I am going to start changing my collecting strategy. The only characters that I will collect singles of is characters I REALLY like: -Batman -Spider-Man -Static -The Crow Everything else will be trade paperback, and the only key issues I will collect are first character appearances, and first team-ups (AKA Avengers, JLA, etc). Majority of those first character appearances will come from the Silver and Bronze age. Modern age is too oversaturated, and Golden age is too pricey. The only thing I will collect from the Golden age are bondage and horror covers, I may get a few early Action Comic, but that is all. Majority of the first character appearances will come from the Silver age, as honestly Bronze age is becoming oversaturated as well. I have realized that I have wasted so much money buying modern books like Secret Wars #8, Swamp Thing #1 1972, Daredevil #158, New Mutants #98, Batman #357, etc... There is no true value in DC and Marvel books 1980s and up, heck, even if you go back to the 1970s, there are like over 15,000 Hulk 181's on the CGC census, yet it is still a $2,000+ book with the MVS. I could have had an Amazing Spider-Man #1 by now with all the money I put towards these modern books. Heck, even some of my books from the 1960s like Fantastic Four #52 are dropping down in value. Going forward, I will try to collect first character appearances only, and leave everything else in trade paperbacks if I want to read, it saves space and costs a lot less. I don't need to own a copy of Swamp Thing #37 from Alan Moore's run, that book is so common, yet it goes for $200+ now, $300 extra dollars saved in 3 months will get you a low-grade copy of X-Men #4 from 1964. I also don't need the Singles of the Lein Wein and Bernie Wrightson Swamp thing run either, just get the trade, all I would need is a House of Secrets #92. Things like the whole Alan Moore Run can be collected in trades, buying singles of that is worthless unless the print run was like less than 10,000 or something like that. I will try and collect books like: -Amazing Spider-Man #1 1963 -Hawkman #4 1964 -Tales of Suspense #52 & #57 -Avengers #57 -House of Secrets #92 -Daredevil #1 1964 -Strange Tales #110 -Avengers #1 -X-Men #4 Mostly Silver age first appearance For Golden Age, I will try to collect Bondage and Horror covers that I really like, like The Spirit #22 from 1950. I from now on will stay away from Modern books outside of a few rare purchases, like I said I want to collect #1-400 of Amazing Spider-Man and probably #200-400 of Batman and all of Static, etc. Not spending money on $30-50 modern books really will help you save money towards the bigger comic purchases. Just think about it. There was one month last year where I bought: -New Mutants Annual #2 $30 -Batman #1 New 52 $15 -Amazing Spiderman #252 $110 -Secret Wars #8 $120 -Marvel Special Edition #15 & #16 $140 All modern books that are oversaturated and underperformed the market currently. If I had put that money in a savings account and waited, I could have bought: -Hawkman #4 $400 -Avengers #57 $250 -Fantastic Four #12 $500 -Batman #181 $500 -A golden age Action Comics book etc.... We as a community need to stop, buying into FOMO with these Modern and some Bronze books. Get high value/important key books that will hold value and/or increase in value in the future, most modern books will not do that. Heck, I am not even sure Hulk 181 will hold its value once the MCU is done. We have to remember that a lot of these prices are inflated as people during COVID got into the comic book market to make a profit. We are already seeing bronze age books tank in value right now. Most books that will hold their value are silver and golden age, if you really want to have things like Alan Moore Swamp thing, just get the trade. I just picked up a Fantastic Four #5 at my LCS for $1,700, and I am glad to have it knowing that currently that issue is more rare than Fantastic Four #1 and it is the first appearance of Doctor Doom. These are the books we should go after. If anyone read this far, I hope my strategy inspires all, save money guys!

Great video, Ryan. I appreciate your taking the time to crunch the numbers. BTW: When I checked out the CGC census numbers for the Top 100 golden age books according to Overstreet, the least rare was 'Tec 225. I just checked and as of today it has 299 blue label books on CGC census. So, yeah, I can't think of another golden age book that has more copies on census than CSS22.

Copper age books were an era where the overall print runs peaked so it makes some sense that copper age books get subbed more than moderns.

One of those Showcase 4s was my resubmission. Census does unfortunately not precisely represent census but I think it is fairly accurate. I do try to re-send in labels every so often to get the old submissions off of the census. Great video Ryan 💥

Another great video!! Thanks for all the work u put into it!

Awesome sauce! This really helps to put some context between what it hot, common, rare, high value, etc. I think you really see a nostalgia factor in play with those Copper Books really way out there on the census.

cgcdata is a great resource - it's fun to play around on there! Great idea for a vid, thanks for sharing!

Very informative and interesting video. Thanks for sharing Ryan

This video just changed my strategy in collecting

Appreciate all your hard work, dedication and love for the hobby. Thank you 🔥

Of course I stuck through Ryan very informative and very interesting as usual spot on

Lots of great information as usual. I appreciate you taking the time to made your display slides and share the computer screen so it can be visualized. If I went to a panel for comic collectors/resellers at a convention, this would be really interesting topic probably alot of people don't really cover. I think the data you discussed would definitely be something to look at when considering whether to grade a book for selling.

