I'm stunned...

[RedRaven]

but he says ...

With a reported print-run of 200 copies, this is perhaps the rarest and most desirable of all Batman comics.

 

Already canceling my orders for Batman 2 so I can bid on this sweet mutha

 

[uluru]

[FlyingDonut]

Here's full disclosure:

 

I currently have NO copies of Batman 608 RRP. I also have NO copies of the Superman-Batman Ft. Wayne RRP. I have NO copies of the Fables 6 RRP, and I have NO copies of the Global Frequency 1 RRP. I have ONE copy of the 1999 All-Star Comics RRP, which is CGC graded and slabbed as a 9.0 copy and I'm not selling, as it is one of the coolest covers I've ever seen.

 

I have sold 5 copies of the Batman 608 RRP. Two in February, for $480 and $525, one in March for $590, one in April for $660 (all on eBay), and one in May in a trade deal with a major dealer for $750 in trade.

 

I have sold 3 copies of the Fables 6 RRP (and get asked for it all the time - if you want a book with legs, this one is it). Two in February, one at a stupid BIN of $45, one for $90, and one in April for $80.

 

The Global Frequency 1 RRP does not sell, and hasn't since it came out. I tried to sell two in February and was rejected.

 

Personal attacks aside, I strongly believe a non-slabbed copy of the Batman 608 RRP has legs, and I would pay real money for one right now. How many of them are there? We were told 200 were given out. How many MORE did they print - this is NOT a "manufactured collectible", this was a retailer incentive, and DC, in order to make attendance at their boring RRPs attractive, has a legitimate business case to make to keep the RRP numbers down. Did they make 1000 of them? 2000?

 

Here - I'll commit heresy. What is the difference between the Batman 608 RRP 9.8 selling for $2400 and the Star Wars 1 35 cent variant 9.2 selling for $3600?

 

NOTHING. There is a demand for the book. I thought I had broke the bank when I sold that Star Wars 1 for $1386 42 months ago. I guess I should have kept it.

[Illiterati-migration]

That explains it. Captain Kirk is bidding on these books.

 

Beam me up...Scotty.

 

Scotty beamed me twice last night... it was wonderful.

[joe_collector]

Here - I'll commit heresy. What is the difference between the Batman 608 RRP 9.8 selling for $2400 and the Star Wars 1 35 cent variant 9.2 selling for $3600?

 

Quite a bit.

 

1) Distribution. The SW 1 35-centers were not a manufactured collectible and were available on the newstands. This is a biggie for me, and if buyers did not have a chance to purchase something retail, then it's a manufactured collectible and not a true comic.

 

2) Age. You can't compare a rare, true (market research) variant to something DC just crapped out as a prize for their retailers. The SW 1 35-cent edition has a long history of high valuation and has been a big $$ book since the 80's.

 

3) Attrition. Older books and price variants went years before they were identified as key, and had a high rate of attrition. It's the old "my mom tossed my comics" bit at work, and totally different from greedy retailers tucking their "manufactured incentive" straight into a Mylar and selling it on EBay.

 

I've always believed these manufactured collectibles shoot themselves in the foot by their artificially limited numbers. The real, long-term, high-value books are those that were printed in the millions (exposure), yet only a few exist today. These manufactured collectibles try and emulate the Golden Age mentality, but always fail because old, rare comics are about a whole lot more than just printing 200 copies of a book in 2003.

[RedRaven]

what he said!!!!

[supapimp]

batman 608 RRP and SW1 .35 cents are not in the same boat, it's like comparing apples and oranges.

[BachelorOfComix]

I strongly believe a non-slabbed copy of the Batman 608 RRP has legs, and I would pay real money for one right now.

What's a good price to pay for a raw copy? I want in on this fleecing action.

[uluru]

I totally agree whith you Joe!

[Aman619]

I agree with the Donut on this comparison. The two books were created for different reasons, at different print runs, and almost 30 years apart, but both sell for wayyy too much money to a small subset of comics collectors.

 

anyway, I spoke out in favor of the 608 RRP as a great 'investment" long-term because it's the rarest version of what will be a classic Batman story. But, that was predicated on the belief that there really are only 200 copies. Seems like that may not be the case. 200 were handed out, but how many more were produced? Were there exactly 200 retailers who showed up? Were the rest destroyed? Did some retailers get more than one copy?

[joe_collector]

I want everyone to really mull this over:

 

No disrespect to 'House, but he recently stated that he was going to attend a DC retailer event, and his main reason for going was that the "resale value of the retailer incentive would pay for his trip".

 

I'd like everyone to think long and hard about the implications of this scenario, and what sort of buyer pre-values these incentives so highly, even before they're available to the mass market.

