Copper's Heating/Selling Well on Ebay 33 33

[CopperMiner89]

 

Spiderman #1 is not the end of the Copper age. It is building up to the apex of the Copper Age, which was the death of Superman.

 

But he didn't die. It was all just a lie to get us to keep buying books. That seems a more "Modern" approach than"Copper".

 

Nobody stayed dead from the Copper Age....

 

 

Not surprising since some dead people do really well financially.

Michael Jackson earned more dead in the last 12 months than any

living artist/performer for that time period. Elvis, Marilyn Monroe

and James Dean are still raking it in.

 

[FlyingDonut]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

[thirdgreenham]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

So who called that the end of the Copper Age? Bob Overstreet? Jerry Weist? Chuck Rozanski? Todd McFarlane?

[CopperMiner89]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

So who called that the end of the Copper Age? Bob Overstreet? Jerry Weist? Chuck Rozanski? Todd McFarlane?

 

Pretty sure it was announced by papal edict.

 

Seriously -- I laugh at these arbitrary cut-off dates as it's not very helpful for most collectors.

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

You mean Nov 20, 1992.

[PeterPark]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

You mean Nov 20, 1992.

 

No. November 18, 1992. I remember that day well. Hal, the owner of The Bookie had the armband on...

 

I got my single allowed copy and promptly found a newsstand copy at Shop Rite...

 

RIP Copper Age

[FlyingDonut]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

You mean Nov 20, 1992.

 

Not on the East Coast. We've had this discussion. Ad nauseum.

Edited February 26, 2014 by FlyingDonut

[RockMyAmadeus]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

You mean Nov 20, 1992.

 

No. November 18, 1992. I remember that day well. Hal, the owner of The Bookie had the armband on...

 

I got my single allowed copy and promptly found a newsstand copy at Shop Rite...

 

RIP Copper Age

 

No, Nov 20, 1992.

 

That's the official "on the street" day according to DC.

 

 

But how did you find a newsstand copy at Shop Rite, when newsstands always came out 2-3 weeks after the DM....?

[RockMyAmadeus]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

You mean Nov 20, 1992.

 

 

Not on the East Coast. We've had this discussion. Ad nauseum.

 

Oh, lighten up, Francis. You know I'm just screwing with you.

 

[slym2none]

But how did you find a newsstand copy at Shop Rite, when newsstands always came out 2-3 weeks after the DM....?

 

I ran a newsstand for 3 years, and we never got our issues 2-3 weeks later. This was early to mid 1990s. I even remember getting the Superman #75 newsstand edition and selling a couple for $100 or so they day after they came out.

 

:shrug:

 

 

 

-slym

[youmechooz]

If these are legit, looks like New Mutants #100 has legs as a raw book as well:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Mutants-100-NM-9-2-1st-Appearance-of-X-Force-Must-Have-Key-DEADPOOL-/301099339366?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item461aeb4e66

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Mutants-100-1st-Appearance-X-Force-1991-Marvel-Nm-Mint-1st-Printing-/301099236088?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item461ae9baf8

Probably legit, just stupid buyers.

Here is a copy I have been trying to sell going on 2 months for $1 and another copy been trying to sell for 3 months for the same. I wouldn't say NM #100 is growing any legs, I probably have half a short box that tells me otherwise.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321309861063&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

 

Edited February 26, 2014 by youmechoose

[gaz973]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

So who called that the end of the Copper Age? Bob Overstreet? Jerry Weist? Chuck Rozanski? Todd McFarlane?

 

Pretty sure it was announced by papal edict.

 

Seriously -- I laugh at these arbitrary cut-off dates as it's not very helpful for most collectors.

 

Not to mention, fairly irrelevant.

[joe_collector]

Spiderman #1 is not the end of the Copper age. It is building up to the apex of the Copper Age, which was the death of Superman.

 

By the time Superman died, the Modern Age (speculation, chromium covers, artists as rock stars, multi-million sellers, multiple covers, Wizard speculation, etc.) was well underway.

 

And it's truly bizarre that people think that one of the major speculative players in history, Valiant, was part of the Copper Age.

[joe_collector]

The end of the Copper Age has a specific date - November 18, 1992. Superman 75 release date.

 

Sorry, but that's insane and 20-20 hindsight. You can totally ignore all the major players of the Modern Age, like Valiant or what started the whole crazy era (Spider-man #1, X-Men #1, X-Force #1) in favour of some 'seminal event everyone remembers".

 

It's very similar to the warped thinking that supports Amazing Spider-man 121 as the start of the Bronze Age.

[RockMyAmadeus]

But how did you find a newsstand copy at Shop Rite, when newsstands always came out 2-3 weeks after the DM....?

 

I ran a newsstand for 3 years, and we never got our issues 2-3 weeks later. This was early to mid 1990s. I even remember getting the Superman #75 newsstand edition and selling a couple for $100 or so they day after they came out.

 

:shrug:

 

 

 

-slym

 

From 1990-1993, I picked up several hot books (from Superman #50, Robin #1, to Bats #492, Tec #659) from the newsstand, because they arrived weeks...not days, but weeks...afterwards. I haunted the newsstands.

