Looking to Beat Stocks? Buy Comic Books

If you're not having as much fun looking at your portfolio as Gareb Shamus does when he looks at his Amazing Spider-Man No. 303 comic book, you should rethink your investment strategy.

Shamus, founder of the comic book industry magazine Wizard, has been well-served by the advice heeded by many collectors-turned-investors: Buy what you like and do your homework.

In Shamus' case, he so desperately wanted a Spider-Man cover drawn by artist Todd McFarlane featuring Marvel Entertainment's(MVL) flagship hero and the villain Sandman that he "grossly overpaid" $1,700 for it 14 years ago. The book's value climbed to $30,000 to $40,000 after Sandman appeared in the last installment of the Spider-Man films.

"I bought it because I enjoyed it, I was a McFarlane art collector and I was a Spider-Man fan," he says. "I couldn't go wrong with it."

Whether it's a 2005 Bordeaux, a Damien Hirst painting or an Incredible Hulk No. 181 featuring the first appearance by Wolverine, some collectibles make Wall Street's blue chips look like a house of cards. However, the markets for wine, art and comic books can prove just as volatile as the Dow Industrials, with consequences just as severe.

Lisa Ryan has owned cases of Dom Perignon that she says could have put her kids through grad school. The third-generation owner of BLM Wine & Spirits in Boston has seen the value of a 1975 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac rise from double digits to $825 a bottle and a 2000 Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes mature to $650, only to see new vintages fall to earth this year thanks to the economic crisis and fluctuations in the euro.