lemonman5

Was the $70 a completed auction? Was that graded? http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-O-MANOWAR-68-LAST-ISSUE-VALIANT-/300714502006?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item4603fb2776#ht_500wt_1182 The book was creeping up over the past couple of weeks and this is the last sale. I think Bloodshot 51 will be the next $30-40 book soon. An hour after I posted about Bloodshot 51, the copy I had up for just under $30 sold. Looks like that book is indeed heating up.

Was the $70 a completed auction? Was that graded? http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-O-MANOWAR-68-LAST-ISSUE-VALIANT-/300714502006?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item4603fb2776#ht_500wt_1182 The book was creeping up over the past couple of weeks and this is the last sale. I think Bloodshot 51 will be the next $30-40 book soon.

To add to that, X-O Manowar 68 is fetching close to $70 right now. I just picked up a collection loaded with Valiants. I sold a couple of the X-O Manowar #1s here for what they're going for on eBay, and have a couple of more that I might wait on. I think I will unload the #68s now, since they might have peaked. I definitely picked up this collection at the perfect time. A couple of months ago, it would have been pretty worthless, IMO Any other decent priced Valiants worth noting? I'm not familiar with what's valuable with Valiant.

This is by far my all time favorite Turner cover.

my regular shop didn't have any i had to go to another one to find them Usually I don't mind driving all over the place looking for books, but I decided to save gas and bought 4 copies from Midtown Comics' website last week. One is a pretty solid 9.8, that will be graded on-site at Philly, so hopefully I can unload it before these drop.

A great seller who gave me a great price!

Great buyer. Enjoy the comic!

Just a couple. My first 10. The easiest book to get a 10 on, but still cool.

You're of course referring to the 'lobster grip', where the clerk grabs the book in a pincer between thumb and fingers, putting a spine crease about two inches above the bottom staple. YUP. I worked at a comic book store for five years, and am convinced that the average condition of the comics that left the store then was much higher than it is now thanks to me. What's worse is that most places scan comics now, making the task of ringing the customer up much more difficult (or at least they seem to make it much more difficult). sigh... +1 I found 2 copies of ToT 1 and 2 yesterday that were both NM+ or better, until the store clerk rang me up. He used the 'lobster grip' the put a couple of nice spine ticks in most of the books. I asked if he had a couple of bag/boards for the books before he rang me up, but there was of course nothing. The store I got them from is mostly a card game store, so that definitely should have been a sign that the clerks didn't know how to handle books.

Like I've said, dealers eventually figure it out, but usually its too late. I picked up 5 copies of ToT #2 and 3 of ToT #1 (2nd print), and 3 copies of Saga #1 for cover price today.

I didn't get into WD until they were at around issue 40. #1 was going for $30-50 at that time and remained stable until the show. Of course, I thought it was too much at the time. #2 wasn't going for much at all for the longest time. I got my 2-86 off Branget for basically cover price, and that was best deal I ever got on this board. I had to pay $250 for my #1 (Black label, CGC SS 9.6) last year, so at least I didn't pay out the nose like some others. Of course, I made that back and plenty more with the extra copies I bought and flipped. ToT has some possibilities, but there is alot of speculation that I don't want to trust.

Maybe. But if I just showed up, I wouldn't have gotten the $15 deal. Plus, wasting gas money is worse. If ur gonna flip books, u can't waste money driving to shops that don't have books u can flip. I don't even want my shop owners knowing what I am buying out of the dollar box, I have an employee ring me up whenever possible and try to disguise purchases of multiples out of there if they are something I hope to flip. I don't want the owner seeing what I am buying and deciding maybe he can squeeze more out. I try the same. Comic store owners aren't that stupid. When I went back in to a few stores after buying WD comics, they prices were jacked up. The worst thing was that a few of them told me that they jacked them up because of me. And it wasn't like any of them knew me either. The worst was the guy who found 10 copies of WD Weekly #1 in the back, who originally sold me all of his Weeklies for $2 each. A dealer at a local show had a few copies of ToT #1 for $6 each, but I only got 1. i don't think that book will maintain much of a value at all. People are just caught up in a temporary hype.

Image usually does a good deal of covers for their 100th issues. I'm definitely going to be grabbing the McFarlane cover.

Of course they've all shot up, but the keys are hitting ridiculous prices. The problem is recognizing what a key is. Issue 48 was a definite key, but wasn't worth anything until about 2 weeks ago.

The Governor's dead and his first appearance is a hot book right now. But he'll be in Season 3. I agree with you guy on those, but those two might be exceptions, because of the TV shows. WD 19 was worth about $25-50 before the TV hype started. I think it was because Michonne was a popular character and still alive. WD 27 wasn't worth much at all for a long time, because the Governor died, and has only shot up now because of the TV show.

