Plantman

A comic book fan will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. One day, back in 1996, I was crossing over to my LCS in my mom's car, and as we pulled in, there was another car pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was finishing a copy of Superman Adventures #4. I only saw the back page preview for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl. And by girl, I mean Livewire. TV episode titled Livewire premiered on September 13 1997, about 8 months later, according to Wikipedia.

You posted this at 1:32 PM (10:32 AM PST) on May 23, 2014 eBay Sold Listings for May 23, 2014: TIME (PST) (PRICE) 08:38 AM... ($1.40) 09:48 AM... ($1.59) 09:49 AM... ($1.49) 09:51 AM... ($1.44) 09:53 AM... ($4.89) NOTE - included 2,3,6, Annual 1 09:57 AM... ($1.20) 10:05 AM... ($1.21) 10:10 AM... ($1.69) 10:23 AM... ($1.42) 10:44 AM... ($3.00) NOTE - included 3,7,8 11:18 AM... ($2.99) 12:48 PM... ($4.99) NOTE - included 1,3,6,11,14 04:23 PM... ($20.51) NOTE - included 3, 6-10 and auction listing The web was fully stocked, eh?

They ALL start like this. I sold my 9.6 IH #181 at an 8900% increase in price. (And I think your math is way off btw). May 25 Superman Adventures #5 eBay Prices: $95, $76.11, $137.50 (all include #4 and AC 835), $71 (from Ireland) and $89.99, $90, $85.99, $99.09, $74.99. I used $1 for the early March price and $90 for the price on eBay on Sunday. The three sold listings for the book on March 22 went for $3.49, $0.91, and $1.49. If you average those prices, I guess it was a $2 book. What were the bought/sold prices and timeline on your IH #181?

Step 1: Mention obscure book on message board and make spurious claim about its significance Step 2: Buy all copies on eBay Step 3: Wait for MERCENAUT to hype the book on YouTube Step 4: Step 5: Have absurd sales mentioned in this thread Step 6: Profit!!!

Every book that can be found in the $1 bins listed here is a total joke until proven otherwise. No. Every book mentioned here without a single legitimate reason given for a potential increase in demand is a joke until proven otherwise. It was bad enough when people were comparing Livewire to Harley. Now you have someone comparing All-Star to Livewire AND Harley? This isn't sound reasoning, its nonsense. A character's debut in the new 52 is all it takes for a copper or modern 1st appearance issue to fetch 50, 75, 100 dollars on Ebay now? Get real. This is modern speculation pump and dump migrating into copper books. Batwing has his own series ffs, nobody cares about his first appearance. Spoiler made her debut in the new 52 months ago, a character with an actual following that demanded her return no less, and Tec 647 hasn't done much of anything. It's nonsense because you say it is? Give us a legitimate reason why, Truth is, no one knows what is going to take off and what isn't. You can't say "No, that shouldn't be like that" or This is really good, this should take off" Look at reality TV..Its the worst television the world has ever seen, but people are addicted to garbage He gave you a legitimate reason. The only thing Livewire has done in the past two years is appear on a single panel in Justice League #30. Nobody, outside of a few cosplayers and some dedicated Superman: The Animated Series fans, cared about Livewire in February 2014. As far as I can tell, people only care now because they want to make money flipping Superman Adventures #5.

Every book that can be found in the $1 bins listed here is a total joke until proven otherwise. No. Every book mentioned here without a single legitimate reason given for a potential increase in demand is a joke until proven otherwise. It was bad enough when people were comparing Livewire to Harley. Now you have someone comparing All-Star to Livewire AND Harley? This isn't sound reasoning, its nonsense. A character's debut in the new 52 is all it takes for a copper or modern 1st appearance issue to fetch 50, 75, 100 dollars on Ebay now? Get real. This is modern speculation pump and dump migrating into copper books. Batwing has his own series ffs, nobody cares about his first appearance. Spoiler made her debut in the new 52 months ago, a character with an actual following that demanded her return no less, and Tec 647 hasn't done much of anything. we can't always choose which 1st appearances will or won't be speculated SUCCESSFULLY on, or which will hit, or which new series will affect the market for whatever reason. Sometimes people guess right, sometimes wrong, but that doesn't mean that there was or wasn't a sound reason for making the initial guess. Just like personal comic preferences, personal speculation preferences vary widely from person to person. Its certainly not an exact science, and there's MORE than enough occasions where NO ONE can explain what happened with regard to the price of a comic. Has any other comic book published between 1980-2000 experienced an 8900% (or is it higher now?) increase in value in a little over two months? I think darkstar is spot on; this appears to be pump and dumping.

