Amazing 678 Mary Jane variant.... 2 2

[Jaydogrules]

Actually I won the $1850 CGC 9.6. Didn't expect it and not too sure if I am really happy with this

 

What, you worry? I know you've been wanting a 9.8, but a "best offer" was accepted on another copy of a 9.6 for $2,080 shortly after your auction closed, so you did fine. (thumbs u

 

http://item.ebay.co.uk/281695552404?item_hash4=a7e75484&LH_Complete=1&LH_BIN=1&LH_BO=1&_ipg=200&_pgn=1&rc=nt&rmvSB=true

 

@Lon- You're still the only one to pull a new 9.8 (or offer one) in the last year.

 

@Chip- A PGX "9.6" would probably go for about what a CGC 9.4 would go for- $1400-$1500ish.

 

 

-J.

[KolmarAvenue]

I sold mine quite some time back for 1k I believe and had another copy slabbed for John at Capstone in Austin, not sure what his sold for. Pretty soft grading on these back then but just found these scans and thought I'd share.

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Actually I won the $1850 CGC 9.6. Didn't expect it and not too sure if I am really happy with this

 

Caught up in the madness.

 

Indeed.

[N/A]

Actually I won the $1850 CGC 9.6. Didn't expect it and not too sure if I am really happy with this

 

Caught up in the madness.

 

Indeed.

 

And with CGC grading so tight these days it will just add fuel to the fire.

[Jaydogrules]

I sold mine quite some time back for 1k I believe and had another copy slabbed for John at Capstone in Austin, not sure what his sold for. Pretty soft grading on these back then but just found these scans and thought I'd share.

 

 

 

You guys are killing me with how you once had all of these 9.8's.

 

You're right, those two copies above do look a little "ticky" on the spine. If CGC is grading "tight" right now that would explain why only 1 out of the last 10 of these submitted since the price spike has gotten a 9.8.

 

Here's the large scan of my OO copy, still owned by me. It looks like a pretty tightly graded 9.8 to me:

 

-J.

 

[stanley1883]

I still cannot believe the prices surrounding this issue. Is it really THAT rare? 1:50 doesnt seem to be that crazy of a ration. Also don't most modern books tend to drop in price as the time passes? That certainly is not the case with this issue.

 

Can someone please help me out?

 

Personally I love the cover and would definitely get a copy, just not for the prices I'm seeing.

 

[spidey78]

I still cannot believe the prices surrounding this issue. Is it really THAT rare? 1:50 doesnt seem to be that crazy of a ration. Also don't most modern books tend to drop in price as the time passes? That certainly is not the case with this issue.

 

Can someone please help me out?

 

Personally I love the cover and would definitely get a copy, just not for the prices I'm seeing.

 

It's been discussed before in that it probably doesn't have much to do with it being a 1:50 but more that the print run was low, no significant story and yet a sweet cover. Because of this, not only is finding them rare alone, finding one in good condition is the challenge. Most shops that happen to get one in treated it like , tossing it on the shelf roughly getting damaged. So pretty sure because the cover is awesome, barely any exists-in good condition makes it a gem to find.

[Real Elijah Snow]

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that most shops that were ordering weren't bothering to hit those incentive numbers. I know most shops I have asked about this issue in the past weren't trying to always get 1:25 or 1:50 variants etc since they didn't justify the added cost. Say if a shop was ordering 20 copies for pull lists and another 10 for the shelf, there wasn't much reason to order another 20 copies to get a 1:50 variant if no one was willing to pay $40+ for it. If memory serves this was well into the time period where almost every issue of Amazing (and a lot of random mainstream Marvel books) had a variant. I think shops just didn't see this variant as anything more special than the other variants that weren't worth pumping up orders for. That seems to equate to a lot of smaller shops adding to amount of regular copies of this issue, but not the variant's numbers. Heck, the actual number could be more like 1:300 or 1:400 if you think about it. It would take a lot of homework to nail down the actual number. Add in the fact that it's a Amazing Spider-man + Venom +Classic Mary Jane= the hottest modern Spidey book going right now.

[Real Elijah Snow]

This too fosho. I've only ever had one, and I'm hoping for a 9.6 on it. I got it in a guy's collection that has produced a bunch of 9.8's so far, but it seems like for some strange reason the Spidey variants from this time aren't quite as nice.

 

I still cannot believe the prices surrounding this issue. Is it really THAT rare? 1:50 doesnt seem to be that crazy of a ration. Also don't most modern books tend to drop in price as the time passes? That certainly is not the case with this issue.

 

Can someone please help me out?

 

Personally I love the cover and would definitely get a copy, just not for the prices I'm seeing.

 

It's been discussed before in that it probably doesn't have much to do with it being a 1:50 but more that the print run was low, no significant story and yet a sweet cover. Because of this, not only is finding them rare alone, finding one in good condition is the challenge. Most shops that happen to get one in treated it like , tossing it on the shelf roughly getting damaged. So pretty sure because the cover is awesome, barely any exists-in good condition makes it a gem to find.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Do not be fooled.

 

1:XXX numbers aren't real, and never have been.

 

Those numbers refer to allocation, not print run.

 

I have seen people claim this book had a print run of "500".

 

That's possible....but not likely. Marvel rarely prints books in numbers of 500, even for its scarcest of scarce books.

 

It's very possible...because we've seen it over and over again....that Marvel/Diamond has warehoused copies of various incentives, to use as....well...incentives, and we know that Marvel/Diamond has a retailer/wholesaler where unsold variants...including some quite rare ones...can be purchased in bulk.

