In the days leading up to San Diego Comic-Con we spoke to industry professionals who work in the field of auctioning and brokering sales of comic books, original art, and related collectibles. They shared their opinions on the state of the comic market and expectations for the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con. Here is what Hake’s Auctions President Alex Winter had to say:

Scoop: Do the present inflation worries have you concerned, and do you think it’ll have any impact on comics?
Alex Winter (AW): While economic downs impact everything in some way, collectors seems to always find a way to add items to their collections, no matter what the state of the world. Speaking for just Hake’s, even during the most troubling times be it economic or even a pandemic, we have found that collectors use the hobby as an escape and keep buying. Perhaps they curb their spending somewhat, but rarely stop altogether.

Scoop: How do you see the marketplace at the moment?
AW: Again, speaking just for Hake’s, we are coming off our best year ever in 2021 and at the halfway point of 2022 things have not slowed down. The auction results up to this point in the year have been incredible and our current auction is no different. We had a record opening day when we went live on July 5.

Scoop: What are your personal expectations for Comic-Con?
AW: Our current auction ends the week after SDCC, so one major goal is to get the word out and see that as many collectors are aware of what we have to offer and when we close the auction July 26-27. We will have some of the key pieces in the auction on display at our booth. This is also the first year Hake’s has its own booth, not part of Diamond Comic Distributors, so that alone is an important accomplishment for us. We will be handing out catalogs and special SDCC buttons, so we expect the booth to be jumping the entire show. Hopefully that also nets us some consignments for our next auction.