Brock

I was golfing on Vancouver Island last week.

According to Comichron, that's only true 42% of the time.

Canada wants you, and you can still drive home for the weekend.

I read them as a kid, but didn’t save many... these days, I’ll buy reprints of keys, or Batman issues. They all sell eventually, though not for high prices. I have a reprint of Hulk 271 up on ebay now, though, and of everything I’ve ever listed, this is the only one that won’t move. Somehow no one loves the raton laveur.

I did too. If you ever get diagnosed for this, please tell me what I have...

This seems right to me... I was in Toronto on the day of release. Shortl6bafter noon, I visited Dragon Lady Comics nad picked two copies off th3rack, but because I was literally on the way to the Silver Snail, I put them back thinking I would pick them up as part of a larger purchase at the second store. Ten minutes later, I found the Snail was sold out, nad returned to Dragon Lady... which was also sold out. That meant waiting nervously for two weeks in the hopes of getting newsstand copies when they were released, and then buying up every copy I could find. The newstands were definitely wiped clean within a day or two...

I’ve checked a couple, but have not seen any.

A number of these are listed in Overstreet. In terms of the Columbia Dispatch book, comicspriceguide.com lists it at $14 in 9.4, which is more or less compatible with the previous poster’s MCS listing. The CPG listing has had 3372 searches, which suggests its not uncommon. I think the ones that are listed in Overstreet are in the $16-$20 range in NM-, though I don’t recall if this particular one is there.

Thanks for these suggestions! This year's list has already gone in, but I think you'll appreciate some of the changes. I always do a "reveal" here as the new Guide launches. One of the interesting things for me has been to see how a "second tier" of books like Suicide Squad #1, Omega Men #3 and Secret Wars #8 kind of come in and out of fashion. They don't necessarily make the cut in certain years, but then they'll bounce back. This is different from a book like X-Factor #6 which clearly is seen by the market as less important than it was before, making way for rising stars that have never been on the list before. In the end, it's all more art than science, though.

Those are very cool...

It would make sense for Sgt. Rock, Warlord, and DCCP 10 (featuring Sgt. Rock) to be bagged together, as the books are more or less grouped by theme... However, I'm not sure if anyone has seen such a bag. It would be great to start a "database" of sort for bags. Someone must be out there that has this at least partially put together. I'm particularly curious as to what DCCP 22 was bagged with... Why is this book so tough, when everything else is (relatively) easier? Wouldn't whatever it was bagged with be similarly tough? In terms of the June 1980 books, I do have the sense that the scarcity of some of these is a bit over-hyped. They're tough, but they're not necessarily as tough as everyone makes out. For example, I bought a Legion #264 a week or two ago, but had my choice of three different copies on ebay. The June 1980 books are, of course, very difficult in high grade. One of my working theories (and I'm trying to figure out how to research this in more detail) is that Western's (Whitman's) U.S. distribution system seemed to collapse in late 1980. All of the 8-12/1980 Gold Key/Whitmans are tough books, and Whitman's DC 06/1980 books are tough. It is generally thought that the DC books were printed at the same time as the regular editions, and then held for bagging, so they would likely have been scheduled for release during the 8-12/1980 period. I'm thinking that something happened with Western in the US at this stage that stopped distribution of these books... but in Cambridge, Ontario Whitman had a Canadian subsidiary that was still active. They continued to distribute Whitman puzzles games, etc. during this time frame, and - by extension - it seems likely that they continued to distribute comics. By 01/1981, the U.S. operation seems to be back in full swing, and distribution returns to normal. This scenario would explain why the books from these 5 months are so hard to find, and why they generally seem to be more prevalent in Canada (and in certain other international markets such as Scandinavia and Australia) than in the U.S. itself. I have some (limited) evidence to back up the notion that the Canadian subsidiary continued to chug along at full speed, but nothing to help understand what may have happened to the U.S. operation. Interestingly, the Canadian subsidiary seems to have been publishing other material in this time frame as well that is not generally available in the US, including a range of digest-sized editions of various Disney properties. If these books become known on the broader market, they could really take off as well. I've only ever seen a handful of these - they're easily as difficult to find as DCCP 22.

So that’s what was happening out by the wood pile...

