RockMyAmadeus

People said the exact same thing about New Mutants #98 and X-Force #2...among others...for a decade+. We shall see.

You're mistaken. This might surprise you, but not everyone posts solely out of self-interest. So, a straight up answer, do you have any of the books for sale you are suggesting people should be buying up? Nope. 1. I already said that I'm not "sitting" on these books. 2. Why would I sell them if they haven't even BEGUN to achieve what I think is their potential? Selling my ASM "Vol 2" #1-29? Why? They sell for nothing. Deadpool #13-60? Why? They sell for nothing. Barely cover price. But, I'll be more than happy to buy any that anyone is selling.

In the interests of full disclosure (shocking, I know), I watched the 1994-1996 comic market crash from the center of it. I watched the ramp up, and I watched the crash. Here's where I stand: no matter what happens, I win. If people continue to pay silly prices for books that I bought for $1, I win (as happened in 1993, and has happened for the last 5 years or so.) If the market crashes, and I can buy more books that I want for much, much cheaper (as happened between 1997-2003.) It's win-win for me. So, no, I have no special interest one way or the other.

You're mistaken. This might surprise you, but not everyone posts solely out of self-interest.

I heard Tim Drake might get a movie. Batman #436 and #442 are going to go through the ROOF.

RMA sighting! (I only have 2 copies left. And they're not 9.8s. Yay!)

Snagging collections "for cheap" depends entirely on where you are. Maybe in Canada, but here in SoCal, it's simply not possible. So true, up here I can throw a dead cat and hit high grade collections all day long. I was in California this summer and traveled up and down the coast and there was nothing but garbage to pick at. Mind you, my trip wasn't about finding comics, it was to relax so maybe there is stuff out there but the shops carried rags for back issues and everything was priced the highest I've ever seen. Interesting. We are fortunate here then with Copper and older collections. They pop up on a regular basis. For example, last night I picked up 700 or so book that included a NMish run of Sandman #1-75, a nice run of Swamp Thing #37 - 171, and New Teen Titans/Tales of #1-59 plus a bunch of other nice books (e.g. Transformers #1, 3, 4; Power Man & Iron Fist #56 up, Avengers #190 - 230, some Tecs, GLs, Spideys, etc.) You will never find that sort of material her in SoCal. And if you do, you're paying for it. The few times I've gone to look at collections have been massive wastes of time. People with no clue how much their stuff is worth, and think it's worth a fortune. I have tried to explain, but to no avail. These people get offended, and think you're trying to cheat them, when you won't pay $1/book for their 90's post-Unity Valiants, so the only thing to do is get back into the car and drive away. Too much competition, here. I'm not sure if it's changed, but during last year's San Diego Comic Con, I visited a store outside LA and made a huge score with multiples of several copper keys. It was actually the place where the 3 Man of Steel 18 9.9s came from, spent about $2500 on all copper stuff that was all priced using OSPG. I've shopped there in the past and it's worked out very well, so I can't complain about my experiences in the SoCal area. That's because you are the Perseus of comics, half-man half-god, blessed by Zeus and sent to civilize mankind and teach the lesser gods not to mess with the god of gods. And also....this was found at a store. Meaning: the store got it. Most stores in SoCal don't even deal in back issues as back issues (rather than accumulation from when they were new.) And this was one store. I don't live in SoCal but John Seeberger does and he's built an entire living based on getting huge scores in SoCal primarily on copper. My experience on Copper was based on one store (just as an example) but every time I've traveled to SoCal I've done much better than in Northern CA, which I've struggled in to find anything beyond shopping with board members. My point isn't to talk about my ability to find books, more that I know I've had some success and I know John's had tremendous success buying from folks in SoCal, almost exclusively in his case with copper. I personally don't live there, so it'd be hard to say whether it's tough or easy to buy because if you fly in 3x a year and buy, that's not really a gauge. I do take John's experience very seriously though. With that said, John has set up some exclusive arrangements with stores and other options so that when they get new material, he is the first call. I've lived in California my whole life, with a single two year exception. I spent 25 years in NorCal, and 15 years in SoCal. That's great that John has had tremendous success. Truly. But that's not typical of here, where everything is highly competitive, and everybody thinks everything they have is worth top dollar, all the time. *I* have had success, but it has been scratching and clawing the entire time, chancing on to this, hearing about that, investigating this. I have spent the last 25 years, with a four year college break in the 90's, in the industry. And these collections, with multiple high grade copies of this and that, simply don't come around like I've seen elsewhere, precisely BECAUSE of people like John, and the rest of the very intense competition that exists here. And, unless I'm completely mistaken, John has had some advantages that most people don't have. I'm perfectly willing to be corrected on that, if that's not the case, but I suspect it is. Besides...John lives in San Diego, which isn't *really* SoCal. Tongue-in-cheek on that last part. Mostly.

