Need some advice on a bunch of Valiants

[steveout22]

I recently bought about 6000 books and I got about 1500 to 2000 Valiants, some have boards and some don't, all are bagged and in excellent condition. My question is if I put these up in my ebay store does anyone think that anyone will buy them? I've never sold Valiants because everyone thinks they suck. So either I invest the time and energy into listing them, and the money for the boards I need, or I just dump them for pennies in a live auction lot. I'd like to know what people think about my predicament. Thanks.

[awe4one]

The pre-Unity Valiants should sell well. Also, any Acclaim issues towards the end of their run. In between is quarter fodder...

 

Jim

[ashrael]

Yeah, pre-Unity will sell if in good shape.

[Rodey]

paging valiantman. valiantman? He can help

[VintageComics]

Can someone give a Cliff's notes version of the whol Valiant thing? I have no idea what pre-Unity means, what people look for, what is hot...etc.

 

R.

 

[steveout22]

I just looked it up on Wikipedia-Pre-Unity is 1989-1992. Valiant came out with a huge crossover line in 1992 called Unity that boosted sales and production, so everything before that is considered rarer and more valuable. I'll check into what I have...Thanks for the advice thus far.

[snitzer]

Check out Valiantfans.com. Seems to have the skinny on all things Valiant including pricing, publication runs, variant information, etc. (thumbs u

[MCMiles]

Pre Unity, Incentives (Golds and Platinum copies), VVSS (Valiant Validated Signiture Series), and the last 10 or so issues of the Valiant runs ( basicaly issues from 1995 when print runs were lower) are the only ones worth puting any time in to listing. Even as lots they won't do well enough to justify the shipping for most buyers or the time involved. There may be a few exceptions. I have seen Unity sets do ok.

 

You should definitely check out Valiantfans.com. You can check the print runs and everything on there. You will also be able to learn about the line and the different variants, that way you won't accidently give away a rare piece for next to nothing.

[Dick Pontoon]

You might want to PM ckb, too. I believe he has a good handle on the Valiant market. I'm surprised he hasn't chimed in and assume he hasn't checked the boards today.

[CKB]

Busy spending your taxpayer money.... Wait, mine too!

 

With the quantities you are talking about, it's extrememly likely you have 90-95% Unity to Birthquake, 1993-1995ish. The wikipedia entry was correct - this era was overprinted and everyone was stuck with lots of overstock. If you have a broad range of issues you could make sets for eBay, but you are basically looking at running a shipping business with minimal profit. As an example, I offered a set of 200 different Valiants from this era, $50 postage paid, on the Valiant boards last year with no takers. With increased interest I might get a taker now, though. But it's barely worth the time to put that together.

 

If you have stuff pre-unity, it should be easy to sell for $1 each or more even if it's not in the best shape. If they are 9.4ish, you should generally be able to get about $3-$5 each for non-keys and up to $20 and higher for keys. If they are gradable, slabbed 9.6 non keys sell generally for $20ish right now, with some notable exceptions both high and low. The census numbers are very relevant.

 

The post-Birthquake 1995/6 books will sell just as well, if not better than the pre-unity. The runs on these were small and they are missing from many collectors runs. Condition and print run determine price, from $1 up to $25 for last issues of Bloodshot, Magnus, XO, and Solar in superior condition.

 

If you have and Harbinger 1's, Solar 10s, Magnus 12s, or Rai 3,4s, you probably want to pull those and handle them well. Gold/Variants (most are easy to identify because they have no cover price) and late issues too.

 

Post 1996 you get into the Acclaim VH2 stuff, and while the print runs are low, the audience is small. Certain books are impossible to find, though, and will bring money.

 

Valiantcomics.com is the answer. It's all there.

 

[CKB]

I've never sold Valiants because everyone thinks they suck.

 

Just to clarify - I answered you despite this comment, because I assumed you meant "they suck to SELL" and not that the content sucks. Because, you know, that would have offended me....

 

[steveout22]

I never read a Valiant, myself. I meant everyone thinks they suck to sell, which also implies that they suck period, I guess. But it didn't include anything personal, in any case, since I never read one.

 

Thanks for all the information!!

[valiantman]

I never read a Valiant, myself. I meant everyone thinks they suck to sell, which also implies that they suck period, I guess. But it didn't include anything personal, in any case, since I never read one.

 

Thanks for all the information!!

 

Valiant sucks? That's got to be news to the 1,697 members of ValiantFans.com

http://valiantfans.com/forum/index.php

 

Not a single Valiant comic book (the $3 kind) has been printed in 12 years...

but there are 1,697 people still interested enough to JOIN a fan messageboard.

