books for more than two decades. And I don't know what caused this immediate change, but before I knew what was happening, a light bulb lit up in my head last month. And I just had this weird but strong feeling that I should strategically invest for the future.
I've already been doing that with stocks, cryptocurrency, employee stock purchase plans, 401ks and other financial assets. But in June, I started to open my old comic book boxes I've had in storage. And it was so cool to see these sleeved and boarded comics that I have not seen in so long. And with some light research on eBay and online comic pricing guides, I discovered that many of my comics are worth exponentially much more than when I first purchased them at the comic book stores as a kid. So, this was very exciting because if they're worth this much now, and if I wait another two decades, I wonder how much these comic books would be worth then. That got me thinking, am I taking the best care of my investments? Yes. Plastic sleeves and cardboard backing is effective, but is it the best way to preserve my most valuable comics?
And that is when I discovered a whole new best practice and marketplace where not only is there a service to preserve the quality of your comics there's also certifications for grading the quality of your comics. Which apparently started in the early two thousands when my head was clearly not thinking about the comic books during my college adventures.
And today there are a few major service providers out there, but the one that caught my eye is called C G C. That stands for certified guaranty company, where professionals assess and certify the quality of your comics on a scale of one through 10. One being terrible condition and 10 being perfect condition. Not many tens exists out there. And 9.8 is the golden standard for most people collecting comic books today.
And not only does CGC grade the comic, they encapsulate the comic in this sturdy sealed plastic case to basically immortalize the condition of your comic book. One warning though, which goes against reason one and two for comic book collecting, you won't be able to read the comic anymore because it's forever encapsulated or as many collectors referred to as slabbed.
But the beauty of slabbed CGC comics is that when I buy and sell them, I have a much greater certainty as to the actual quality of the comic and how much that comic is worth. At the very least, I know the general price people are willing to pay for comic based on its grading score. So. 9.8 are always the highest premium. While anything below that the price goes down drastically.
So that's CGC graded comic books, as opposed to buying raw comics where you really don't know if pages are missing or there's some other defect, not noticeable, unless you actually touch and open the comic book. So for online sales buying raw comics can be very risky. Especially for old comic books where it was totally normal and accessible back then to have advertisements and coupons to cut out, to buy products.
So folks would actually get their scissors and permanently damaged these comic books. Not realizing that many decades later, this comic would have been an amazing investment if it was left untouched. So the world of CGC and preserving my comics is fascinating to me. It's an expensive hobby as you pay many many fees and the prices seem to go up as inflation increases. Right now the price ranges from about $24 to $50 to grade each comic book. And there are extra fees if you want to take advantage of other services like pressing. That is some mysterious, yet effective method of removing your comics' wrinkles, the folds and other defects.
There are also shipping costs when sending and receiving graded comics from CGC Fortunately for me, I saved quite a bit of shipping costs last week, as I was able to submit 15 of my comic books at the CGC booth at this year's Comic Con. It will take several weeks if not months to process them and get them shipped back to me.
But that's okay because these are long-term investments.
And five of them, I got them to be signed by a few of my favorite childhood artists. And those will be graded too. So it's just amazing that CGC can provide these services to really enhance the current comic books I possess and make it a much better investment.
I'll be sure to link to a few photos of what those CGC graded comic books look like in this episode's show notes.
Now you might be thinking, daddy, when will you sell these comics? I know for a fact that is top of mind for your mom because she treats comic books and all my collections as clutter.
I think for many of my comics, it's inevitable that I will sell them. But like all investments, timing is critical as the price can go up and down for many reasons outside our control. One consistent pattern I've seen, especially since the MCU --that's Marvel Cinematic Universe, for those who are not geeky-- when the MCU films started coming out, many comics and their characters are coming to film or Disney plus. As a consequence, these original comic books are in much more demand. And the value of these comics increase as the popularity of these movies increase.
For example. I have the first appearance of Deadpool. It's new mutants issue, 98, which the only reason I got it back then was because I wanted to read more after the X-tinction Agenda story, which included a new mutant issue, 97. So I got issue 98 to find out the aftermath of these characters that suffered so much loss from the X-tinction Agenda plot.
And now today, New Mutants issue 98 in its near mint condition with a grading of 9.8 is being sold on eBay frequently for nearly $2,000 or more. And it's wild because I bought this comic book at its cover price of one whopping dollar plus tax. Ryan Reynolds has made this franchise explode in the past several years with his creativity and his popularity. So thank you Ryan, for making this $1 comic book from the 1990s to be very valuable today.
So, as you can see with investing, there's an element of speculation. The main question you have to ask yourself, if you're collecting to make a profit, is which comics do you think would be worth much more in the future? While Ryan Reynolds and the MCU has done a tremendous job in increasing demand for certain key comic books- Will this always be the case? Will there be a point where people get numb or less excited about more comic book movies and TV series coming out? Maybe, but for me, and for serious collectors spotting these key comic books early on, may prove to be very lucrative in the short and longterm.
My biggest bet right now with the latest Disney plus series and the movies and without going into spoilers, I have no doubt the X-Men and mutants joining the MCU will be a huge hit. We don't know when this is coming, but since Disney acquired 20th century Fox films, we know, it's just a matter of time.