I have a contrary perspective. I would make the argument that the reason these are struggling businesses is because they’re the kinds of places that charge $20 for cover B on the day of release. In my mind, the distinction that’s often missed is that flipper profits from the industry’s inability to operate an effective distribution system...I can sell Suicide Squad for $20 to someone in another community via ebay because the system itself is incapable of matching supply to demand. The shop that sells the same book for $20 is undercutting it’s own local retail market, and exacerbating the inefficiencies of the distribution system. Morally, I don’t have any issues with the retailer charging $20, but (and I say this a serial entrepreneur who has launched and sold multiple businesses), from a business practice or market development perspective, it’s self-defeating and destructive... hence “these are mostly struggling businesses.”

While that’s certainly true, I wouldn’t give my weekly funds to a shop that operated like that. “No obligation” and “Good customer service” are two different standards.

Rogue.

+1 for Gideon Falls Paper Girls is still great Milio Manara’s Caravaggio Vol. 1 was beautiful, though the story’s a bit simple

I think Wal-Mart will turn out to be a treasure trove of unnoticed variants. They’re the only place I‘ve really seen the Canadian newsstand price variants of Archie’s Marvel Comics Digest series, for example. The big question is whether anyone will care about a white logo or an $8.99 cover price down the road. And are these books actually any scarcer than any other version? It will be interesting to watch.

I'm not as certain that it's completely unintentional, though I'll admit it's possible. Either way, all those infamous innuendo covers sell, well... because perverts. Of course, I never understood why "lingerie panels" were always noted by OSPG with Golden Age books, but... because perverts. Like people never saw a Sears catalog before 1987... I don't make the market, I just live in it. But I'll agree that while Alf 48 is a cuiriosity, it's not really a key.

There was a DVD of Dollhouse (from Joss Whedon) that had a mini comic. Was there a Batman: Mask of the Phantasm one as well? i can confirm the Sin City and Hellblazer books from my own collection, but it seems to me there are a bunch of other Marvel books...

Deleted - wrong response

Hello all - It's that time of year, as I call on all boardies to help me put together an annual "crowd-sourced" list of the Top 50 Copper Age keys for the annual Overstreet Price Guide. What are the key books of this era? What books need to be added based on this year’s market – and which books from previous years get the boot? For this list, we're working from a (rough) 1982 to 1992 timeline here. Last year's list (which appears on p. 117 of the Guide) included the following books: Albedo #2 Amazing Spider-Man #238, #252, #298, #300, #316 Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #320 Batman #357, #404, #428 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 Batman: The Killing Joke Bone #1 Caliber Presents #1 Comico Primer #2 Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 The Crow #1 Daredevil #181 DC Comics Presents #47 Evil Ernie #1 G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #1, #21 Harbinger #1 Incredible Hulk #271, #340 Marvel Graphic Novel #4 Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 Miracleman #15 New Mutants #87, #98 Punisher (limited series) #1 Sandman #1, #8 Spectacular Spider-Man #64 Silver Surfer #34 Spawn #1 Suicide Squad #1 Superman #75 Swamp Thing #21, #37 Tales of the New Teen Titans #44 Thor #337 Transformers #1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 Uncanny X-Men #221, #266 Warrior (UK Magazine) #1 Watchmen #1 Wolverine (limited series) #1 X-Factor #6 What are your thoughts and suggestions? As always, while I'll use some "editorial oversight", I promise to do my best to reflect the consensus of the discussion...

Yes, I'm holding out for the oft-rumoured Vortex vs. Golden City movie.

I hadn't really seen these before, though I suspect they're not worth a ton... I'm told they originally retailed for $39.95, way back in 1993, though I don't know that for a fact. These apparently contain a portfolio-style envelope, a copy of the gold edition of the relevant comic book, and some promotional materials. These copies are still sealed, so I'm not sure what those materials might be.

I see that no one really answered your question, so I'll take a stab at it... However, it's just my I actually think a lot of these early Harleys are found more commonly as newsstand editions. My general sense is that a lot of the Batman "animated" titles, where Harley tended to have her early appearances, were not highly collected titles that sold well in LCSs. These titles (IMHO) tended to have a higher newsstand presence, where younger and more casual readers/buyers would find them. In my mind, this means that the direct/newsstand breakdown for these books does not reflect the typical breakdown for the period. Later, as Harley began to catch on, I also think that many collectors began to target non-traditional sources for these issues, increasing the newsstand survival rate. In my own experience, I have a lot of these early Harley books, and most came from used bookstores, antique malls, garage sales, etc. Those that I did find at LCSs tended to be in bulk boxes of older children's books. I have no evidence for any of this... just a sense based on my own narrow observations.

I picked these up last week... the pricing triumvirate - a UK price stamp, a pence price variant, and a UK edition.