My Omega Red pick is still What if 33. It came out the same month as X-Men 4. Unless X-men 4 is an absolute gem and a newsstand I see no reason to buy it. Why is What If #33 relevant when every collector already owns a copy of X-Men (Vol. 2) #1, which features a non-story appearance of Omega Red?

I wonder if someone connected the dots in this thread and came up with this equation: Booster Gold + Firestar = Livewire

That's the greatest concern during these speculation runs. Especially when you see an overabundance of each book available, and yet the prices keep climbing. But I wouldn't blame the sellers on this. It is the buyers that keep coming back for more, and driving the prices up. Whoa whoa whoa. Are you telling me that a 7900% increase in two months for Superman Adventures #5 is the result of speculation? I initially suspected this book was a pump and dump, pure speculation play. Then I found out the truth. At least three (yes, three!) cosplayers have dressed up as Livewire over the past five years. Oh, and Livewire recently made an explosive debut in the New 52; her silent one-panel appearance, in which she sits on a chair, has every DC fan talking! One book speculation as a warning sign? No way. All these books exploding that most times have no current reason for the explosion? You bet. Superman Adventures #5 was a huge warning sign to me. All the cheap copies on eBay were purchased around the same time about two months ago. Let me guess: a speculator (or group of speculators) heard something in March about a New 52 Livewire appearance in May 2014 and bought every copy available on eBay. Surely the Livewire cosplayers who wanted to own a copy would not wait for a New 52 announcement, then all buy the book on eBay at the same time. At least most of the other exploding books had a TV/movie announcement fueling the fire. As far as I can tell, Superman Adventures #5 increased in value by 7900% because of a single uneventful panel.

That's the greatest concern during these speculation runs. Especially when you see an overabundance of each book available, and yet the prices keep climbing. But I wouldn't blame the sellers on this. It is the buyers that keep coming back for more, and driving the prices up. Whoa whoa whoa. Are you telling me that a 7900% increase in two months for Superman Adventures #5 is the result of speculation? I initially suspected this book was a pump and dump, pure speculation play. Then I found out the truth. At least three (yes, three!) cosplayers have dressed up as Livewire over the past five years. Oh, and Livewire recently made an explosive debut in the New 52; her silent one-panel appearance, in which she sits on a chair, has every DC fan talking!

The East Coast Comics ad from Avengers West Coast #72 (cover dated July 1991) lists New Mutants #87 as a $10 book. So if the lead time on ads was one month, then East Coast Comics was briefly selling NM87 for $10 after NM100 came out.

Once Liefeld Mania really took off, New Mutants was the best-selling book on the rack. People tend to forget that, and it's why I always liked NM 87 compared to 90-100, as this issue was before the rush, and had a much lower print run due to NM selling badly, Liefeld being an unknown and Cable really catching everyone by surprise. This is essentially not true. New Mutants #87 did not have a substantially lower print run than #86-94. #95-97 had about a 50% higher print run because of X-Tinction, and then the print run went down a few percent for #98 and #99. #100 was the one and only issue that had a print run substantially higher than the rest, perhaps 500,000 copies totally. Cable didn't really "catch everyone by surprise"...it was a slow simmer from #87-#100. The entire run was completed before NM #87 was a $20 book. And at no time was New Mutants, in its entire run, ever "the best-selling title on the rack." There was a title called "Spiderman" that was selling 10 times what New Mutants did...and then there was a title called "X-Men"...just to name two. But yes, Liefeld was an unknown. This has all been explained multiple times on this board already. New Mutants #2 was the best-selling April 1983 cover-dated Marvel title according to Marvel Age #13. The title had a brief run at the (direct-sales, Marvel only) top. New Mutants #100 was the second best-selling Marvel title released during February 1991 according to Marvel Age #103. Spider-Man #9 was number one on the list.