Buying old expensive comics, are they worth it?

So I've been a big time back issue buyer ever since I got back into comic book collecting. When I first got back in I decided to only focus on back issues. I bought tons of Silver, Bronze and Copper age comics, many of them for quite a bit too.

Whenever I looked at the comics the first thing I looked at was the corners. Are they sharp, dirty or frayed? And then the spine of the book. I would count the creases one, two, three is fine, four is too many. And finally the last thing I looked at was the price. I would ask myself "can I justify spending ten dollars on a comic" and most of the time the answer is yes. I would take it home change the bag and board so it would look nice and clean. Then I would stick it inside a box never to be touched again.

Now before you think I'm crazy let me explain. I'm a collector... so I'm only partially crazy, I mean comics were meant to be read right? But I started thinking, each time I opened that comic that is worth fifty dollars I take the chance of damaging it and decreasing the value. Weeks passed into months into a year and I kept doing this same thing over and over again. The other day I looked at my comic book collection and noticed that when it came to my back issues I have only read about ten percent of them. These are comics I have spent a good amount of money on, and here they were just sitting inside a white box looking pretty. Ok technically I can't see them but you know...

So from time to time I look on eBay to see how much my comics are selling for and noticed a very nice trend. The finished price seemed to be pretty strong. Comics I paid fifty dollars for are either selling at the same price or about twenty dollars higher. I have yet to sell a single book but I do get a warm fuzzy feeling (no not that kind!)every time I see a comic book of mine sell at a decent price.

I have recently started buying modern comics to read and am enjoying them. I still take care of them just in case they are worth money but the feeling of cracking open a comic to read makes me happy. But what about those old comics I have? They're still in those white boxes hiding in the corner of my closet. Some are worth more now than the day I bought them and some are still the same price.

So are old expensive comics worth buying? Well heres the answer and you may not like it. If you're a collector, yes. But if you're the kind of guy that buys a comic just to read then the answer is, no.