If/when Abraham, Rosita and Eugene die then issue 53 will go down plenty. I'm sure the first appearance of characters like Tyrese would have been worth alot if he was still alive in the book.

When the bubble does burst those will be the first to go. A few newbies are starting to figure out that the weeklys are reprints and not the originals. Lots of newbies have been buying the reprints thinking they are the originals. Absolutely. When the bubble bursts, these will plummet. That's why I think they should be unloaded now, and not later. I'm not trying to hold on to many random WD issues either. I'm just holding on to the key issues, like 27, 33, 53.

To add to the WD bubble bursting thoughts; I just sold a set of the WD Weeklies that was missing 1, 19, and 27 for $350. This really makes me think the bubble isn't going to burst for a while.

The bubble isn't bursting at all. I just had an offer of $85 on my set of 87-95. The 87 is the variant, but its still a good sign to see 10 books selling for $85.

Stores need time to figure these things out, but some people don't give them enough time. By the time they figure out the books were worth something, its already too late. Almost all of the stores in my area have raised the prices on WD books, but I got the good stuff before they did. So far in the past week, I bought (for cover price or less): 38, 40, 41, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 65, 67, 69-95 (3-5x of each). I still left some behind for other people, but those books had the prices jacked up by the owners, so I doubt they will move as quick. I also got a 33 for $12. I missed out on a 48 for cover price.

Don't feel bad bro. I think everyone has regrets with the WD stuff. I used to always see issues 80-85 in the 50 cent bin at my local show and used to pass on them. Now, I went to that same dealer and I was happy to buy them for cover price. I must have passed on 5 copies of 48 for about cover price in the past 2 weeks. Now everyone has jacked up their prices on them. At this point, no comic stores in my area have any WD books left. I'm partly to blame for that.

+1 The WD stuff is pretty hard to keep up with. 53 was literally selling for $10 1-2 weeks ago and suddenly it shot up to ridiculous prices, and stores just weren't quick enough to catch something like this. Now 48 is selling for $50+, and I know of a few stores I can hit and grab a couple for under $10. That is, unless they've already caught on.

I think most store owners are in the late 30s to early 50s, but most are very familiar with eBay. I always hear them talking about their listings to their employees. This obviously, confuses me, because if they are constantly listing stuff on eBay, how could they not notice that they are sitting on such gold mines?

Exhibit A as to why LCSs are struggling. How can you run a business and not know the market value of your product? Especially a derivative of the hottest product available... This is just poor, poor management. +1 You see this across the nation. Shops dont stay up on books that are selling well. Its why many never utilize the internest effectively. i make small money ALL THE TIME because of this. once a book becomes hot, i can always find a local store that has it for cover price or close to. $3, sell for $6-12 plus shipping. sure, not major money, but it adds up. I have alot of comic stores near me, so I'm usually making bigger money on stuff they don't keep up on. This past Wednesday is a perfect example. I had off from work and literally took the day to hit almost half of the stores in my area (12). I managed to clean out most of the WD back issues, and picked up 2 statues. I already made $300 on one statue and $200 on another, and the WDs will be a massive profit as well. I love it when LCS owners don't keep up on prices of their merchandise. After I cleaned out most stores, I went back to a few on Thursday, and it seemed that the owners finally realized that they needed to raise the prices on the remaining WDs. By then, most of the pricey ones (like 53) were already gone. Some stores keep up with the prices of most of their stuff, but even the best let alot of stuff slip through the cracks.

There isnt a copy to be had locally in my area in 3 shops from issues 80-94 and they had a ton at two shops. They still come in looking and leave empty handed. Two shops I talked two sell at least two complete sets of TWD trades a week currently. That right there is amazing to me. Guy in front of me today bought 3 TWD trades to try to get caught up. I said this before and I will say it again this phenomen transcends anything I have seen in comics ever in over 30+ years of reading comics.. Its going way past Valiant. Its more consistent then deaths of characters. Its the perfect storm. I dare anyone to argue otherwise. If you have high grades and want to sell the only reason you would want to wait now is for the Governor and Michonne to get more screen time. Other then that start now. Hell how much money do you need to make on a book afterall? Greed can sometimes be a nasty bed fellow. yup. i unloaded 3 sets of walking dead weeklies for more than double what i spent, and 6 wd #19's, plus various other wd books that i had multiples of. i can't see wd #19 going too much higher than $250-$275 for a raw book, and if it does, i paid cover price for all of mine, so i'm happy still. i still haven't sold my double of #27. i'm gonna take a chance and wait until he shows up on the show. The Weeklies are awesome. I just bought a near complete set from a store yesterday for about $100, and the store owner was super happy to sell them to me. He thought he'd die with those things. I've filled in the gaps and I'm sure I can clear $300 for the set, pretty easy. On the bad side, most of my comic stores in this area have caught on about the WD back issues, and literally raised the books from cover price to $10-15 each. The good thing is that I got everything I needed before the price raise.