Consider a book like Batman #608 second printing. There were, according to reports published at the time (Wizard, I believe) only 30,000 copies printed. It's the first appearance of "Hush", right? Apply the same kind of madness as in the early 90's...something I would have scoffed at 5 years ago, too, but here we are at $700-$1000 New Mutants #98s, for the fourth most common subbed book so far. The fact that supply hasn't dented demand is something that we have not seen on this magnitude for 20 years. It's a different market, folks. PS. Did anyone see that Amazing #300 surpassed Wolverine #1? Interesting. Spiderman #1, by the way, is the most subbed of all, across all versions, with over 10,000.

Deadpool is a wicked popular character plus movie speculation. That was a rhetorical question. The point is, people are paying for the originals, even though reprints and digital "copies" exist, and are far, far, farrr cheaper.

By the way...there were TPBs in the early 90's, just not to the extent, of course, that there are today. Reprints of New Mutants #98 exist. So why are people paying crazy amounts for this book?

That is a really, really huge 'if' there. First of all, this isn't the 90s. There are way more different comics printed today than back in the 90s. The world where everyone followed the same titles/genre/etc. is long over. You can see that in music, TV, movies, and yes, comics. We are in the era of the 'long tail' and I don't ever see us ever going back. That's why my post was prefaced with it. And there aren't way more different comics printed today than back in the 90's. In 1993, there were over 700 different books published each month. Is that true today? I don't think so. Again, though, that wasn't my point. The books are extremely rare. My point was that if any of the demand we see for the comparatively monstrous print runs of books from the 80's and early 90's were to shift, there simply wouldn't be enough supply by 10, 20, 50 fold.

Snagging collections "for cheap" depends entirely on where you are. Maybe in Canada, but here in SoCal, it's simply not possible. So true, up here I can throw a dead cat and hit high grade collections all day long. I was in California this summer and traveled up and down the coast and there was nothing but garbage to pick at. Mind you, my trip wasn't about finding comics, it was to relax so maybe there is stuff out there but the shops carried rags for back issues and everything was priced the highest I've ever seen. Interesting. We are fortunate here then with Copper and older collections. They pop up on a regular basis. For example, last night I picked up 700 or so book that included a NMish run of Sandman #1-75, a nice run of Swamp Thing #37 - 171, and New Teen Titans/Tales of #1-59 plus a bunch of other nice books (e.g. Transformers #1, 3, 4; Power Man & Iron Fist #56 up, Avengers #190 - 230, some Tecs, GLs, Spideys, etc.) You will never find that sort of material her in SoCal. And if you do, you're paying for it. The few times I've gone to look at collections have been massive wastes of time. People with no clue how much their stuff is worth, and think it's worth a fortune. I have tried to explain, but to no avail. These people get offended, and think you're trying to cheat them, when you won't pay $1/book for their 90's post-Unity Valiants, so the only thing to do is get back into the car and drive away. Too much competition, here. I'm not sure if it's changed, but during last year's San Diego Comic Con, I visited a store outside LA and made a huge score with multiples of several copper keys. It was actually the place where the 3 Man of Steel 18 9.9s came from, spent about $2500 on all copper stuff that was all priced using OSPG. I've shopped there in the past and it's worked out very well, so I can't complain about my experiences in the SoCal area. That's because you are the Perseus of comics, half-man half-god, blessed by Zeus and sent to civilize mankind and teach the lesser gods not to mess with the god of gods. And also....this was found at a store. Meaning: the store got it. Most stores in SoCal don't even deal in back issues as back issues (rather than accumulation from when they were new.) And this was one store.

X-Force #1 had a print run of about 2.5 million. Granted, not too fine a difference, but whoever put the figure in Wikipedia is wrong.

