The Absolute Hardest to Find 80's books. 9 9

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

 

There are a *few* Marvel/DCs that qualify (the aforementioned Amethyst 35s, for example), but they are a tiny handful.

 

Even the Stars are not terribly rare (and all the NU is downright common.)

 

Not rare perhaps, if we're just talking about total remaining copies in any grade, but certainly scarce compared to other books of the time. Finding the last few issues of series like Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, and a few others have been a real bear if you're looking for NM+ copies. I've bought a dozen OO predominatly Copper collections in the last ten years and none have inlcuded runs of Star books, even though the owners would collect most every other drekky Marvel title.

 

 

[Topnotchman]

Very nice.

 

I would daresay, probably the MM 3D/2D is one of the rarest 80's books in existence

 

Ewan can confirm, but I *believe* that only four copies are accounted for.

 

I have 2 of the 3D/2Ds, but they're DNAgents and Laser Eraser & Pressbutton.

 

I have yet to see a 3D/2D MM in person.

 

Oddly enough, according to Eclipse ads from 1988-1989, it's the only one that sold out....they've got to be out there somewhere.

 

The rest of the 3D/2Ds, I suspect, were still in the Eclipse warehouse when it was flooded in '93.

 

And Bronty said there was no attrition of 80's books...

 

 

Todd at New Dimension comics bought out remaining Eclipse comics around 7-8 years ago.

 

I ended up with some of the 2-D comics from him, it was the Three Stooges comics.

 

I didn't think much of it. Although I do remember selling one of them to Al with Basement comics. I think I got $7.00

[Bosco685]

Although I do remember selling one of them to Al with Basement comics. I think I got $7.00

 

And you're still posting here with us commoners?

 

 

[rjpb]

At one point I wanted the 2D versions of the 3D Seduction of the Innocent books put out by Eclipse, but came to realize acquiring them would be somewhere in between expensive and impossible.

[Topnotchman]

Although I do remember selling one of them to Al with Basement comics. I think I got $7.00

 

And you're still posting here with us commoners?

 

 

I had it on Ebay, he bought it from my Ebay store, I thought it was odd another comic dealer would want it.

 

 

[october]

What about Eric Larson's Graphic Fantasy issues? Those feature the first Savage Dragon appearances and are from the 80s. Harder than hell to find.

 

Hadn't seen a copy of this before, haven't seen one since...though I have heard that someone on the board owns a few copies. First appearance of The Tick in print, can't be too many of these left floating around.

 

[october]

This one isn't easy.

 

 

Took me awhile to find a FanGraphix 4, then my buddy Brad dug up a batch of 10 or so. Haven't seen any since.

 

Actually, he would be the perfect person to ask about 80s rarities.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Different color cover, plenty more different than a UPC or price variant IMO.

 

What?

[RockMyAmadeus]

Very nice.

 

I would daresay, probably the MM 3D/2D is one of the rarest 80's books in existence

 

Ewan can confirm, but I *believe* that only four copies are accounted for.

 

I have 2 of the 3D/2Ds, but they're DNAgents and Laser Eraser & Pressbutton.

 

I have yet to see a 3D/2D MM in person.

 

Oddly enough, according to Eclipse ads from 1988-1989, it's the only one that sold out....they've got to be out there somewhere.

 

The rest of the 3D/2Ds, I suspect, were still in the Eclipse warehouse when it was flooded in '93.

 

And Bronty said there was no attrition of 80's books...

 

 

Todd at New Dimension comics bought out remaining Eclipse comics around 7-8 years ago.

 

I ended up with some of the 2-D comics from him, it was the Three Stooges comics.

 

I didn't think much of it. Although I do remember selling one of them to Al with Basement comics. I think I got $7.00

 

You ended up with all Three Stooges, or different ones?

 

Yes, ND did buy out what remained of Eclipse's inventory, then slapped those silly "archive edition" foil on the MMs...and CGC doesn't GLOD them.

 

Which, of course, is ridiculous. The foil was added, in some cases, nearly 20 years after the fact.

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

There are a *few* Marvel/DCs that qualify (the aforementioned Amethyst 35s, for example), but they are a tiny handful.

 

Even the Stars are not terribly rare (and all the NU is downright common.)

 

Not rare perhaps, if we're just talking about total remaining copies in any grade, but certainly scarce compared to other books of the time. Finding the last few issues of series like Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, and a few others have been a real bear if you're looking for NM+ copies. I've bought a dozen OO predominatly Copper collections in the last ten years and none have inlcuded runs of Star books, even though the owners would collect most every other drekky Marvel title.

 

 

Not disagreeing with you in any way.

 

But the Stars, even rare relatively, don't even come close to books like Albedo #0, Gobbledygook 1 & 2, 3D/2Ds, etc.

 

And leaving grade out of the discussion, they become downright common.

[Turtle]

Don't forget about the Turtlemania books. The regular edition had 3,000 copies, but the Silver only had 100 and the Gold only had 10. To my knowledge, only 2 of the Gold copies have surfaced since they were originally distributed.

 

I have a problem with these and the MM Blue/Golds. Other than being signed and numbered, they are no different from the regular copies (in fact, they are regular copies.)

 

That's like considering the Dark Knight S&N A/Ps as "rare", but they're identical to the regular 4,000 S&N run.

