OUCH !!!! ............. if you "invested" in Thor 9.8 Simonson run

[mschmidt]

actually, that's a stupid idea.

Not if you sell all but one to enjoy!

 

If only a couple copies pass the 9.8 pre-screen, it wouldn't be very smart, though.

[ciorac]

actually, that's a stupid idea.

 

Actually it's a pretty good idea.

[s-man]

Got some nice Byrne FFs!

[tth2]

This is not .

 

These books have never been rare in high grade. In my opinion, nothing after 1966 or 1967 is rare in high grade. It just hasn't come to market yet. That's why I no longer bother with top census books. It's a moot point.

(thumbs u

[the blob]

by and large these are books you can and will see at shows sitting in dollar or less boxes, sometimes 20, 30, 50 or whatever copies. are they 9.8s? probably not from riding the show circuit, but some no doubt are.

 

agree on simonson, those books were HOT by 338 and people were hoarding tons of them. if you are buying the run it is the value of the slab they are in, these are, at most, dollar books. ditto those byrne FFs and X-Men and just about anything else. why anyone would pay any real money for a high grade copy is beyond me. if you want to pay $5 for a HG raw copy, fine, but $50 for a slab? silly time if you think there's an "investment" there. you don't need neatstuff unloading a case, practically everyone who was collecting back then has multiple high grade copies of these books because these were "sure fire" hot books of the future!!

 

other than thor 339, the finest of all of them, which I own only about 100 copies of....

 

oh, and by the way, my friend had a case of those 339s. he sat on them for YEARS. when he closed his shop in 200 he gave me a big chunk of that case, as he had no use for them. alas , even sitting untouched for 15+ years these were, by and large, not 9.8s.

 

oh, i'm not saying these cases won't produce some 9.8s, but are 20 more copies of thor 342 in 9.8 really going to change that market? i can't imagine the book is worth much more than the cost of enslabbing it anyway.

[the blob]

funny thing is, if neatstuff bagged and boarded these books out of the case and put a sticker on them saying they were straight out of these case, they would barely be able to sell a fraction of them at $1 each.

 

why have these sat in cases? because there hasn't been a market for these books in the dollar box (O.K., the x-men are a close call on that point). now someone will get it in their head they can score a bunch of 9.8s out of these books. but what about the 270+ copies that don't make the cut???

 

honestly, i do not see enough profit in those 20-30 9.8s to make this worthwhile. maybe i'm wrong, i dunno. are these $50 in 9.8 or less?

[sterlingcomics]

• I agree in general anything after late silver is generally not scarce in grade.
  
• I also think there are exceptions to the above rule. Right before the DC implosion (where Batman Family was created) there are in fact fewer numbers. I don't think it's coincidence that many issues in titles I collect are around 1975-1976.
  
• I think that many mid seventies books have not come to market simply because of the minimal financial reward in doing so. I am however, seeing more and more show up over time.
  
• I share the same problem with you...five years collecting my titles and I still have dozens of "easy bronze" issues that have not surfaced. I'm sure the above are all overall factors.
  
• I don't think there's a snowball chance in hades that those boxes are all gem mint. Keep in mind...it's neatstuff.
  

[Mr 9.8]

What do you think the odds are that SOMEBODY out there has a cupple of un-opend cases of MIRACLEMAN comics just waiting to be sold? Evan if they were not 9.8 or better quality it would still be great having these on the market.(Plus I'd finally get a #15 to read!

[RockMyAmadeus]

What do you think the odds are that SOMEBODY out there has a cupple of un-opend cases of MIRACLEMAN comics just waiting to be sold? Evan if they were not 9.8 or better quality it would still be great having these on the market.(Plus I'd finally get a #15 to read!

 

None. At least, not after issue #7 or so.

 

Miracleman #1 was hot out of the gate, but remember that all of Eclipse's backstock was destroyed in the 1986 flood (which would have included #1-5-ish), and #1s would have been widely distributed.

 

After that, because of the erratic publishing schedule, print runs nosedived, so by the time Olympus came aruond, buyers were ordering single copies, and no one was "hoarding them."

 

Then, of course, the 1993 flood which wiped out the rest, and you have odds that are astronomically against "cases" of MM being left.

 

What really hurts?

 

My sister attended Sonoma State University, which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from Guerneville. I could easily have bought, prior to 1993, all the copies of later issues I wanted, plus trades galore.

 

Sigh.

[the blob]

but some of those miracelemen are pretty common, right? i know one of my LCSes sprinkles the dollar boxes with what look like copies that haven't seen the light of day for 20 or whatever years, meaining practically perfect. if i can get them before the back issue bending a-holes get to them that is.

[Mr 9.8]

but some of those miracelemen are pretty common, right? i know one of my LCSes sprinkles the dollar boxes with what look like copies that haven't seen the light of day for 20 or whatever years, meaining practically perfect. if i can get them before the back issue bending a-holes get to them that is.

Does he still have them?

[Mr 9.8]

What do you think the odds are that SOMEBODY out there has a cupple of un-opend cases of MIRACLEMAN comics just waiting to be sold? Evan if they were not 9.8 or better quality it would still be great having these on the market.(Plus I'd finally get a #15 to read!

 

None. At least, not after issue #7 or so.

 

Miracleman #1 was hot out of the gate, but remember that all of Eclipse's backstock was destroyed in the 1986 flood (which would have included #1-5-ish), and #1s would have been widely distributed.

 

After that, because of the erratic publishing schedule, print runs nosedived, so by the time Olympus came aruond, buyers were ordering single copies, and no one was "hoarding them."

 

Then, of course, the 1993 flood which wiped out the rest, and you have odds that are astronomically against "cases" of MM being left.