(...and thousands of others who read it but haven't joined yet...)

 

I guess what I'm saying is this:

 

If you are a comic shop owner and ALL you have left from the Valiant era

is the 1993-1994 books that were printed in the hundreds of thousands,

then your Valiant inventory certainly sucks rocks through a straw.

A Valiant collector who walks into your store will walk out having

wasted his time. (...which sucks for Valiant collectors.)

 

People who might be interested in Valiant for the very first time will come

into your store and ask about Valiant, you'll say "Valiant sucks, but here's some 1993 junk"

and they'll probably take a look, think it's no big deal, and wonder why anyone

is talking about Valiant at all.

 

What people like about Valiant is what comic shop owners DON'T HAVE.

What people collect from Valiant is what ISN'T readily available.

What makes Valiant "a big deal" is what DOESN'T fill bargain boxes.

 

I would say 90% of the books Valiant printed aren't "all that".

They might be "ok", but who's going to be talking about "ok"?

Who's registering on an "ok fan" messageboard?

 

Want to know why Valiant doesn't suck?

Don't ask the comic dealer whose inventory is just "leftovers".

Ask the collectors who cherry-picked the best Valiant stuff years ago.

 

If you want to know about diamonds you don't ask a charcoal dealer.

 

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/intro.asp (thumbs u

 

...and when's the last time a regular edition of a Marvel or DC comic

printed in the past 30 years sold for $2,500?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270222446530

[CAMERANIAC]

[steveout22]

I never read a Valiant, myself. I meant everyone thinks they suck to sell, which also implies that they suck period, I guess. But it didn't include anything personal, in any case, since I never read one.

 

Thanks for all the information!!

 

Valiant sucks? That's got to be news to the 1,697 members of ValiantFans.com

http://valiantfans.com/forum/index.php

 

Not a single Valiant comic book (the $3 kind) has been printed in 12 years...

but there are 1,697 people still interested enough to JOIN a fan messageboard.

(...and thousands of others who read it but haven't joined yet...)

 

I guess what I'm saying is this:

 

If you are a comic shop owner and ALL you have left from the Valiant era

is the 1993-1994 books that were printed in the hundreds of thousands,

then your Valiant inventory certainly sucks rocks through a straw.

A Valiant collector who walks into your store will walk out having

wasted his time. (...which sucks for Valiant collectors.)

 

People who might be interested in Valiant for the very first time will come

into your store and ask about Valiant, you'll say "Valiant sucks, but here's some 1993 junk"

and they'll probably take a look, think it's no big deal, and wonder why anyone

is talking about Valiant at all.

 

What people like about Valiant is what comic shop owners DON'T HAVE.

What people collect from Valiant is what ISN'T readily available.

What makes Valiant "a big deal" is what DOESN'T fill bargain boxes.

 

I would say 90% of the books Valiant printed aren't "all that".

They might be "ok", but who's going to be talking about "ok"?

Who's registering on an "ok fan" messageboard?

 

Want to know why Valiant doesn't suck?

Don't ask the comic dealer whose inventory is just "leftovers".

Ask the collectors who cherry-picked the best Valiant stuff years ago.

 

If you want to know about diamonds you don't ask a charcoal dealer.

 

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/intro.asp (thumbs u

 

...and when's the last time a regular edition of a Marvel or DC comic

printed in the past 30 years sold for $2,500?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270222446530

 

Hum, yeah I'm coming from the perspective of a dealer, you know, so when your thinking of buying stock the common mentality is you don't want to get stuck with a bunch of lousy Valiants that no one wants-just no market for most of it...or that was what I was trying to determine more precisely, just what the market is. So that is the "sucky" part of Valiants which you yourself agreed with-most of whats out there, the mass produced 93, 94 stuff is mainly unwanted stuff. That might also be said of course for many other books produced by Marvel and DC during that era, like Death's Head, for example. The difference is that that is just one small aspect of what Marvel has done over a course of many years, whereas with Valiant is consititutes the majority of what there is...

[valiantman]

So that is the "sucky" part of Valiants which you yourself agreed with-most of whats out there, the mass produced 93, 94 stuff is mainly unwanted stuff. That might also be said of course for many other books produced by Marvel and DC during that era, like Death's Head, for example. The difference is that that is just one small aspect of what Marvel has done over a course of many years, whereas with Valiant is consititutes the majority of what there is...