 

Don't get me wrong, they're awesome...but they're rare by virtue of signature(s), not any special aspect of the book itself.

 

The 3D/2Ds, however, are legitimate variations from the originals.

 

Not many people here on the boards get to say this to you with concrete proof, RMA, so forgive me for indulging in this moment a bit...

 

You're mistaken.

 

Ok, all joking aside, I know nothing about the "MM Blue/Golds", but the Turtlemanias are, in fact, different books aside from just the signatures.

 

The normal book has a white cover:

 

The silver book has a grey cover with Eastman and Laird sigs and they're hand numbered out of 100. Archon Turtle recently had his graded and they even note the color of the cover on the label:

 

Finally, the Gold is the easiest one to tell the difference. It's got a gold cover and a sketch to accompany the sigs and numbers on the back.

 

I borrowed the first two images from the TMNT thread and the Gold Turtlemania from Danny M's CAF gallery, although I believe the book may belong to Archon Turtle now. I hope the owners don't mind.

[dupont2005]

Are there stock images of these books? Would any giveaway(cereal, promo, food chain) fit this catagory?

There are images of most of these books floating around somewhere on the board. Some of them I have never seen an image of though. I would say a giveaway counts. Those Tandy giveaways from Radio Shack are kind of collectible.

[Bronty]

what I find depressing about discussing rare 80s books is that for the most part they are either lame (like I am sorry to say the miraclemans that are just a gold or blue coupon inside the book - not even attached) or were never really distributed commercially, like the gooks. There are very few rare books and almost no books that are both rare and compelling. I think its much more interesting to consider uncommon/scarce 80s books - print runs of say 5000 or less. There's lots of wonderful material in the under 5k copies range. But when we talk about what's truly rare (say 300 or less copies), uggg....... there is not much worth talking about. Variants, mostly.

 

Not trying to on your thread RMA - I wish I could contribute to your list, but I feel like anything I would add would be kind of a "lame" book because pretty much anything that fits on that list almost has to be by definition in order to be that rare from a decade with zero attrition!

 

 

[icefires]

If you get into mini-comics, some of the XEX graphics books (which were off-set printed, not photocopied, and frequently had color covers), had print runs of 50.

 

 

Cherry minis.

 

 

[Bosco685]

Andy, I am so jealous.

 

[nickwire]

Andy, I am so jealous.

 

 

as am i....my grail

[Gatsby77]

Thirded. I thought I was good when I finally found an uncut # 2. Then I remembered about these. Didn't he appear in three issues of the newsletter?

 

And I'm the guy who finished his Tick 1-8 first print set in 1990 by heading up to Boston and going to New England Comics itself. Didn't even think to ask about the Newsletters.

[PeasOfCrap]

Thirded. I thought I was good when I finally found an uncut # 2. Then I remembered about these. Didn't he appear in three issues of the newsletter?

 

And I'm the guy who finished his Tick 1-8 first print set in 1990 by heading up to Boston and going to New England Comics itself. Didn't even think to ask about the Newsletters.

 

ooooh, is your uncut graded?

[FlyingDonut]

This is a GREAT thread.

 

Of the ones mentioned above, probably the Miracleman 3D 2Ds.

 

Superman 409 logo variant - two known copies (both sold on these boards!)

 

Superman/Bradman 1 - less than 10 known copies

 

Amethyst 1 and 2 35 cent price variants ( )

 

Warlord Kenner Toy giveaway - Ian Levine has one (I think), and that's the only one people know about.

 

I would go with some of the DC giveaways that Ian can't find. That, and I'm sure there are some bizarre black and white books that had print runs in the 500-1000 where 95% of the print run was mulched because they sucked so bad.

[Topnotchman]

Very nice.

 

I would daresay, probably the MM 3D/2D is one of the rarest 80's books in existence

 

Ewan can confirm, but I *believe* that only four copies are accounted for.

 

I have 2 of the 3D/2Ds, but they're DNAgents and Laser Eraser & Pressbutton.

 

I have yet to see a 3D/2D MM in person.

 

Oddly enough, according to Eclipse ads from 1988-1989, it's the only one that sold out....they've got to be out there somewhere.

 

The rest of the 3D/2Ds, I suspect, were still in the Eclipse warehouse when it was flooded in '93.

 

And Bronty said there was no attrition of 80's books...

 

 

Todd at New Dimension comics bought out remaining Eclipse comics around 7-8 years ago.

 

I ended up with some of the 2-D comics from him, it was the Three Stooges comics.

 

I didn't think much of it. Although I do remember selling one of them to Al with Basement comics. I think I got $7.00

 

You ended up with all Three Stooges, or different ones?

 

Yes, ND did buy out what remained of Eclipse's inventory, then slapped those silly "archive edition" foil on the MMs...and CGC doesn't GLOD them.

 

Which, of course, is ridiculous. The foil was added, in some cases, nearly 20 years after the fact.

 

 

I only had Three Stooges in 2-D, I bought a stack of Three Stooges from him and they came with them. I thought it was a printing error when I had them. He had quantities of all Eclipse comics from some type of archive. He had quantities of the scarce TPB that he auctioned off on Ebay some were bringing three to four hundred each. I could give him a call tomorrow to see if any of the Miracleman 2-d existed in any quantity.