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

[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.

 

multi-packs...

Yes, but someone was hoarding those multi-packs.

[RockMyAmadeus]

True indeed.

[sckao]

 

Miracleman is more common for issues #1-9 because up to that point comics were still under $1 and it was being printed quasi-regularly. After that, it came off the rails and went up in price faster than Marvel or DC. Coupled with the irregularity of the publishing, dealers probably had customers who lost interest or under-ordered, all contributing to less and less orders/speculation.

 

 

Miracleman #01 August 1985

 

Skips September 1985

 

Miracleman #02 October 1985 .75 cents

Miracleman #03 November 1985

Miracleman #04 December 1985 (Miracleman 3D also published)

Miracleman #05 January 1986 starts .95 cents

Miracleman #06 February 1986 (goes bi-monthly)

Miracleman #07 April 1986

Miracleman #08 June 1986

Miracleman #09 July 1986 .95 cents

 

Skips September in bi-monthly rotation

 

Miracleman #10 December 1986 .95 cents

 

Skips THREE months

 

Miracleman #11 April 1987 $1.25 (Marvel is still at $.75 cents)

 

Skips FOUR months

 

Miracleman #12 September 1987 $1.25

 

Skips October

 

Miracleman #13 November 1987 $1.75

 

Skips FOUR months

 

Miracleman #14 April 1988 $1.75 (Marvel about to go to $1.00)

 

Skips SIX months

 

Miracleman #15 November 1988 $1.75

 

Skips TWELVE MONTHS

 

Miracleman #16 December 1989 $1.95

 

Skips FIVE months

 

Miracleman #17 June 1990 $1.95

 

Skips ONE month

 

Miracleman #18 August 1990 $2.00

 

Skips TWO months

 

Miracleman #19 November 1990 $2.50

 

Skips THREE months

 

Miracleman #20 March 1991 $2.50

 

Skips THREE months

 

Miracleman #21 July 1991 $2.50

Miracleman #22 August 1991 $2.50

 

Skips NINE months

 

Miracleman #23 June 1992 $2.50

 

Skips ELEVEN months

 

Miracleman #24 June 1993 $2.95

 

[500Club]

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...

 

It's not just Multi-Packs, I don't think. Week after week, they have copies of ASM 180-230 and Avengers 175-225, plus other assorted chunks of bronze.

 

[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...

 

It's not just Multi-Packs, I don't think. Week after week, they have copies of ASM 180-230 and Avengers 175-225, plus other assorted chunks of bronze.

 

Well, sure, but tth2 was specifically mentioning early bronze DCs, to which I was specifically replying.

 

(thumbs u

[500Club]

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...

 

It's not just Multi-Packs, I don't think. Week after week, they have copies of ASM 180-230 and Avengers 175-225, plus other assorted chunks of bronze.

 

Well, sure, but tth2 was specifically mentioning early bronze DCs, to which I was specifically replying.

 

(thumbs u

 

In that case, I must specify that you are probably correct. (thumbs u

[RockMyAmadeus]

And....if we're adding information, MM #1-6 were reprints, with the material readily available for printing, while #6 (yes, the story reprinted from Warror ends in the middle of #6 and new material begins) -up is original, and it's no accident that the publishing schedule went bi-monthly then.

 

That's one of the reasons why #1-4 were only 75 cents, when the rest of Eclipse's line was much more expensive. Reprints cost less.

[sterlingcomics]

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.

 

I've never thought anything I've collected was scarce/rare..actually many books have now become available AFTER the surge...meaning that time and patience are the most important factors. In terms of historical cost, they were underappreciated / undervalued and I'm glad I'm doning my part in raising awareness / bar for this genre. I am its cheerleader of course.

 

Now stop depreciating my collection!

 

Now you can go and lower your books on ComicLink to $60 each.

[tth2]

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.

 

I've never thought anything I've collected was scarce/rare..actually many books have now become available AFTER the surge...meaning that time and patience are the most important factors. In terms of historical cost, they were underappreciated / undervalued and I'm glad I'm doning my part in raising awareness / bar for this genre. I am its cheerleader of course.

 

Now stop depreciating my collection!

Sorry, I hope it didn`t sound like I was criticizing you. I was actually a great admirer of how you and a few other Horror stalwarts went after an underappreciated genre and really brought it into the collecting mainstream.