 

What really hurts?

 

My sister attended Sonoma State University, which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from Guerneville. I could easily have bought, prior to 1993, all the copies of later issues I wanted, plus trades galore.

 

Sigh.

I know all to well about the GREAT Eclipse floods! But I can still hope!

[FlyingDonut]

but some of those miracelemen are pretty common, right? i know one of my LCSes sprinkles the dollar boxes with what look like copies that haven't seen the light of day for 20 or whatever years, meaining practically perfect. if i can get them before the back issue bending a-holes get to them that is.

 

Miracleman books prior to issue 8 are as common as dirt. They're EVERYWHERE.

[mschmidt]

but some of those miracelemen are pretty common, right? i know one of my LCSes sprinkles the dollar boxes with what look like copies that haven't seen the light of day for 20 or whatever years, meaining practically perfect. if i can get them before the back issue bending a-holes get to them that is.

 

Miracleman books prior to issue 8 are as common as dirt. They're EVERYWHERE.

 

That's not entirely accurate - Miracleman #1-4 are as common as dirt, seeing that Eclipse did a huge warehouse sell-off of just those 4 issues. But #5-7 are a different story - there hasn't really been any bulk sales of those issues like the ones that happened with #1-4.

 

Not saying that any of those issues are particularly hard to find, but I'd definitely put #1-4 in one class and #5-7 in another.

[Aman619]

the 9.8s are not in dealer stock, but safely planted in bags and boards within minutes of being gently taken on the store shelves the day they came out. Sure not all of them are 9.8s cause they werent even then. but the 9.8s then are still 9.8s cause they have never been read or touched since.

[tth2]

the 9.8s are not in dealer stock, but safely planted in bags and boards within minutes of being gently taken on the store shelves the day they came out. Sure not all of them are 9.8s cause they werent even then. but the 9.8s then are still 9.8s cause they have never been read or touched since.

Well, sometimes they're dealer or warehouse stock. Has anyone noticed all the early BA DCs (Action, Superman, Detective) that Heritage has been selling off in 9.8 week after week after week in its weekly auctions? Unless there was a collector who was a major hoarder, it's unlikely so many copies of the same issue was culled from different private collections, so they had to come from either dealer stock or a warehouse find.

 

What's been even more amazing to me is how much the books continue to go for even after so many 9.8 and 9.6 issues have already come out.

[RockMyAmadeus]

but some of those miracelemen are pretty common, right? i know one of my LCSes sprinkles the dollar boxes with what look like copies that haven't seen the light of day for 20 or whatever years, meaining practically perfect. if i can get them before the back issue bending a-holes get to them that is.

 

Yes, all Miraclemans prior to number 9 are excessively common, BECAUSE they were ordered at the same time as Alan Moore was soaring to popularity with Swamp Thing, and continued on into Watchmen. The 1985-1986 timeframe. They achieved far and wide distribution.

[RockMyAmadeus]

but some of those miracelemen are pretty common, right? i know one of my LCSes sprinkles the dollar boxes with what look like copies that haven't seen the light of day for 20 or whatever years, meaining practically perfect. if i can get them before the back issue bending a-holes get to them that is.

 

Miracleman books prior to issue 8 are as common as dirt. They're EVERYWHERE.

 

That's not entirely accurate - Miracleman #1-4 are as common as dirt, seeing that Eclipse did a huge warehouse sell-off of just those 4 issues. But #5-7 are a different story - there hasn't really been any bulk sales of those issues like the ones that happened with #1-4.

 

Not saying that any of those issues are particularly hard to find, but I'd definitely put #1-4 in one class and #5-7 in another.

 

I can agree with this assessment.

[RockMyAmadeus]

the 9.8s are not in dealer stock, but safely planted in bags and boards within minutes of being gently taken on the store shelves the day they came out. Sure not all of them are 9.8s cause they werent even then. but the 9.8s then are still 9.8s cause they have never been read or touched since.

Well, sometimes they're dealer or warehouse stock. Has anyone noticed all the early BA DCs (Action, Superman, Detective) that Heritage has been selling off in 9.8 week after week after week in its weekly auctions? Unless there was a collector who was a major hoarder, it's unlikely so many copies of the same issue was culled from different private collections, so they had to come from either dealer stock or a warehouse find.

 

What's been even more amazing to me is how much the books continue to go for even after so many 9.8 and 9.6 issues have already come out.

 

multi-packs...

[tth2]

• I agree in general anything after late silver is generally not scarce in grade.
  
• I also think there are exceptions to the above rule. Right before the DC implosion (where Batman Family was created) there are in fact fewer numbers. I don't think it's coincidence that many issues in titles I collect are around 1975-1976.
  
• I think that many mid seventies books have not come to market simply because of the minimal financial reward in doing so. I am however, seeing more and more show up over time.
  
• I share the same problem with you...five years collecting my titles and I still have dozens of "easy bronze" issues that have not surfaced. I'm sure the above are all overall factors.
  
• I don't think there's a snowball chance in hades that those boxes are all gem mint. Keep in mind...it's neatstuff.
  

Sterling, you're actually a great example of how it turns out that some books are not as rare in HG as initially thought. I can remember it was just a few years ago when BA DC Horror went for peanuts, and the Census was really underrepresented, which caused a lot of people to think that they were super scarce in ultra-HG.

 

So when a hardcore group of collectors started driving up the prices of ultra-HG slabbed copies when they appeared, lo and behold, more and more ultra-HG slabbed copies started coming out of the woodwork. So while there are still some scarce issues, what we found out was that most of the genre were not nearly as scarce in ultra-HG as had been initially thought.