Plantman

On 12/1/2023 at 9:16 AM, D2 said:

This one?

Not that one. I meant this earlier series: The Official Marvel Index to the X-Men (1994) If not #1 then #2. It was available for purchase at newsstands.

On 11/29/2023 at 10:45 PM, scarlet_speedster said:

Hey I'm looking for an X-Men issue it would have from 1993 to 2003 I guess it was an issue that had pictures of covers of silver age X-Men books and little bit of the stories too. I guess it was an anniversary issue but I can't remember the # any help would be great. Not looking to buy it I just can't remember what issue it is

Was it The Official Marvel Index to the X-Men (1994) #1? It fits your description other than the anniversary issue detail.

On 4/11/2023 at 10:10 AM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1963

Strange Tales #113 - Story Plot: Stan Lee  Script: Joe Carter (Jerry Siegel)  Art: Dick Ayers  Lettering: S. Rosen (My name is SAM!)

Cover by Jack Kirby, inked by Don Heck with alterations made by Sol Brodsky?

Another issue showing the lack of quality or creativity without Kirby's involvement.

Dude, not cool.

They owe $6000 to Diamond, $4000 to Lunar, and $200,000 (!) to Penguin Random House, according to the document in the original post. How can the PRH debt be twenty times the amount of Diamond and Lunar combined? Does PRH give stores a four or five month grace period to make payments on their orders?

On 3/29/2022 at 7:46 AM, MAR1979 said:

Selling or Not Selling Comics is neither Good or Bad.  

Some do not sell due to not needing to so financially, others do not as they are true collectors. As long as it does not cross over to hording all is well.

Selling comics regularly, for at least some (perhaps most), creates an inherent bias even if not always a conscious one. That type of Bias is the type that at least for some permeates every facet of their thought process.

There are also those who sell only on irregular or on "rare" occasions. These folks usually are the most well rounded offering the opinions that on on average are more valuable to both of the above.

Then you have flippers for them I've nothing positive to say    (sheesh it's a joke don't be gettin' yer panties inna bunch)

 

 

The first half of this post reads like Oscar Wilde's preface in The Picture of Dorian Gray. 

Early issues of Wizard magazine seem to be doing well on eBay this month, according to my irregular check-in on sold listings.

On 10/11/2021 at 5:26 PM, JPSESQ 8 said:

What is the conventional wisdom on why X-Men 129 and 130 seem to be worth considerably more than the rest of the issues in the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Theories I've just kind of thought of but don't make sense:

(1) 130 has an awesome cover but that can't be it because (a) that's just my subjective take and (b) 135 is arguably an even more amazing and definitely more iconic cover.

(2) 129 is the first issue in saga - but I am not convinced that accounts for huge discrepancy for this issue in particular and also doesn't explain 130 being worth more than the rest.

(3) First appearances of Kitty Pride and Dazzler in 129 & 130 respectively. I mean, maybe? Death of Jean Grey herself in 137 seems like a bigger deal but I don't know.

Is it something simple that I am just missing: less copies of these were in circulation? Perhaps, they started making consideably more issues from 131 on ...

It is (3), and (3) alone. Consider, too, that Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw both first appear in 129. All other factors barely affect the pricing of 129 & 130 relative to the rest of the Dark Phoenix Saga. It makes sense, in the sense that first appearance books have dominated the speculative hivemind for the past ten years.

On 7/19/2021 at 6:09 PM, littledoom said:

Got these at yard sale for cover price so around 60-65 cents each.. less than a dollar each! Initially when I heard that I thought in my mind $3-4 each which is kind of high but I didn't mind because of the quality... that's what I've been used to my whole life.. only to remember these books were from the 70-80s!

That is an impressive haul. Were there any other collectors at the sale? Around here, at least four guys would be pressuring the seller for early access, either days or hours before opening time.