Look, folks...this is reality. If we ever face the madness of the early 90's...and I mean, by the amount of people and money involved...then the print runs of the late 90's/early 2000's will spark an absolute frenzy. Every book...every single one...with print runs less than 150,000 for years. And the good runs....Authority, Planetary, Johns' Flash run, Loeb's Superman run, Ultimate Spiderman, Morrison's JLA...these books will be impossible to find. There simply aren't any copies that exist. There are no "hoards" of these books hiding, like with Spawn #1, New Mutants #98, X-Force #1, 2, etc. If you want the books....you must get them now. Donut has been saying it, I've been saying it, others have been saying it for 10 years now: if you want these books, you have to get them, now, while they're cheap. I checked out Deadpool books on eBay, and was amazed to see books with print runs in the 30,000s not selling for $4. I was tempted. And I'm the cheapest guy around. This isn't hype...I'm not selling them, nor is anyone I know. If you want these books....get them. Don't delay.

Snagging collections "for cheap" depends entirely on where you are. Maybe in Canada, but here in SoCal, it's simply not possible. So true, up here I can throw a dead cat and hit high grade collections all day long. I was in California this summer and traveled up and down the coast and there was nothing but garbage to pick at. Mind you, my trip wasn't about finding comics, it was to relax so maybe there is stuff out there but the shops carried rags for back issues and everything was priced the highest I've ever seen. Interesting. We are fortunate here then with Copper and older collections. They pop up on a regular basis. For example, last night I picked up 700 or so book that included a NMish run of Sandman #1-75, a nice run of Swamp Thing #37 - 171, and New Teen Titans/Tales of #1-59 plus a bunch of other nice books (e.g. Transformers #1, 3, 4; Power Man & Iron Fist #56 up, Avengers #190 - 230, some Tecs, GLs, Spideys, etc.) You will never find that sort of material her in SoCal. And if you do, you're paying for it. The few times I've gone to look at collections have been massive wastes of time. People with no clue how much their stuff is worth, and think it's worth a fortune. I have tried to explain, but to no avail. These people get offended, and think you're trying to cheat them, when you won't pay $1/book for their 90's post-Unity Valiants, so the only thing to do is get back into the car and drive away. Too much competition, here.

Snagging collections "for cheap" depends entirely on where you are. Maybe in Canada, but here in SoCal, it's simply not possible.

I was thinking the same thing (when I saw the first listing), but then people were buying them up faster than he could list them and at decent prices, too. Everything looks nice on a 4" iPhone screen. Totally over-graded. I bought the Bat 121 and feel totally duped. I'll post a few pictures that weren't in the listing. Please do. I saw this in the listing "These were a bit hard to price as the last GPA on almost all was 5, 6 or more years ago. " What does GPA have to do with raw book sales unless you are providing some kind of guarantee the books will slab at your grade? Pet Peeve!! I keep my pet peeves in a cage, otherwise they'll piddle on the carpet.

It went for more than $15k. -J. Looks like that CGC 10 copy sold for a bargain with the way prices have been for this book And another sign of impending armageddon... Boston Corbett may actually make money on his 9.9! Would the be the greatest "I told you so" ever on these boards? Yes. Yes it would.

I agree, I think characters like Wolverine and Gambit as horsemen would be a little weird for a general audience. Gambit is going to appear in Apocalypse before his standalone movie, so it wouldn't be too crazy for him to first appear in Apocalypse as Death and deal with his internal conflict throughout the movie. Then, give him a standalone movie to tell his full story- similar to Origin, but good. If DOFP was Jackman's last X movie, then Gambit will be positioned as the new conflicted anti-hero of the franchise. There's a hidden picture in that cover....

Not so great for protection from the elements.

Yes, these enjoyed a brief period of popularity back in 1988-89. Not long, but enough for #2 to be the book everyone wanted ("low distribution.") After that, nothing.

About 6 months ago, I sold two copies for $40 each...one of them was a total borderline 9.8, but I sold it as a 9.6. I didn't want to send it. The buyer gets it...and complains that it's not high enough grade. Stupid eBay. I told them to send it back, I would be HAPPY to refund them. You think I got it back?

Yup ...why Deadpool is not on that cover is a mystery to me. Because no one cared about Deadpool when it was printed.

Maybe the seller died. And no, I'm not "being funny." It happens.

Are you not generalizing about female Sandman collectors and female collectors in particular? Absolutely. Direct experience.