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Comment by Galanwe | Hacker News Reader

I know nothing of this world of comics, I guess because it is essentially part of the US culture and did not penetrate much of Europe.

There has been a number of investigative shows arguing the valuation of collectibles in general (comics included) is largely driven by money laundering.

Is it some kind of conspiracy theory of is this legit ?

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As usual, generalising all of Europe based on your individual country is a mistake as there are some Euro counties where comics are quite popular. France, Belgium, Italy and the UK all have thriving native comic book industries, and I have Swedish friends who tell me Donald Duck comics are very popular there.

I imagine a pristine 1st edition Tintin or Asterix would be quite valuable.

I wouldn't say comics are really popular in France. But we may have different interpretations of what comics are, as I don't consider "bandes dessinées" (e.g. Tintin) as comics.

As an avid reader of BDs, I would agree with you, but for the purpose of this discussion, and for the general public, these two are indistinguishable. Even to the actual translation, which is (pardon my rusty French) somewhere in the ballpark of "cartoon strips".

I remember as a kid that Superman #1 was going for thousands of dollars and we just oohed and aahed.

For this, it is pretty legit since it is old. What is thought to be driven by money laundering is people paying crazy amounts of money for graded VHS movies or NES games.

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