I started selling comics full-time in 2010 and wanted to track my progress against the online back issue markets. Here’s a look at the current comics aftermarket and my progress in achieving my goal of becoming a prominent back issue dealer.
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one month change | one year change | five year change | |
| Listings in eBay’s Comic Books, Manga & Memorabilia section | 3,010,120 | -36.06% | -50.49% | -22.24% |
| Cyberspace Comics listings | 151,451 | +1.18% | +9.92% | +44.06% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of comic listings on eBay | 5.03% | +58.22% | +121.65% | +84.98% |
| Number of eBay comic listings that are auctions | 298,181 | +4.09% | +20.08% | +92.11% |
| Percentage of eBay comic listings up for auction | 9.91% | +62.66% | +142.79% | +147.03% |
| Number of listings sold in eBay’s comics section (90 days) | 1,592,869 | +13.74% | +10.07% | +74.79% |
| Number of listings sold in eBay’s comics section divided by current listings | 52.92% | +77.87% | +122.34% | +124.80% |
 Total number of listings in eBay’s “comics” section My current eBay feedback (unique): 98,471 |
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one month change | one year change | five year change | |
| Listings on Atomic Avenue | 1,749,472 | -39.54% | +5.50% | +18.05% |
| Listings in the Cyberspace Comics Store on Atomic Avenue | 132,163 | +1.43% | +8.85% | +29.12% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of comic listings on AtomicAvenue | 7.55% | +67.88% | +3.2% | +9.338% |
| Number of unique issues on Atomic Avenue | 254,816 | +0.88% | +8.58% | +1.28% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of unique issues on AtomicAvenue | 51.87% | +0.55% | +0.24% | +27.50% |
 Total number of comics listed on Atomic Avenue |
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one month change | one year change | five year change | |
| Number of members on ComicCollectorLive | 240,707 | +0.16% | +1.95% | +59.37% |
| Number of items for sale on ComicCollectorLive | 1,289,105 | +0.33% | -6.29% | -15.72% |
| Number of items sold on ComicCollectorLive | 2,812,563 | +0.23% | +3.74% | +24.47% |
| Number of stores open on ComicCollectorLive | 49 | +0.00% | +4.26% | -33.78% |
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one month change | one year change | five year change | |
| Number of listings in HipComic’s Comic Books section | 1,242,924 | +0.08% | +19.20% | +440.36% |
| Number of those listings that are in the Cyberspace Comics HipComic store | 117,694 | -4.95% | -4.18% | +13.16% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of comic listings on HipComic | 9.47% | -5.02% | -19.62% | -79.06% |
eBay‘s reported number of listings has dropped sharply. I suspect that they’re not reporting suppressed listings in that number – so, the data they’re reporting is inaccurate. There are way more listings on that marketplace than they’re acknowledging. This is throwing off many of the numbers I report, as well as the 1-month, 1-year and 5-year changes.
Atomic Avenue: The number of listings on this marketplace dropped sharply. I suspect they were inaccurately reporting their numbers in previous months and are now back to accurate figures.
Comic Collector Live: The number of stores has dropped by over 30% in the past five years while seeing an increase in their members by nearly 60% in the same time.
HipComic continues to struggle with their eBay sync. It’s currently causing a disparity between the number of listings in my eBay store and the number of listings in my HipComic store by over 30,000 listings (last week was off by 20,000). Sadly, there appears to be no solution in sight so I suspect this disparity will be prolonged. This used to be a marketplace that I would highly recommend but, until they work these problems out, I can no longer point fellow sellers in their directions because these sync problems could end up causing disruptions to a seller’s eBay store, as well.