valiantman

Just as an FYI... I keep an updated list of the top grades for Marvel 30- and 35-cent variants on my site. (thumbs u http://www.gregholland.com/cgc/HighestMarvelPriceVariants.txt

Here's my new joy.

This wasn't a bad pick-up. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170067298779

When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards... they were my first "serious" collectible. The first baseball card shop that I ever visited was called "Skeezix". This is my first pre-GoldenAge book, and one of the sixteen pre-1930 books that have been CGC graded (current census). How many Platinum books are folded & stapled like a modern comic?

Nope... these all came from the U.K. (already graded)

Here a 9.6, there a 9.6, everywhere a 9.6.

Kudos to Anfield Fox for going above and beyond the call of duty. Bomb-proof packaging on a heavy lot from the UK to the US.

I vote for Ronald McDonald #3, particularly the CGC 0.5.

On a related note, I noticed a G.I. Joe Comics Magazine (Marvel) listed in the Standard Catalog of Comic Books... with extremely low sales numbers. (I believe it was a 1980s series) Anybody seen any of those? (Particularly any numbered higher than #10?)

That print run estimate is probably a bit low (say... ten times too low?). The Standard Catalog of Comic Books lists the Capital City order at 7,000 for the G.I. Joe #155. Capital City was probably 20%-25% of the market, so G.I. Joe #155 is probably 28,000-35,000 or so. The Special Edition would have been released about two months later, so I seriously doubt if the number is below even 25,000... (With it being a "#1 special edition" from 1994-95, it's probably more than #155.)

I can compare the Gerber values to the actual CGC counts... BUT... I would need a list of Gerber values... Does anyone know if a list or lists already exist? I doubt if the full listings would be "out there" somewhere on the internet, but I'm thinking that someone might have already compiled a list of Gerber 9s and 10s. I found a "hard to find" list of about 40 Crime books with Gerber Index scores, but that's about all I see online without further digging through Google. I realize it could be a never-ending quest to list the Gerber values, but I'm hoping there are at least a few shortcuts to get to the good stuff. Anybody have any Gerber lists already compiled?

According to CGC, they "opened their doors" on January 1, 2000. So, if CGC is a significant event for "Age-related considerations", it looks like Dec 31st, 1999 is the end of the pre-slab era. This is looking more and more like a case for making "ages" equate to decades. Silver is essentially the 1960s, Bronze is the 1970s, we should toss out the "metals" altogether and just call them the 1980s... after all, there's no Copper Medal in the olympics.

I also agree.... no timeframes have to be set in stone... We're talking about books which are immediately post-Bronze and definitely earlier than 1999. The specific dates don't have to be ironed out now... just those general guidelines.

If we're talking about popular music for the time periods... Bronze would definitely be disco... maybe the Eagles. Copper would be a band more like Motley Crue.

So, why are you allowing him to pull the mask off the ole' Lone Ranger?

Capital City orders were 55,000 copies... Capital City was about 25% of the market, so the print run is probably around 220,000 copies.

I hope copies are still available for me to buy. I found an old copy at a local comic shop. Wizard #7 probably isn't worth the cost of shipping, but if you could get one for a couple dollars, it's not bad. (Snapshot-in-time, and all that nostalgic stuff.) Here's a fun quote... (early 1992, Valiant comics were about 50,000 copies and selling for cover price)... "A lot of publishers are becoming like the Franklin Mint: they're no longer publishers, they're making collectibles - period. How many people bought Spider-man #1 because they thought it was going to be a great story? The more the industry relies on that end of the market, the more it becomes a question of 'how can we make our book the hot collectible this month?'" - Jim Shooter (before leaving Valiant, a year before Bloodshot #1)

In a "small world coincidence", I picked up Wizard #7 the other day (March 1992), because of the pre-Unity X-O Manowar cover and interviews with Valiant guys... the "Comic Watch" for the month was New Mutants 98 because of the 1st Deadpool. March 1992 price? $7.00.

Statistically, ASM #63 and ASM #58 are similar in regards to CGC census proportions. Does anyone know why those two books might be so similar? (Yes, I know that more copies of #58 have been graded... but the difficulty in finding 9.4 or better -- proportionately-- is almost identical, I would even say #58 is slightly tougher in high grade...)

Of course, the king (or should I say 'prince') of all "other Valiants" would have to be Prince Valiant...since he's been around the longest. Just when I thought my world couldn't get any smaller...

What's this? A Silver and Bronze Age series that Joe_Collector's never heard of or seen before? (Stop the presses, he doesn't know everything!) Link

I've never even seen the Gerber books... (Arkansas is a very small, poor state, you know.) Is this one listed in there? (What's the Gerber index?)

A correction is not the end. $500 books won't be selling for a nickel. Does anyone really believe that the stock market is much too high today? Even a major correction will establish which values are primed for future growth. Will $1 modern back issues be selling for $100 in 10 years? No. ... but they won't be $0.10 either.

1) The guide lists important books below their actual NM trading price. 2) Because of this, actual trades occur at some multiple of guide. 3) Those sales are reported and the list price increases just a little each year. 4) Rinse, and repeat.