Journey into Mystery-Hype in High grade

[ross]

Thor has been my favorite since I was a kid, so this year I started to collect Journey into Mystery again. As I was buying the comics, I found a pleasant surprise, that they seemed to be very rare in high grade. Other people started digging in the census and they too realized how few of these there are in high grade, and prices have gone through the roof, even in the last 6 months.

 

Now that prices are catching on, more and more copies of HG Journey's have been showing up, see this thread

 

I myself have just sent off 35 JIM books to CGC, ranging from 7.0 to 9.2 (except for the overgraded JIM 83 that I rant about in the ebay alert thread.)

 

My question is this: Were they scarce because they were undervalued, so nobody really spent the money to CGC them? Will the census re-adjust itself to where 6 months from now, they are similar in quantity to other Silver Age titles from this time?

 

 

Has there been any other situation to compare it to?

 

 

[Flaming_Telepath]

I don't think there's hype around these books...they are, and always have been, hard to find in high grade. Even before CGC, these books didn't turn up often, and when they did, they always commanded premium prices.

As to why...

Yes, the print runs were lower than other titles from the same era...Spidey, F.F....and so you're starting with less availability. Also, the title was for many years overlooked in comparison and so there were fewer copies kept by informed collectors. Too many in battered boxes and too few in mylars in vaults.

And as to when the guide value will catch up with the prices actually realised...probably when enough dealers turn up enough copies for them to make money out of a guide rise. They are currently books that dealers don't have, but want, and so the Overstreet will be kept low so that they can buy them in cheaply.