Does anyone else feel this cover is glaringly out of place in the final four ALF covers? The other three share a common theme of the title's cancellation, to the extent that each cover has no fewer than three references to it. ALF #48 has zero obvious references to the cancellation.

Near mint copies of War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 were sold for over $50 each this weekend on eBay. My local shops had plenty of supply when the book was released. So far that has not held it back.

1 hour ago, the blob said:

I remember my shop owner, who was usually pretty level headed and had already seen most of the 90s crash, tell me that genx 1 and conan 1 were books to speculate on because the high cover prices cut down on orders and we were now in a low print run era. Hah, he has no idea what was coming. In 1999 and 2000 he was saying the same thing about all the marvels basically. 

I am guilty of buying Generation X #1 when I see it for a loonie. Maybe it and Deathmate: Black will take 35 years to get hot.

1 hour ago, JesterSB said:

Oh god did a 9.8 really sell for $5K last week? That can' t be legit can it?

These days, who knows? The asking prices for the available 9.8 copies on eBay are certainly unrealistic.

On 2/12/2021 at 11:10 AM, JesterSB said:

It either means the 9.8 is overpriced (unlikely since 3 sold very quickly at that price), or 9.6s are underpriced, and will also disappear shortly from the supply. I had been looking for this book in 9.8 for a couple months and none were available. I snagged one ~$2400 once these sales happened.

Ah, the Reverse Rule of 25 at work again! At long last, nobody remembers the Generation X TV movie, and now this book can finally soar to the moon! Just like Kitty did in Pryde of the X-Men!!

Good call on X-Men #129, JesterSB!

1 hour ago, the blob said:

It seems plausible it might have had a lower print run than 155...shops might have ordered more 155s as a last issue, bon voyage, whatever. 153 is nothing to sneeze at either right now. There are more 155s for sale, but that's just anecdotal.

This is also anecdotal, but Simpsons Comics #245 seems to be in the same (print run) boat. Issues 243 and 244 are ghosts compared to 245. It was difficult to find a potential CGC 9.8 copy of the latter at the local bookstores, perhaps because other collectors had already looked through these newsstand copies. So for anyone holding the last issue of Simpsons Comics for the next 20 years, don't forget the antepenultimate issue!

32 minutes ago, the blob said:

Please do not bring that book up. I sold my 3 copies for $10 each. It gives me nightmares.

Oops, I probably read about that in another thread. My bad! Luckily, these days if you can sell a few Valiant Nintendo comics here and some Thundercats comics there, then you can make a couple grand.

2 hours ago, the blob said:

I had all my copies of 316 scanned and ready to sell when the venom movie came out. glad i was too lazy to actually list them then.

I had a similar experience with my copy of Ultimate Fallout #4. I would have sold it for about $80 in December 2018, but it was buried deep in my boxes and forgotten. Better to be forgetful than enterprising in that situation! 

I continue to be astounded by sold prices on eBay. Today, I could sell my two higher grade copies of Amazing Spider-Man #316 for more money than if I had sold my entire comic book collection ten years ago. That may even be the case for my pile of Thundercats, SilverHawks, and Visionaries issues. How is this even possible when the two recent Thundercats shows were unsuccessful?

8 minutes ago, Erndog said:

I honestly thought this thread was in jest or an April Fools joke considering how hot the comic market is.

It's ridiculous how much key books have climbed in the last 6 months even, nevermind 6 yrs.

Baking that Easter Bunny cake made me forget about April Fools.

23 minutes ago, the blob said:

that work dries up from November - March and there are only a few days with enough snow between then to make money.

Good point. I feel like the beginning of April is OP's sweet spot.

My own experience, working somewhat infrequently at an LCS these past six months, has been vastly different than Matthew's, for what it's worth. Most customers simply do not express views on the long-term sustainability of the back issue market.

I recall no customer ever giving me unsolicited advice about investing in cryptocurrency, precious metals, or the TSX.

There are four or five customers who want me to sell some of my comics...to them. And I've parted with some of my modern books, because the money is too good to keep them.

