Superman's Debut creates Super Profits
Superman's debut comic book was sold yesterday for $1 million dollar! I am still amazed at the amount of money that people will pay for such antiques. As we discussed in class today, the main purpose of a firm is to earn profits. Although, this transaction is carried out between a private buyer and a private seller, the same principle applies to partnerships. According to CNNMoney.com, Vincent Zurzolo who co-owns the the auction site ComicConnect.com with founder Stephen Fishler said "it was the single most important event in comic book history."
Zurzolo and Fishler posted a rare copy of Action Comic #1 on their website on Monday morning. It was the issue where the man of steel made his debut in 1938. They were selling it on behalf of an unknown collector. Within ONE minute, another unnamed collector bought the comic for $1 million. Zuzolo stated that only about 100 copies of Action Comic #1 are known to exist, and of these, only two are known to be in such good shape.
For comic book lovers, who have struggled to elevate their trade to the level of fine antiques, paintings and even collectibles coin, record-breaking sales make for a big victory. In the last year, Zurzolo said he's seen more non-comic fans than ever purchasing rare copies as investment vehicles during the recession.
"When you look at what happened to real estate, the stock market and in banking people are terrified. They are not making money in the banks, they're not sure about real estate and the stock market is like playing roulette," Zurzolo said. "With comic books you feel more confident. Now we've hit a point where you can lump us in with fine art."
About 15 years ago, the Action Comic #1 sold Monday went for $150,000. In its original state in 1938, it would have been sold for about ten cents.
This sale is one of the amazing I ever heard of. The collector who bought this comic book, spent only 10 cents. After only 72 years, he made such a million dollars in economic profits. What do you think are some of the possible reasons why the debut made such huge amounts of profits? The comic auction site is making considerable amounts of profits, do you think that the amounts of profits earned will continue to rise? If collectors continue to put more of their antique comics for sale on this auction site, do you think that there will be a diminshing marginal product (the property whereby the increase in output that arises from an additional unit of input declines as the quantity of the input increases? Would you invest in the comic industry as a means of earning profits in the near future?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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The price level for the Superman comic was extremely high because there is a massive shortage in the supply of Superman debut issues--there is at least one, and probably not many more left--compared to the demand for them--thousands of comic book collectors would love to have one in their collection. So, the Supply curve for the comic is at a very high price level and very close to the y axis while the demand is significantly greater than the supply. As a result, people compete amongst themselves to attain such an item.
ReplyDeleteI think Rich hit the nail on the head here. It's the law of supply and demand. With such a small supply and a high demand for the rare comic, people are willing to pay extremely high prices for it. T
ReplyDeleteThe Superman comic from the 1930's sold for so much because it is a scarce item, the demand for the scarce item is high, it is considered a collectable, and obviously the supply of this very old comic is low. If more of these scarce comics were put up for sale, I do think that the price of the books would drop. There was only one person who demanded this comic book for $1 million. That means everyone else that wants and demands a book (in theory) will pay less then $1 million. If somebody would of wanted the book for $1.5 million, then the person who wanted the book for $1 million would not of won the auction. The more books that are out on the market, the less the price of the book will be. (A, T)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would never spend $1 million on a comic book because it is not my hobby to collect comic books. I would rather invest my money in another are of the economy. (A)
As previously stated, this is the law of supply and demand. A low supply and a high demand mean high prices because the seller both wants to and has the opportunity to sell for maximum profit. This is also not just ANY comic. This is the first SUPERMAN comic! Everyone knows Superman..its one of the most, if not the most, well known comic figure. This is another reason why it sold for so muhc.
ReplyDeleteA,T
I dont know if investing in the comic industry now is as good of a move as it was some odd 70 years ago. I think now that more copies are printed per edition so the value of each individual comic will go down. I have a friend who is a collector of comics and I think that collecting is something that will always happen, I am just hesitant to think that it is the way to get rich now. The chances of choosing to buy the first edition of what will go on to be something as big as superman is pretty slim. Nevertheless I think that people should invest as they please. Its kind of like buying a lotto ticket. The chances are you end up with just some paper, but like for this one fellow the marginal benefit wins in the end.
ReplyDeleteE, T
Again, this all relates to the small supply of the item at hand. It's amazing to see what lengths some people will go to get an item whe it is in such low supply. Personally I would not invest in the comic book industry, mainly because I have no interest, but I do see how it could be beneficial for others. I also agree with Cierra about the popularity factor. Jut because of the fact that its Superman plays a big role. A smaller, lesser known, first edition comic book may not sell for the same amount. A T
ReplyDeleteTalk about a profit! Its so crazy the things that people consider to be valuable (not that superman comics aren't valuable). It really makes me wonder if I have anything that will someday be able to be sold for even half a million dollars, it is a crazy concept to think about. And to apply one of the ten principles of economics; taste definitely plays a role in this transaction.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me back to the beenie baby days... how many of use spent alot of money on the lovable little collectables, simply because they were collectable? What made those stuffed animals any different than other ones coming out of china? was it just an extremly well thought out marketing plan? and talk about a profit margin, charging relatively large quantity for plastic and cloth made at absolutely ENORMOUS quantities of scale, i cant wait for something like that to come along to invest in and make a killing before the fad dies!
ReplyDeleteThis just shows that you never know when a small investment in the right product will pay off big. I would assume that the seller of this comic book never dreamed it would be this valuable back in the 30's. But since that time Superman has become a widely recognized cultural icon and because of this and the scarcity of the comic this item's price has skyrocketed in a short time.
ReplyDeleteThis makes sense too me. There are so few of these debut Superman comic book's, this could possibly be the last one in fact, so to have such a rarity is why the price for it is so high. This falls under the law of supply and demand, because there is such a low supply of this comic book the demand for it is high, and high prices will entail because the strong demand for it can warrant a price tag of $1 million. I couldn't imagine paying this much for one comic book, but there are a lot of people out there that collect comic books, and the Superman Debut issue, well, is a true collector's item. These collector's have a high demand for this comic book, and I guess if I collected comic books, I would too. (A, T)
ReplyDeletePeople spend money on crazy things! And people make money in such surprising ways...
ReplyDeletethis is an example of supply and demand. The more scarce the item, the higher the demand of it. People will pay a lot for some interesting things.
ReplyDeleteThis post just make sense for what we talk about in class, the supply and demand curve.Supply = few of these debut Superman comic books, couldn't equal the demand. Also it depends how popular the products are.
ReplyDeletePeople are willing to pay for the value of the comic. So that's the most important reason why the superman's debut is so popular.