The Past.
‘Pretty much fifty percent of all out of print Batman graphic novels are worth a pretty penny on Amazon.’
Until a few years ago, that statement was not really much of an exaggeration. It did in fact seem like close to half of the out of print Batman books listed on the Amazon Marketplace were worth a decent amount above cover – enough at least to make it worth the while of people like myself to put them up for sale. It wasn’t just one sub-genre of OOP Batman material that was in demand either, rather it was a real mix of stuff that I would routinely see going for prices well above cover; anything from the many Batman Elseworld trades, such as Batman: In Darkest Knight, Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, and Batman: Thrillkiller to the Dark Horse crossovers such as Batman/Aliens and Batman vs Predator, to even some of the (at the time) more recent collections such as Batman: Prodigal and Batman: Cataclysm. Really there were just so many out of print Batman-related books worth listing on Amazon and eBay. It really was a perfect storm of diminishing supply and steady demand. It also really felt right to describe OOP Batman books as being ‘evergreen’.
But all storms must end and sometimes evergreen isn’t forever…
However this all changed practically overnight when DC decided to reissue all of the above mentioned material in new collected editions, effectively killing most of the demand for this material on the secondary market. Who knew that DC would actually pay attention to what their fans wanted when it came to wanting to be able to read Batman stories that were more than a couple of years old? Shocking, I know.
Remember, a key rule of selling oop graphic novels is that people will only pay up for something when it is not in print: your customers for these books are readers not speculators after all and they are only going to pay prices above retail once regular retail prices are no longer an option.
The Present.
Honestly though, it isn’t all doom and gloom now. Far from it. If you are willing to search a little harder and scan the bookshelves a little more closely, you can still find a number of OOP Bat books that are worth listing on Amazon or eBay. What follows is an extensive list of currently out of print Batman graphic novels that will routinely fetch three to four times cover price (or better) on the secondary market. Keep in mind that my recommendations are based on the assumption that you would be listing NEW condition copies of any of these books. Of course, as with any book I might mention on this site, you are advised to do your own due diligence to make sure that nothing has changed in the marketplace since one of my posts.
Now without further ado, here is a list of over 30 OOP Batman books I believe are still worth your time in hunting down:
- Batman: A Death In the Family(*hardcover edition only)
- Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying
- Batman: Blind Justice
- Batman: Cataclysm
- Batman: Detective
- Batman: Four of A Kind
- Batman: Going Sane
- Batman In the Eighties
- Batman In the Fifties
- Batman In the Forties
- Batman In the Seventies
- Batman: Joker’s Asylum volume 1
- Batman: Joker’s Asylum volume 2
- Batman: Lovers and Madmen
- Batman: Scarecrow Tales
- Batman: Snow
- Batman: Streets of Gotham, volume 1: Hush Money
- Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast
- Batman: The Cat and the Bat
- Batman: The Black Casebook
- Batman: The Man Who Laughs (hardcover only)
- Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood
- Batman: Strange Apparitions
- DC Comics Classic Library: Batman – The Annuals Volume 1 (hardcover)
- Legends of the Dark Knight Jim Aparo volume 1 (hardcover)
- Legends of the Dark Knight Marshall Rogers (hardcover)
- Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights
- Superman & Batman: Generations (Elseworld)
- Superman & Batman: Generations 2(Elseworld)
- The Batman Chronicles volume 3
- The Batman Chronicles volume 9
- The Many Deaths of the Batman
Well I hope that this list is of some help. Like I said earlier, there is still a lot out there and there is always something else Batman-related going out of print. Sometimes even the books that go back into print are allowed to go out of print-again.(Batman: Cataclysm, I’m looking at you!) After all, there is only so much material that any one publisher can keep in print at any one time – even if it is Batman. You just have to get creative in your searches and remember to use the Amazon or eBay apps on your trusty smartphone to check and see if a book you are not sure about is currently listed for a decent price in the marketplace.
Good luck in your hunt!
