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The ice cream shop that makes money when it's cold

28 Wishes sells ice cream in Los Angeles. Below 70°F, sales fall about 20%. The weather is out of their hands. Rent isn't.

So the owners started putting about $20 a day into Kalshi weather markets, taking the cold side. The days that keep customers away now pay something back.

This is hedging. Big companies have done it for decades, buying protection against bad weather, fuel spikes and rising rates. It used to take a broker, a trading desk, and an order size no corner shop could meet.

Kalshi opens it up. Contracts on weather, fuel prices, inflation, tariffs and regulation, starting at a few dollars. Take a position on the outcome that would hurt you. If it hits, the payout softens it. If it doesn't, the contract expires and the good month was the point.

See how other owners are doing it at Kalshi.com/hedging

One comic book accounted for almost a fifth of the entire graded comic market over the last two weeks. Take it out, and the market looks a lot quieter than the headlines suggest.

From October 5 to 18, 2026, GPAnalysis recorded 19,091 CGC-graded comics, magazines and pulps selling for a combined $6,709,282. The median sale was just $100 (The Collector Hub by GPAnalysis). In the previous report, covering September 22 to October 5, 20,904 books sold for $13,443,894, with a $105 median (The Collector Hub). Dollar sales fell by about half, while the number of books sold dropped only about 9%.

The $1.3 million elephant in the room

The biggest sale of the period was a CGC 9.0 copy of Action Comics #1, the 1938 book that introduced Superman. It sold for $1,300,000 through ComicConnect. That single sale made up 19.4% of all reported CGC sales in the period, according to GPAnalysis.

If you take that one sale out, the other 19,090 books brought in about $5.4 million. That's our own subtraction from GPAnalysis' totals. It's in line with the September 8–21 period, when GPAnalysis recorded $5.4 million across 21,465 books at a $100 median.

So the late-September report was the outlier, not this one. That period included a Captain America Comics #1 CGC 9.0 sale of $716,750 on Heritage, which GPAnalysis says made up about 5.3% of that fortnight's sales. Cooled by half is accurate, but it compares this report to an unusually expensive one.

What's actually selling

Amazing Spider-Man is still the most traded book. The 1963 series was the most-traded title, with 1,231 books sold. That's about 6.4% of all books traded, or roughly one in every sixteen, and it brought in about $600,000. In the previous period, it sold 1,260 copies for about $1 million (The Collector Hub).

Silver Age Marvel carried the most money after Action #1. The 1960s top five titles brought in $889,317, led by Amazing Spider-Man at $363,474. Fantastic Four ($186,809) and X-Men ($162,144) also topped $160,000 each.

The Hulk had a strong 1970s. The Incredible Hulk led 1970s sales at $198,382, passing Amazing Spider-Man ($128,329). Incredible Hulk #181 was one of the decade's most-traded issues.

Absolute Batman dominates modern books. Absolute Batman (2024) led the 2020s in both books traded and dollars, with $206,876. That's 87.6% of the decade's top five total. Issues #1, #15, #19 and #20 were all among the most-traded modern issues.

The 1990s were the most evenly split. Spider-Man (1990) led with just $28,478, closely followed by New Mutants ($26,353) and Amazing Spider-Man ($24,707).

What it means for collectors and flippers

The typical sale hasn't changed much. The median sale moved from $105 to $100, and the number of books sold dipped about 9%. Normal day-to-day buying looks steady. The headline drop is mostly a few huge sales coming and going.

Liquidity is in the big Marvel titles. If you need to sell fast, Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Hulk keys are where the buyers are. On the modern side, it's Absolute Batman.

Be careful with modern hype. Speculation: because Absolute Batman takes such a large share of modern-book spending, its prices could swing sharply if attention moves on. Look at recent sales for your exact issue and grade before buying at current prices.

What to watch next

• The next GPAnalysis report, for October 19 to November 1. Without a seven-figure book, a total of about $5–6M would suggest the market is stable rather than falling. (Our read, not a forecast from GPAnalysis.)

• Whether Amazing Spider-Man's dollar total recovers toward the $1M it posted in late September.

• Whether more Absolute Batman issues join the most-traded list.

Thumbnail image: a CGC 9.0 Action Comics #1 shown by ComicConnect's Vincent Zurzolo. Photo by Gary Dunaier (Shea6408), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped. We can't confirm it's the exact copy sold this period.

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