Anonymous asked:
brevoortformspring answered:
Only if those print copies are ever going to be worth anything.
It’s been a pretty open secret that the back issue market has disintegrated over the past decade as more and more key material is available in collected editions. Time was, if you wanted to read those stories, you needed to hunt down the back issues. Not any more.
There are always going to be some comics that are worth something, both in the short-term and the long-term. In the short-term, typically relating to something going on somewhere else, either a storyline that brings back an old character or some bit of continuity, or the announcement of a media project.
But most of the comics you buy today aren’t going to retain a lot of inherent value as collectibles.
So really, this is becoming a non-issue. There are some people who prefer a tangible copy, and there are some that are happy with a digital copy. One isn’t necessarily better than the other; they’re just different.
The only exceptions to this are -true to their namesake- exceptionally rare bad nigh impossible to predict.
-Superman was not a hit until after DC bought out Fawcett. Superman was a risk for DC, and they were not winning the sales war with Beck’s characters.
Additionally, Action Comics, Vol. 1 # 01 is valuable for two reasons: Superman’s first appearance AND it is exceptionally rare. It is rare because it was printed on Newsprint in the ‘40s, and because of World War II. WW2 Americans were asked to ration paper, so most of the comics were pulped.
-Watchmen became the phenomenon that it is today only *AFTER* DC took the risk of publishing it.
-Typically, first appearances of characters are good bets for valuable books. But the older the better, and condition counts for a LOT.
