Aweandlorder

I absolutely love finding gems in the wild, but I find it being more and more difficult now than ever before. I was fortunate enough to find great collections in the wild back in the day when they were more or less accessible, and established a nice stash, but nowadays I do more successful specs than finding books in the wild. I do well with Copper books, I spec'd on Spawn #1, Power Pack #1, Punisher (1st Solo), Lethal Protector and many many others when they were $1-5 books in NM condition. Some I graded and some I flipped when they hit the $20 mark. I also done very well with Moderns but with far less copies of each book So as much as I loooove finding tough books in the wild, realistically I do better now with specs

Sunday. Boredom. So here's something I'd like to hear from you about... What gets you more psyched? Spec wins or finding keys in the wild? Example; you bought 100 copies of new mutants 98 for cover back in the day and stored and forgot all about them until today or You went comic book hunting today and found a collection of high grade BA keys for a song (ala IH 181, GSXM 1 GL76 etc) Maybe you have your own stories to share about both examples and what made you happier between both?

Which now makes sense why the titles publisher name was "Fishwrap"

Great thread! Thanks for resurrecting it! I've been collecting tpb/hc comic books for years now. Such a healthy and untapped market there. The pride of my collection is Creepshow original HC edition. And here's a book I'm currently after.. You can say it's my white whale, and has been for quite some time

Genius!

There're no cool kids here. Not even copper age kids.

In my opinion Aliens was the first book to adapt a movie/TV show into quality comics. Sure, there were many many many other adaptations prior to that (Marvel Super Special Magazines come to mind as QUALITY adaptations), but in most cases (Star Wars, Star Trek etc) these were commercial runs that had dollar signs in mind first. Instead, Aliens was a quality series delivered by talented individuals that started a new trend. It couldnt have happened without Mark Verheiden and Mark A. Nelson. It wouldnt have happened without Dark Horse. If it was Marvel/DC who licensed it first, they wouldve attached a much more campy look to it which would probably make it a book you and I wouldnt discuss in years to come. Sure, Dark Horse quickly realized that this is something they can capitalize on, but instead of turning it to a cheesecake factory they hired great talent to expand on its original success. First it was Aliens, then it was Predator, Terminator, then came Now and Innovation and in a few short years the indie market was flooded with Sci-Fi/Horror movie & TV adaptations. You could even say that IDW, Boom and the likes are a continuation of that trend, only with a much different market and readership.

Also I just edited my post regarding he description of DHP 24 as "origins" of Aliens. Interesting

So the hype to the "big event of the summer" actually started with DHP34. Issue 36 was the last part in that 3 part story that lead to Aliens/Predator #1 the following month. Surprisingly, there was no mention of two covers by either Dark Horse or Chuck the month DHP36 was released. Matter of fact I am not even sure how did they know which issue to send out to those who ordered with no such mention.

From Mile High Feature catalog (march 1989). The first time DHP24 was mentioned ("also see Dark Horse Presents 24 for the ORIGIN of Aliens"). Prior to that (MHF Dec 1988) Aliens 1 was a $14 book with no mention of DHP24

Gonna have to go look at Chuck's catalogs tonight :-D Not that he is the tale teller of them all but just curious to see how he dubbed it. If Im not mistaken the notation on catalogs/buyer guides were always "Aliens appearance" but the price was always jacked up. But yes, I too was a victim of this misconception #metoo

Spawn #1 ...its called a joke well not really... ...ok maybe

That pretty much explains why there will never be another GREAT era in comic books again. The 80s were really it I believe, superstar writers like Moore & Miller marked the end of an era. The only other superstar writer to succeed them (as far as popularity is concerned) is Kirkman Not to suggest that there arent any great writers now, but just that there are FAR less comic book readers

Absolutely this. I only found out it wasnt the 1st appearance a few years ago when I researched the dates. Every catalog Ive seen back then touted it as 1st appearance

"hey Stan can you sign my IH181, I made a perfect window for you"

craigslist is the wrong venue for this ad. He wants market value for the books he better put the work to get it.

Can never go wrong with that book, there are plenty around so it's not hard to find, and if you get it for 20-40 in NM you can actually flip it for a big margin right away after grading it. But I would ABSOLUTELY hold on to as many copies you can find around that price range. That book is timeless

There is not one instance in comic book history of a book that performed as high, lasted as long, then crashed as bad as the above hypothetical But an interesting book to examine is TDKR. This book could sell as high as $100+ raw or as low as $20-50 in VF-NM There were times (before 2014) when you could get it for 20 consistently, then times when you couldnt get it for less than 80-100 I cant see how you can lose buying this NOW for $20-30 as a future investment

This book needs more attention, right @Robot Man ?

This required 2wo funkmaster flex bombs

I dont know if Im just imagining things or is Oblivion Song is one hot book... With over 600 sold listings in the past few months and lots of limited edition #1 sold every week, kind of odd for a book thats not being pumped

Looks like it needs a quick press