The Case for Foreign Comic Book Collecting (Part 2)

Once you have a lead on a foreign comic book you want to buy, determining the price is the next trick to overcome.  There is no Overstreet Price Guide for foreign comic books and a foreign comic book cannot be valued the same as its U.S. counterpart.  As a rule, I use perceived scarcity and grade to determine the value of a comic.

If the comic is located in a country with a large population, I will value the comic less than a comic from a country with a smaller population.  Comic books from Western countries are more easily found than comics from non-Western countries.  Perceived scarcity is based on my experience and the experience of others, but it can be very fluid.  For example, I purchased my first Colombian Star Wars #1 for $265, since it was generally thought in the foreign collecting community that this was a tough comic to find and this was the first time that comic had become available to me.  Eventually, I did find and purchase a second copy for $150 from a seller in Peru.  Finally, I picked up 4 more copies from the Peru seller for $40 each along with numerous copies of issues #2 - 4.  This situation with the Columbian Star Wars comics is a unique case however, as only 2 sellers had the comic available and it is believed the second seller had access to a warehouse find.  Not all foreign comics are going to be available like these Colombian Star Wars comics were.  This warehouse find may prove to be a once in a lifetime opportunity or it may turn out these Colombian comics are common.  But, this helps illustrate my point; it is hard to determine the correct value to pay for a foreign comic.  Typically, there is no previous sales data that you can reference and you will have to rely on perceived scarcity to determine what a fair value is for you.

If the comic is in higher grade, it should be valued more than a lower grade comic.  But, when it comes to foreign comic books, you cannot get hung up on the grade.  When I collect domestic Star Wars comics, the grade is extremely important to me.  With few exceptions, I will not add a domestic Star Wars comic to my collection that is in less than near mint condition.  This is an easy position for me to take, because these comics are readily available and cost is usually the determining factor on whether or not to add the comic to my collection.  Unlike domestic comics, the highest grade copy of a foreign comic available to you might just be in good condition, and a near mint copy might never become available.  One of the hardest to find Star Wars comics is the Filipino Star War #1.  There are only a handful of them known to exist.  The conditions in the Philippines are such that comics are generally not in terrific condition when found.  Knowing this, if a Filipino Star Wars #1 became available for sale, I would be hard pressed to turn down the copy because it is not in the near mint condition I desire.