Brock

I'd say it was pretty big until around the time that Byrne left the title. I recall thinking that he was from Canada, and could at least give the title a little Canadian context. Nobody after him knew the first thing about Canada, and the book might as well have been set in Indiana or Connecticut for all it seemed to have an impact... Also, the Byrne stories seemed to "matter", and to be focused on the characters... eventually it just become a monthly slugfest like everything else. Of course, I was a teenager at the time, so everything here is being remembered through my rose-coloured glasses.

I would say that the buzz really started on X-Men late in Byrne’s run... I was mostly a DC guy, but the hype had reached the point tat I gave in and started to collect X-Men, too... my first issue was #145, the return of Dave Cockrum. I had the sense that many others were jumping on board around the same time, and we were all competing to buy the earlier issues. With DD, things came together a bit later... my sense was that it was more of a slow burn, with the dam breaking with 181 (the death of Elektra). I also feel like DD prices spiked harder and faster than X-men, though, because we were all afraid of missing out on the “next big thing.”

Multiple Variant Syndrome, a problem that often afflicts comics at the more modern end of the age spectrum.

So that’s why nobody ever believes me around here...

These are also listed and described in Overstreet. They’re pretty cool in my mind, and - in my experience - pretty hard to find in high grade. Yours look pretty nice, and I’ve never seen a polybagged one before.

CGC 9.8s of Moon Knight #25 (1983) just sold for $576 (Canadian) or about US$435, while #30 (also 1983) sold for C$202.50 or about US$155.00 See https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Moon-Knight-25-CGC-9-8-NM-MT-Wp-1st-Black-Spectre-Marvel-Comics-1982-RARE-GRADE-/392305079171?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true and https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Moon-Knight-30-CGC-9-8-NM-MT-Wp-Marvel-Comics-1983-Werewolf-By-Night-App-RARE-/283500712163?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true It seems to me that #25 has been hot for awhile, but this may suggest that other Sienkiewicz covers from the run are rising as well.

For some reason, I always like Anacleto's black and white art better than his coloured art.

This book feels copper to me, though a 1982 date makes it borderline... 9.8's of Marvel Two-in-One Annual 7 are getting $120-$200 on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=marvel+two-in-one+annual+cgc+9.8&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_fosrp=1

I thought it looked like George R. R. Martin...

+1,000

There are a range of reasons that a book can't be added to a registry set, and though the OP "thinks" it's because the transfer of the book from one set to another is the reason, he doesn't appear to state this as fact. I collect slabbed Whitman variants of DC books, and (in my experience) CGC struggles with these. I have some books where it is not noted on the label that the book is a Whitman variant, so it can't be added to the set. I have other books where the label has the wrong issue number (most DC Whitmans don't have a number on the cover), so they can be added to the set - but only in the incorrect slot. I have a CGC-slabbed Vampirella Strikes with a cover by Manara that cannot be added to my Manara registry set, because the label only says "one of four covers" with denoting which of the four it is. I'm sure others could identify other reasons that books can't be added to a registry set. I'm sure any of these could be enough to create "buyer's remorse" for set collectors, though I still don't see this as the seller's fault. The seller does not maintain the registry, or decide which books get labelled in which way, so the seller should not be on the hook for a refund, unless perhaps he specifically stated that the book could be added to the set (which would be a misrepresentation). I have not re-subbed any of my books, but I would ultimately hope that CGC might offer to re-label books (at no cost) in these situations. EDIT: I see that subsequent posts from the OP expand on the original owner/dealer/new owner issues, but most of my point still stands.

I was a huge ROM fan, and actually had a letter printed in one issue. ROM was classic Marvel storytelling - the misunderstood outsider hero struggling to protect those who persecuted him. I might be overstating it, but he seems to be the last "pure" Marvel hero built in this mold. And although he was licensed from a toy, the toy died a quick death, and the comic ended up with a lot more freedom than might have been anticipated. In addition, unlike the other licensed titles of the time (Micronauts, Shogun Warriors, Star Trek, Star Wars), the ROM title was fully embedded into the Marvel Universe. Marvel characters might occasionally guest star in Micronauts or Shogun Warriors, but they were constantly appearing in ROM - Doctor Strange, the X-Men, Nova, the Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, Shang Chi, Galactus, Jack of Hearts, and so on. And he guest-starred in other titles, like Power Man and Iron Fist, and Marvel Two-in-One. Though there have been movie rumours in recent years (ROM could be part of the "Hasbroverse" with GI Joe and Transformers), I think the recent price jumps are mostly a result of positive nostalgia, and a bit of FOMO as prices jump on so many other bronze Marvel #1s.

Dude... Shogun Warriors.

OK, a clever marketing campaign I can buy. But that’s a big step back from the global conspiracy of multinational corporations, political power brokers, Illuminati agents and Swiss banking gnomes secretly working together to spike the value of a comic book for political gain that you were espousing a few posts earlier.

Marvel Team-Up #82 to #85 is another fun, classic story, also starring Spider-Man, Nick Fury and Shang Chi.

Here's my own haul this week, from a used bookstore... about $30 total. Some I had to buy as "sets", so there's some drek (and I never thought I'd buy an X-Force #1 again), but there's some good stuff: pre-Unity Valiant, late Miracleman, Hughes covers, a DCU variant, and - best of all - the first Vampironica.

HRN 169 are generally 1969 through 1971, though there may be some outliers. They're great books, though not super valuable... My recollection is that the Tale of Two Cities and the Soldiers of Fortune are a little tougher than the others here.

With 25c covers, those Classics are from the early 1970s.

Forget a grand, it just passed two grand... https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-AOC-Freshman-Force-Wonder-Woman-Variant-Cohen-nm/173909173933?hash=item287dcb66ad:g:rZIAAOSwr31c407n

It seems to me, given the comic’s content, that a defence based on satire would be pretty easy to argue.

Has anyone e-mailed to ask the seller? If not, let’s designate someone... that will at least save the seller from getting 30 e-mails at the same time.

+1 if ever there was a book whose price was destined to fall back to earth once the hype dies down, this is the one.

Sorry, which comic was that post about?

I pre-ordered these, though lightly... I've flipped Obama's first from Amazing Spider-Man in the past, and Trump's (alleged) first from Dead Walkers as well. It seems to me that - leaving political opinions out of it - AOC is a pretty prominent figure who seems likely to get even more attention in the future than she has in the past, so this could be a good bet with a relatively small print run. Having said that, I expected this book to get more media coverage (both pro and con) in the short term than it actually did, so the jury's still out.

That’s Stan Lee, as seen in the tonfulle-84 listings on ebay.