Gatsby77

Wow. They must _really_ be hoping to crack Diamond's top 100...

I much prefer VH1's experiments to what VEI's doing today. Example. This week's new books. Do we really need _9_ different covers for Bloodshot Reborn # 1? Really?

I actually think HARD Corps would make a better premise than Harbinger. Seriously -- what new ground would the Harbinger kids cover in a movie that hasn't already been done on screen in the X-Men films, Heroes, and even Chronicle? It was good for its time 20 years ago because the X-Men books had gotten ridiculous & it was a far more grounded, mature take. But done on film today it would just be another outcast teenage ragtag superhero flick. Heck...not even as potentially innovative as Kick- or Kingsman. I'd far rather see Shadowman, HARD Corps or X-O on screen than Harbinger.

Halt & Catch Fire's on Netflix streaming now? It was _really_ good. I think I only missed one episode of its original Sunday night run & would gladly watch it again. Really good story-telling & drama about the early 80s PC rush.

I'm thinking the Netflix model is something else too... Dangerous. If you're a storyjunkie the level of quality is damn near irresistible. It's like having a bookstore in your house, open one and *boom*, sucks you right in. "On demand" becomes "demanding to be on". There's something to this. I will obsessively stream the new seasons of "The League," "Orange is the New Black" and "Daredevil" whenever they're made available. Thank god I never got into "House of Cards," but if they, for instance, triple the number of shows I feel the desire to stream in a given year, my productivity in life will crater.

Episode 8 -- wow. Probably one of the best episodes of TV I've seen since Breaking Bad. And I've hated D'Onofrio for years since he overacted so much on Law & Order: CI.

Not seen Boardwalk Empire, but the guy playing Daredevil was also the lead in Stardust, opposite Claire Danes.

And after the Miller run, read Bendis & Brubaker -- Vol. 2 # 16-87. Seriously. As folks have noted, the show's far more Bendis than Miller.

We've come a long way since the Blade TV series...

Saw the first episode. Really liked it, but wished it weren't so darkly lit all the time. Made it hard to follow some of the scenes. I prefer Bendis's run to Millers' -- the primary difference being Bendis made it far more realistic as an ongoing police procedural with the focus on organized crime with fewer fantastical / superhero elements (Ninjas, Elektra). Also, the overall plotting was tighter, with subplots extending over 30-40 issues. And again, the best Daredevil story I've read was Ed Brubaker's follow-up to Bendis' run with The Devil, Inside & Out (vol. 2 # 82-87). Premise: At this point, everyone knows Matt Murdock is Daredevil. Kingpin engineers it so Matt goes to prison and is placed on the same block as basically his entire rogues gallery. Frank Castle discovers this, and gets himself arrested & placed onto the same cell block to volunteer as Matt's bodyguard.

Just to say...I liked Shadowman vol. 2 better than vol. 1. The first issue of vol. 2 (by Garth Ennis) was probably the favorite new issue I read in 1997. And the run only got better after he left.

I was impressed to see 9.8s of Magnus 3 & 6 go for $74 each in last night's Heritage auction. Strong prices given (I believe) no obvious movie tie-in hype.

Yeah, $150's a strong price for that book. Dang. If the 7s went for that much I'd be rich.

You're free to define "worth slabbing" however you like. The fact remains, far more Rai 0s have been slabbed at 9.8 than EW 4s, despite the latter having (traditionally) higher sale value (per the small % of sales reflected in GPA). Was that caveated and specific enough? Likewise, many many more people felt books like Wolverine 50, PWZ 1, Spider-Man 2099 1, etc. were "worth slabbing" despite having lower avg. sale prices than EW 4. You're making unprovable assumptions about why people slab, when I'm simply pointing out seemingly illogical disparities in hard numbers from two of the best data sources we have. Separately, I apologize but I still don't understand your lack of clarity on the Rai 3 being "easier to get" in 9.8 than Rai 4. The exact comparative numbers of each book were already listed, in this thread, within the last 72 hours. It's a fact -- "far more" CGC 9.8 copies of the former exist than the latter. Yes -- cosmically, perhaps all of the Rai 3s are owned by one hoarder who will never put them up for sale, or all of the Rai 3s listed on the census have since been de-slabbed or pressed by amateurs into 9.4s. But if one book has 1,000 CGC 9.8s extant vs. another with 3 CGC 9.8 copies extant, the former is "easier to get" in 9.8.

Rather, to the fact that EW #4 hasn't been worth slabbing. Such an interesting phrase, "in grade"...like "I'm sure", which means "I'm not sure." It means "in HIGH grade", but "high" is omitted. Anyhoo, no, it just demonstrates that there are more copies of Rai #3 in 9.8 than Rai #4 at the present time. There are very few definitive conclusions that can be drawn from single census snapshots. Sigh...Now you're just being specious. How is EW # 4 not worth slabbing? It had a consistent 9.8 value above $100 in 2012-2013, before dropping more recently. It's traditionally sold for more than Rai 0 in 9.8, which has far far more numbers extant. Further, how is it "not worth slabbing" when far higher numbers of cheaper books (for example, Wolverine 50 & Punisher War Zone 1 or X-Men 288) somehow are? And yes, in this instance "in grade" clearly means "in CGC 9.8." Definitively, Rai 3 is far more common and easier to get than Rai 4 in CGC 9.8. All census data could change with increased submissions, discovery of warehouse finds, etc., but the numbers are what they are today. And Rai 3 is far easier to get "in grade" than Rai 4.

