shadroch

Do you have $16,000 laying around that it won't matter if it falls to $5,000? Unlike many here, I start with the financial aspects of a purchase rather than saying I need the first appearance of some character. Is your retirement account fully funded for the year? I'm coming up on fifty years of buying/selling/trading and I don't have a clue as to how some books will perform over the next decade.

Pretty strange how all the companies putting out superior products went bankrupt while the company giving us Secret Wars 2 and Comet Man thrived.

They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes.

You don't need special powers or a silly costume to be a super-hero.

Yes, it is not that uncommon. It's printed on. In the early days, of the direct market, Marvel sent the same books to everyone, but some retailers cheated by returning books they purchased as non-refundable. Thus they printed some with a line thru the box and sent those to direct buyers Another possibility is it was part of a multipack and the upc was disabled so the cashier didn't ring up forty cents instead of the upc on the multipack.

Why in the wild world of sports would you experiment on a high value book? If I were taking up pressing, I'd press hundreds of low value books before trying to do a book that is so popular.

3.0, on a good day.

A book graded 6.0 by Bob Storms would have me bidding higher than a book graded 6.0 by some great metropolitan comic dealer while I'd bid more for a mycomicshop raw 6.0 than many CGC 6.0s. There is no mysterious formula to determine the difference.

When calling books pre-1965 do you use the cover date or the publishing date? As an example, Tales of Suspense 52 has a cover date of Jan. 1964, but came out in late 1963. Would this be considered a 1963 book or a 1964 book?

9.2+

3.5

It doesn't work like that. Period. End of story. If a raw book is worth $10, how can you think a graded book would be worth $12, when it cost about $30 to get it graded. If a graded Batman 1 sells for $500,000, why would a raw copy sell for $100,000 less when the only difference is a $100 slab? Many books that are graded won't bring the cost of grading, let alone the price of the the raw book plus the grading fees. If a dealer is known for their tight grading, a raw book they call a 4.0 might sell for more than a CGC 4.0 of the same book. In short, there is no easy answer.

When the Image guys were on the convention circuit, they came off as being very self-indulgent psuedo-rock stars. More than once, they created chaos by tossing highly desired gold edition books into crowds and laughing at the scrums they created.

The only two books that popped out at me are the 2001#8 and the X-Men. I'd post those two in the please grade my book section and see if people think they are slab-worthy. The rest are pretty common and cheap. I can't help you with the Dragons. I have no dealt with them since the early 90s.

Generally, you are much better off consigning the books. At any time during consignment you can change your mind and sell the book to them.

5.0

1970ish

I honestly don't pay much attention to why a book gets hot. I read about it here, pull them and sell them, but I'd love to know how Spiderman 252 isn't the first venom? The black costume was Venom, and 252 is the first black costume. I think it is and will be one of the top ten books Marvel put out in the 80s.

He's a Master of Magic, or at least he used to be. Billowing capes are kids play.

When you are in it for the long run, you learn not to get caught up in the markets tides.

On the off chance there are multiple copies

The Superman Chronicles

Dang. What a deal. I hate it when good things happen to good people!

Any fool can make money selling right now. I don't know about buying. I've got a pocketful of cash but bargains are few and far between. I watched an auction tonite of 80s Spiderman with blurry pictures and the prices were insane. You could buy CGC copies for what they went for. $1200 for Spidey 299 and $300. $360 for 301 and 302. $340 for a Spidey 252 that looked 8.5ish.