 

Don't know what to tell you. Probably yet another distribution quirk of the era.

[slym2none]

Or the area... east coast v/s west coast!

 

*throws random gang signs*

 

 

 

-slym

[Vikingreed]

I can tell you that in southern Indiana, I bought all of my weekly books at a local drug store, and it was always the same release dates as the comic shops in the area received theirs.

 

[seanfingh]

I can tell you that in southern Indiana, I bought all of my weekly books at a local drug store, and it was always the same release dates as the comic shops in the area received theirs.

 

 

The Martin County Mafia, aka the Vevay Boys made sure that all the copies got circulated at the same time.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Spiderman #1 is not the end of the Copper age. It is building up to the apex of the Copper Age, which was the death of Superman.

 

By the time Superman died, the Modern Age (speculation, chromium covers, artists as rock stars, multi-million sellers, multiple covers, Wizard speculation, etc.) was well underway.

 

And it's truly bizarre that people think that one of the major speculative players in history, Valiant, was part of the Copper Age.

 

Again...much of this isn't true. The first chromium comic came out the same day as Superman #75 - Bloodshot #1. And that was just a chromium card attached to the front cover. The first all chromium cover didn't come out for 6 or more months later (I'm going with X-O #0, but anyone feel free to correct me.)

 

And when Superman #75 came out, there were only two comics...not titles, single comics...that had come out with "multiple covers" (that is, more than 2)...and that was Legends of the Dark Knight #1 (4) and X-Men #1. (5)

 

Spiderman #1 only had two covers. X-Force #1 only had one (not considering second printings, because those weren't part of the original marketing scheme.)

 

"But, what about Spiderman #1 Platinum!!" - Spiderman #1 Plat was NOT available to anyone except retailers, and they only got one. It's hardly a "marketing program" when you give a single copy away to retailers as a thank you.

 

Valiant was a "major speculative player"....? Again, not true. The very reason why Valiant became such a big deal is precisely BECAUSE no one speculated in it....with the possible exception of Greg Buls.....at FIRST. You know, Harbinger #1 with a print run of 48,000 copies, in an era when X-Men was selling a million+? Hardly anyone talked about Valiant until Unity....a year+ AFTER Magnus #1, and after Valiant had already published 45 or so books already. That's why Pre-Unity is still so valued today (what regular issue of X-Men sells for $300+ in 9.8 from those years? Spiderman?)

 

Did Valiant drive the variant madness? Yes, of course...but not until LATER. By the time Superman #75 came out, there had only been 6 variants *total* published by Valiant - A&A #0 Gold, Eternal Warrior #1 Gold, Unity #0 Red, Unity #1 Gold & Platinum, and Hard Corps #1 Gold. That's fewer variants than Secret Invasion #1 alone had.

 

And again, these books were simply not available to the consumer; they couldn't buy them "off the rack"...they had to find them, and then hope that a retailer would be willing to sell them. Hard to speculate on stuff you can't buy.

 

And variants are a completely Copper Age invention (Man of Steel #1, Justice League #3, Firestorm #61, several independents like Critters #22, etc,)

 

Wizard nearly went out of business in their first year. The issue that turned them around, which Gareb Shamus has talked about many times? The Youngblood/Cable covered #10. No one took Wizard seriously its first year...it took the symbiosis of Unity (that is, summer of 1992) and the ramp up on Valiant (again, POST-Unity), combined with the advent of Image to really make Wizard work.

 

Rewriting history may be fun, but it's not much use to those looking for actual information.

 

And the contention that there was something substantively different with "rock star artists, multi-million sellers, speculation" from what had been already going on for the past decade (Alpha Flight, anyone? Byrne? McFarlane? Simonson? Thor #337? Spidey #252? Man of Steel {which toppled Marvel's dominance of the market for the first time in 15 years}...? Miller? Dark Knight? Legends of the Dark Knight?)

 

It was "Copper", just "Copper" to its ridiculous extremes.

 

I'm not making a case for anything precise. It really can't be done. Even the start of the Silver Age is debatable. But there wasn't anything that much different in the market from 1982-1992. It was more of the same, taken as far as the publishers thought the public would take it...then jusssst a little further.

 

The REAL substantive change to the industry didn't come with the death of Superman, or even the madness that was 1993. It came when the whole house of cards collapsed in 1995-1996, nearly forcing Marvel Comics out of publication, 70% of the existing Diamond accounts evaporating...THAT was the real change to the "Modern Age"...and that happened in the mid-90s, not the early.

[RockMyAmadeus]

One more point: the internet. The internet existed, as everyone knows, before this, but it didn't become mainstream until 1995. The first "dot com" ads in the media were 1995, and that's also when eBay (then AuctionWeb, and frequented by no one) was founded (9/95.)

 

That, as much as the collapse, is what fundamentally changed the comics industry. No longer were buyers beholden to retailers to obtain what they could not. Now, they could trade amongst themselves. People didn't have to take their collections and sell them for 5% of OPG. Now, they could sell them directly to others.

 

And....by far, the most important effect the internet had: information became instantly accessible, not subject to the editorial whims of the media.

 

Total transformation of the industry.