Well, we probably should include the Signature Series 9.8s with the Universal 9.8 counts. Obviously, the signature normally adds value above the Universal, but to keep it simple, you might just use the Universal 9.8 value for both types. Here are the 1992 counts for Universal 9.8 plus Signature 9.8 (or higher): Spawn 1 = 2,265 Amazing Spider-Man 361 = 1,209 Superman: The Man of Steel 18 = 964 Amazing Spider-Man 362 = 911 Amazing Spider-Man 363 = 643 X-Men 4 = 481 X-O Manowar 1 = 369 Wolverine 50 = 283 Rai 0 = 282 Spider-Man 2099 1 = 266 Amazing Spider-Man 365 = 262 Punisher: War Zone 1 = 259 Spawn 2 = 247 Iron Man 282 = 243 X-Force 11 = 220 Rai 1 = 219 Harbinger 0 Pink Variant = 207 Uncanny X-Men 284 = 195 Spider-Man 26 = 193 Spawn 4 = 185 Shadowman 1 = 181 Uncanny X-Men 288 = 181 Superman 74 = 173 WildC.A.T.S. 1 = 154 Spawn 3 = 152 Rai 3 = 151 Unity 1 Gold Edition = 149 Harbinger 1 = 143 I kept the list going until I got to Harbinger #1 (it's 28th). Thank you for this list. I suspected that Valiants comprised some of the most-slabbed books of 1992. This list confirms that 4 of the top 20 most common books in 9.8 are Valiants. A notable omission is EW 4, which may simply point to its relative rarity. As stated before, I'd prefer EW 4 to Rai 0. This also demonstrates that Rai 4 is indeed harder to find in grade than Rai 3.

But isn't the whole point about this Valiant thread exactly about growth projection? Whether the March increases are sustainable depend on a number of factors -- and I think the biggest one is attention span. Who will be chasing Valiants at these new prices in September when we're 6 or 7 hot new Marvel / DC movie announcements down the road? Hawkgirl and Killer Croc were announced this week alone. I'd wager there are fewer people chasing books like Detective 474 or Shazam 28 than there were six months ago because there are greener pastors to be cultivated. Obscure Flash or Batman villains yet to appear on the TV show, or the next Walking Dead speculation. Right now we're in a holding pattern. It's akin to holding a biotech or pharmaceutical stock -- phase 1 trials were the investment announcement. Phase 2 may be announcements of a director & actors cast. FDA approval (and the biggest pop) would be an actual trailer.

I like the idea of "total market cap" as one way of evaluating books (and momentum). Greg pointed out that at $845 per, Harbinger 1 9.8's theoretical market cap is $114,000. At $87 per and 1,872 copies, Spawn 1's 9.8 market cap is just shy of $163,000. At $208 per and 1,090, ASM 361's 9.8 cap's at over $225,000. Other obvious contenders?

Hmm...as a Valiant fan, I agree that Solar 10's both rarer and more desirable in 9.8 than Harbinger 1, but the value's not there (yet). GPA shows Solar 10 in 9.8 has sold in a relatively narrow band of $400-$467 over the last 15 months. Harbinger 1 is beating it in terms of 30-day, 90-day and 12-month averages, with recorded March 2015 sales as much as 2x that of Solar 10. Again, I'd personally take a 9.8 Solar 10 over a 9.8 Harbinger 1, but the latter's more valuable in today's market.

We'll see. We've had 3 new 9.8s in the last two months and 9 new 9.8s in the last six months. Back when it was a $300-$325 book and In the absence of public movie hype.

To be clear, I've personally never specified a timeline, and I've used IM 55 as my baseline (i.e., 9.8s doubled in the three years since we first saw Thanos on screen). However, I would wager good money that the 9.8 census doubles to 270-300 in the next 4 years (i.e., July 1, 2019) -- sooner if we actually get a cast confirmed by year's end or a teaser trailer by Dec. 2016. (And I recall the Bret Ratner movie hype, etc.) I simply disagree with the argument that a confirmed movie announcement wouldn't result in a "flood" of new 9.8s or the implication that the vast majority of eventual CGC 9.8s have already been slabbed. That's ridiculous. The steady growth in 9.8s despite the book having lost 80% of its value since 2008 demonstrates this isn't a GI Joe 21 situation, let alone a Wolverine 35 one.

I'm digging this Solar # 3 homage:

To assume that anyone and everyone with potential 9.8s rushed to slab them 7 years ago when the first few went to $2,500 is misguided. Many many folks just weren't thinking about the pre-Unity Valiant books they had left over from the downturn. And many folks just aren't plugged into CGC. There is zero evidence to back up the assertion that effectively anyone who had 9.8 potentials would have slabbed them in 2008-2009. If that were true, the number of 9.8s would not have tripled since Jan. 2010 (which it has).

Wait...so Del Toro overcommitted and told the world about a project that may never materialize with him at the helm? I'm SHOCKED. SHOCKED I tell you!!!

Yeah. X-Men 244 was one of the first comics I ever bought back in 1989 or 90.. It came in a pre-pack of leftovers at Woolworths, along with Hulk 344 and Air Raiders # 4. Always thought X-Men 248 was the more deserving book. And today, I'd pick X-Men 256 over either of them for speculation potential.