 

Valiant printed 80,000,000 comic books over about a five year span (1991-1996).

 

About 3,000,000 of those books are "collectible" to a Valiant enthusiast...

with the majority being July 1992 or earlier. Some love is shown for books from 1996.

 

So, about 1 in 30 Valiant comic books is "collectible".

In a longbox of 200 random Valiant comics, there are about 7 worth grabbing.

In store stock, Valiant collectors probably grabbed those 7 books years ago.

 

Once in a while, a Valiant collection DOES include the best books...

either a dealer who put them back for a rainy day (that never came after 1994),

or a collection that was complete that got liquidated all at once.

 

Because you mentioned 1,500 to 2,000 Valiants in your mix,

and because Valiant only printed about 800 different books,

there's a really good chance that it's not someone's hand-built collection.

There are duplicates... lots of them... and that points to "store stock"...

which means you can only cross your fingers that the 1-in-30 ratio

still applies and those collectible books haven't already been cherry-picked.

 

After 1996, Valiant became "Acclaim versions" of the titles...

so even though Valiant collectors are often interested in certain later

Acclaim comics, they're not likely to be what a dealer labels as "Valiant comics".

 

Some good ones 1991-92 and some good ones 1996...

Everything in between is "filler" for most Valiant collectors...

but there isn't a single Valiant title that went past 68 issues.

Every Valiant title that started in 1991 or 1992 has SOME collectibles issues.

There's SOMETHING worthwhile in every Valiant title that got the company going.

 

Valiant has "sucky" issues... no doubt... but if you've got thousands of books

from the 1993-94 timeframe, I'm afraid the publisher doesn't matter much.

 

Compare Valiant "suck" to "successful" titles like Amazing Spider-man,

Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc., where any particular five-year span

from the 1990s is ACTUALLY 99% "filler" (aka "suck") as well.

 

Anything "amazing" happen in Amazing Spider-man #325 to #425?

Anything "uncanny" about Uncanny X-Men #300 to #400?

Anything "fantastic" about Fantastic Four #250 to #400?

 

Look at those runs of 100 or 150 consecutive issues of "filler" in what's "popular".

Maybe a $4 book here or there... something that MIGHT be able to stand

on its own as a raw, near mint, eBay auction for just one issue

(...and not be chronically unsold for $0.99 plus $3 for shipping).

 

How "friendly" is the Funeral For A Friend series looking on the market today?

How "super" is the Return of Superman multi-title event?

Has the back issue market recovered quickly for books about Batman's broken back?

 

Is there any 2008 love for 1990s copies of Youngblood? Brigade? Wildcats? Shadowhawk?

 

What was selling in the early 1990s? Lots of things.

What from the early 1990s STILL sells today? Very, very few things.

 

If you've got early-to-mid-1990s books, a few Valiant books MIGHT just be the best thing you've got.

[selegue]

I never read a Valiant, myself. I meant everyone thinks they suck to sell, which also implies that they suck period, I guess. But it didn't include anything personal, in any case, since I never read one.

 

Thanks for all the information!!

 

Valiant sucks? That's got to be news to the 1,697 members of ValiantFans.com

http://valiantfans.com/forum/index.php....

 

...and when's the last time a regular edition of a Marvel or DC comic

printed in the past 30 years sold for $2,500?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270222446530

 

There's going to be a Harbinger movie??

 

I'd say that the Harbinger paperback collection (Children of the Eight Day, issues 1-4) is one of the best of the bargain bin. You can often find it for a buck or less and it's a really good read.

 

Jack

[musicmeta]

Valiant comics rock! Great reading for at least the first 3-4 years. The Pre-Unity books are some of the BEST books I've ever read with fantastic stories and pretty darn good art. A lot of Post Unity books are great reads too. X-O Manowar is one of my all time favorite titles. I hope it makes a comeback to stardom soon.

 

There's not a better cohesive story line then the Pre-Unity issues. Everything ties together well. LONG LIVE VALIANT comics!

[steveout22]

This is not my auction but I thought I'd put it up here for some of you Valiant fans. Original art from the Harbinger #1 book is on sale on ebay right now and it is not being bid up rediculously high so far with only a day left to go. This could be a nice relatively inexpensive aquisition for someone, which has a huge potential for future gains. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130221430153&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=003

 

Make sure to view the sellers other auctions because he has two more pieces going from the same book.

[G.A.tor]

I still have a complete preunity Valiant run/collection that I bought and read in the early 90's... haven't thought about them or looked at them in years... might re-read and then pass them on