There is one doomsayer, with whom I am friends, who stopped buying new comics. He has given me plenty of advice over the years, the majority of which has turned out to be terrible. He insisted, in 2017, that buying a CGC 6.5 Universal copy of X-Men #1 for approximately $9,000 USD was too risky. For him, the direct market is always six months away from ruin. It has been for the past five years.

2 minutes ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

I have $14k~ in my bank account, I bought a car that was {2018 Subaru legacy} ($14,500 when all said and done) plus college I paid for college, I pay rent, bills, I bought my own phones and have my own plan. What do you mean where the money went? It's either spent or sitting in a bank or stocks. I don't know why I need to explain what I did with my money that I worked for? Is there any point to this or is it hard to believe that someone worked hard and earned the money as a young child? Cub scouts taught me to always work and be proactive in the community and same thing as a boy scout? The point was to be a more rounded person after leaving and becoming an Eagle Scout. Yes I do have nice things but those did not come from just doing nothing. I worked my butt off to get to where I am in my life and am damn proud of myself for what I have accomplished. It sounds like your condescending based off of my life choices

 

Your life choices seem incredible: huge gains in the stock market, beautiful girlfriend who buys you expensive books, and a nice comic collection, among other things.

I do find it hard to believe that you could earn north of $100,000 before finishing high school, yet you do not have the funds to attend a state school.

22 minutes ago, the blob said:

I think those days must have been on the weekends as a kid in school isn't going to have enough time after school to make that kind of loot.

And yeah, those are totally feasible numbers on the weekends if you have a bunch of steady clients. It dries up during the winter though when there isn't the need for a lot of lawn maintenance. My cousin was doing the same mowing lawns for rich people out in NJ and that was 25 years ago. $300 a day, easy. He wanted me to come out and help him, but i didn't have a car so it was not feasible.

The $300 a day rate is feasible. But if he is working, say, 60 days a year making an average of $200 per day, that's $12000 a year. That's $60000 before he hits age 14.

He could have spent $50 a week on comics as a pre-teen, and he would still have about $47000 in savings. Where did that money go?

4 minutes ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

I also am working towards my law degree! I started college late due to me saving money to even afford college now! I go to John Jay still an undergrad! Thank God for TAP and other financial aids that benefit you if you get good grades (anything above a 3.4 GPA)! If it  aid was not an option there's no way I can afford $30k a year. 

 

You earned "$160-$320 a day" for years and years, yet had to have spent less than $5000 on your stock portfolio, considering the price appreciation of your securities over the last seven years. How could you not be able to afford a state school?

What a great cover by Gene Day!

It seems strange that the entire Fantastic Four run was listed yet Conan The Barbarian 1-24 run was missing. 

I have bought a few copies of this book in my attempt to acquire every pre-'93 Power Pack appearance. The original post is quiten informative and interesting to me. I wish I could provide some research here, but I have nothing to add about additional versions of the giveaway book.

It was a disappointment that Skip Westcott evaded punishment in the first story for his crime against Peter Parker. 

2 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

Let's play a game. It's the mid-80s and you're a big Marvel fan. A new issue comes out, but OH NO, IT'S MISSING ALL IDENTIFICATION!

Who is the character on the cover? Which series is the issue even from?

Yeah. Exactly.

I like characters to look like, you know, themselves. Say what you want about the art, but that's a terrible Magik (and New Mutants) cover.

Jaka! Cerebus! (Dave Sim sold out to Shooter!!!)

The cut and colour of the character's hair narrows the field down considerably, does it not? I suppose it could be Gwendy in Marvel Tales, but no other book comes to my mind.

16 hours ago, Hey Kids, Comics! said:

Of course it is. It's the only 25th Ann I don't have and I've needed it for years...

I have been looking for a 6.0 or better Muppet Babies #10 and Heathcliff #12 since 2014. It is hard to believe I have yet to find either one in the wild.