joe_collector

Mods just might be where it's at . . . Bad typo in your listing. People won't be able to find it. Yes, most annoying . . .

My brain just exploded. I've got a greggy-castoff 9.0, an 8.0 and a pile of raw copies- probably spent $250 total. To avoid confusion: you are still talking about Hero for Hire #1, right? Yep.

What a crock this has been...when's the last time they put on a real comic book show? I had a tent set up in my back yard and the next day I got a call from a Wizard representative asking about weekend rates.

Exactly, and I always imagine these poor deluded fools with a closet-full of Hulk 180's thinking.. "just a few more years and everyone will accept this as his first appearance and I'll be rich! Hahahahahaha!"

Yep. Again, newbie specs forget these books used to be actually READ and ENJOYED, and the reason back issues thrived is because fans would go back to find earlier stories about their favorite characters. MTIO 29 was a story about the Thing and Shang-Chi fighting a pile of Kungfu dudes, with an ending panel showing an unconscious Spider-woman. MTIO 30 was an actual Spider-woman story from cover to cover, hence Spider-woman fans would gravitate to it rather than 29, as it offered an entire story and "full appearance" of their fave character. P.S. This is getting silly, those MTIO books have some of the worst art in the history of mankind and should be worth the equivalent of birdcage filler.

My brain just exploded. I've got a greggy-castoff 9.0, an 8.0 and a pile of raw copies- probably spent $250 total.

Pretty broad statement and really depends on the value of their 1st app. No, it has more to do with Overstreet and which appearances got listed and increased in price - look at Saberetooth, more people are probably looking for his 3rd-6th appearances than far more valuable/important characters. Overstreet? People still look at/buy that? Yes, they still look at it, but this has more to do with how many people looked at Overstreet through the decades and how that ingrains onto our hobby. A lot of current books are only worth something because OS told us they were for years. Like Sabretooth's 4th appearance.

Could anyone even imagine what would happen to this book is Hobby ever appeared in a movie?

Probably not, although some ultra-high-grade copies of Giant-Size X-Men #1 might give Hulk 181 a good run. You've missed the last couple of years, where the board literalists will not tolerate 181 being called 'first appearance', despite the fact it's come to be hobby shorthand for whichever book the hobby has chosen to collect as most important to a character's introduction. No, I know exactly what kind of revisionist sportscard-history is going on here, and my reply directly targeted that.

Probably not, although some ultra-high-grade copies of Giant-Size X-Men #1 might give Hulk 181 a good run. Because Wolverine definitely doesn't appear before those two books in Hulk 180, right? Not in any relevant way, no. Remember, these are NOT sportscards with a lone static image on them, these are multi-page comics that were originally R-E-A-D.

Probably not, although some ultra-high-grade copies of Giant-Size X-Men #1 might give Hulk 181 a good run.

Pretty broad statement and really depends on the value of their 1st app. No, it has more to do with Overstreet and which appearances got listed and increased in price - look at Saberetooth, more people are probably looking for his 3rd-6th appearances than far more valuable/important characters.

Words of Wisdom: BUY GREGGY REJECTS

I pick it up just for the cover (never realized it was 2nd X or early Y) whenever I see it in the bargain bins.

Sure, now that it's valuable it's suddenly an iconic cover, but I remember nominating it years ago in a Top Bronze Age Cover thread and it getting berated out of existence.

It's quite amusing that Oct-Nov 1972 featured Hitler covers, especially as Sgt Fury 103 has him on the cover but not the original issue - any possible reason? Was Hitler nostalgia hot in 1972?

Then start selling, hoard your money and wait for the eventual downturn.

We went over this awhile back, and after getting some expert opinions on paper/print pricing, there was no question that the insane spike in new comic prices came down to three factors: 1) Much higher pay rates for writers and artists. 2) Much lower sales per month. 3) Predominantly adult buyers who can foot the crazy monthly bill.

These prices for such an ultra-common book are absolutely insane, and I predict that not only will CGC be inundated with copies and the Census will explode, but lots of "investors" will absolutely lose their shirts and pants on this one. I don't even collect Star Wars comics, and I have multiple #1's first-prints just from toss-in freebies over the years. I gave away all the reprints.