So my initial investments in CGC comics are key issues that heavily influenced the X-Men storylines. And that includes first appearances of some major characters. I'm buying them now because I believe they will be much more valuable when those movie announcements do come out.
And with this return to comic books after two decades, I'm fulfilling, a long lost desire to purchase old key comics that I've always wanted as a kid, but couldn't afford back then. And today I have some disposable income, so I'm slowly but surely collecting a few comics, like the first appearance of Jubilee. Back then she was an awesome teenage Asian American mutant I grew up loving as she bonded with Wolverine who became a father figure for her. I always loved that. And I'm also getting old classic comic book stories like the famous Days of Future Past, which 20th century Fox made a movie adaptation back in 2014. And I'm so happy. I got to finally show that to you twins for your first time, this summer. And I'll always remember you crying so hard. When you saw your favorite characters get killed in an alternate future reality. And I know when I see the days of future past slabbed comics on my wall, this will make me smile many, many times and reminisce of the good times we've shared together.
So investing sounds perfect and easy, but for a full disclaimer, this is all speculation that my comics will be worth something or worth more someday. And like any financial investment. There is a major element of risk.
Investing in slabbed comics before movies come out, may not always be profitable. This actually happened recently with the latest Thor, film, Love and Thunder. I'm not saying it wasn't good. But it wasn't as entertaining or as well-received as its predecessor, Thor Ragnarok. If the movies flop or don't pan out as expected the prices of these comics tank, because interest will wane.
And I saw that many of the Thor comics that revolve around the characters in love and thunder, they plummeted in value. There are probably a lot of unfortunate comic book collectors who paid a premium months before the movie came out and now they're holding onto something that is worth less in today's marketplace. Maybe it'll rise up in value over time. But for the short term, I have no doubt these investors are disappointed.
So back the timing of selling my comics. I really don't know. Maybe I'll sell key comics right before they're released in theaters. So it avoids that love and thunder mistake. Or I may never sell it at all. And you twinsies will inherit my comic book investments. And you can sell it whenever you like, maybe wait for that 11th Deadpool film to release.
To recap, JereMaya, there are three very good reasons to invest in comics, to love the characters and their stories, to admire study and learn art. And to make investments for the future so that these comic books can be sold later at a much higher price than when you obtained them.
The first two reasons are ways to grow up with these characters. And I totally recommend that approach. I think this brings a lot of sentimental and nostalgic value. And gaining that feeling is precious, especially many, many years down the road.
Some of your friends may be thinking, "okay, Mike, I'm sold. I want to start collecting. So how should I go about that?"
The good news is that for new collectors, you don't need to spend a lot of money to get started. The first step is to find a character to read about. Find someone who is interesting for you. I recommend starting easy by choosing very popular characters since their comic books are more accessible and most likely have issues that are inexpensive. For a long time publish comic books. I think about Spider-Man whose comics had been around for 90 years. He has thousands of comics and you can grab a handful for a mere dollars to get a taste of how he talks, thinks, and acts.
Or even better if you're purely into the story and art and not the investment aspect, you can go fully digital these days. I subscribed to Comixology unlimited for $5 a month to access thousands of comics. And it's really fun to read and discover characters that way.
And through this digital medium off our family's iPad. I got you two twinsies plugged in by reading the latest star wars comics that are now considered Canon and supplement the films and TV series you love so much. So digital is where I recommend most folks to getting their feet wet as a way to explore stories.
And so once, you know, you love this character and you believe that this character's comics will be valuable in the long run, that is when you start buying the more expensive comic books.
For me, I personally apply all three reasons now to my current comic book collecting. If I love the characters and the art, and I believe this comic will be worth something more in the future, I'll start investing in the physical copies. I may not even read them because I'll read the digital version off my iPad.
That way I have less of a chance of ruining the physical comic books with my fingerprints or how I handle the page turning. And let's say that while I love the story and the art, the supply of the comics can be so common that the value of the comic doesn't go up so fast. That's totally okay for me, because I love the character and have built a sentimental bond to this character.
And maybe the cover art looks so great that I may find a special glass display case to Mount it on my wall. No problem. And maybe it'll take decades for the comic to rise in value and that's something I'm willing to preserve and enjoy. So the only problem is for those folks who don't care about those first two reasons.
And it's not a quick way to make a profit. So just be careful there and know why you're collecting. If you're truly collecting for the short term. Speculation is a great skill to have, and I'm sure there's many resources out there to find those rare comic books, the ones that are not in a lot of prints that will be worth something someday.
All right, JereMaya, that's a lot of information. So thank you for listening to this really geeky episode. I love that I could share with you all the things that make me passionate in life. And it's been fun talking about what was a big and positive part of my childhood. And now today,
It's so amazing to see you two already immersed in the geeky stuff. Like the MCU star wars and digital comic books. And by the time you listen to this podcast, rest assured that I'll be doing my best to preserve those highly valuable comic books that I collected over time. And I look forward to leaving them to you so that you can enjoy them or even sell them.
The choice is yours. My only ask is that you share them with one another and be kind to one another. Love you.