Great analysis. I think the numbers will slow down enough so we won't see a doubling of the census. Some of the EC books have really high census counts.

Excellent insights. These kind of videos are my favorites. Recently, I have been selling all of my higher census key silver and bronze age slabs and redeploying the funds into buying lower census golden and silver age books. With rising census counts, I believe that prices will be suppressed on higher (or rising) census books as a result.

Just sent my Marvel Spotlight 5 and ASM 59 for grading. I sent them to CBCS!

Very cool/interesting vid!

nice work, ryan

Appreciate all the research and the video!

As important to the market as the CGC census is, CGC should really water mark the inside of a book or on the staple, a dot, or whatever, to identify that the book has already been graded and at what grade. The CPR has destroyed the census and essentially created a false sense of value

So perhaps not such a ‘down market’ but a more saturated one for lotsa books ? Thanks for the info!

Was curious what the most graded GA was, did some digging and found 4 color 386 with 563 blue copies.

Fantastic video Ryan!!!...:)

Thank you for your efforts. Good job.

Okay...I'll throw in my 2 cents / show some "Key" early Bronze Age books that I track with regards to the quantity of CGC 9.8's. The reason I follow these books is because these issues are all very...very...very...tough comics to procure in CGC 9.8's and thus are +/-1% of the Universal Blue census count. Also, I either own these low census books in CGC 9.8 or I'm trying to obtain a copy in 9.8 for my collection (if the price is fair). Hero for Hire #1 (1st Luke Cage ; 1972)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...12 of 4,152 = 0.29% (I've been trying to buy a copy of this comic in CGC 9.8) Marvel Feature #1 (1st Defenders ; 1971)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...16 of 2,167 = 0.74% (I own this book in CGC 9.8) Batman #251 (Classic Joker Cover ; 1973)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...27 of 3,505 = 0.77% (I own this book in CGC 9.8) Wonder Woman #204 (1st Nubia ; 1973)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...5 of 561 = 0.89% (I own this book in CGC 9.8) All-Star Western #10 (1st Jonah Hex ; 1972)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...8 of 786 = 1.02% (I've been trying to buy a copy of this comic in CGC 9.8) Night Nurse #1 (1st Linda Carter ; 1972)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...6 of 495 = 1.21% (I've been trying to buy a copy of this comic in CGC 9.8) Green Lantern #87 (1st John Stewart ; 1972)...Universal Copies in CGC 9.8...37 of 2,105 = 1.76% (I own this book in CGC 9.8)

👍good show

I bought a Conan #1 CGC 9.8 in 2022 when there were 81 on the census and now there are over 100. It hasn't seemed to affect the price yet, but I do have that feeling of an investment being diluted. Thanks for the hard work in putting this together.

The doubling time estimates are not reliable given the finite number of each issue in existence. The actual time to double that census will jump to infinity when the supply of raws runs out. The discrepancy of this “rule of 72” should be more noticeable for the rarer golden age comics.

I started this hahahhahaha

I watch your channel for the numbers🤘

Do you think with some of the golden age books an additional reason for not even having one copy graded could come down to grading fees for the some of the books at this point? I’d imagine for some books like an Action 1 if someone miraculously came upon on in the wild they may not be able to cover the initial costs of the 4% of market value to get it graded before a sale? Just thinking maybe it could be a factor.

Cool analysis

One might think CGC could take pictures of all their graded books. Using pictures, they might be able to determine those book they've graded before. Having said that, I can also see the problems with issues that are in the 9s. Another way (though considered sacrilege, I am sure) would be to mark a code in invisible ink inside the book. Remember, they do mark gems with microprinting. Helps detect theft. I'm experiencing deja vu as I write this.

Feeling like I should stop collecting since I can't afford golden age. Great video.

Well if stacking the wall wasn’t making the cash pile.(phantom books and relevancy)

I do not like cgc. I do not buy graded books. I do not get books graded. Just my opinion. I do like your videos, and always learn something new, and I just want to say thanks and keep it up.

Perhaps I misunderstand. I thought the rule of 72 applies to interest rates and money but you applied it to number of books.????...Can you do that??? Did I get that wrong?

Was Groot's popularity driven by Guardians of the Galaxy? Or did it have some popularity before the movie? I am too lazy to look this up in Overstreet I guess. Or I am just kicking myself for not having added to my collection before the movie hit.

This video will age well.

I know you are big collector of pre horror comics. Can you tell me the size of ec comics 1950s precode horror size for Mylites

Amazing Spider-Man #300. What was the difference between newsstand issues and non-newsstand?

I saw this comming as soon as Blackrock took over. It's all about $$$ now.