"Angels and ministers of death save me" sorry to quote Shakespeare but someone please save me from the plebeian minds that are ruining the collecting market in comics for everyone.  I hope by writing the guides I have written to bring new collectors gently and safely into the comic collecting genre and to enjoy as I and millions of others have.  These others who undermine us to a point as surely as an oak stake through the heart of Dracula by artificially inflating prices ought to join the rest of us for a reality break in the real world.  I can see where a seller may get over zealous and jump on the bandwagon over a hot new title but please give some thought and consideration to what you are doing.  A prime example I recently observed was the selling of early issues of the Walking Dead written by hot new talent Robert Kirkman.  Now Kirkman isn't that new but of the newer generation and while he is very talented as I have enjoyed some of his recent writing he hasn't been around long enough to require pricing of a fairly new book in the legendary or mythical range.  The price I saw was over the 200 dollar range for a Walking Dead number one where I have recently seen vintage X-Men that are critical issues for somewhat less.  I use this as the example of comparison as the X-Men are a flagship title of Marvel and have always or just about always received the cream of the crop for writers including Stan Lee, Chris Claremont and even Barry Windsor Smith wrote on this book.  I have always advocated patience on these particular kinds of runs of books as because of the artificial inflation you will feel terrible when the price drops as interest drops as it invariably always does.  Now the kind of patience of which I speak may take months or years but the satisfaction you feel paying a much lower price at a later date will far outweigh the reverse of the feeling you will get if you buy high and end up selling low.

A cardinal rule for the beginning collector should be if you see a newer book for what seems an extremely high price and you have read the snippets and talked to friends and fellow collectors about the book and your interest has now peaked buy the graphic novel first.  Read the GN and if you are still really high on the book don't worry the long term value of it won't go away but the price will reach a breaking point and plummet and then stabilize, then buy it if you still want the regular edition for collectibility.  Remember always collect what you love reading not what the market is telling is hot because the market is usually, in the early stages of the book driven by speculation and as with the wildcatter in the early days of the oil business it's boom or bust and each deal is a gamble.  I'm not trying to scare anyone off or get even with a seller or unscrupulous dealer just to suggest that a little thought go into a purchase, as any good retailer knows a happy customer is a repeat and often long term customer so this is as much for them as for the new collector.  I have dealt with local comic shops that have managed to shaft the public for years and years and continue to do so because they have so much inventory of everything related to the hobby that if nobody else has it they do.  These kind of shops will usually have a solid client base of people that have been with them for some time and because they as a rule spend a large amount of money each and every month in that shop they get priveleged treatment.  This is the kind of thing I am hoping to help the new collector wise up to real quick, again so that it will expand the hobby and if the hobby expands then that clears the way for more new artists and writers and more titles and when that happens we all win.

The best advice is before you dive in buy a Comic Price Guide and I recommend the Overstreet annual and also keep in mind that this is a guide not what the actual price should be or will be but a guideline to go by none the less.  The price guide will give you a number of prices for each book and if you look at the top there will be letters the represent a grade for the book as in g, vg, f, vf, nm, m, now these mean good, very good, fine, very fine, near mint and mint.  For all intents and purposes the mint reference is usually seen in most guides as near mint/mint as most books are rarely mint there is always some little defect.  Now when buying at online auctions read carefully for what grade the seller is giving it and compare it in the price guide and see if the price is in range.  Don't stop there always look at a few and always keep the old axiom handy "if it's to good to be true it probably is" and that being said there is sometimes an unbelievably good deal, not a lot but sometimes.  So find a book that seems in the right price range preferably a little low for your purposes and bid on it, if you win, pay and then receive it and you think it was well worth it, then and only then consider saving that seller to your favorite sellers list in My Ebay.  Armed with this, I hope it helps and get out there and buy a little wiser and a whole lot happier.