Lately I find myself pulling up particular books and examining the sales trend data to try and make sense of our rapidly changing markets. A lot of the fluctuation in comic book pricing is clearly driven by which characters get adapted into major motion pictures. These blockbusters are bringing new collectors into the hobby, fueling demand from major keys down to comics that years ago could easily be found in dollar boxes.

The other day I pulled up Uncanny X-Men 94, and have been puzzling over why this book has stalled out and been fairly flat in recent years. When I was younger, this was a holy grail book - the start of the run that made X-Men cool. Prior to #94, the main title was limping along, reprinting stories that were published only a few years earlier. Once Claremont and Byrne caught their groove, UXM 94 became one of the hottest books around. But if you look at the sales trend below, other than a brief spike presumably tied to one of the X-Men movies, this book is in no better shape than it was 15 years ago! (Note the recent 9.6 CBCS sale, well under what this book was fetching in the early 2000s).

Recently somebody wrote in and said "Hey, a Fantastic Four 48 in 9.2 just sold for a lot more than you guys have it priced at". We told them "Hang tight, we've probably captured that sale, and next month's pricing update will reflect any significant changes for this issue". Meanwhile, I pulled FF 48 up to take a peek, and sure enough, this trend chart has the characteristics of a book that is percolating, and about to take off. If it's time to consider really getting FF right on the big screen, what villain could rival even Thanos? Galactus, of course.

With DC poised to take another shot at getting one right (Wonder Woman wasn't bad), one book very few collectors saw investment potential in was More Fun Comics 73. Featuring the 1st appearance of Aquaman, it rarely drew any attention, partly because Dr. Fate had the cover locked up. Not many people ever even saw this book on dealer walls. And when they did, even fewer thought "oh hey cool, that's 1st Aquaman and 1st Green Arrow!". A smart investor could have made over $100,000.00 on this book in about three years. It's hard to imagine a better return on investment in that timeframe.

Minor update - on each category "landing page" (when you click comics, coins, or magazines after signing in), we now show the 100 most wanted items. Let us know if there are any other cool lists you'd like to see here. Maybe the 100 most collected items?

Next update is new pricing again already! We have been working really hard on improving the pricing algorithms, and are excited to get your feedback once you start sifting through the new data. In fact, with the markets moving so fast, we are even considering moving to monthly pricing updates. What do you think?