I have invested in shares, property, pensions and foreign currencies, my best investment however was in American Comics.

I started reading and collecting ‘Super Hero’ comics in 1966, buying the monthly issues from local newsagents. I always wanted the best condition comics, so I quickly eliminated newsagents who didn’t have proper racks to keep them. Saturdays I used to cycle 10 miles to  Coventry where I could buy old comics in the second-hand shops. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any 1963 comics when Spiderman and X-Men for example had their #1 first editions.

Trying to complete my collection I discovered that comics just 3 years old were beyond my price range. Then Marvel Comics relaunched their range in 1968 and issued a lot of first editions.  I reasoned that all I had to do was keep them long enough, and they would become valuable. So I spent all my ‘paper-round’ money, and bought multiple issues of every Numer One comic I could find. I kept them in individual plastic comic bags, upright (to prevent spine-roll), in cardboard comic boxes.

30 years later I needed to raise money and sold them. Individually the collection had a notional value of £21,000 in 1998. However, I didn’t sell them individually….(this was before eBay and the Internet made it possible to reach collectors directly). Instead I sold them via a couple of London auction companies, who put the comics into job lots;  I got £7,000.

I was very happy with that, the comics had only ever cost me my childhood pocket money, and had given me a great deal of pleasure over the years. I kept back some of my favourite comics, including the entire first 18 issues of the Silver Surfer. I intend to sell these on eBay.

Collecting is a long game. Only collect what you enjoy and gives you pleasure. Keep everything in the best possible condition. ‘Mint’ comics mean unread! Keep boxes and packaging that your collectibles arrive in. Keep your collection for as long as possible……eventually they become antiques!  Sell, when you need the money.

John McNally