blowout

Interesting to hear about the comic bags/boards not being used until the late 70's. That would be true for collectors only though I guess.

Some comic shops I have been to don't use backing boards on back issues even NOW. So I think we can pretty much write off any copy of Hulk #181 that has ever been sold in a comic shop back issue section as making a 9.6 or 9.8 grade.

So that just leaves the collectors/collections of books that have been in the same hands since release date. I wonder how many copies of those there can be..............

"If there are any tax/business people here, please define this more clearly. "

Yeah, as Dr B said......."or not". Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and if you don't actually know that you are doing the wrong thing tax wise, then it's ok, right?

Okay, so we are probably on fairly safe ground when we say that the census numbers are only a small percentage of the HG copies of Hulk 181 out there.

The question now is then, what kind of CGC census rise would it take to dramaticaly reduce the values of the CGC 9.4 and above copies?

200%, 1000%, more, less?

How high can the census go before we hit 'wall'??

If there are anything near 100K still out there you can bet that there will be MANY more HG copies turning up on the cgc census.

But who knows for sure?

Anyone on these boards know anyone who for CERTAIN has a high grade case of the book stashed away for a rainy day?

"And why would I buy this one? B/c I already have 2 copies in lower grade..why buy another instead of just getting what I want??"

Hey Brian, I am not saying that you made a bad move buying the book. You got it for a good price, it is a very nice copy and you are obviously happy with it, so great. I would like a nice copy of the book myself....

All I am saying is that when someone spends $1800+ on a comic book they are doing so thinking the book will at least hold its value, even if they don't intend to sell it. Otherwise, why buy the book now?

The Punisher, Wolverine & Ghost Rider were THE most over-exposed characters of the early 90's. All three turned up as guest stars in just about every book under the sun. Popularity for both Ghost Rider and The Punsher have since waned (they both had their regular series cancelled) but Wolverine is still strong.

As long as Wolvie remains popular and he can hang on to his regular gig, then his first app should remain strong.

"I would agree with Bruce, I bought this book just b/c I thought the cover was cool and I like Wolverine"

Come on Brian, not even you beleive that BS.

If you JUST liked the cover art and Wolverine and had no thoughts of the value then you would not have droped $1850 on a NM 9.4. A much lower grade (and price) could have got you the cover you wanted.

"If it's true.. there should be plenty available in about 8-10 years. Hopefully it will not appear so"

Bruce, I wondered when you would show up on this thread, haven't seen you around the boards much lately.

Your story has a certain ring of truth to it, and certainly my thinking was that 10 years time was a possilble crunch point for this book.

I think it is reasonably safe to predict the book rising for the next decade or so, as collectors that grew up with Wolverine will still be feeding demand for it. After this point I'm not so sure, I don't think to many new readers have jumped on board post 1990 or so, no matter what movie hype has done. So the demand factor could start to wane after kids that bought Wolverine #1 of the racks in 1988 have their copy of Wolvie's first app. If, as your story suggests, supply rises also in 10 years time, then post 2013 or so doesn't look too rosy for Hulk #181.

Its called discussion and debate bug, you might want to try it sometime.

"but If I had to make a wager, I would say that the majority of NM or higher copies are slabbed. "

I wouldn't stake your house on that one!

Although I agree that there probably aren't warehouses full of NM copies of hulk 181 out there, I'm betting there are lots of high grade copies still to come for CGC, and plenty that will NEVER get slabbed.

Let's remember that CGC grading is still very much in it's infancy, and it would be a wild assumption to assume that most copies of a book have been slabbed. Even if a collector knows about CGC (many don't) they may not have the desire/means/capacity to send it in for grading at this stage of the game.

"if people had the foresight to mylar books and wharehoused them in the 30's and 40's by the 70's the number of people doing that probably increased by a factor of 100x. "

This did not happen in the 30's and 40's, comics only began to be collected seriously around 1964 and actively hoarded in the late 60's.

"And you have to ask yourself, will the *next* generation of collectors (yeah, I know - *what* next generation???) be willing to fork out huge $$$ for Hulk 181? Or do you think that enough of the current aging collector crowd will be nostalgic and rich enough to bid up prices many hundreds of percentage points in the future?"

I think there is still plenty of room for new collectors with big $$$ to buy hulk #181's in the future. Although we are talking about a first app in the mid 70's here, let's also remember that wolvie's regular series didn't start up until 1988. So collectors from that late 80's era could be hitting their early 30's (likely big spending collector age) in around 5-10 years or so.

This allows room for price growth on the book for at least another decade IMHO.

"I'm a damned Spiderman fan."

For someone who is such a great fan of Spider-Man, you could at least learn to spell his name right

Sabretooth was only ever really a second rate Wolverine, so it is unfair to use the first appearance of Sabby as a justification for the fall of Hulk #181.

Sabretooth is getting no exposure: he is not in X-Men 2, doesn't appear in the X-Men comic books and doesn't have his own regular series. No wonder his first app is seing no new heat.

Wolverine, on the other hand is the star of X-Men 2, is about to get a rebooted regular series, has had a hit retelling of his origin and seems as popular as ever. So Hulk #181 can only go up can't it?

This is a book which has gone up and up in value over the last 10 years or so. Does it have a ceiling? Or will the new X-Men 2, Hulk movies and Wolverine comic reboot push it higher and higher?

Can the book break and sustain a 2K plus value in NM?

welcome to the forums

nice avatar

you mean GS X-men #1 DIDN'T start the bronze age?

and here was i thinking that the punisher was a silver age character

......as always..........

.........a rickdogg, greggy ramble thread...........not seen one of these before.................

.............ooook, i believe you...............

....the question is though phil, how did you come across this auction??.....

....i bought the silver age size time-loks and am putting silver age books in them.............the problem occurs when using the time x-tender backers (same as full-backs).........when the comics are slid into the time-loks with the thick backers it is a very tight fit and the books seem to be squished inside (even a slight twisting of the book seems to occur)................

...........not a good combination and i wouldn't recommend anyone using the two together, when the boards are used with mylites2 the comics are looser and don't 'squish'.............

.......yeah, i noticed their shipping rates were ridiculously high............how can they justify that?..........

........i'm definately considering switching my silver books from time-loks to mylites2................

........hey, apart from the other advantages mentioned they are a lot cheaper too.........

........more money for books rather than bags.................

.......do you not worry though about the damage a tight fiting mylar might do to the books?