 

However, as you rightly point out, the surge in prices brought a lot more nice copies into the market. Maybe not you, but I knew some collectors who were convinced that the number of ultra-HG copies was really limited, due to not being core titles collected by most collectors at the time they came out, lots of black covers, etc.. Therefore they were willing to splash out crazy cash when really nice slabbed copies came on the market in the expectation that they might not get another shot at a similarly nice copy. As it turned out, in a lot of cases, there were more similarly nice (or even better) copies.

[Wally's Comics]

kind of makes you wonder if the CGC 9.8 craze is the repeat of the 90's gotta have the

number one with the holographic, diecut, embossed glow in the dark cover scenario!

 

 

 

 

 

[HighVoltage]

kind of makes you wonder if the CGC 9.8 craze is the repeat of the 90's gotta have the

number one with the holographic, diecut, embossed glow in the dark cover scenario!

 

 

 

 

 

[Silver Surfer]

I use to own about 100 BA/CA Thor in CGC 9.8 and pretty much every Simonson Thor issue but I defintely bought them for the love of the books not an investment. A few years ago I could never understand why certain issues, especially ones with better covers were so far to find or had a couple in the census but issues like #342, #344 were available at every turn?

[sckao]

I use to own about 100 BA/CA Thor in CGC 9.8 and pretty much every Simonson Thor issue but I defintely bought them for the love of the books not an investment. A few years ago I could never understand why certain issues, especially ones with better covers were so far to find or had a couple in the census but issues like #342, #344 were available at every turn?

 

I remember Thor #337 very well... When, it came out, by the time #338-339 hit the stands, local comic stores had already jacked up the price on #337s. My LCS was offering to buy copies of #337 and #338 for $10 and $5 if I remember correctly. ($.60 cent cover price)

 

They probably corrected their orders by #339 or #340 and EVERYONE ordered it in quantity after that. I know that as a teenager with a Westfield Comics account, I personally ordered over 45 copies of Thor #340 (and multiples of subsequent issues)

 

I admit I personally cleaned out all the copies of 338-339 (and any #337s) I could find from my local drugstores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Silver Surfer]

That run was as about as good a read as your going to ever come across [although I am digging the Blackest Night arc a lot]. Love the latest Beta Ray Bill arc and just re-read the previous one.

[Mio]

kind of makes you wonder if the CGC 9.8 craze is the repeat of the 90's gotta have the

number one with the holographic, diecut, embossed glow in the dark cover scenario!

 

 

 

 

 

It probably is. For many people, there's an imperceptible difference between 9.6 and 9.8 comics, other than the label. On top of that, I wonder how many people will care about 9.6 vs 9.8 in 5 years? That's really the predictor of a crash.

[druss84]

With the bad economy and all it's interesting to see what 9.8's are selling for. One example I have is The Killing Joke. Do a completed listing search on ebay for it and it shows two selling in the $40 mark, while Wizard (which I never trust mind you) says it's worth $100. $40 is almost the CGC fee! Big difference there, but you'd hope a Killing Joke 9.8 to at least get $75

[Lebowski]

With the bad economy and all it's interesting to see what 9.8's are selling for. One example I have is The Killing Joke. Do a completed listing search on ebay for it and it shows two selling in the $40 mark, while Wizard (which I never trust mind you) says it's worth $100. $40 is almost the CGC fee! Big difference there, but you'd hope a Killing Joke 9.8 to at least get $75

 

Probably because there are 620 9.8 Universal copies of this book with 34 copies in the 9.9/10 echelon. Eventually, demand gets sated. Economics strikes again.

[druss84]

Fair enough on the economics striking again. However one thing the news won't tell you is how much inflation is going on in this economy right now and for what our collecting hobby is worth, how much inflation is not affecting prices of comics.

[tth2]

Fair enough on the economics striking again. However one thing the news won't tell you is how much inflation is going on in this economy right now and for what our collecting hobby is worth, how much inflation is not affecting prices of comics.

You can't use a book with almost infinite supply to gauge how well comics are holding up as an asset class in an inflationary environment.

[MR.COMICBOOK]

kind of makes you wonder if the CGC 9.8 craze is the repeat of the 90's gotta have the

number one with the holographic, diecut, embossed glow in the dark cover scenario!

 

 

 

 

 

It probably is. For many people, there's an imperceptible difference between 9.6 and 9.8 comics, other than the label. On top of that, I wonder how many people will care about 9.6 vs 9.8 in 5 years? That's really the predictor of a crash.

or 9.4.I Must get the magnifying glass out