Comics UK

After alanultron5's comment on another thread regarding how much a NM copy of Sparky #1 with mint gift and cards cost him, it got me wondering how much other members have been prepared to spend on their beloved comic collections?

I'll start off with £750 for a really good copy of Commando #1 only last year. I had sold loads of duplicates just previously and was feeling flush so when I saw it, I just had to have it!

The most on one collection would be the £800 (including postage) that I spent on 3400 Commando comics only a couple of weeks ago. I've already spent another £100+ on boxes to store them safely in!

I do remember spending a tenner in the mid 70s buying issues 1-10 of The Mighty World of Marvel comics, with at least 2 of the gifts which was an absolute fortune to 11 year old me at the time!

Adam Eterno wrote:I do remember spending a tenner in the mid 70s buying issues 1-10 of The Mighty World of Marvel comics, with at least 2 of the gifts which was an absolute fortune to 11 year old me at the time!

Obviously some parental overindulgence on the pocket money front, Adam.

The most I ever spent was just over 300 quid for very good copies of SPARKY from 1969-70............ 3 quid each which was fine but 104 copies at once was a fair whack to hand over......a lot in my expenditure budget but it was well worth it-----otherwise I would have to get the lot in dribs and drabs for various sources instead.



Before I purchased these comics, I had like a psychological 'itch' that I just had to scratch: I literally yearned to see these comics again [above all others] and I have been a lot more content ever since...... it was a 37-year wait!!!!!!!!after I got this 'Holy Grail' sorted out, I could concentrate on other worthy comics also well worth seeking out.


I doubt if I myself would shell out hundreds of pounds for a single comic: unless I thought it was future financial investment---something I have never done---I have kept all the second-hand comics I have bought and have only swapped one or two doubles.

I am in this for the love of the comics and no other reason, like financial profit.

[quote="Phoenix" Obviously some parental overindulgence on the pocket money front, Adam. [/quote]

Ha! I remember clearing and weeding some neighbours garden for the whole summer to raise the money!

Most on any single comic was £1.5k on a very nice cents copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, but that was when I was actively dealing.

I've spent a lot more on various collections but again that was solely to buy and then resell.

For things I want to keep I tend not to spend very much at all really. I like the chase more than the acquisition in a lot of cases.

The most I have paid was £83 on ebay a few years ago for the Rainbow no. 1 from 1914 complete with free gift. Seems like a bargain now.

Thankfully I collected most of my collection at a time when prices where more 'reasonable'. I really couldn't afford to try and amass the sort of collection I have now from scratch nor would I imagine I would be granted another forty years in which to do so. That being the case I think the most I have spent in one go was the £400 I laid out for the first three editions of the Bunty Summer Special about three years ago.
With something like this although, admittedly, it would be impossible to quantify there must be a 'widow's mite' factor involved where someone with less resources has pushed the boat out further to acquire a comic than someone who could have more comfortably afforded such a price. A simple flat price, although it has to be the final arbiter, is perhaps not the full story.

I suppose on my full (652 issues) Sparky collection, plus upgrading, I have easily topped £5.000. That and at least £2.00 on the 11 gifts I so far aquired, have cost me close on £10.000

alanultron5 wrote:I suppose on my full (652 issues) Sparky collection, plus upgrading, I have easily topped £5.000. That and at least £2.00 on the 11 gifts I so far acquired, have cost me close on £10.000

I make that only £5,022, Alan.

i make it £5,002

Phoenix wrote:I make that only £5,022, Alan.

big bad bri wrote:i make it £5,002

alanultron5 wrote:That and at least £2.00 on the 11 gifts I so far aquired, have cost me close on £10.000

Yes, very funny, Bri. I did assume, I must admit, that Alan meant £2 for each of the eleven gifts. However, that was already a lighthearted assessment, hence the smilie, because obviously he made a mistake as it would have taken an awful lot of gifts at £2 each for him to reach the £5000 total. At least 20 by my meticulous calculations.

5000 quid would not last all that long in the pub these days, so it is money well spent on the Sparkys, Alan.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:5000 quid would not last all that long in the pub these days, so it is money well spent on the Sparkys, Alan.

You sound like my kind of drinking buddy ISPY!

£42 on a near complete run of Zap Comix (all but the fifth issue at the time) - worth every penny

Most on a single comic I think was £27 - for the one issue of Chill.

Frustratingly, I'd assumed my original copy had been thrown away by my mum at some point, until last Summer when she pulled a carrier bag full of some of my old magazines out of the attic and it was in there. Bah.

Adam Eterno wrote:

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:5000 quid would not last all that long in the pub these days, so it is money well spent on the Sparkys, Alan.

You sound like my kind of drinking buddy ISPY!

yes Adam I am disgusted at the price of drink in the pubs these days: even posh Times Square in New York was cheaper than here.......

collecting comics is probably a better bet!