How many copies of Hulk #181 in CGC 9.4 or better condition exist?

[MMMarvel-migration]

You would have to have 83,334 survive at a 12% rate to get 10,000 CGC 9.4. Does anyone think that many copies have survived? Or if that many have survived enough of them are worth submitting to CGC in hopes of getting a CGC 9.4?

 

First appearance of major character, horded by dealers and speculators, meticulously looked after by collectors...so YES I do think that many have survived.

 

You would also have to believe those same dealers and speculators who have hoarded 10,000+ raw Hulk #181s in HG condition because they meticulously looked after them wouldn't want to send 500-1000 or so to CGC to cash in on the X-men and Hulk movie hype and make a fortune while still holding onto a substantial amount of raw HG copies. For those of you that believe there are 10,000+ copies floating around out there, why would anyone pass up the opportunity to sell at the PEAK time to make a profit? Wouldn't make sense for a guy to hold onto all 300 HG copies in his collection and not cash at least 25-50% of them while they are priced at the highest level they will ever be at. The data just doesn't add up to support 10,000+ claim.

[blowout]

For those of you that believe there are 10,000+ copies floating around out there, why would anyone pass up the opportunity to sell at the PEAK time to make a profit?

 

Because it would flood the market with an over-supply and dramatically reduce the books value. Much more prudent to send the books in for grading at a steady rate and maintain the books price stability, don't you think?

[THE_BEYONDER]

For those of you that believe there are 10,000+ copies floating around out there, why would anyone pass up the opportunity to sell at the PEAK time to make a profit?

 

Because it would flood the market with an over-supply and dramatically reduce the books value. Much more prudent to send the books in for grading at a steady rate and maintain the books price stability, don't you think?

 

Hmmmm......

 

So how many you holding?

[blowout]

So how many you holding?

 

What, tell you and damage my potential resale values?

[Kevin Boyd]

Yeah, it tells me that not everyone has submitted their copy of Incredible Hulk 181 to CGC for grading. How dare they hold back!

 

No one is allowed to keep ungraded copies in private collections, especially those owned by people who don't like or know about CGC grading, or haven't been following the craziness that has been surrounding the book in the High Grade collector's market these days. Those aren't valid excuses.

 

Kev

[MMMarvel-migration]

For those of you that believe there are 10,000+ copies floating around out there, why would anyone pass up the opportunity to sell at the PEAK time to make a profit?

 

Because it would flood the market with an over-supply and dramatically reduce the books value. Much more prudent to send the books in for grading at a steady rate and maintain the books price stability, don't you think?

 

I totally agree that a lot of people would probably take your approach, but a lot of others would try to cash in quickly while the bubble lasts. The fact that NOBODY is cashing in with large numbers of HG Hulk #181s is very telling IMHO.

[MMMarvel-migration]

Yeah, it tells me that not everyone has submitted their copy of Incredible Hulk 181 to CGC for grading. How dare they hold back!

 

No one is allowed to keep ungraded copies in private collections, especially those owned by people who don't like or know about CGC grading, or haven't been following the craziness that has been surrounding the book in the High Grade collector's market these days. Those aren't valid excuses.

 

Kev

 

That argument might make sense for people that only have 1 or 2 raw copies of HG Hulk #181, but for those who have 10s if not 100s of HG copies it wouldn't make sense not to grade 25-50% of them for sell while the bubble lasts. The only logical thing to do for someone sitting on lots of raw HG copies would be to get a bunch of them CGC'd and cash in while the hype of the movies is going on and make the most money (like maybe 5 a month starting just before the 1st X-men movie came out). Why would someone keep 10s or 100s of the same comic if he/she didn't plan on selling them at some point? Do people buy hundreds of copies of Ultimate Spidey #1 to keep for ever and ever or to sell and make some money when the time is right? If there are 10,000 copies of HG Hulk 181 out there I would suggest people aren't hanging onto 100s of copies for the fun of it, but instead because they think they are going to continue to go up in value.

 

I could be wrong though and taking 500 HG copies of Hulk #181 to your grave would be more logical approach than selling.

[Kevin Boyd]

Your talk of logic and sense makes no sense when it comes to what people will or won't do. You are talking about what makes sense to you... what is logical to you...

 

Some people will sit on something forever if they think that it is of value to someone else. In their mind, if Hulk 181 is commanding high prices now, imagine what will happend 5 years from now... 10 years from now... and so on.

 

Talk about logic and sense all you want but some collectors and dealers are holding tight. They might sell if they think the bottom is falling out though.

 

Kev

 

[MMMarvel-migration]

Sounds like we need another Hulk #181 poll on whether or not people think the value will increase or decrease.

[joe_collector]

Your talk of logic and sense makes no sense when it comes to what people will or won't do. You are talking about what makes sense to you... what is logical to you...

 

Not to mention placing your own economic situation onto others. You may think 10 copies of Hulk 181 are "big money" but to some others, that's their fee at the golf club.

 

There are some rich BSD's with tons of uber-valuable GA and SA hoardes and you're expecting them to be concerned with their Bronze books? One copy of Action Comics #1 can buy a whole lot of Hulk 181's.

[Bugaboo-migration]

[greggy]

Your talk of logic and sense makes no sense when it comes to what people will or won't do. You are talking about what makes sense to you... what is logical to you...

 

Not to mention placing your own economic situation onto others. You may think 10 copies of Hulk 181 are "big money" but to some others, that's their fee at the golf club.

 

There are some rich BSD's with tons of uber-valuable GA and SA hoardes and you're expecting them to be concerned with their Bronze books? One copy of Action Comics #1 can buy a whole lot of Hulk 181's.

Yep...I was advised in SD that the owner of the CGC 9.9 copies has multi-million dollar investments in various other ventures so the $60K cash offer made to him is chump change. He had no intention to sell the book in SD and was only lending it for display.

[valiantman]

If it's generally agreed that 200,000 Hulk 181's were printed...

AND if the book was "appreciated" from the beginning...

AND since less than 1% of those books have been CGC graded in two years...

AND 10% of those submitted have been graded CGC 9.4 or better...

 

Then... yeah... that's about it. No more high grades out there.

[ghoulaid]

I originally guessed there were about 2,000 high grade (9.4+) Hulk 181s floating around. When this book came out, there weren't that many serious collectors. TBG had a circulation of around 4,000 (those were most of the hard core collectors) so I would guess there were 20,000 collectors at most. Easily, the vast majority went to supermarkets, 7-11's, drug stores and other mainstream outlets where they were abused on spinner racks and people thumbing through them. The direct market was in it's infancy and there weren't many comic shops but I could estimate 40,000 copies went the direct route where they landed in the hands of people who would take care of them. A quantity of those weren't 9.4+ to begin with and many others suffered damage through handling, accidents, etc over the years. 2,000 copies seemed a reasonable estimate to me - until I just read they were found in the MH2 collection. So, there MAY be 10,000. I still doubt it though based on the relatively tiny number of 9.4s in the census.