Jesse-Lee

@Robbj24 - You should definitely make a documentary about traveling to MEGACON Orlando to confront Jim Shooter about your missing book. I'm not trying to be a jerk; I'd 100% watch that, it'd be some really compelling content!

Based on the size in your hand I'll guess it's a Book Club edition (but I can't remember off the top of my head if this was a smaller hardcover - or if I just can't judge perspective). If it's a true 1st edition, you'll find "First Edition" printed on the copyright page, and on page 374, you'll find a printed code: Y38 Edited to add: it should also have a $15.95 price on the dust jacket.

The fees aren't great, but according to eBay, I sold $1,000 worth of stuff in the past 30 days (including what I charge for shipping) - I paid out $155 in shipping labels (which I don't count because I basically break even) and I paid out $157 in eBay fees (between ad fees and final value fees). So I basically made $689 on $845 worth of stuff, which I don't think I could have sold elsewhere based on interested eyes (I've tried selling here and gotten crickets). 82% of a watermelon is better than 100% of a grape - especially since the stuff I sold cost me about $250 or so all-in.

As a buyer, if I posted an "I'll take it" and later had second thoughts, I'd contact the seller and explain the situation, but if they wanted to hold my feet to the fire, I'd suck it up and buy the book. I think if I was a seller and someone posted a take but immediately edited it (due to whatever reason: overzealous, already owned it and made a mistake, etc.), I'd just ignore it as long as the amount of time between take and edit was so small as to not sour other buyers. At the end of the day though, I don't know that you can enforce someone to buy a "taken" book if they really don't want to, but I think you should be able to block them from further purchases and make it known to other sellers as a potential red flag, much like we do with the "eBay blocked buyers" thread here on the boards. Either way, my own opinion is that communication is always key, and radio silence does a disservice to all involved.

I would be interested to see 657 rise in value since I have a bunch of those too. I did a breakdown earlier in this thread about his appearances across the 3 books, and your comparison to Venom is a good one - Damian's in shadows in 655, revealed in a last-page splash in 656, and then 657 is all about him. I do think 655/656 have a running start compared to 657 as the book to own though, but hopefully they all see nice increases (although I miss the days of finding them for cheap online and in show bins). I do really like the Morrison Batman run anyway, so I'm happy to see these books get their due. I was luckily targeting newsstands of 666 a while back too (it's kind of a "What if?" style, Elseworlds style story where Damian becomes Batman) - I have 2 graded copies (9.0, 9.6) and 1 raw of 666 newsstand that cost me a total of $145, and a newsstand 9.8 just sold for $680 even before the Damian news, where the direct edition 9.8 was typically around $200... I probably won't sell them anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me, but it's nice to know my stuff is increasing in value I guess - I have a hard time letting go of my Bat-books.

Oh, I agree 100% - this is exactly the time the market should decide, when there is an emergence of a character or book as it happens in real time. I think Hulk 181 is the definitive Wolverine book, regardless of where people stand on the "first appearance" semantics, because the market decided and it was cemented (and it really is a great cover). I think as this Damian Wayne news has come up, it'll take time for the masses to finally decide which is the definitive book. I own more copies of 655, but I do own multiple copies of both that and 656. I bought in heavier on 655 due to conventional wisdom of the time, but I was lucky enough where I was paying $10-15 for a copy of 655 and $5-10 for a copy of 656 (except for the $140 655 newsstand 9.2 I just bought, but I'm cool with that because it's so sweet in-hand).

There could be a shift along these lines (but in reverse) with the recent Damian Wayne news for his "first appearance." 655 was always the book to own based on collector's habits. But now, 656 is selling at about as brisk a pace and at nearly the same value as 655. We could potentially see a shift where people begin to gravitate toward 656 as the book to have when it comes to Damian. It's actually pretty interesting to watch it unfold. As someone who wasn't collecting back in the 180/181 emergence in value, I don't know if there was a similar shift back then from 180 being the "it book" to 181 - all I've ever known was 181 as the one to have. I'm a huge DC fan, but the obvious caveat is that (at least in my opinion, but feels like a safe take) Damian Wayne will never be on the level of Wolverine. Still an interesting collecting phenomenon though. Edit: Added some comedy so as not to upset @Dr. Balls:

Comic - there have been a few iterations of Freddy in comics and magazines. What you have is most likely the Marvel Nightmare on Elm Street 1 from 1989, with awesome cover art by Joe Jusko: Marvel scrapped the run after issue 2, due to concerns (or at least the fear of concerns) by parents at the time. Innovation picked up the license in 1991, and they did Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare 1-3 plus a 3D issue; Nightmares on Elm Street 1-6; and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning 1-2. Innovation went bankrupt and closed shop before they would release the 3rd and final issue of "The Beginning." Most of the Innovation issues have really low print runs, but especially 5, 6 and the Beginning issues.

Also in a funny bit of coincidence, I went to see what prices were at right after I initially posted this PGM post since I hadn't looked in a while, and I saw someone had newly listed a lot of Nightmares on Elm Street 2, 3, 5, 6 and Beginnings 2 for $55 BIN. The pictures weren't all that great, but since even lower grade raws of 6 (and even 5) sell for more than that alone, I grabbed them. So now I have another copy for my "I should sell this" pile. Lucky timing!

This hits close to home...

Was considering getting this one graded because it's not a book that comes up a ton, and there are only 6 currently on the census (2 9.6, 1 9.4, 2 8.5 and 1 5.0). Obviously it's unfortunately not a 9.8, so I'm not sure it makes sense to grade it, or just keep it in its nice mylar. I do have the entire set (1-6), all in about this same condition though, so it could be fun to get the whole set done... Anyway, curious on your thoughts as to grade:

Just won these the other day on a series of 5 auctions from the same seller. Just came in the mail today:

Depends on if you want to keep it for your PC, and how badly you want a long-term copy (and maybe how much you paid in the first place). I'd been wanting a newsstand CGC copy of 655 for my PC, but I hadn't gotten around to getting one. As soon as I heard the news, I went and grabbed a 9.2 CGC newsstand on eBay for $140 - a week ago I thought that was a bit high, but once the news hit I figured it was my best shot at getting one. I'm betting on the idea that the price will increase, and I could flip it if I wanted, but I won't because then I might not get a replacement down the road. It's a tricky, subjective thing - if you paid $150 a while ago for a 9.8 and could get $500 now, and you don't care if it leaves your collection, then I'd say go for it. If you're going to regret not having the 9.8 anymore, then I'd maybe just keep it. Sure, you could sell for $500 and maybe it dips again to $300-400 and you luck out on a re-buy, but maybe it holds at $500 or goes higher if the movie goes well and the DCU takes off in a similar way to the MCU. A lot of DC books have been undervalued compared to Marvel books, and if the DCU can match the popularity of the MCU, we could finally see these books climb to new heights and actually hold their value at a new "floor." Personally, I'm glad these books are going up, but I won't sell my copies - I have plenty of other books I can sell, and I like owning these.

Son of the Demon is such a great book.

What, it's not like the number on the corner changes, right??

Not sure if this one was done, but I'm too lazy to look: \