mcduckz

Also, there is a HUGE following for Disney ducks in Europe. Much, much more than here in the US

After this week's CLink sales, could not resist pulling these out of the vault to oogle at them for a few minutes.

Agreed... Silver Surfer is one of my favorite titles of the SA. I can't imagine I'll ever be able to afford 9.8s so it would take literal wheelbarrels full of cash to get me to part with my #3 or #4, both CGC 9.6 OW/W.

Totally agree... The Miller books really should be the beginning of CA (Ronin, DKR, Wolverine Limited, DD run)

Given recent prices on GSX1 and XM94 in 9.8 and 9.6, really wondering where a 9.8 of this will land now when one actually sells.

Mostly speculators. Because if anyone in the hobby actually cared about these characters, these books would already demand higher prices.

First Chthon, rumored to be a villain in Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness

No doubt... all these are influential books which are very under appreciated by the larger market, especially Ronin.

^100% this... Primarily this stems OPG having limited space to print descriptions of key issues. If there was already something going on (1st app. of Kingpin, anniversary issue, death of Gwen Stacy, 1st full appearance of Venom), they rarely noted it was also a classic cover. Even then, I don't recall "classic cover" often as a description... more often it was "classic Stromberg cover" or "classic headlights cover", etc. Usually there was something to indicate why the cover was "classic". All that said, I don't consider 301 a classic ASM cover at all. It is not particularly amazing or spectacular. It is more or less just a repeat of the prior cover with different coloring. If it weren't for the different issue number, it would be called a variant. The only reason I ever could see for marginal value increase is that it is relatively rarer in CGC 9.8. So a "rare in top grade" issue.

I'm a huge Marvel fan, but think this has more to do with Marvel's overwhelming success vs. DC in the movie/tv entertainment sector over the past decade. If the DCEU ever gets its act together, the DC keys would quickly pull back up to Marvel levels.

Significance and market value don't have a lot to do with each other in this hobby. You are citing two very key CA books... DKR #1 was published in 1986. You could definitely argue it is a very significant issue in regards to industry impact, BUT... it is not the book typically credited with starting the CA (that would be TMNT #1) and it is not a key first appearance of any type. ASM #300 is a key first appearance, published 2 years after DKR #1 and demands much higher prices. In similar fashion, look at the Bronze Age... You have Green Lantern #76 (published 1970) which is attributed as having huge industry impact (heralding an era of more adult themes and stories) AND is the book most often associated with the start of the BA. Yet, several first appearance books of the BA sell for much, much more. Sticking to the analogy... Marvel Spotlight #5, published 2 years after GL #76, demands many multiples of the GL #76 price in the same grade. Significance of the story/format/industry impact each play a part in value, but the market has nearly always dictated first appearances and sometimes artists are more significant in terms of pricing.

I know he gets some recognition, but not nearly enough. George Perez is one of the best CA artists, IMO.

Rule 1... don't store anything of high value in a storage unit Rule 2... don't talk about fight club....err... about high value items you keep in storage

Have you also noticed the standards by age vary a lot as well? Because of the paper quality of the time, a GA OW/W vs a SA OW/W vs a BA OW/W can be very different. And it would not surprise me in the least if CGC grants more leeway on page quality on older books because of this based on what I've seen. All that makes it more confusing I think, especially for casual collectors.

I'm with you... this book has been dormant for way too long. Got a little bit of action when Danny Trejo was rumored to be in talks for the role in a movie (which would be perfect casting IMO), but other than that it just stagnates. I think maybe Lobo is too much of a niche favorite to really accelerate like some of the other non-A listers that have taken off.

Tin?

We all should have.

Very nice! I wish I would have thought to do this with the Byrne run on X-Men. Was always one of my favorite arcs and just dragged my feet on buying nice copies. That ship may have sailed now.

No doubt, but there is an increasingly significant segment of buyers, particularly on high dollar books, which use them as investments. White pages is yet another differentiation for them to define the "best of the best" books. Anyone in the hobby knows the page quality assignment can vary a bit by grader, but many don't have or pursue that knowledge. They just rank within grade based on what the "unbiased" 3rd party says the grade is. If enough books trade hands, it would not surprise me at all to see GPA or another price tracker start to differentiate recent sales on page quality as well. Back to the point tho... this one does make me scratch my head. White pages and centering, IMO, are not enough to make a 9.0 book, essentially 2 grades lower, hop a 9.4. Someone must have reeeeeally liked the display appeal of that 9.0

To further reinforce this, that is 25-30% per year ROI. That's better return on investment than many other things over the last 6 years. If only all our favorite issues had that sort of appreciation!

I don't disagree with your overall post, but IH181 is only common in context to SA and GA keys. Yeah, there are quite a few, even in higher grades, but the number of collectors and investors in the hobby has grown by leaps and bounds the last 2 decades. There is decidedly a more diverse and more international fanbase than ever before and it seems only to grow with every new movie. Also, I firmly believe prices are most heavily driven by nostalgia. People want to own key issues of what they remember enjoying as children. Well, all the folks who were kids when the first X-Men movies came out are now hitting that age where they have plenty of expendable funds. Couple these factors with renewed speculation due to movie rumors and, BAM, prices jump. Suddenly those "common" books start to disappear.

I think ruing a sale like this is only applicable in context of what you used the money for. Did you buy other books you wanted? Did you invest it another way? Cover an emergency cost or need? It sucks to have to let go of books from time to time, but as long as you don't just waste the money it isn't always bad. I could fill a couple pages with stories of books I wish I had kept but 9 times out of 10 it was the right decision at the time.

again, thank you everyone for the input! Have set this one aside and will not resubmit.

Not assessing the actual quality of the book, but it is a legit CGC grading. The number matches the certificate info in the search

That must have been a good year to buy. Around the same time I picked up my 9.6 for just over $4500. It was a little above market at the time, but that seems to be the only way to ever actually win/buy a Hulk 181. Didn't fret... it's the one book I always wanted in high grade and even then 9.8 was out of my price range. Now I'm glad I got it when I did.