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 | 4,600,719 | +52.37% | -24.40% | +20.79% |
| Cyberspace Comics listings | 156,750 | +1.57% | +12.59% | +47.77% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of comic listings on eBay | 3.41% | -33.33% | +48.78% | +22.56% |
| Number of eBay comic listings that are auctions | 276,412 | -9.54% | +12.03% | +85.96% |
| Percentage of eBay comic listings up for auction | 6.01% | -40.63% | +48.35% | +54.05% |
| Number of listings sold in eBay’s comics section (90 days) | 1,194,306 | -23.89% | -16.19% | +18.23% |
| Number of listings sold in eBay’s comics section divided by current listings | 25.96% | -50.05% | +10.84% | -2.11% |
 Total number of listings in eBay’s “comics” section My current eBay feedback (unique): 99,859 |
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one month change | one year change | five year change | |
| Listings on Atomic Avenue | 1,725,476 | -2.08% | +0.02% | +16.73% |
| Listings in the Cyberspace Comics Store on Atomic Avenue | 135,494 | +1.41% | +8.51% | +32.59% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of comic listings on AtomicAvenue | 7.85% | +3.60% | +8.46% | +13.64% |
| Number of unique issues on Atomic Avenue | 254,500 | -0.67% | +2.34% | +0.12% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of unique issues on AtomicAvenue | 53.24% | +2.09% | +6.03% | +32.44% |
 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 | 241,659 | +0.20% | +2.09% | +56.37% |
| Number of items for sale on ComicCollectorLive | 1,274,355 | -1.60% | -6.66% | -14.82% |
| Number of items sold on ComicCollectorLive | 2,826,151 | +0.24% | +3.36% | +24.32% |
| Number of stores open on ComicCollectorLive | 49 | -2.00% | +8.89% | -33.78% |
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one month change | one year change | five year change | |
| Number of listings in HipComic’s Comic Books section | 1,419,063 | +46.76% | +32.61% | +260.25% |
| Number of those listings that are in the Cyberspace Comics HipComic store | 150,638 | +7.38% | +33.65% | +43.49% |
| Cyberspace Comics “market share” of comic listings on HipComic | 10.62% | -26.84% | +0.81% | -60.17% |
| Number of Stores on HipComic | 367 | +1.10% | ||
eBay‘s reported number of listings continues to spike and dip. I suspect that they’re not reporting suppressed listings in that number – so, the data they’re reporting is inaccurate (and, as the algorithm changes, the reported numbers vary wildly). There are many 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: This marketplace now boasts a selection of over a quarter million different comics. That’s pretty impressive! This is a marketplace that flies under the radar.
Comic Collector Live: The number of items for sale on this marketplace continues to shrink. It’s down over 10% in the past five years, while every other marketplace has shown gains in that same time period.
HipComic: One of the largest comic dealers in the world had added all of their listings back to this marketplace, spiking the numbers. We had to give up on the Hip sync – it just was unreliable for too long. So, we switched gears on how we create listings on this marketplace. As of this month, we now have our historic highest number of listings there (over 150,000!).