It was high for any mid-60's-on first appearance outside of a major SA key, such as FF 48 or ASM 50, neither of which were very expensive in the early to mid 80's. GS X-Men 1 and X-Men 94 were *not* hot due to first appearances, but because the New X-Men were red-hot and highly collectible, and those were the earliest issues. And the fact that it was Giant-Size X-Men NUMBER ONE definitely helped, no doubt about it. First appearances in mid-run books just weren't a big deal back then, and at any show from 1981-87, you would get more requests for New X-Men (especially Byrne), Miller Daredevil, Simonson Thor, and a variety of #1 issues of the era than anything like Hulk 181, ASM 50 or FF 48.

It was an important book, but it just sat at $20-$30 dollars for almost a decade, and wasn't "hot" in that respect. The same level as FF 48, ASM 50, etc. - important, but not burning up the OS reports or price lists. That is, until 86-89, when the sportscard dealers enveloped the hobby and promoted a "rookie card" mindset by buying up all the major first appearances, and driving prices sky high. Go back and read some OS market reports from 1980-87 and see what was really selling at "red hot" levels during that time period, and I doubt that Hulk 181 will be taking up a significant portion of those sections. And as for supply, Hulk 181 was a notable part of many warehouse finds, including the monstrous Mile High 2 find, in which Chuck stated in his ads that he had Hulk 181's in "any quantity".

I remember being at a show in 1987 and there was a dealer with literally a table-full (3 big stacks) of Hulk 181 screaming "Hulk 181, only thirty bucks!" at the top of his lungs and there were virtually no takers. I was zoning in on Byrne X-Men at the time, but as I passed by,I still remember a couple of guys asking him if "he had any early-Simonson Thors" while totally disregarding the stacks of Hulk 181's from an obvious warehouse find. And lest we forget, Thor 337 was the most valuable Thor issue from the entire run in OS during the mid-late 80's, and a very desirable book at the time. It still proves the point that what is hot today is not what was hot back then, no matter what your 20-20 hindsight would like you to believe.

Nope, and it's because the book was a consistent $25-$30 book for years, and people didn't see much upside, otherwise I would buy a collection and find 25-50 copies of Hulk 181 rather than stacks of Eternals 1, Ka-Zar 1, Howard the Duck 1, PPSSM 1, Micronauts 1, Ms Marvel 1, Star Wars 1, etc. I realize it's difficult to understand today, but prior to the sportscard dealer invasion, virtually *all* of the speculator hoarding was based on #1 issues, with a bit on the side for "hot artists".

That's because first appearances weren't that popular back then, and it was the Number One Issues that everyone was after. It wasn't until the mid-80's, when the sportscard dealers invaded comics with their "rookie card" mentality, that first appearances really skyrocketed. That was possibility true what you said about the "rookie card" mentality back in the mid-80s. I remembered many sportscard dealers tried to enter the comic book collecting community, and added their idea in there. During my collecting days, I was only after #1 issues and full runs, not the 1st appearances. Exactly, and people forget that that pre-sportscard dealer hobby was centered on #1 issues, full runs, important artists, key stories, *and* first appearances, but it wasn't until the mid-80's that the "rookie card" phenomenon took over. Most key first appearances were in the $10-$30 range throughout the 80's, then picked up in 85-86 when some sportscard dealers took notice, then exploded in 1987-89, when the sportscard dealers descended en masse. And I'm not just making this up, as it was widely reported in Overstreet and other industry publications. P.S. That's what makes me laugh at newbies who say "I wish I was collecting in the 70's and 80's, as I would have 100 Hulk 181's" - yeah right, all these dorks would be holding onto boxes of Ka-Zar #1, Eternals #1, Micronauts #1, and Man of Steel #1.

That's because first appearances weren't that popular back then, and it was the Number One Issues that everyone was after. It wasn't until the mid-80's, when the sportscard dealers invaded comics with their "rookie card" mentality, that first appearances really skyrocketed.