 

It may be that a case or two of this book is hiding in a warehouse somewhere.

 

Or, it could be that all the copies were distributed far and wide, and sitting in people's collections.

 

Hard to say.

 

But, if history is any teacher, it's safe® to assume that these books are just tied up in the distribution warehouse chain somewhere, because it's happened for many, many, many books in the past.

[Real Elijah Snow]

Man. That would be a crazy one to find a case of. I agree though. It's certainly possible/likely that there are undistributed copies of this book sitting somewhere. As far as how many copies actually made it into shops; I would love a more concrete #.

Do not be fooled.

 

1:XXX numbers aren't real, and never have been.

 

Those numbers refer to allocation, not print run.

 

I have seen people claim this book had a print run of "500".

 

That's possible....but not likely. Marvel rarely prints books in numbers of 500, even for its scarcest of scarce books.

 

It's very possible...because we've seen it over and over again....that Marvel/Diamond has warehoused copies of various incentives, to use as....well...incentives, and we know that Marvel/Diamond has a retailer/wholesaler where unsold variants...including some quite rare ones...can be purchased in bulk.

 

It may be that a case or two of this book is hiding in a warehouse somewhere.

 

Or, it could be that all the copies were distributed far and wide, and sitting in people's collections.

 

Hard to say.

 

But, if history is any teacher, it's safe® to assume that these books are just tied up in the distribution warehouse chain somewhere, because it's happened for many, many, many books in the past.

[N/A]

I just love your sig line.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Man. That would be a crazy one to find a case of. I agree though. It's certainly possible/likely that there are undistributed copies of this book sitting somewhere. As far as how many copies actually made it into shops; I would love a more concrete #.

 

Yes, it would be nice to see just how these were distributed, but I suspect no one kept complete records.

 

Think about this: Primer #2, first Grendel, is supposed to have had a 2,000 print run. This is the number that I believe Joe Koch came up with (and he was in a position to know.)

 

It was an uber expensive book in the B&W "craze", and remained so for much of the 90's....until Gary Dolgoff (I think it was Gary Dolgoff...might have been Koch) found an undistributed case of them.

 

Yup...200 or so copies, brand spankin' new (but kind of banged up.) They were parceled out on eBay in the late 90's. I bought several at $30/per. That's where my four 9.8s, among others, came from.

[Chip Cataldo]

So, again, what does everyone think a PGX 9.6 would go for? I ask in here because you guys are the experts.

[RockMyAmadeus]

So, again, what does everyone think a PGX 9.6 would go for? I ask in here because you guys are the experts.

 

Jay answered, a few posts back:

 

 

@Chip- A PGX "9.6" would probably go for about what a CGC 9.4 would go for- $1400-$1500ish.

 

 

-J.

[Real Elijah Snow]

Sounds about right I would think.

So, again, what does everyone think a PGX 9.6 would go for? I ask in here because you guys are the experts.

 

Jay answered, a few posts back:

 

 

@Chip- A PGX "9.6" would probably go for about what a CGC 9.4 would go for- $1400-$1500ish.

 

 

-J.

[Jaydogrules]

Sounds about right I would think.

So, again, what does everyone think a PGX 9.6 would go for? I ask in here because you guys are the experts.

 

Jay answered, a few posts back:

 

 

@Chip- A PGX "9.6" would probably go for about what a CGC 9.4 would go for- $1400-$1500ish.

 

 

-J.

 

(thumbs u

 

Elijah and Spidey78 pretty much have the narrative down. Plus Spider-Man was a weak seller at the time, so the book itself was under-ordered. Coupled with the lack of any hyped storyline and merchant fatigue with ASM variants, and the fact that it was a 1:50 created a very short print run for the variant. The odds of a case of this specific book sitting in a warehouse somewhere are beyond remote. The book has been tough since Day One, and particularly tough in NM/M condition for the reasons Spidey78 mentioned. The book popped right away amongst die hards, but really took off when it gained a larger awareness in the general marketplace. I'm seeing fan recreated art, posters and prints of this thing now. It really is quite remarkable.

 

-J.

[Real Elijah Snow]

I was thinking of switching it up a bit, but I can't decide who to sacrifice....

 

I just love your sig line.

[Vikingreed]

Sounds about right I would think.

So, again, what does everyone think a PGX 9.6 would go for? I ask in here because you guys are the experts.

 

Jay answered, a few posts back:

 

 

@Chip- A PGX "9.6" would probably go for about what a CGC 9.4 would go for- $1400-$1500ish.

 

 

-J.

 

(thumbs u

 

Elijah and Spidey78 pretty much have the narrative down. Plus Spider-Man was a weak seller at the time, so the book itself was under-ordered. Coupled with the lack of any hyped storyline and merchant fatigue with ASM variants, and the fact that it was a 1:50 created a very short print run for the variant. The odds of a case of this specific book sitting in a warehouse somewhere are beyond remote. The book has been tough since Day One, and particularly tough in NM/M condition for the reasons Spidey78 mentioned. The book popped right away amongst die hards, but really took off when it gained a larger awareness in the general marketplace. I'm seeing fan recreated art, posters and prints of this thing now. It really is quite remarkable.

 

-J.

 

+1

[Chip Cataldo]

Wow, sorry about that guys. Thanks for the info, Jay. Sometimes this forum skips ahead as far as the "posts I have not seen" where it's supposed to skip to the first unread post when I click on the thread.

 

I missed it because of that, so sorry for asking again.

 

I might be getting one in trade so the info is appreciated.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Chip Cataldo