[comicmankev]

Imagine. Your a retailer in comics. Your job is to make money from the sale of comics. If someone said they were gonna give you a free comic and you'd be able to sell it for a couple of G's:

 

 

 

 

I know what I'd do, and if someone is willing to pay it, more fool them!

 

[joe_collector]

I know what I'd do, and if someone is willing to pay it, more fool them!

 

Hey, my comment wasn't a morality play, but a pretty clear indication that DC and their retailers are trying to print money. Hold a retailer conference, distribute a limited edition incentive, and everyone gets rich.

 

This is exactly the kind of flawed mentality that led to so many of the problems in the mid-1990's, and it will catch up to the biz this time as well.

[valiantman]

This is exactly the kind of flawed mentality that led to so many of the problems in the mid-1990's, and it will catch up to the biz this time as well.

Which is worse:

 

A few copies (however many there are) of a "new book" that sell for $2k each,

but only after they've been properly slabbed, and if it gets a 9.8...

and only sell to someone with $2k to burn (obviously).

 

Or

 

An industry where 7 Million copies of Adventures of Superman #500 are printed,

and pre-ordered by thousands of "out on a limb" dealers for at least $1 each?

 

One situation (608 RRP) is limited to a few individuals with $2k in their pocket.

No kids... no "potential comic lovers"... no "solid, serious enthusiasts".

 

The "white bag" Adv. Of Superman #500 situation affected everyone who was

interested in comics at the time, and though it only cost a few dollars

from each person involved... it calculates into a sunk cost that no one

will ever see again in a "collectible" that drained at least $7,000,000

from the hobby. (And drained enthusiasm from the hobbyists.)

Not to mention the millions of die-cut "return of the Supermen" books giving

us a Superman for every taste... except good taste.

 

What "killed the hobby" in the mid-1990s was tens of millions of dollars being sucked

from all of the little hands reaching out to buy one or two comics at cover price,

only to see the same book for sale two months later for $0.50.

 

High dollar comics in the mid-1990s didn't turn away hundreds of thousands of people,

because hundreds of thousands of people didn't have any, and didn't lose anything.

[Smokinghawk]

By the way, what does "RRP" stand for?

[joe_collector]

High dollar comics in the mid-1990s didn't turn away hundreds of thousands of people, because hundreds of thousands of people didn't have any, and didn't lose anything.

 

You're kidding right?

 

I'm gonna have to post some of those two-page ads outlining the high-end Gold, Prism, Signature, Limited, Ultra Limited, Museum, DF, etc. Valiant, Defiant, Image, and even Marvel and DC, issues that were viewed as "sure fire investments".

 

All that over-hyped newstand [!@#%^&^] may have helped a lot, but don't ignore the impact of the "manufactured retailer limited editions crash" of the mid-90's.

[joe_collector]

By the way, what does "RRP" stand for?

 

$$$$$$$

[ArAich]

It's called a "manufactured collectable"...

 

This doesn't just happen in the world of comics....

[Foolkiller]

I still think there's a difference between the early 90s crash and looking at the Bats 608 book or any retailer incentive book the same way. In the 90s, you had a huge stream of books like Valiant losing all quality, Plasm etc (as someone just mentioned) losing all value where stores and people sunk a lot of money into it. Retailer incentive editions, while obviously very rare, do not have stores ordering stacks and stacks of them.

 

I see that there were limited edition retailer prints back in the 90s too... and even though it looks like DC, Marvel etc. are trying to capitalize on that again, I don't see the same type of dynamic occurring here.

 

That being said, the book is selling for far more than I would pay for it, but that's basically because I have no interest in owning this book. For the life of me, I don't see why you want this book. I know it's rare, but there isn't anything terribly special about it in the least, and there certainly isn't anything particularly cool about the cover. I guess it's just the idea of owning a copy that has people going.

[valiantman]

You're kidding right?

 

I'm gonna have to post some of those two-page ads outlining the high-end Gold, Prism, Signature, Limited, Ultra Limited, Museum, DF, etc. Valiant, Defiant, Image, and even Marvel and DC, issues that were viewed as "sure fire investments".

 

I remember those ads... and I remember I never bought a single book from them.

I did buy more than one copy of Turok #1, at least five of Adv. of Superman #500,

two each of the "return of Superman die-cut" four issues... several copies

of Batman #492, and #497... Image books, Marvel books with holograms...

lots of early Spawns... but I never paid more than cover price for anything.

 

Yet, me, my friends, and my friends' friends all quit collecting in mid-1990s.

We didn't have any gold issues. We didn't buy any $100 books of any kind.

 

We "lost out" on everything we bought because the quality wasn't even worth

the cover price. And a hobby without quality is a hobby that's easy to drop.